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+---- Thread: *The Wild's Last Call - A Retrospective on Akane Saruta (/showthread.php?tid=51840)
*The Wild's Last Call - A Retrospective on Akane Saruta - Megsychan - 06-27-2024
(Per discussion in the rookie discord, I would like to use my new gen x2 bonus for this post)
As the lights dimmed in the legendary Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, so to did the lights dim on perhaps one of the most eclectic, yet electric eras within Japanese collegiate football. In the over one hundred years the baseball stadium has hosted the national championship for Japan's fledgling amateur football league, seeing the Kwansei Gakuin Fighters hoist up the victory trophy has certainly not been new. In a system where most schools remain proud of the one or two national champions they managed to eke out, the private Christian university has dozens of trophies. Their only historic rivals, the Nihon Phoenix, still remain double digits behind, a berth that has only grown larger due to the administration's own enmity with the conduct of their players, dating back to a temporary shuttering of the team in the mid 2020s. Indeed, the Fighters proving themselves over the Keiko Unicorns, 20-3, is perhaps one of the least surprising outcomes for the 2063 Koshien Bowl.
However, it is not every day that the MVP trophy was hoisted up by a woman. Especially, not a woman playing strong safety.
Japanese collegiate football might be obscure to those outside of the island nation, but for those in the know, Akane Saruta can only be described as a sensation. Saruta, sometimes better known by her nickname "Yajin" (lit. wildman), has made a name for herself since her debut as a true freshman in 2059. Possessing a raw strength that teammates and opponents have described as "primal", "savage", and "otherworldly", the Kyoto native has made a name for herself due to her overwhelming power in tackling ball carriers. What makes her strength so staggering is the relatively light frame that backs it up; while 220 lbs is certainly no slouch, she is nowhere near heavy or big enough to play a more traditional rushing position like linebacker or defensive end. Yet, if there was a player to compare her to in spirit, if perhaps not in exact position, many have regarded her as closer to a female Lawrence Taylor of the old NFL. Not only due to the physicality, but also to a surprising lack of overt consciousness whilst playing.
"She doesn't even remember half the games we play, at best," defensive tackle teammate Takahiro Fujisawa said to ESPN, "Akane just blanks out into one of her trances, and by the end of it, we're lucky if the only people with broken bones aren't wearing blue. But she always seems to know where the ball is, so coach just lets her do her thing."
If Saruta truly blacks out whilst playing, it certainly doesn't impact her game. Her ferocious tenacity led her to being a terrifying presence on the gridiron. During the 2063 Koshien Bowl, she had a staggering three forced fumbles, including one that Fujisawa recovered for a touchdown. Saruta's senior season also has the Japanese collegiate single regular season record for forced fumbles in a single season, at 7. Her ferocity at demolishing enemy offenses have led to suffocatingly low scoring games, not helped due to Kwansei Gakuin's offense being on a slump year. Even if the Fighters struggle to score themselves at times, the games they played rarely felt close. Indeed, as Saruta ferociously pounds her chest like a gorilla for every forced fumble, for every tackle for loss, for every critical moment she makes, the crowd gets as energized. One might question if they are in Nishinomiya, or deep in the concrete jungle of New York City.
While Saruta's statline would be impressive by any player, the fact that she is a she makes the ordeal all the more impressive. While football of the 21st century is a long ways away from the purely male affair of last century, there still remains some stigma against female players. Stars such as back to back Ultimus MVP Jayme Jayne Jay-Jaymison, along with more historic barrier breaking pioneerssuch as Tash Thompson and Emilia Rudd, have firmly established football as an integrated sport. However, all three previously players, and most female players in general, tended to play either on offense or special teams. Again, while not completely unprecedented-- there have been plenty of female defensive players in the ISFL, such as Cruella de Ville-- it is hard not to see Saruta as among a minority of a minority. Add to Japan's traditionally conservative attitudes towards traditional gender roles, and one might start to understand why Saruta's nickname is also one of the traditional Japanese words for a barbarian.
