Anime is full of catchphrases, from Kamehameha and tuturuu to “I am the bone of my sword” and “In the name of the moon, I will punish you!” But there’s something special about the catchphrase that underpins Turkey! Time to Strike. It’s not made up of nonsense syllables or random foreign words strung together, nor is it the name of a martial arts move; it’s not symbolic or esoteric, requiring a lengthy flashback three seasons in, just to begin to unpack. Instead, it’s intelligible from the outset, its meaning both clear and profound: “In bowling, there’s always a second throw.” It’s a catchphrase about grace. But it’s not just a description of grace; instead, time and time again throughout the series, these words, when shared among the bowling club members, actually unleash a demonstration of the power of grace—to transform hearts, lives, and circumstances. In other words, the catchphrase at the heart of Turkey! shows us what grace looks like in action. Let’s dial in and take a closer look!
The first person to speak of the ”second throw” in bowling is club captain Mai, and she does so when the club members are in crisis. The youngest of their number, Rina, has stormed off in frustration and effectively quit the club after a disastrous team loss at a competition. This means they’re now short a member, and, in the way of niche high school clubs, it’s just a matter of time before they’re shut down. Even worse, Rina parted ways with the other four girls only after having shared a few choice words with them about their shortcomings—and though she was harsh, she was also right. Let’s just say, feelings were hurt in the imploding of this club.
As the four remaining friends wend their dispirited way home, variously harrumphing or mournful (depending on their commitment level to bowling), Mai stops in her tracks. She’s made a mistake. She should not have let Rina go, not without trying to mend their bridges first. It’s in this moment, facing her confused clubmates, that Mai first calls upon the second throw as a metaphor to express why she must turn around and reach out to Rina right away, before it’s too late:
At first, the girls don’t get it. Nanase, the most scientifically-minded of them, dithers—she can’t parse the meaning of Mai’s “second throw”—while Nozomi is too literal-minded to see the relevance, or perhaps she’s still too caught up in her offence over Rina’s diss to really listen properly. But tender-hearted Sayuri interrupts, tears in her eyes, and translates Mai’s metaphor into the catchphrase that will become a pillar of conviction for all of them from this moment on: “In bowling, there’s always the second throw.” Like pins falling before the ball, Nanase and Nozomi tear up as they too catch the deeper meaning that initially eluded them. And in an instant, the atmosphere shifts as the girls are filled with the understanding of a truth that they can’t put into words. As Paul writes, “God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,” and what is Mai’s talk of bowling amid relational breakdown, if not foolish?
The grace of Mai’s words transforms her friends’ mindsets, shifting their perspective from horizontal to vertical, from preoccupation with wrongs suffered and self-justification to an urgency for restoration. This transcendent shift is beautifully conveyed through the cinematography as the oppositional shot-reverse-shot sequence, which separates the girls by its very nature, is replaced with a soaring overhead shot that groups them together along the path.
In this way, the second throw both literally and figuratively brings the girls together. Whereas initially, Mai was the only one to show concern over Rina’s defection, her clubmates’ sudden understanding of the meaning of the second throw transposes them onto the same page as their captain, restoring a sense of community and sparking a few hugs. Grace is like a balm to social wounds and hurting hearts alike.
It also moves them into action! As one, they immediately turn and make haste to seek out Rina, to find the lost, lonely sheep and invite her back into the fold, initiating the dialogue necessary to understand why she was so frustrated with the club.
We see this pattern play out over and over again in just about every crisis moment in the series. Whether faced with an impossible situation or an untenable choice, the girls remind one another and themselves of the second throw, as if they’re declaring a divine promise. It is their gospel, the good news that they cling to when times are tough, and which they joyfully seek to share with their new friends. The grace of bowling underpins their discernment of good and evil, and powers their compassion, their hope, and their drive to build community. And in the climax of the series, it becomes the weapon of their warfare against the principalities and powers in the dark Sengoku age…(which you can read more about here). Mai confronts evil with her bowling gospel and then defeats it with her miracle-working second throw. Verily, verily, the grace of the second throw is no mere catchphrase for the girls of Turkey!
The second throw in Turkey! reminds us decisively that grace is active. Grace changes things, meaning that it stops one thing and starts another; it redirects and course-corrects. It may be a noun, but grace is not an object—something we either take or leave. Instead, it’s a subject, the kind of noun that takes action and which has its own force and momentum that we can’t contain or control, but which we can be swept up into and embraced by. (Praise God!) If ever we take hold of even a corner of it, grace compels us, too, into action, and empowers us to see that action through until our lives, relationships, and destinies are made anew. It takes nearly the whole series, but the girls of the bowling club likewise experience this kind of transformation, so that by the end, the future of the club—and more importantly, their friendship—is assured. Grace in action!
So let’s remember Turkey! as we give thanks and say grace this Thanksgiving. Let’s remember that grace is not simply a divine helping of “unmerited favor”—as wonderful and true as that definition may be, grace is so much more! It’s not simply an object to be given and received. It is also active. Grace, the “second throw,” draws us into community, elevates our perspective, fills us with compassion, and moves us to action. Grace is God’s power at work in us, our lives, and in the world to transform reality, to equip and empower us—like the girls of the bowling club—for reconciliation, for sharing the good news, for spiritual warfare, and for stepping into destinies and futures we wouldn’t have otherwise even dared dream of.
May we each be swept up in the fullness of grace this holiday season!
Don’t worry, Mai, there’s still time…maybe!
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[…] you might expect me to interrupt this rather hopeless story with the miraculous interference of grace, and speak of the God who reaches down and pulls us out of such a predicament. And that’s […]