TIA, Bahrain, 26/03/1998:
                        
***The Goalie Prejudice***
Article Written by
Hesham Al-Emadi

Ken...The " One-Eyed Black Belt Karate Champion". If you've just seen that episode, when Kira had a flashback about Wakashimazu. How he bounced off a Dojo wall just to give his opponent a powerful kick in the throat! Now that was like, "TOTALLY GRAND!", other than it was a very violent scene. When Wakashimazu appeared in the second half  of the first series...People went off track! They couldn't concentrate in their work, kids started flunking their exams, Taxi Drivers forgot to switch their meters on, and the VHS sales scorched to the top of the ceiling. Even Wakabayashi's ability of catching any kind of ball was vanishing slowly as Ken got into the picture more and more with his Martial Arts techniques. Takahashi had created a legendary character, no doubt!

But then, when Nankatsu won the game(Tsubasa jumped over Wakashimazu and scored a net-ripping goal), Takahashi realized his mistake. He went off track too! He was so excited to create a new character, he made him more powerful than Wakabayashi himself. This is impossible:-

1)Using the Goal Posts as effective bouncers, enabling him to jump from one post to the other like a Salmon Fish.

2)Bouncing the ball by his shoulder, and then doing a Rolling Sabot  move to kick it out of his area.

3)Trapping the ball between his two feet and the shooter's leg, in MID-AIR, and then ripping out the ball from that situation with ease, along with an Acrobatic Flip to land behind the shooter afterwards.

4) Among other breath-taking situations that I forgot...

Wakashimazu played God. He became better than Wakabayshi by a million times! But Genzo had something that Ken didn't have, MONEY and a Personal Trainer. So I think he bribed Takahashi into drawing Ken like a Girlish Freak in the second part of the series.

When I was watching the match between Toho and Misugi's team, I passed out!!! How can Wakashimazu let a VERY EASY ball from Jun to get right through him??? And how come he's got two eyes??? And where's the cap???

Since the protagonist GK was Wakabayshi from the beginning, Takahashi had no other choice than to make Wakashimazu a slave to Hyuga's thoughts(Even though he gave him some credit in the Japan VS England flashback) and therefore getting him out of the Super God Goalie business for the rest of his career in the series. Personality differences between him when he was a sixth grader and a ninth grader were obvious. He certainly had lost that mesmerizing charisma of his.

Well, "Good Things Never Last Forever" as some people say, with some degree of truth in this case. Wakashimazu's principle of life is Honor, whereas his fellow GK colleague's principle of life is getting more and more money, and to show off every now and then with his superior skills. It's not that I hate the guy, I really like him, one of my favorite characters actually. But to throw Ken out of the picture in that horrible way, is simply out of the question and just shows how the Anime business can be so prejudice for money. Wakashimazu was the main reason for people to stay tune for the next installment of the series. That's what I think, along with thousands others. This is everything that I had to say, let's just pray that this message gets out to everyone on the list!

This is Hesham Al-Emadi reporting from the Tsubasa Intelligence Agency (TIA) in Bahrain...:-)

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