Oh, I love how incredibly subtle this series can be. This episode again was simple slice of life while it developed the various romances around. It’s your average Cross Game episode, but I just can’t get enough of it.
A lot of this episode was spent on Kou vs Mizuki vs Aoba, as Kou kept bickering with Aoba, and get jealous of Mizuki, Mizuki tried very hard to make his advances on Aoba while looking down in a superior way on Kou and Aoba who kept bickering with Kou and never seemed to realize that Mizuki has her eyes on her.
I especially loved the way the creators showed the bond that exists between Kou and Aoba: at the end of the episode, Mizuki invites Aoba to see a movie. Aoba picks a rather romantic movie which doesn’t seem to suit her tastes, and yet while watching it she’s touched by the storyline. I first thought that this reflected the feelings about Kou she might have, but no: it turns out that that was Wakaba’s favourite movie. Yet, in the end it turns out that she forgot about most of the movie aside from one particular scene. Later, we learn that Kou also went to see the movie when he was a kid (along with Wakaba, obviously), and he too only can remember one scene: the exact same one that Aoba just quoted.
They obviously say these things when they’re not together. During the times that they do run into each other, they were constantly trying to out-wit each other throughout this episode, resulting into a bunch of hilarious situations, like Kou mysteriously hanging out at the Four Leaf Clover while Aoba was around (in the end, he was waiting for Aoba’s sister for her napolitan dishes), or the practice match in which Aoba, while often letting people hit her pitch made sure no point made it through, while Kou, who handled the final four innings ended up giving away one point.
In other small things, I’m surprised that a rivalry is developing not between Kou and Azuma, but instead between Azuma and Akaishi, who are both meant to be batters, and yet Akaishi’s track record is far from perfect. The romance between Azuma’s brother and Ichiyou is also developing very nicely.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Cross Game – 21
On a side : even if V.A are meant to be versatile, i’m amused to know that Revy from Black Lagoon and Ichiyou are voiced by the same person (Toyoguchi, Megumi)
I already knew Kou was going to remember the scene with the smoke, I just thought it was going to be when she was around.
In a way this made more impact – after all, it had no consequences except for the all-knowing viewer in this situation. But all this subtlety gets in the way of having a direct confrontation; I would’ve loved to see how Mizuki would respond when Kou mentions the very same scene that Aoba remembered.
Maybe it’d be nice if the author mixes things up sometimes, in stead of handling everything with the same subtlety it’d be great to have an actual shocking scene in which the characters instantly realise/recognise something rather than gradually.
On another note, it was basically the “drinking overexpired milk” thing all over again; we get that Aoba and Kou are the same, if they repeat this too often it’ll become predictable.
From what I understand the author loves putting the (male and female) leads in a sort of “love spiral” where they slowly realise they’re in love with each other, but not until like 50 episodes in (maybe at the very end)? In a way that would be a shame, I think it’d be interesting to actually see Kou and Aoba in a relationship at some point.
None of these are actual complaints, though, they’re just future concerns; as it is now this is probably the show I’m enjoying most out of the… 14(?) shows I’ve picked up.
Pretty much everyone knows how Kou & Aoba feel for each other. It’s almost like an inside joke. The story is more about how each struggle to overcome their emotional scars and permitting them to accept happiness. At this moment, they couldn’t possibly share a moment without all the protective barriers.
I completely agree that most of the Adachi-sensei stories won’t resolve themselves until the very, very end. Even then, it’s never explicit. The reader is usually given just enough information to decide how the relationship ended.