Yeah, at this point it’s pretty clear that Cross Game’s final quarter is going to focus at the baseball again. Now that the third quarter has ended, I really label it as the best quarter of Cross Game so far, but my fear also is that it will remain this way: I don’t see this show surpass itself anymore at this rate.
Nevertheless, it’s a good thing to see that the creators don’t want to abandon the girls’ baseball storyline that easily. In fact, it’s going to make the upcoming matches a lot more interesting, to actually see Aoba play. What I really like about her is that she really is a balanced pitcher: she’s talented, she works hard and she knows what she’s talking about, and yet her powers aren’t exaggerated or just too incredible, like with Kou. It was the same with Tatsuya in Touch, in a way.
But, that’s really for later. This episode really was as fun and charming as ever. I loved how the new club members mistook Aoba as the manager. It’s nice to see her gradually recover from her injury throughout this episode. Akane took a part-time job at the Clover-Bar, Kou bought a really ugly shirt for Aoba which she just accepted and Kou had his own moment of embarrassment when he ended up posing for Akane’s sketch. This really was an episode for tons of characters to be able to show off their quirks and charms. It was kindof adorable.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I thought they were gonna take a rest from the winter break, but it seems that another episode is up, yippee.
One thing surprising about this episode… it didn’t rain after Aoba’s gratitude!! *gasp*
Oh rats, just found out. Next episode is on Jan 10th :
I can’t believe there are only 11 more episodes to go. This anime has been such a breath of fresh air. You’re right in this being an adorable episode. The pseudo face-off between Azuma and ‘Cousin’ (sorry can’t remember his name) was just hilarious