Again, Hata's episode stands out from the rest, but not quite in the way I expected. Chief director Sugiyama set the pace in the first episode, shaping an unpromising series produced by the business department of Mushi Pro -- not the main studio! -- into something not entirely unwatchable. Episode 1 emphasizes fast cutting and action rather than drama, with a light atmosphere and a lot of content squeezed into the episode. Overall it resembles Hata's Gokû episodes. That's why it's so surprising that Hata's episode, #2, seems so radically different. It seems to deliberately veer away from this type of directing, which is more manga-like, to try for a more dramatic/serious approach. The story itself develops a very narrow theme, but one which is central to the series: the hero's discovery of his interest in wrestling and his determination to join the club. The cutting and pacing of the episode seem to reflect this specific focus, with a lot less information packed into the episode and each scene very carefully thought out for its place in the whole episode. The episode strikingly captures the dramatic importance of this portion of the story, though the seriousness even becomes a little much at times, bordering on a parody of itself. Clearly a development can be seen here away from the cartoony style of Gokû towards a style emphasizing orderly development of a theme and heavy drama.