Ryuuou no Oshigoto! (The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done!) Episode 8: Ai’s First Tournament

This time on Ryuuou no Oshigoto! (The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done!), the curtain rises for one of the most famous open shogi tournaments for female professionals and amateurs: MyNavi Women’s Open.

This tournament is divided into three stages: the challenge match, the preliminary, and the main tournament. Since this tournament offers an opportunity to become a provisional female professional for amateurs who can reach the main tournament, this attracts a lot of players from all over the country. As Ai and Ten-chan managed to win their first match, Keika got depressed because she ended up being the only one losing.

Meanwhile, Yaichi is reunited with his past acquaintance who is also a Joryuu Teii title holder, Ika Sainokami. Ika holds a far greater talent than even Ginko, and is known to even put some regular shogi professionals to shame through her ability. Their conversation sure hints at some “complicated history”.

Yaichi takes the spot as the commentator for his disciples’ matches along with Machi as the reporter, in which Machi plays around with Yaichi’s commentaries on his disciples which makes for some gags.

After making through all the challenge matches, Ai and Ten-chan confirm their spot in the preliminary stage while Keika finally makes it through the revival match. After a visit to Hatanomori Shrine with the JS-ken, Yaichi leaves the girls in Keika’s care as he has a job to provide a commentary on the match between the Meijin and the Kitei accompanied by female pro Tamayo Rokuroba.

The sight of Tamayo continuously flirting with Yaichi seems to have triggered Ai’s yandere side, which causes her to invade the live broadcast along with the rest of the JS-ken. The live broadcast soon reaches three million views when Char landed a kiss on Yaichi’s cheek, essentially cementing his status as a national king of lolis.

Yaichi then visits a boutique owned by Joryuu Myouseki title holder and “Eternal Queen” Rina Shakando to have a research group with Ayumu, who is also her disciple. After spectating a match between her and Ginko, Yaichi goes to the second floor and start his research group with Ayumu, in which they play blindfolded shogi for hours.

Right after finishing his research group with Ayumu, Yaichi listens to Rina talking about her personal thoughts about Ginko and Ika, before Ginko suddenly comes in wearing a dress from Rina’s fashion brand. As Rina forces her to go home with that outfit, Yaichi takes Ginko home with a bullet train after she inquiries about his plan on August 1.

Thoughts

The awaited tournament arc is finally here! Though as glad as I am, without the number of episodes, I have already expected all the matches to be significantly cut in the adaptation. And well, the majority of them did get cut. We however get the glorious rendition of the Niconico live broadcast scene in place of that, so I guess it’s fine. Ika’s introduction doesn’t have that much of an impact, but Haruka Tomatsu still nails her character quite well. Next episode will be the awaited confrontation between Ai and Ika along with the flashback of Yaichi and Ika’s past, so don’t forget to tune in next week too!