As the pressure mounts, the kids get anxious and even Ko starts to have some strange dreams about the upcoming game.
What They Say:
Miki’s team beats Daimon’s school and advances to face Seishu Gakuen in the second round of the tournament. Ko gets nervous about facing Miki, but performs well on the day of the game.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the events of the previous episode where Daimon’s new team got taken down by a relatively unknown team, Seishu is up to face that team in the next round which has the kids getting themselves psyched up for it without trying to psyche themselves out. It’s actually amusing that Daimon’s team lost, though not easily, and that after all that happened at the start of the series will end with no rematch between the two captains. That’s just how it goes in these particular kinds of tournaments, but with the way the series has been so uncertain at times about just how far the Seishu kids can go, having them play against would have been a lot of fun because of it.
The game against Sena doesn’t take long to get underway and there’s some really neat little things about it that comes out early on. The revelation that the team’s captain is just a social studies teacher with no experience is certainly something that would keep Daimon from taking them seriously, but as Miki says to him, they have such a strong love of the game and thoroughly enjoy practicing that they’ve excelled easily and they have players that really understand the fundamentals of the game. And can teach and learn from each other as well, as becomes apparent. There’s a lot of love from the fans for both teams and there’s little in the way of animosity amongst the players, even as scouting reports prove somewhat inaccurate and there are ties to the past since Miki used to play with them.
There’s some nice strategy employed during the game as the Sena players come to realize just how difficult it is to score against Seishu because of Ko but also how hard it is to just get consistent hits in general. They’ve got a few different ideas they try and they’re taking it all seriously, but they’re not over stressing about it or panicking. They’re enjoying it without being over the top about it even as the fate of their season is on the line for Koshien. Of course, Aoba eventually realizes what’s going on as does Junpei and they start to see what the real plan is as the game gets closer to the end and the pressure builds. It does become a nail biter as you wonder what the revelation will be as it edges forward and it says a lot about the show in how they pull this off, drawing you further and further into it until you realize what’s going on.
In Summary:
Cross Game spends pretty much all of its time here on the game itself between Seishu and Sena and it’s a solid game that has some really good moments to it. Having it largely undecided for the majority of it with neither team scoring ramps up the pressure and tension and there’s also the secondary aspect of Sena having defeated Daimon’s latest team, so there’s pressure on both sides to show why. You do almost want a game between Seishu and Daimon’s team, but with the events between Sena and them, it’s essentially irrelevant now as the real match is this episode and it’s a very enjoyable one through and through. The heavy focus on the baseball is definitely welcome, as much as I like the character drama, and this episode doesn’t disappoint.
Grade: B
Originally Streamed By: Hulu
