Title:
- 弱くても勝てます Yowakute mo Katemasu
- 弱くても勝てます〜青志先生とへっぽこ高校球児の野望〜 Yowakute mo Katemasu ~Aoshi-sensei to Heppoko Kōkō Kyūji no Yabō~
- Even the Weak Can Win
- Even If We're Weak, We Can Win
- Even If We're Weak, We Can Win ~The Ambitions of Teacher Aoshi and The Clumsy Baseball Loving High School Students~
Episode 01: An eccentric? A teacher's ambition
Tamo Aoshi: If you're strong, you win. If you're weak, you lose. That's natural. When people are faced with something as natural, they end up at their wit's end. They're merely unable to do anything else but stand still.
Tamo Aoshi: But thirteen years later, I end up shouting strong words that are the exact opposite; that 'even if I'm weak, I can win'.
Tamo Aoshi: Having the motivation to do anything doesn't mean that I'll actually do anything.
Tamo Aoshi: I believe that most of you here are probably aiming to continue your education at Tokyo University, but there's just one thing I'd like you to know. I want to tell you that even if you go to Tokyo University, you can end up unemployed just as quick as I was. You can't be unprepared! Going to Tokyo University doesn't mean that it guarantees anything for you.
...
Tamo Aoshi: The questions that you have to answer aren't just the questions in exams. Life is a continuous cycle of difficult questions. So let's think. Let's find the best answer.
Akaiwa Kimiyasu: Do you regret it?
Tamo Aoshi: I do, because there must have been some kind of a better way than that.
Akaiwa Kimiyasu: To not make errors?
Tamo Aoshi: No matter what I could have done, I'd still make errors.
Tamo Aoshi: To avoid the things that you're weak at, and to specialize yourself in what you're strong at, that's the natural way of things of a living creature.
...
Akaiwa Kimiyasu: To me, baseball is... well, I'm bad at it; I'm bad at it but by no means is it something I'm weak at.
Tamo Aoshi: Will you tell me more?
Akaiwa Kimiyasu: Being weak at it and being bad at it are different things. Being weak is that you think it on your own, being bad is looking at it objectively and realizing it.
Shirao Tsuyoshi: We're different from champion sports schools that have great facilities, because this is the absolute worst environment to be in if you want to become a professional baseball player.
Shirao Tsuyoshi: Which means if I work hard here, I feel like no matter where I go after this, that I can get through anything.
Tamo Aoshi: Even if it's a waste, we want to win.
Tamo Aoshi: Well, to me, you shouldn't feel baseball has no point to it just because you'll lose. But if you guys are the baseball club, I think there's no point unless you play baseball.
Tamo Aoshi: How's this? Why don't you try becoming a baseball club first? Think about winning or losing after you've done that. How about doing that?
Episode 02
Tamo Aoshi: Humans are social beings so the most efficient way to wake up is to put yourself in the presence of others.
Tamo Aoshi: ... When it comes to baseball, they just follow the theories.
Tarumi Kaede: But theory is important, right?
Tamo Aoshi: Normally, it's important. But if the level is below average, then things that are intended for the average are useless.
Tamo Aoshi: Whenever I talk to you guys, you keep speaking about yourselves passively, and not one person speaks with emphasis. Well, what I want to hear from you guys isn't being passive, but speaking actively and with emphasis.
...
Tamo Aoshi: In a passive way, there's some kind of nuance of it being unrelated to you. It's kind of like "somehow, it seems like I'm the right, no?". But the moment you change it and put emphasis into it, it has an aggressive feeling of a label that pushes everyone else aside.
Akaiwa Kimiyasu: It's the way you're saying it, right?
Tamo Aoshi: It's fine even if that's the case, but it makes you want to say it that way when it's emphasized and not passive, which means it has the power to make you feel that way.
Tamo Aoshi: That's why I want you guys to stop speaking passively and to speak with emphasis from now on. Always think of yourself as the lead part.
Tamo Aoshi: Is there something wrong with staying below average?
Shirao Tsuyoshi: What?
Tamo Aoshi: We can't force ourselves to become average.
Episode 03
Tarumi Kaede: Even if you lose, play a baseball game worth watching.
Tamo Aoshi: That's why before scrutinizing the possibility of whether you can or cannot catch it, you should just decide to 'catch'. It's good to face the ball and say 'come!'.
