it is! could also be the high expectations that we've been growing since the beginning? plus, it's shortly after the shinryouji naga one, and that left an impression hi~
Hi! It's been fun reading your posts on the es21 tag ✨ and yeah I def think it's a mix of those things! I mean, the Shinryuuji match is my personal favorite in the series, but I think part of what makes it SO good is that it ends up being the very first match that the Devilbats have to overcome in the Kanto tournament. The sudden unexpectedness and panic of having to face the Nagas right off the bat gives it that desperate tone where they're forced to pull out ALL possible stops to beat them. And it makes such an engaging and thrilling match!!
But then, yeah, it's kind of hard for Oujo to live up to right after rip. I feel like the creators tried to up the stakes by suddenly increasing Shin's time to 4.2 (which I still think is bs) just because Agon made such an intimidating villain/rival, and then also shot Sakuraba up to 'all star player' status so he wasn't totally overshadowed by Ikkyuu in the previous match (even though imo what was compelling about his character was that he WASN'T particularly talented in football but found the drive to work hard at it anyway instead of sabotaging himself, even if he never got to the heights of prodigies like Shin.)
So what makes the Devilbats vs Nagas match so excellent ends up kind of shooting the Oujo match in the foot imo 😔
