Level E 11 - Subconscious Strikes

Hm, I’m not entirely sure I got the resolution to this episode, so let me try to write it out, and if anyone thinks he or she understood it better than I did, then please offer an alternative explanation . . .

Basically, the baseball team is trapped in that one dude’s subconscious because he is concentrating so much on the Koshien that his mind sucks up everything around him within a given area. That I get. (Also, that player’s not really identified, right? I spent the whole episode trying to figure out who it would be, but it’d be hilarious if it were just some benchwarmer, haha.) But then there’s Sade’s plan . . . which, I gather, is to introduce a stimuli strong enough to get the guy to stop thinking so damn much about the Koshien, and then the team will topple out of his subconscious. We’re not privy to what they did, but eh, I guess we can use our imaginations.

So I guess that’s it. Just struck me as abrupt because Sade’s explanation is left hanging for the audience to infer completely, and then the actual exit strategy isn’t shown. They must have done something heavy duty to break that dude’s concentration, though. The bus disappears and leaves him alone (we can assume that he is in the bus with the rest of the team, right?), and yet he keeps on walking from the area where the bus disappears to the stadium, all while still concentrating entirely on baseball . . .

And, now, out of curiosity, I skimmed through the corresponding chapters of the Level E manga, and the actual explanation for the climax is much simpler: Basically, because the dude is image training, the team has to finish off the image. He’s imagining the team beating the top-ranked high school in the country; therefore, they must fulfill that dream, and everything will be gravy. Once that image is finished in his mind, the player in question will focus back on the outside world, and everyone will topple out.

Makes sense to me; wish it were less vague in this episode, though. Part of it is probably me not thinking enough, but I did notice there are a few cuts to the story that would have made the resolution less confusing.

Ah well. There’s plenty of other stuff that is fun in this episode. Loved the subconscious imagery in the little girl’s mind, especially the parents have fucked up alien worms battling each other. That girl needs to see a psychiatrist or become a writer. Also loved Craft, as always, especially when he tries his damnedest to come up with a way to trap Baka in the baseball dude’s mind while freeing the others. And even though Craft can’t come up with anything, he gets his wish, anyway, which doesn’t make logical sense, but it’s a funny capper to the episode, so what the hell. It’ll probably be forgotten when the next episode begins, so it’s not a big deal.

LOL Sorry, I could not resist using this one more time. You can pretend it’s Yukitaka slamming Baka with a baseball bat if it suits you.