Iwakakeru! Sport Climbing Girls, Ep 7: Failure of a Climber

Jun takes her turns at climbing walls in the semifinals, hoping to do as well as Konomi.

Wall 7 – “Failure of a Climber”

Hmm.

I expected Iwakakeru! to show Konomi showing her inexperience and I enjoyed seeing how “High Concentration Konomin” started to glitch on her fourth wall. She made a big splash in one-shotting three walls in a row, so that was good enough. Iwakakeru! appears to strive for reality and a talented newcomer to a sport that rewards power and endurance, as well as analytical skills, should not beat veterans after only two months of physical training. I like how one can interpret Konomi’s glitching in several ways.

The first interpretation is Iwakakeru! showing her brain losing power because she was getting tired. The second I see is Konomi’s solutions starting to conflict with what her body can do. I like the second one better because it’s an avenue for an athlete to grow in experience as her conditioning dictates her moves. Konomi’s perfect solutions to wall problems work when a body is in its prime state. Can Konomi derive other solutions when a body feels fatigued or suffers from a slight injury? Pain management, rest, and recovery between efforts is a known variable for elite athletes and using a toolset of skills to work the body, as well as the wall, comes from experience. It’s not just a matter of building the body to higher levels of stamina and strength. I’m curious to see how Iwakakeru! expands on the more complex explanation of Konomi’s puzzle mode glitching.

I was not surprised to see Jun utterly fail in the semifinals. The foreshadowing of her brittle pride began in Iwakakeru!’s first episode, when she took offense at Konomi relating to “sending a problem” as a game. We’re familiar now with Konomi’s gaming background, but we needed to see Jun’s obsession with sport climbing — “bouldering” was her preferred term as a child — and how it affected her perspective and ability to form relationships. Kurea and the other competitors aren’t the only ones feeling their years of effort and experience disrespected by someone who took up the sport only two months ago.

Jun makes a great contrast to Konomi’s personality. I hope Iwakakeru! touches more on Konomi’s gaming career, because the small mentions we’ve seen already show Konomi to have developed strong mental defenses against trash talk and fortitude in times of adversity. Konomi makes a great main character you can root for! The only thing she lacks is relying on teamwork and friends in a competitive environment. We might see some drama between her and Jun because of Jun’s meltdown. That’s good though, because both these young ladies need to learn about friendship in the context of a team working toward a common goal, even as they compete against each other. I want Iwakakeru! to show me more of this instead of the torture porn of Jun’s crumbling pride.

Heh.

Flashback time for Jun. Iwakakeru! will bring the pain down on the super serious climber for the rest of the episode. Jun spent all her time on climbing as a child (this hasn’t changed) that she didn’t know anything about pop culture.

Back to Iwakakeru!’s present. Sayo and Jun hear more cheering from the crowd. They suspect Konomi one-shotted another wall. Death flag! Jun thinks she and Sayo should match or better Konomi’s results. Maybe Sayo can.

Konomi stands at the fourth wall. Iwakakeru! makes that mumbling and hand waving creepy. Juzo noticed that something’s off about Konomi. She still looks mighty fine to me, but I suspect fatigue is finally showing on Konomi’s body. High Concentration Konomin now has robot sounds. Uh oh. Glitches! The program starts to break down. Konomi’s visualization isn’t matching what her real body can do.

Fatigue of the mind or the body? Both? Iwakakeru!’s vagueness about Konomi’s glitching is a good plot point. She feels rushed, which didn’t happen in the three previous walls. And she fell! Konomi is human. She didn’t even get points from the Zone. Konomi doesn’t know what happened or what the “glitch” noise means. That’s her lack of experience shining through.

Asuka underestimated her. She thought she had all the answers from molesting her feet in that previous Iwakakeru! episode. Juzo thinks Konomi just needs to build strength and stamina. She’s only been climbing for two months. Kurea is an envious girl.

The higher ranked girls are still waiting their turns, but they know the cheers mean Konomi was successful. Iwamine, a twisted soul, expects Konomi’s performance to demoralize many of her direct competitors. Ominous closeup on Jun! Iwakakeru! is predictable here.

Ha! Asuka is happy that the new round of climbers all fall. It’s the way it was supposed to be! Tough walls winnow the chaff from the wheat! They weren’t there to let robo-Konomi rile up the crowd. There’s pride mixed in there too, since she helped put the walls up. I wonder if Iwakakeru! will show Asuka in climbing action. Anne Kurusu thought Konomi was cool, but not cute. Konomi is still in video game mode. Is her climbing done for the day? If not, she’s still tiring herself out.

Oh, the route setter says the same thing that Kurea Ooba thought last episode. Iwakakeru! starts to repeat itself. The other climbers need to climb the wall that Konomi built too. Iwamine should be ecstatic watching the faces of the climbing girls come back in.

Jun was 10th place so now we’re getting to the elite girls. Only the top six climbers move into the final round. Konomi just can’t turn her mind off. We saw Jun wasn’t the greatest at solving puzzles, which is why Konomi almost beat her two-minute head-start after climbing for only a day in Iwakakeru!’s first episode. So, Jun fell. No one-shot for her.

Big yell! Kurea needed to change her mindset. It didn’t help. Meanwhile, Jun is not doing a decent job. She can’t even get on the start position for the fourth wall. The Konomi Wall dashed her morale.

Iwakakeru! shows us flashbacks where super serious Jun makes a friend and then pushes her away. She insists that people need to enjoy a hobby the same way she does. So self-centered. At least Jun is self-aware, but she hasn’t changed that behavior yet. That is not a good look. Jun couldn’t even take a gesture of kindness from Konomi. Jun needs a redemption arc just so fans don’t start to hate her. Interesting. Jun chooses the cartoon character she dismissed as a child as a comforting avatar.

Next time, even more disappointment?

Iwakakeru! Sport Climbing Girls streams on Crunchyroll.