amazed by you

I have a quote I say everytime I see Jirou fanboy over Marui: "It has to be love. There's no other explanation for that kind of behavior. No other character fanboys as much as he does." And somehow, I think it's true. Jirou may not be in love-love (romantic), but he's definitely got a special admiration for Marui-kun.

For starters, Marui and Jirou faced eachother during the Newcomers' Tournament when they were first-years. Marui won, Jirou lost, and ever since then, Jirou has been "aiming" for Marui ever since. Marui's style of play inspired Jirou's style. They don't play identically, but they do share one move in common - the Rising Shot. Now, you may think, well, what the heck Airi, just because Jirou is obsessed with him doesn't mean a thing, and this description of it sucks. Wrong. Even if you weren't thinking that, you have to actually SEE Jirou when he watches Marui. He looks like... he's in love. Yes, here comes the SCREENCAP PROOFING OF DOOM, where i'll take random screencaps and show them to you in order to bribe you into loving this pairing show you that, indeed, I have a point.

ANIME EPISODES: 118, 119
MANGA APPEARANCE: VOLUME 23, CHAPTER 196

(hover over image for what the subtitle reads)
Oh, in this lovely first scene, we see the first couple moments of fanboysims from Jirou. The anime, for some reason, heavily emphasizes his admiration for Marui, and you can almost consider it an obsession. Anyway. In the first screencap, Jirou is posessively holding the fence. The other Hyotei members (Oshitari and Gakuto for the moment) are like, not even standing remotely near the fence. And the best part about this scene is that MARUI DOESN'T DO ANYTHING (but brag) yet somehow, Jirou STILL finds that absolutely awesome!! I mean, look at his face in the third cap. Oh, Jirou. This makes you think, what direction was Marui looking in when he did that peace sign? I almost seem to believe that he's directly looking at Jirou. Otherwise, why the heck would you fanboy over a simple, "Hahaha i'm awesome" ?

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This is the manga version of what's above. The manga doesn't actually go indepth with his obsession, but you can tell by his face expressions that Jirou's breath is taken away by Marui. And riiiight after Marui pulls off his tight-rope walking ball thing, Jirou makes that same face depicted in the panel i've provided. Please take note of the dialogue i've highlighted. It's really important. And cute.

Okay, now that you've gotten a little taste of that, here's EVEN MORE proof of Jirou's sweet, adorable, obsession with Marui. All taken from the anime, and caps taken by yours truly. If these can't tell you that his inspiration might go past admiration, and even obsession - then you might consider looking through my gallery. They have a ridiculous amount of official pictures together. I'm serious.

I shit you not. This is what he looks like when he's fanboying over Marui. A little over the top, perhaps? I rest my case.