Since the first Blue Bullet pierced our hearts last year, Birdie Wing viewers have had one question burning in the back nine of our brains: how would Eve matchup against Happy Gilmore. This week’s episode gives us the answer. It’s poetic in a way that sports anime en masse have perfected. Eve’s main strength has always been her ability to whack the ball really dang hard and long, so what better rival is there than a girl who can whack it even harder and longer? Combine that with a course that pokes and prods at all of Eve’s weaknesses, and our heroine is left stumbling as we’ve never seen her before.

As with Aoi’s struggle to join the pro league, the specter of fatherhood hangs heavy over this segment. Aoi had to deal with Amuro, Eve currently has to deal with Golf Char, and Kazuhiko is the paternal figure linking them both. I deliberately used the word “specter,” however, because in both cases, it’s not about our heroines living up to their forebears; it’s about surpassing them. Aoi improves under Amuro’s direction and finally gets the truth out of him, yet she leaves the nest all the same to pursue her own goals. I’m holding out for a more direct confrontation against the elders of both their families because the narrative seems to be teeing that up as a final thematic affirmation of this series as a golf girls story, not a golf men story. Otherwise, Seira’s promise to “keep the chairman in line” feels kinda flimsy after everything he (and Michael, presumably) orchestrated. But this is a good first step for Aoi.

Eve’s first step is even more blatantly evolutionary, as her big breakthrough merges the techniques of Golf Char and Kazuhiko together into a rainbow that can kill you—just in time for Pride! Behind the scenes, we see that this was Kazuhiko’s ambition all along, which recolors Golf Char’s tutelage but doesn’t make him any less of an asshole. This is another case where the show’s casting and connection to Gundam irrevocably affects my perception. This man is Char. He cannot be anything but Char. However ostensibly noble his ambitions might be, he will pursue them in the most hilariously dickish way possible, and that’s what makes him a good character. He gets more great lines this week too, especially when he’s comparing Aisha’s technique to cannonfire. He also all but quotes, “I came here to laugh at you,” when he’s goading Eve to surpass him. Once a Char, always a Char.

Structurally, the episode adheres to sports anime fundamentals, but with a twist. Before she can grow as an athlete, Eve’s struggle needs to feel real in spite of her superhuman talent and Ichina’s caddy expertise. I expected the narrative to explore the friction that arises between the two of them, with an increasingly frustrated Eve falling back to brute strength and ignoring her partner’s advice. That might’ve been the more standard, character-focused way to tell this leg of their journey. Instead, Eve decides to hone her new technique mid-tournament and eat the growing pains with the expectation that she’ll make up the lost ground once it’s perfected. This is self-evidently stupid, so of course, it works. Pair this with the sight of her constantly conjuring rainbows out of thin air, and we’ve got yet another beautiful and dumb montage. I meant to mention this earlier too, but I love the way this series depicts backspin as both the coolest thing ever and a force of bullshit physics sorcery.

The side character spotlights are also nice and unhinged. Good on Vipère for dragging her boy toy all the way to Scotland so she can commentate to the anime audience and leave midway through the tournament. That’s a queen move. Allen’s avuncular unflappability complements the ridiculousness of everything else (the severe language he uses to describe Aisha’s cartoonish playstyle is great), and his little scene with Char reinforces their mafia connections. I would have preferred to get to know more about Aisha, but there’s also humor in the way she shows up out of nowhere and immediately outclasses Eve with her weirder Gilmore-esque technique. I don’t think she even speaks a full sentence throughout the entire runtime. She’s just there to kick ass and eat bananas.

This is all building tension so Eve and Aoi can pit their new souped-up golf witchery against each other and cause the Third Impact if the tenor of the episode previews has any bearing on the anime proper. I suppose a third season isn’t technically out of the cards, but we’re on track for a satisfying second-season conclusion, which is twice the amount most anime get these days. And Birdie Wing still does it with rainbow-addled flair. A bullet might not be able to beat a cannon, but a seven-colored shot from her heart certainly has the juice.

Rating: Birdie

Cumulative Score: -28

Birdie Wing -Golf Girls’ Story- is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Steve is on Twitter while it lasts. He still disrespects golf. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.

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