Golf girls Eve and Aoi adapt to new situations, but Reiya’s health worries Aoi even with shiny new wings.
Episode 19 — “Shining Wings”
Hmm.
Eve has integrated her past with her recent history, making her character complete for the BIRDIE WING theme of Sins of the Fathers. But what about Aoi? This episode lays the groundwork for Aoi to embrace Reiya as her biological father, letting her regain her innocent love of golf. Aoi’s icon for her golf style is angel wings, and those white symbols evoke concepts of purity, beauty, and love. When Eve reclaimed her father Kazuhiko’s Rainbow Shot, her golf game solidified, and she became ready to go pro. Similarly, Aoi must accept her past for her golf style to crystallize.
BIRDIE WING created Eve’s golf style to include visuals, technique names, and a quote that sums it all up. Leo’s Bullet System matches Kazuhiko’s philosophy of the Rainbow Shot: “A swing without uncertainty leaves a rainbow in its wake.” Eve uses visualization and image training to remove doubt from her golf swing, which produces the colors of the rainbow. Since Aoi and Eve are on a path to becoming the golfing world’s Romeo and Juliet, Aoi’s golf should have as much detail as Eve’s. To that end, we already have Reiya’s quote for Aoi’s angelic style: “I want you to keep enjoying golf with an innocent heart.” And this week, we saw Aoi spread her wings, so I want to hear some angelic shounen-style technique names. Make that Pac-Man golf ball fly to the heavens!
Heh.
Alan the Butler gave Michael Burton the news about Eve’s total domination of Remelda. Yay! Big reunion for BIRDIE WING. Eve has come home to Klein and Lily. Har. Lily’s first question to Eve is about Gunpla. Oh. Ichina also tagged along, and Eve still can’t remember her name. Hahaha! I love how Ichina insists she is a “pretty girl” high schooler, saying “pretty girl” in English. Aw. Vipère and Darling feel sad to see Eve leave the mafia world of underground golf. The logo on the golf ball in the opening credits belongs to Reika Shikishima, the top-ranked Japanese women’s golf pro, so Aoi needs to beat her to reunite with Eve on the golf course.
Look at Reika living the celebrity sports star life. Sure, I’ll drink “Sports Beverage.” BIRDIE WING continues to show us how small the golf world is: Reika is Amane’s cousin! They have the same color eyes. Is Amane a spy for Reika working against Aoi? Here we go. Aoi’s backstory explains how she became Aoi’s caddy and minder: the Amawashi family took her in after her father’s death because he was Seira’s longtime caddy. Oho. Amane gave Reika Aoi’s data to rattle her, not to help her win. But how is Aoi’s mental state? She was sad when Eve suddenly left, but Eve also dropped a bombshell on Aoi’s head about her father’s identity.
Nice. Reiya designed a new set of golf clubs for Aoi. It’s called “The Shining Wings.” There’s your BIRDIE WING episode title. Of course, Seira knew about Amane and Reika’s meeting, not that it mattered. Reika saw how much Aoi improved and will be a threat in the next tournament. Hee. Find someone who looks at you how Aoi looks at shiny new golf clubs. Even more, she likes how they smell too! Reiya doesn’t need to see Aoi’s swing with the new clubs because he only needs to hear how they sound.
Aha. Reiya sees Aoi and Eve joining the pros as his way of keeping his promise to Kazuhiko to play golf again. And Reiya goes down again. Well. At least we have a name for Reiya’s congenital disease: tuberous sclerosis. He’ll never be a pro athlete with that condition, but he can coach golf. Uh oh. Aoi can’t focus on golf before the Women’s Open if she worries about her father.
BIRDIE WING checks in with Ichina and Eve in Nafrece. For example, they’re training and preparing for the Europe Women’s Open, and Ichina fit right in at Klein’s bar. Guh. They saw Aoi’s results on the first day of the Japan Women’s Open. Not good. Because Aoi’s mental game is too fragile. Ohoho. Amane speared Seira in the heart when she matter-of-factly told her that Aoi worried about her “true father’s” health. That felt good for Amane, telling Seira to stay away so as not to make things worse. Hey! Amane found the right thing to say to get Aoi’s head back in the game: Her Shining Wings are filled with Reiya’s love.
Aoi found her motivation again because she enjoys golf. That’s it, but she’s preoccupied with Reiya in the hospital. Golf isn’t fun like this. Oh, come on, BIRDIE WING. Everything’s better now that Reiya is on the sidelines, cheering his daughter on. But I’ve never liked anime’s wordless conversation between faraway characters. Aoi and Reiya share their feelings! No matter how it happened, Aoi heard Reiya’s magic words: “Just enjoy golf.” There we go! Aoi’s Shining Wings!
Hey! This is the first time this anime season we saw the entire end credits sequence. Aoi needs to dig out of her bogie hole, but she’s on the way to challenge Reika. Nice. Reiya has a name for Aoi’s swing with wings — the Shining Shot.
Next time, Aoi plays through the rain, and Eve sees a familiar face. But with scars?
BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls’ Story- streams on Crunchyroll and VRV in Japanese audio with English subtitles.
Did you like how Aoi looked with angel wings? The J-List store has a quintet of fallen angels for preorder if you are a fan. Look at this gorgeous figure of Miku with black wings!
Are you sad about Vipère’s exit from the show? Because I’m glad that we saw her funny relationship with Eve again. But isn’t Aoi’s golf game boring compared to Eve’s? Or are you looking forward to watching Aoi play more golf? Let us know in the comments below or online on Facebook, Twitter, or Discord.
