Will Tanba be ready?
What They Say:
“Money Tree”
I want to pitch to that mitt again… A meeting with catcher Kazuya Miyuki changed the 15-year-old Eijun Sawamura’s life. He said goodbye to all his friends and knocked upon the door of Seidou, a prestigious baseball school, intent on testing his own strength. There, he met many proud baseball players who were betting everything on the sport! A classic tale, yet new and fresh. All the emotion and excitement of the popular baseball manga is at last coming to television in the form of an anime!
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This is the in between episode between games and we’re finally seeing how the other half lives. Yakushi, despite never bunting, practice it. The coach has his own method of doing things that’s a little unorthodox, but seems to work for the team. If he drills the basics into them at practice, they know they can act during games in any situation. It lets them hit at will.
The first-year Yakusho 3-4-5 hitters also watch tons and tons of video. They watched Manaka for the Ichidai game for probably hours on end and are doing the same for Seidou’s trio of pitchers.
Seidou’s pitchers seem prepped for the game as well, except Tanba. After weeks out of the rotation, Tanba’s rusty and he doesn’t seem quite to form. Eijun still needs work on his control and Furuya’s stamina’s still sucks. Kawakami’s practicing throwing low so they don’t hit it far.
Seidou’s own cleanup hitters are practicing with Tanba to try and get him back to form. It’ll be a long process but just having him able to pitch will raise moral significantly.
The game is finally afoot and Yakushi changed their lineup from the Ichidai matchup. The first batter is changed to the power hitter, Raichi. Seidou has their own plan to combat the strong hitters on Yakushi, with Furuya, Eijun, and Kawakami each throwing for three innings. If need be, they have Tanba in the bullpin.
Seidou’s on the mound first, with Furuya against Raichi being the first matchup.
In Summary:
The transition episode here is basically everything I was looking for. We got to see Yakushi behind the scenes, and find out the secret behind the Money Tree. We also got to see how the Seidou pitchers are progressing, which is always important. The outcome of the next game is in the air. How Seidou pitches will determine it all. But don’t count out the dark horse pitcher from Yakushi, number 18 the would-be ace.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24” Dell UltraSharp U2410 set at 1920 x 1200, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
