Bamboo Blade (2007)
It didn’t take long for pint-sized Tamaki’s lightning reflexes to catch the eye of starving Kendo instructor Toraji. This second-rate sensei is an embarrassment to the sport, and his Kendo club is running out of members. His only hope for redemption – and a full belly – is to get Tamaki to sign-on as his star pupil. Unfortunately, this sword-wielding prodigy is a serious anime addict, so it’ll be a challenge to get her to step away from the television and into the dojo. But once she feels like a part of the team, Tamaki will put down the remote and pick up her sword as Toraji turns his girls into a fearsome sisterhood of the bamboo blade!
Seasons & Episode
Kojirō, the coach of Muroe High's kendo club, makes a bet with his senpai, Kenzaburō, on a practice match between both schools, but the fighters must be 5 girls, no boys. Kojirō's victory would mean he could eat all he wants at Kenzaburō's father's sushi restaurant for a full year. Kojirō desperately needs to find more talented female kendo students because he only has 2 girls in his club. With only a month remaining before his match with Kenzaburō's team, he meets an extremely talented freshman, Kawazoe Tamaki.
The 4th female member of the Kendo Club, Sayako Kuwahara, nicknamed by Toraji as the team's "Blue", is revealed, and has a painful first encounter with Miyako's "Black" personality. (note: the encounter between Saya and Miya-miya is different in the anime from the manga.)
The day of the match arrives, however, due to the unique personalities of its members, the Machido High Kendo Club is awfully delayed. The real match starts very late in the episode, and the episode ends with Machido High's members awed by Tamaki's ability, after scoring a point in the first battle.
After Tamaki's match, which ended in a victory for her, the other matches take place meanwhile she prepares to participate in the last match too. At the end, Muroe High School ends winning 3 wins to 1 loss and 1 tie. Therefore, Kenzaburo challenges Tamaki to a match, impressed of how a girl of her age with such a great talent is in a club like that.
Kōjiro has an incident in a public setting that places his teaching prospects at Muroe High School in doubt. With the rest of the club he resolves to get to the Nationals (or some similar honour) in an attempt to improve the club, gain distinction and save his teaching position. A weary Tamaki nears the end of her part time job filling in for Miyako. Then a suspicious customer arrives.
The team enters the high school tournament. Only Tama-chan did well enough to win. Miyako meets her middle school classmate, Otajima Reimi who has a crush on her. Miyako as such became troubled and couldn't concentrate on her match. It was revealed that Reimi used to harass Miyako when they were in middle school. The episode ends off with Kōjiro sensei discussing about a fifth member with Kirino, the club captain.
This episode dedicates to Mei from Seimei high and Azuma from Muroe High. Mei joined Seimei High's Kendo club to get along with her friends, but many of her friends quit the club as they couldn't take the sensei's strict training. They gear up for the practice match with Muroe High, she had set her mind to quit after the practice match. Kōjiro found out that Azuma didn't want to join the kendo club as her results in examinations were bad. Not because she wasn't able to do it, but she made careless mistakes. Nevertheless, Kirino drags her to the practice match. The episode concludes with Seimei High's Kendo team training against Muroe High's Kendo team.
Kirino is worried by home troubles while the rest of the team worries about her. Saya, sharing a deep connection with Kirino, is prepared to step up for the win and ease Kirino's burden. Despite these troubles, however, Kirino seems even more focused than ever. Meanwhile, Tama is pulled into a deceitful web...
The tournament continues, with Tama seemingly in trouble with the other team's treacherous plots. Satorin (Azuma) encounters a little bit of stomach troubles while Miya-miya is continuously haunted by Reimi's face. Saya does her duty to relieve Kirino's burden, and Kirino does her part as the team's captain. When Tama steps up, she has a little payback in store for her opponent...
Kōjiro and Tama have a little talk and wounds are tended to. Kirino must stand up in order for the team to keep fighting. The tournament ends and the team is back to base as usual, with Saya off somewhere and Tama alright.
Miya-miya and Dan-kun shops for a new Shinai at the Kendo store. There they meet Carrie, an expatriate living in Japan, who falls in love with Dan-kun at first sight. Miya-miya challenges Carrie to a duel.
Yuji invites Tama to go to an amusement park that's hosting a Blade Braver concert. At the venue, She meets a girl called Rin who's a fan of Braver's rival, "Shinaider". They enter a fan-quiz to win Blade Braver dolls.
Rin and Tama along with the production crew go on location to film the new Blade Braver movie, where an incident gets both of them the replacement roles in the new film. The rest of the Kendo club members either practice or take the day off doing what they want. The episode concludes with Kōjiro returning from his business trip.
Muroe High goes to the Kanto High School Kendo Tournament. Miyamiya shows her improvement in practice, but fails to defeat Carrie in the tournament. Muroe makes it to the 3rd round, where Tama is finally defeated by Rin, and Muroe is pushed out of the tournament. Meanwhile, Toyama and Iwasa, two former members of the kendo club, are caught fighting in a video game arcade and destroying two machines.