Wanna Be the Strongest ep4: how to get rid of crabs

Have we finally passed this barrier, crossed this hurdle, ascended to another plane? How we finally defeated the Boston Crab?! Oh sweet merciful Jehovah! The series can move onward! Someone give me a cigar and whiskey, the pain may just be over!

It seems that Sakura has finally started to make a little progress. Misaki’s attempt to toughen up Sakura pays off, as she learns to bear with the pain and actually work towards overcoming the hold and not simply lying there like the voice track for a f*cking hentai.  In the meantime, we see that things aren’t all rosy for her old idol group, as Elena is feeling the pressure and it’s rubbing her fellow idols the wrong way, as she’s become almost a bully.  Once Sakura gets in a real match, we see her put her training to work, as she’s actually able to successfully break her opponents hold for once.  It’s a display of guts that actually moves a previously hostile crowd in her favor.  And although she’s eventually pounded into another loss, everything is different, as she leaves the match with more confidence and the crowd on her side.  In the span of one episode, she’s gone from being on the verge of retirement, to finding a love for professional wrestling.  She even manages to get Misaki to accept her as a pupil.  Things are finally starting to look up.

End of episode.

The synopsis is so short because that’s basically all that happened.  There isn’t a ton of subtext here.  And as usual, the show spends a gross amount of time focusing on holds, pervy camera angles and Sakura screaming.  And while Misaki’s help was a welcome, though incredibly tardy gesture of support, I just hated sitting through some of these scenes.  The action in this show is too often stagnant and repetitive.  And what that leads to is a show where for long stretches, absolutely nothing happens.  I swear that the first half of this episode was just Misaki sitting on Sakura in that damned Boston Crab hold.  Lord!  What I wouldn’t give to see a Camel Clutch in this show for once!

It makes things even more painful when you see for a few moments that the show can move forward with the action a little bit.  I expected this show to be bad, but I at least was hoping for some cool, powerful wrestling moves to at least attempt to get my blood boiling.  I want stunning drop kicks, neck breakers, pile drivers, stunners, clotheslines and frog splashes!  Give me some damn wrestling action!  This show is way too content with boobs and crotch.  There’s no reason I can’t get my awesome pervy angles along with good, kinetic wrestling.  It’s just a matter of priorities for this show.

It’s not all doom and gloom and my whining though, I did say there were positive aspects.  As I said before, Sakura is making progress and may have hope to pull herself out of this crappy losing streak now that she has proper training and coaching.  It’s way overdue, but it’s still progress.  I like that the idol side of things isn’t going perfectly smoothly either, as Elena is quite sensitive and has quite a bit of anxiety about her chance to head up this idol group.  The wrestling aspect of this show sadly hasn’t proven itself exciting or dynamic enough to carry this show, so temporary changes in scenery and scenario are welcome.  I know I’m asking a lazy show to do more than what is required of it, being a pitiful vehicle for smut and eventually overpriced anime figures.  But being a fan of anime sort of means that you always want more and better from what you’re watching.  Even the most pitiful of shows deserve to be held to a standard.

Further Reading:

• Episode 3
• I Wanna Be the Strongest in the World #01 — For All the Sadists Out There