I've been thinking about the multi-ball strikes again recently, specifically in the context of how Akutsu used them against Amadeus. I find it noteworthy that while hitting multiple balls at once quickly became a routine thing in the anime, the manga only really made a big deal out of it in the case of four of the middle schoolers: Ryoma, Kintarou, Sanada and Akutsu. Akutsu ultimately combined this with his natural flexibility to create a variant unique to him.
What about the other three? Can we expect Ryoma, Kintarou and Sanada to make use of this ability to hit multiple balls again while putting their own twist on it? If so, what might that look like? Just brainstorming a couple ideas below.
Ryoma
- Drive Version: First thing that came to mind for Ryoma was hitting each shot with a different one of his Drives: A, B, COOL, D, and Samurai. He can hit at least the first four from that sliding approach of his and they all travel in very different ways, so returning all five (six counting Samurai Drive's half balls) should be a challenge.
- Muga Version: Same idea as before, but copying other players' moves in the process. Seeing the basic Muga again would be surprising, but Ryoma's copied moves from others even without it, so it might not be necessary. Could run into problems in the sense that unlike the Drives, other moves can have vastly different requirements.
- High Tension Version: One of Ryoma's most notable abilities throughout Kanto was that he would play better and better the longer the match went on for and continue to increase his pace throughout. So a basic idea for him in the context of multi-ball strokes might be to just keep adding more and more balls. This is definitely the most basic version of the three I've presented here, but I also think I like it the best because Akutsu's was fundamentally simple as well. Also, we might have gotten a glimpse of this against Ryoga.
Kintarou
- I don't have any real ideas for him. The best I can think of right now is to combine it with that cloning he can do in some way, but not sure where to go from there.
Sanada
- FuuRinKaInZanRai Version: As the name probably implies, this idea involves Sanada using each part of FuuRinKaInZanRai (well, minus In because it's not a shot in any way) on one of the balls. One thing I like about this is that Sanada's the only one we've never seen upgrade from hitting five at once, and five would be sufficient for this.
- Black Dragon Version: Pretty straight-forward and maybe an alternative to the triple clutch. Sanada would hit a regular 5-Ball Strike and then bend all five shots with the black aura.
Do you have other ideas? Or do you think hitting multiple balls will be largely irrelevant for these guys moving forward?
While it's true that we saw it again in Akutsu's recent match, it's been a while since it was an "important thing" (i.e Oni vs Kintarou, Toku vs Byodouin or Ryoma vs Ryoga). But since we entered into the international stage, it has become less relevant to hit multiple balls at once; and well, it hasn't been mentioned yet by any foreign player since the G10 arc. I'm inclining more to the point that it'll become irrelevant as they move forward (and they'll keep improving by leveling up their base stats plus learning new moves).
However, if we get back again to the multi-ball strikes again, and they make another appearance in future matches, I think they won't be the usual ones, but depending on the player, they'll have unique properties. Aside from the ones you mentioned, I thought of more ways they could use the multi-ball strikes.
Ryoma:
1. Multi-Twist Serve: How amazing would it be if we got our loved Twist Serve back, but in a more unique way? Ryoma using different twists on five balls should be a challenge, or even harder if he gets to hit five different serves, one with a twist spin plus four different spins.
2. Multi-Glowing Shots: Like he used the glowing part of destruction to hit a Drive B, what if he managed to hit 10 glowing balls? I feel that this is too much for him at his current level, but him hitting five glowing balls isn't too farfetched at all. That's something we still have yet to see, maybe because you have to focus on hitting the ball with the SSS, and doing that in a multi-ball strike should demand quite a considerable amount of focus.
3. Multi TnK: Last but not least, hitting ten balls while in TnK should be quite a challenge, and really hard to return if the other player doesn't have enough reflexes to keep up with them.
Kintarou: Honestly, I'm at a loss on what kind of strategy he could get from the multi-ball strikes. Maybe mixing them with Daisharin? Since at his last match vs. Dorgias he didn't use them, I doubt we'll ever see him again using the multi-ball strikes unless they force him to do so.
Sanada:
1. Muga: Using Muga on one of the balls while hitting the other five or hitting five different special techniques. However, I feel the stamina consumption would be too high in this case.
Basically the same you said, either hitting five balls at once while involving any part of FuuRinKaInZanRai or bending all of the shots with the Black Aura. But, because he never used them again since the beginnings of the series at the mountain training, and we didn't see him using it nor in the G10 arc or vs. Australia, I don't know if we will ever see him again using them.
