Loooooooooong post today.

MATCH OF THE DAY: Asakoryu and Fujinokawa are two fun-sized rikishi, being small, crazy, exciting, and most of all, ripped. These two just bring their all to the dohyo every day and they’ve both had pretty good tournaments, which makes me very happy. I feel that Asakoryu was looking for a tsuppari battle but Fujinokawa ended up with Asakoryu’s belt. Fujinokawa forced Asakoryu to the edge, wavered for a second, and then slammed him down with a yoritaoshi frontal crush out.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Hiradoumi and Oshoumi are also two sunshiney little wrestlers; as always, Hiradoumi blasted out at the tachiai, knocking Oshoumi back to the tawara. But then! Oshoumi rallied and forced Hiradoumi back and over the opposite tawara. Oshoumi is not as little as the others, but Fujinokawa, Asakoryu, and Hiradoumi are extremely small and unique wrestlers. They’re all fiery, explosive tachiai bruisers as well, though the first two like a throw now and then. What a treat to have them (and Oshoumi, who is so new and so good all of a sudden) all fighting one another today.

PINK MAWASHI DAY FOURTEEN: Ura vs Oho is the minimum number of syllables and letters in a bout–though you could swap Abi in for either of them. But we don’t talk about Abi. Ura twirled and pulled Oho to the clay by hatakikomi, then immediately went into tree pose. Oho also had Ura vibes in his fall, with a little roll. Everybody wants to be Ura. Well, good job, buddy. He moves to a whopping 3-11. Fun basho, huh?

OVERALL SUMMARY: Wakatakakage henka’ed poor, helpless Daieisho. I hate him again. His brother defeated Asanoyama and Yoshinofuji destroyed Shishi, the other interesting pre-san’yaku bouts. Then we come to the real highlight bouts: our favoritest baby of all, Atamifuji, against Kirishima. I didn’t want this bout to happen but we knew it was coming. Atamifuji looks like a monster in this basho–an adorable monster, but wow. Something has returned to Atamifuji’s sumo that we haven’t seen in a while. Atamifuji fell right on top of Kirishima as they flew out, with Atamifuji taking the bout by abisetaoshi Part 2. Kiri had a serious scrape and struggled to get back up; is it his back again? Even Atamifuji looked worried. And we cannot have Kirishima getting hurt on the way back up to Ozeki.

Abi tsuppari-blasted the hell out of Takayasu, turned him around, and paraded him out by okuridashi. A lot of full-dohyo coverage in the bouts today. Hoshoryu and Kotozakura had a nice bout. Not from Kotozakura’s end, really, as Hoshoryu threw him beautifully to the clay by uwatenage. Hoshoryu had Yokozuna levels of badassery before he was even Ozeki, and damn, he is confident. He just has a certain level of “I’m a Yokozuna, punk” that even Onosato doesn’t; he’s too calm, but Hoshoryu is the right level of “locked in”. He is one of the best sumo wrestlers active… but he has the best vibe. Onosato, surprisingly, really just took out the trash with Aonishiki today. I really wasn’t expecting that. And he looked sad after this bout, which was bizarre; he’s had some very passionate facial expressions over the last few days. I think he just takes his losses really personally and is in a lot of pain, but I almost want to… root for him. I do feel bad for him; he’s really tough and he deserves a lot of respect for still being here. As do Hosh and all the other injured guys.

Okay, now we get to the crazy part. The first highlight bout will be Atamifuji vs Oshoumi, which could be for the yusho. If Oshoumi wins, then both rikishi gaurantee a spot in the playoff if Aonishiki loses. If he wins, they get nothing. If Atamifuji wins, then he clinches the yusho if Aonishiki loses and clinches a spot in the playoff if he doesn’t. Abi will take on Kirishima; the winner of that bout will join the playoff queue if both Atamifuji and Aonishiki lose their matches, but neither can clinch the yusho. Kotozakura will fight Aonishiki. If Zaku wins, he doesn’t get anything (except 9-6, which is revolutionary for him) but Aonishiki will either get nothing if Atamifuji wins, or get a spot in the playoff if Atamifuji loses. If Aonishiki wins, he will either fight Atamifuji for the playoff victory or get the yusho. Then the Yokozuna will fight; if Onosato wins, he will also join the group of playoff potentials, though Hoshoryu has no stake in the yusho race. Hoshoryu and Kotozakura are in a really interesting spot of fighting people who have much more at stake than they do.

So there are a few paths this could go down. In the ultimate result, we could have a five man playoff with the contestants being Atamifuji, Oshoumi, Aonishiki, Onosato, and the winner of Abi vs Kirishima. In the more likely results…

If either Atamifuji or Aonishiki wins their bouts, the winner will secure the yusho.