Tamo Aoshi: Listen, what you guys were doing is the same thing as telling people who crossed a traffic light to 'stop crossing'...
Tamo Aoshi: Your communication is a failure. You guys are self-centered. I'm saying that you don't consider the feelings of your team mates at all. The feelings of what your running team mate; no, let's consider it more generally, of what a person feels.
Tamo Aoshi: Should I go? Should I stop? I understand the feelings of hesitation very well. Well, it's fine to hesitate because to hesitate is something important; provided that you make a decision for the sake of your team mate, for the sake of your own duty. Decide on an appropriate timing and be sure to convey it to your team mate.
Episode 04
Tone Riko: ... even now, I can't forget the shock I felt when I saw the past exam questions of (Odawara) Jōtoku. I wondered if there were people in this world that could solve such difficult questions.
Tamo Aoshi: There's one right here.
Tone Riko: Like I said, it's a little strange that (Odawara) Jōtoku students are worried about the same thing as regular teenagers.
Tamo Aoshi: Of course... However, even if we bear the same worries, of course we're smart. Still, if you think it out seriously, the answer will certainly appear. We don't carelessly fuss over thinking that time will solve everything like you people do.
Tone Riko: Aren't you already making a clear line between us?
Tamo Aoshi: Is that so?
Tamo Aoshi: Time will not solve everything for you. What should be solved, is time.
Tamo Aoshi: ... then what comes into question is your courage to decide and your sense regarding time. Because, while everyone's day only has 24 hours in it, the difference between those who have and don't have time is nothing but the difference in that sense.
Tamo Aoshi: To us, who are always out of time, don't you think that sense is what we needed the most?... That's why somehow I want you all to be able to know how to use time finely.
Episode 05
Tamo Aoshi: No matter what you do, most things probably don't have any results that you'll know from the start. The act of living, it's a repetition of assumptions and experiments.
Tamo Aoshi: You don't have pride because you won. If you did, then it would crumble away easily the next time you lose. Listen, only the people that have pride from the beginning can win.
Episode 06
Tamo Aoshi: Responsible adults won't say they can do what they can't.
Episode 07
Tarumi Kaede: Maybe he was too fixated in his form. Instead of being conscious of the opponent, he was focused on himself.
Tamo Aoshi: Hesitating whether you can or you can't, don't you become unable to move in the end?
Tone Riko: That's why you said "swing with all your might" or "swing, anyway".
Tamo Aoshi: Yes, because even if you think about it, if there's no process for it, isn't it better to do it 'at once' or 'for the time being'?
Tamo Aoshi: What we'll do on the baseball ground is not practice. Practice is to understand something by repeating the same thing time after time, right? But we don't have enough time to repeat something. In the first place, we don't know what we should repeat.
Tone Riko: Then, what will you do?
Tamo Aoshi: Experimentation and research. We'll think of the ground as the place for experiments. First of all, each of you will think of a hypothesis of what you can't do and what you should do to be able to do it, and conduct an experiment on that. And if it gives result, then move on to the next hypothesis. To experiment, that's what we'll repeat.
Episode 08
Episode 09
Tamo Aoshi: Even if you are not inclined towards something, there are cases when it can be positive.
...
Tamo Aoshi: Even if you go to a different place, isn't it fine to find positive things about it? Unless always running away is fine.
Episode 10
Tarumi Kaede: But think about it, something perfect is unexpectedly fragile. Because if it is damaged just a bit, it's not perfect anymore.
Episode 11
Tarumi Kaede: The time you spend fully doing things pass by in a blink, but the time you spend slacking off passes by in a blink as well, right?
Tamo Aoshi: Well, I think the more you become an adult, the more you need courage.
Tamo Aoshi: Shirao Tsuyoshi, you are the reason why Jōtoku made it this far. Even if we were not good and were looked down at, we always relied on you. Holding on to those feelings of being able to count on you, everybody made it this far. But you see, the one that worked the hardest to meet those expectations was you. I think it was also lonely and hard, but you always said "okay" while smiling. You saved us over and over again.
Tamo Aoshi: You know, because of your habit of having big dreams, you also receive a corresponding big shock when you have to face reality. But that's fine. A person that dreams big becomes a bigger and better person.
