Wow, another episode of excellent interaction. This ep might take a while to describe, and I can't fully do the emotion justice in a short summary.

Summary:
Despite her smile near the end of last episode, the next day, Suzuka won't walk to school with Yamato. That afternoon, track practice occurs in uniform to decide who will do each event at competition in two weeks (as explained to Yamato by Miki). Yamato notes how serious everyone is, and is surprised at how fast the running times are. As he lines up, he is thinking that he just doesn't want to embarress himself in front of everyone, in spite of encouragement from Souichi. As Yamato gets ready, Souichi notices the rocket start. As he runs, Suzuka sees him for a moment as the guy from the photo in her room and seems saddened by this. With everyone watching, he earns a sub-11 second time, which is the best on the field. The track team captain remarks to Souichi that he reminds and looks like a certain someone. After being selected as #1 sprinter for team, Yamato is leaving locker room, but stops to talk to Suzuka. Suzuka seems unimpressed and cold about what he did. Yamato is upset by her coldness and asks what it is about him that she hates so much. Suzuka says that she just gets irritated by him and must despise him after all. The next day, he tells Yasu about the despise comment at lunch. Miki joins in the conversation as it goes on. Yasu says he should considering quitting, but Miki says that would be a waste of his skills. Yasu and Miki engage in some repartee back and forth, which Honoka walks into the middle of. Miki says that Suzuka won't like some guy who quits in the middle of things and mostly because of that, Yamato decides to keep trying for a while. Over the next few days, Yamato trains in extra practice after normal practice, inspiring the rest of the guys with his effort so that they won't leave before him. Souichi comments on how he's becoming the club spirit and asks if he reminds her of Kazaki Tsuda from junior high. Suzuka won't answer and leaves. Outside, she keeps failing to make even her simple jumps. Later at home, Suzuka thinks about what Souichi says and says "He doesn't resemble him at all..." while looking at photo. As leaving practice, Yamato overhears Suzuka talk about visiting "Tsuda Kazuki" in Yokohama to Souichi. Yamato wonders who that is. The next morning, by the time he gets up, Suzuka is gone already. While chasing the cat on the porch, he sees Suzuka's photo of the sprinter and herin her room through the window, and figures that's the guy she went to see. He gets Miho to get Suzuka's address in Yokohama, and heads there to see what is going on.

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A lot of emotion in this episode.

We finally learn a bit about the guy in the photo - but as to who he is and how Suzuka knows him is unclear. Why does she travel to visit him in her hometown? Like Yamato, we're left to wonder if he's an old flame she didn't mention, or someone who she likes but hasn't said anything to. Is it a relative?

Yamato's speed in the race was again, no big shock. It's easy to guess that during the rest of the anime, he'll surprise people with his sprinting talent and win races he probably shouldn't. The racing is really just a lead-in to get us to the meat of the relationship interaction. In this, I disagree with people that say this is a sports anime. In a sports anime, the focus is the sports. In "Suzuka", the sports are merely wallpaper for the anime - it's the background for what goes on. You could take the story, wipe the sports out and make it almost any other school event with only a few changes, and it would be the same. The sports part of the anime isn't an integral part of the show. The team only serves to give Suzuka and Yamato a reason to be around each other so much, as well as ways to meet new characters (Miki) and ways to explore Suzuka's past. And let's be clear, it is Suzuka's past we're exploring. Yamato is essentially defined as a character - we may learn a little bit about his past, but essentially, his background development is done; we're merely going to see what sort of person he will become in the present. Suzuka obviously has something in her past that she hasn't gotten over or that has affected her interactions with people up to the present, and that's the package we're being given to open - we'll peel back layers of wrapping paper until we get to what's inside. And much like the metaphorical present - we'll see all the characters' reactions to what we find inside.

I know people are looking past Suzuka because they think it's a simple sports anime, but the sports shouldn't be what people focus on. For the viewer, the careful character interaction is key. We're given a mystery in the form of Suzuka - who is she? Why does she ac the way she does? And we're given pieces to solve the puzzle, much like Yamato. Obviously, this sprinter had interaction with Suzuka and Souichi. Did he have interaction with anyone else in the anime? Why is the picture the way it is: with a cocky looking sprinter on one side, and a mad/disgruntled Suzuka on the other (seperated from him). This would lead me to believe he is/wasn't a boyfriend, but its hard to tell from one photo. As someone once said, a photo is only a slice of life - you don't really understand what was going on in the life surrounding the photo, and you could be entirely wrong in your guesses.

In the end, that's all we can hope for. In the meantime, there was way too much emotion to cover in this episode, and it looks like a large part of the mystery will be revealed next week when we meet this Tsuda Kazaki.