If both Atamifuji and Aonishiki win their bouts, they will advance to a 2-man playoff.

If neither Atamifuji and Aonishiki win their bouts, then they will advance to a 4-5 man playoff with Oshoumi’s spot clinched. One of the other spots will go to Kirishima or Abi, and the fifth will go to Onosato if he wins.

Kirishima is clearly hurt; if he goes kyujo, that will give Abi a clinched playoff spot in the event of a playoff. Otherwise, I don’t see anyone else going kyujo for the last day, and even Kiri probably won’t unless he’s in really bad shape, which I hope is not the case.

As for how I feel about this, well, obviously, I feel that Abi should lose. Because I always feel that way. More seriously, I’m worried about this Atamifuji vs Oshoumi bout. Oshoumi has more than proven himself this tournament, and if he wins, I’m not going to hold this against him; he’s worked hard and he deserves a lot of fanfare and credit. But I think the JSA could have done a better job with this bout; Atamifuji should not fight a Maegashira 16. I love them both, really. And Oshoumi really could surprise me. But, like, we shouldn’t have it be a possibility that Atamifuji clinches the yusho by defeating an M16. Clearly, I’m rooting for the 5-man playoff, which I want Kirishima to subsequently win. I will explain why. I care for five of the six potential rikishi in different ways:

Just to get it out of the way, I hate Abi and if he wins, I will be unhappy. Though he’s been pretty entertaining this basho, I must say. And I mostly hate him because it’s fun to have a guy to hate. He’s the sumo wrestling heel, and Ura is the face.

Oshoumi is the underdog here, and he would be even if he was higher up the banzuke. He and Atami are the only ones of this group of potential rikishi who have not won Makuuchi yusho already, and Atamifuji has been in a playoff before. He’s only in his second Makuuchi basho and he, quite frankly, has the least experience. I like Oshoumi, but he has time in the future and I think he does need to improve before he gets the victory.

Atamifuji is a ball of cuddly sunshine. I love him to death, as do many others, but I’m going to say it plainly. He doesn’t have that much on the line–that’s true for Oshoumi and Abi as well–and I want someone who needs it to win. But, I love Atamifuji. I really, really do. Some part of me wants him to win just so I don’t have to look at the sad face he’ll make if he loses. And I want him to win because he has come so close, and I want him to be happy. But he’s not my preferred candidate.

Kirishima is. I have gained a lot of respect for the role that Kotozakura and Hoshoryu play as the older generation of young hotshots. Onosato and Aonishiki are, in some corner of my brain, still too new. And I do still remember when Kirishima and Hoshoryu were young, exciting guys. I want another member of the young old guard at Ozeki, and I want it to be Kirishima. He deserves to get back to Ozeki, and I think having a yusho will make the JSA a lot more willing to let him back up. So I think he needs this more than anyone else, and I think he deserves it.

Aonishiki isn’t my favorite rikishi, but it is impossible to dislike this kid. He’s sweet, polite, and interesting, and so darn good at sumo. I can’t help but like him! Also, his tsukebito is quite possibly the sweetest and most babyish rikishi on earth.

Here’s a picture of Aonishiki hugging his sobbing tsukebito Kaiyuma after his yusho last time. I mean, come on. You can’t not love these guys. So, anyway, I like Aonishiki a lot and have a tremendous amount of respect for him, but I don’t think he needs this yusho in the same way Kirishima does for the promotion to Yokozuna. He’s going to get that promotion eventually… be it in May or not.

Onosato is such a complicated rikishi, and he’s really started to win me over this time. His sumo is frankly not as interesting as Aonishiki’s or Hoshoryu’s, but he recently dislocated his shoulder and he’s still here. That says a lot about his dedication, and his stubbornness. Onosato is under a tremendous amount of pressure from Hakkaku and Kisenosato and I’m overly proud of him for just being here. However, it’s also easy to be mad at him because he’s just too dominant. I think this basho, where he’s been struggling to get all those wins, and is of course still in the yusho race, has been a good experience for him. And he’s been showing a lot of emotion lately too, which makes me think this basho has been difficult for him on many levels. It’s okay to not win sometimes, Onosato. Like tomorrow. It would be okay if you didn’t win tomorrow. In fact, I’d prefer that you didn’t…

Well, anyway, most of these guys deserve a yusho and that’s why it beautifully sucks that only one of them can get it! It’s going to be great when I write this whole analysis post and Aonishiki just straight-up wins tomorrow.

Rest up and update your fantasy picks. Boy, oh boy!