This statement for the image does not concern any James Bond movie, nor does this concern baseball or the episode, but “Diamonds are Forever”, you know…
Again, Kuchu Buranko/Trapeze. You’ve bought me yet again. Why do I have to fall in love with a show so confusing, demented, and even maniacal to the point where I can’t stop my fingers from writing my perception to each of its episodes?
The patient for the fourth episode is Shinichi Bando, third base holder of the Yakult Swallows baseball team. He suffers from yips, a sickness wherein one loses the ability to play the game without any apparent reason. His pitches lose direction, making the balls fly at random, and Bando himself doesn’t know why it’s happening. More like his body knows, while his mind does not. Or maybe his mind just wouldn’t accept the reason, or any reason whatsoever.
Irabu Ichiro stated the marvelous way our brains work in order to make our bodies do what we will them to do. However he did not elaborate any further about something: There is a hidden threshold that we reach with regards to mental pressure. To explain it scientifically, the brain sometimes affects the way the impulses are transmitted biochemically. In theory, some have speculated that the nerves are altered, and because of the nerves’ pathways, the impulse that should have done a certain action does a different action from what was intended instead. It’s like a train going through a fork, with the fork suddenly changing direction to which the train is going. However, the episode tackled this in a mental way by targetting what seems to be bothering the person in order to “redirect” the nerves back in place. Like what Irabu said while diagnosing Bando: To solve a problem, fix it at the source.
I have no idea if throwing with that stance really is something strange. Still, serious Gay Irabu is smexy and delicious, but that’s just me!
But Bando’s problems aren’t as easy as we think they are. He’s old enough to be called a legend, he’s proven himself long enough, and everyone thinks he’s past his peak. Worse, he’s got a rookie in his team that’s willing to replace him. Add on the fact that he doesn’t know what to do in case the worst case scenario happens, and his mind’s a smorgasbord for insanity to dig in. It is enough reason to panic, indeed, but is it really as hopeless as he sees it?
Surely, he has given the thought giving way while living his way on the downhill slope of his career. He knows it will end, it will end like how it’s being laid out, and it’s happening on a steady pace. Thus, the real problem, the source of all his problems, surfaced: is he willing to accept this option? The pride as a legend, the fame he bathes in, and the hopelessness of his would-be later life seemed to make him hesitate to the point of stubbornness. This is why he sports an old bronco’s head: Stubborn, not willing to be tamed, and sometimes stupid to the point where one would have to pound sense.
Old Bronco.
In the end, he gave up after knowing he’s not the only one who’s subjected to the pressure, which was shown when he tried to pry third baseman rookie Suzuki away from the Yakuza of the first episode. He made light of the world, seeing only himself after baseball, and not seeing others aside from himself after baseball. He suddenly realized that knew the cure for his own illness, he just wouldn’t want to accept it. And so, he purposefully gives up fighting the losing battle and accepted that it’s time to prepare for the end, if not accept it.
Still, the other two alter egos of Irabu Ichiro lingered after Mayumi gave the shot. Quite interesting to see that the four episodes have the basis of lingering hallucination and possible influence on their patients. Or maybe the hallucination is being presented to us in a way that we’re the ones “hallucinating” on seeing the other Irabus instead. Interesting, yes…
Full anticipation for the next episode! Psychiatrist healing another psychiatrist? WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN
Further Reading
Yips up close:
I think this episode is probably the most straightforward of the 4 so far. Bando’s problem begins with a man yelling “fans are here for Suzuki, not you!” so we kinda know how it’s all going to play out.
That said, the episode was really nice. All about letting go, right?
I’m getting curiouser and curiouser about Irabu himself? What is his problem?!
Yup. The show seems to be having a tendency of having complex sicknesses stemming from very simple problems that have very simple solutions made complex by psychological approaches. Most of the time, the patients seem to solve the problems by themselves, which I know is the most simple way of solving mental problems. I think the show now lacks the “action” and “animosity” a bit after realizing this.
And yes, Irabu Ichiro is still a schrodinger. Nobody following the show seems to have figured out his case yet, but we’ll see about that.