>>534732242
I'm convinced that only people who've engaged in anything competitive WITH passion also involved can really get invested in Pokke. Her entire motivation and themes sound dumb if you aren't the type of person who's invested 10+ years of their life to some competitive hobby/sport.

Like Pokke I also had a "Tachyon" in my life who is quite literally just better at the thing I like to do and I've never beaten them at said thing. It had me spiraling to the point where it felt like I just lost passion in said activity, not taking it as seriously anymore and even thinking about quitting at times.

By this point I already have quit this activity (mainly because of more adult commitments now) but while watching Pokke's entire character realization it was as if a bunch of repressed emotions just flooded suddenly. Her character resonated so deeply with me that I was sniffling during her last talk with Tachyon and shed tears during the Japan Cup. Given the short runtime of the movie I think they did an excellent job with what the themes and messages they wanted to show and even despite the rest of the movie's flaws it's one of the best sports films I've ever watched in general.