Indeed, Saruta even ending up on the gridiron was arguably a fluke in itself. The safety did not grow up playing football, nor did she come from a football playing background. Her background, instead, is closer to the average sukeban than it is to a football player. The anger trances that Saruta would get into on the field, did not originate there. The primal urge to have her mind retreat and to smash everything around her into a bloody pulp was a thing the woman suffered for as long as anyone remembered. Even as a child, Saruta reportedly could become extremely violent at the drop of the hat. Making her sit still for school was especially hard, and Saruta allegedly frequently found herself being shuffled around school district to school district. Combined with a general disinterest in academic affairs, and it was looking closer to Saruta not even making it to college in general.
"There was a point sometime in high school," one of her classmates reported to us under the promise of anonymity, "where we all were convinced she was homeless, even. Living in the woods. Something happened between her and her parents and they just... gave up on her afterwards. After it all happened, it was one of the few times I think I ever saw her sad. Didn't last for long though"
Saruta's parents declined to comment in an attempt to follow up.
"It was the smell," another student added on, also under the promise of anonymity. "She smelt like the rotting corpse of an entire forest. It was awful. Not even the goddamn sukebans would put up with her after a while. Didn't help she made them look fake as fuck by comparison as well."
However, thanks to a timely intervention by a local ex-pat businesswoman only publicly known as the assumed name "Vega", the young woman's life would turn around. Reportedly, Vega was so enamored with the growing legend of the "Yajin of Kyoto", as she was more derisively known at the time, that she met up with Akane and gave her an offer she couldn't refuse. She'd pay for an apartment, that she could freely smash up at any time she wanted, and in general financially support her finishing high school, if she just would give the western sensation of football a chance. A true, actual outlet to hurt people, and not only find it socially acceptable, but eventually get paid for it. Saruta accepted, and would try out for the football team that fall. Whether it was due to Vega's connections, Akane's own fearsome reputation, or some combination of both, the untested woman was placed on the varsity team as a linebacker, where her sheer physicality simply bulldozed the opposing line and quaterback.
Saruta, while never fully being able to purge the beast inside of her, at least managed to start controlling it better. She would never become a model citizen nor student, but she was at least not making self destructive choices, and could function again. And she was winning games. Lots and lots of games. Her mere presence elevated her school to the best of the Kansai region, and she quickly became the number one prospect in Japan. No school was more interested than Kwansei Gakuin. The premier football school in the home islands seemed like the natural fit for the premier talent. Saruta not having the best academic record, or not even being Christian, were of relative no concern. The school eagerly on-boarded the Kyoto native, switching her from linebacker to strong safety due to the growing size differential between the woman and predominately male teams she was facing.
The rest of the story is already told within the fading lights in Koshien. Akane Saruta, the Yajin, became a star on an already historic program, and turned the slumping old Fighters into bushi once more. The same star who was already starting in her true freshman year, and would go on to smash virtually every Japanese collegiate defensive record. The Fighters were truly blessed to be represented by one of the purest fighters to ever step onto the gridiron, and it will be a long time before the fields of Nishinomiya will see such an electric playmaker. However, with Saruta's declaration to enter the 2064 DSFL, it may not be too long before the nearby city of Osaka sees it again. Whether it is a competitor or a hometown hero, only time will tell.
RE: The Wild's Last Call - A Retrospective on Akane Saruta - Assistant to the POR GM - 06-27-2024
Legend has it that after watching Akane Saruta play, the Chicago Butchers moved to Osaka to be closer to Akane
RE: The Wild's Last Call - A Retrospective on Akane Saruta - soevil - 06-28-2024
(06-27-2024, 04:20 PM)Megsychan Wrote: it may not be too long before the nearby city of Osaka sees it again. Whether it is a competitor or a hometown hero, only time will tell.
@firstfray write that down, write that down!