Iwakakeru! Sport Climbing Girls, Ep 6: Unbelievable Ability

Konomi enhances her reputation as an analytical climber in the semifinals of the Kanto Bouldering Championships.

Wall 6 – “Unbelievable Ability”

Hmm.

Iwakakeru! did an excellent job of building two tracks of expectations for Konomi’s performance in the semifinals at the Kanto Bouldering Championships. The preliminaries didn’t let her show her analytical skills because she stood in line with a bunch of other girls watching their competitors try their solutions. That was more a game of strategic time management and point collection. In the semifinals, the climbers see the walls for the first time and have a set time to clear them. Now a whole audience can see what Kiku saw Konomi do when she saw the Anti-Monkey Rock for the first time. Iwakakeru! quickly developed hopes for Konomi to become a new ace, especially when people learned she had only been sport climbing for two months. Two months!

The other track of expectations for Konomi Iwakakeru! started building was for disappointment in her performance. It started with Konomi not turning off her puzzle mode eyes in between walls when she should be resting and recovering. Jun noticed the odd behavior and needed to remind her to wipe her sweat and found it hard to get her attention. Thinking hard uses calories too and it’s a waste of energy to keep trying to solve a wall she already climbed. This might be necessary for the speed climbing events, but that’s not what’s happening today. The title for Iwakakeru!’s next episode is ominous, and might not even relate to Konomi, but the foreshadowing for Konomi’s mental game fills me with anticipation to see what happens. That’s good storytelling.

Konomi isn’t the only climber that Iwakakeru! is setting up for a downfall. We saw Masumi the Black Panther worrying about her track star past and emotionally needing sport climbing for a redemption arc. The ex-ballerina Kurea is familiar with Konomi’s athletic gifts from years in the past, but she also moved onto a new physically demanding interest. She might be there only to fill out Konomi’s backstory, but we’ll need to see what happens to satisfy our curiosity. Konomi said that ballet had always been a part of her life. What does it mean? I want to know! Iwakakeru! used these little moments well. Since the only preview we get is the next episode’s title, “Failure of a Climber,” we have a nice guessing game of which climber will suffer failure. Konomi, Kurea, Masumi? Out of left field Jun? Iwakakeru! slowly pumped up the interest for next time.

Heh.

Iwakakeru! tries to humanize the other climbing divas. Masumi gives herself a pep talk in a toilet stall. She’s a normal, insecure teenager. Masumi used to be a track athlete, which explains her short hairdo. She broke the toilet somehow.

Nonoka turned into a boy’s uniform cheerleader, which is odd because Hanamiya is an all-girls school. Konomi helps Jun stretch. Jun says, “go harder.” Iwakakeru! gives us nice out-of-context yuri here. This montage and commentary on what the other girls do for mental preparation. Konomi is such a goofball!

Does Konomi recognize Kurea? Iwakakeru! isn’t making that clear to me. What a blow to her ego that Konomi was such a ballet superstar she didn’t notice the plebs. Haha! Only two months of climbing! Take that blow to your ego, Kurea! Hohoho. I loved the light streaming behind Konomi as she shamed Kurea with her saintly attitude.

The gang’s all here on Iwakakeru!. Asuka joined Hot Dad, Kiku, and Nonoka in the stands. She needs to put her cheek to Kiku’s foot as a proper introduction. The prissy route setter is back for announcing duties. I wonder how he’ll react to Konomi solving his walls before even climbing them. The rules of the semifinals mean the climbers need to climb the wall at first sight. Kiku wants to see Konomi do well with her puzzle-solving ability.

Konomi starts first. Here we go! Iwakakeru! plays Konomi’s puzzle-solving theme music. Oh man. Konomi one-shotted the wall! These audience reaction shots are dramatic. Kiku loves Master Konomi! A star is born. Satou realized quickly that Konomi is a special climber when she fell off that wall the first time. Nijima from Matsuhashi High is the optimistic big sister type with sketchy English skills. She falls down a lot but gets higher on the wall with every attempt. Her nickname is Zombie Nijima. That’s not a normal face, Nijima… And Konomi one-shotted the next wall.

The higher ranked climbers in the seclusion zone start to get worried about their chances. Iwakakeru! builds up the expectations nicely. This might not be good. Konomi is still in puzzler mode when she needs to be resting. She’s not paying attention to her body. Jun starts to worry about Konomi.

Konomi is in Poppit gamer mode. These explanation scenes feel like Iwakakeru! is padding the time. She will tire herself out this way, thinking too hard about puzzles she’s already solved. She has a Tron mode too. High Concentration Konomi. Kurea will learn that Konomi is a prima ballerina again. Nonoka says Konomi’s mumbling to herself startled her the first time she saw it.

Konomi has so much fun solving new puzzles for the first time. Kurea feels like she needs to climb a wall Konomi made. Those handholds are in strategic locations… Kurea made falling on the mat look like sexily flopping back into a big bed. Iwakakeru! loves its fans.

Konomi’s flush in her face is getting bigger between climbs. This is a good foreshadowing for a coming crisis on Iwakakeru!. She didn’t even acknowledge Kurea as she walked past.

Iwakakeru! Sport Climbing Girls streams on Crunchyroll.