Mihashi and Abe hold hands again, amazing or worst pitcher?, alpha waves, Takaya, the women in Mihashi’s life, self-imposed pitch count limit, Best 8, guys talking about girls, Abe’s ex, and find out if Tajima goes full monty in…

Ookiku Furikabutte 08 - Amazing Pitcher? 「スゴイ投手？」

A blissful Nishiura team runs towards Mihashi to congratulate him. Mihashi hears the rings of telephones as calls start to pour in to greet him. He hears a distant voice calling him, “Ren… Ren…” “REN! Wake up!” his mother commands as she reminds him that he has practice this morning. Mihashi wakes up with a jolt whilst looking at the alarm clock.

After a short debate with himself, Mihashi gathers up the courage to greet Sakaeguchi “good morning.” Sakaeguchi cheerfully greets back making Mihashi shed tears of happiness. As they continue to walk, Sakaeguchi asks Mihashi about where he lived during middle school. Mihashi shares that he lived with his relative. After graduation though, he would have to transfer to a dormitory because there was a girl of his age living at his relative’s too.

A smile crawls up to Sakaeguchi’s face at the thought and asks if the girl is cute or not. Mihashi dodges the question. Instead, he tells that the girl got angry for not informing her of their recently concluded practice match with Mihoshi. He feared that she might go to root for him and he did not think he was worth cheering for. After exchanging teases, Sakaeguchi shares that he and Abe went to the same school. However, they did not belong to the same block. Abe’s block was the strongest and he played with a senior who was an amazing pitcher. They were the 16th strongest in Kanto. Mihashi wonders what kind of pitcher is an amazing pitcher.

Shortly after Sakaeguchi and Mihashi arrive at the practice site, Shiga announces that they are going to have an exercise on meditation. Shiga uses Shinouka, the manager, as an example to illustrate the salient points of alpha waves, which are brain waves produced when one is relaxing and focusing. Contrary to common belief, alpha waves are not only produces when engaging in leisurely activities or when resting. They are also produced when one is focused and alert, but not tensed or anxious.

The ability to stay relaxed in tensed situations can be developed as a conditioned response such that when one sees a baseball, they will be relaxed. Shiga continues to say that everybody produces alpha waves in their daily lives, just that not everyone is conscious of it. One way to know if a person is relaxed is through the temperature of their palms. Those who are anxious and nervous have lower body temperature, while those who are relaxed have higher body temperatures.

He ends the discussion by inviting everyone to join hands in a circle to engage in the meditating exercise. After that, Momoe calls for them to start batting practice because their time is limited and that they will be watching a game later today between Urawa Sogo and Musashino.

The team arrives at the stadium to watch the Best 8 game. Abe thinks that it is strange for them to watch a game like this. It would have been better if they would watch the finals. However, Momoe insists that a match like this has its own merits and is worth watching. Right after stepping into the stadium, Tajima feels right at home and starts to strip down to his boxers. He is entertaining the idea of undressing all the way, when Momoe gives him the “Akuma” eyes.

Hanai and the others start a discussion on who they think is the stronger team. They agree that Urawa Sogo is stronger. Musashino’s strength is in their soccer such that girls would go cheer for them. Meanwhile, a player from Musashino approaches their side of the bench and starts calling “Takaya! Takaya!” Shinouka overhears and brings this to Abe’s attention. Abe goes over to the Haruna, the amazing pitcher Sakaeguchi talked about earlier.

Haruna asks where Abe’s school is, which he answers Nishiura. Haruna does not seem to know where Nishiura is when Musashino’s catcher comes over to pickup Haruna because the match is about to start and he has yet to do his warm-ups. Haruna is annoyed over the catcher’s needless worrying since he will not be up till the fourth inning. The catcher scolds Haruna and demands that he should take the game more seriously.

Haruna asks Abe to stay after the contest, but Abe declines. Haruna remembers how it took Abe a half year’s time to catch his pitches. It was due to Abe’s errors that caused them to lose matches. Even though Abe managed to improve his catching, it was still not enough. Haruna leaves Abe after telling him to watch him carefully.

An irritated Abe goes back to sit with Mihashi and Sakaeguchi. Sakaeguchi reveals that he told Mihashi about Haruna. He thought that they would go to the same university. “I absolutely don’t want that!” stresses Abe. Sakaeguchi finds that odd since Haruna is an amazing pitcher. Abe ends the conversation saying, “That guy is the worst pitcher!” Mihashi is bewildered with Abe’s statements.

The others ask Abe about Haruna. Abe reveals that Haruna is a pitcher, but he will not start pitching till the fourth inning. Apparently, Haruna has a self-imposed pitch limit of 80. Once he reaches the limit, no matter what the situation, he will go down from the mound.

Different teams as well as scouts have gathered to watch the game. All eyes are on Haruna.

The Nishiura team, most particularly Tajima and Mihashi, watch Haruna intently as he throws some warm-up pitches. Mihashi’s insecurities act up again.

“Haruna is not the worst…”
“Not the worst, Abe…”
“His control is outstanding and he has several changeups.”
“His speed and strength is remarkable.”

Mihashi stops sobbing and remembers how Abe had praised him and supported him. He swears that he will never forget it. He realizes that he is not competing with Haruna. Also, the team is with him and if it is for them, he can pitch with his all.

Thoughts

I really do not like how this episode turned out. The animators forced TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS into this episode. The episode felt somewhat disjointed and a lot of scenes were cut. Wait, it does not end there, the animation dropped in this one too. Also, some of the scenes were not executed well, like when Shiga tricked Chiyo. Her scream and the scene as a whole did not have the same impact as what I imagined it when reading the manga.

Well, I’ll be coming out with a Deep Frying post on this later on and I’ll try to fill in some details and some interesting bits on the alpha waves Shiga was talking about. One notable scene was Tajima’s almost-full-monty scene. Gotta love the guy. It was also fun to hear the guys talk about girls! They are hetero after all.

My impression of Haruna is that of a hotheaded pitcher who thinks so much of himself. No matter how good a pitcher you are, imposing an absolute pitch count limit is just too egotistical. But, I am hoping for an explanation, which should come in the next episodes.

[Update!] Here’s the the link to the corresponding Deep Frying post (analysis post among other things) for this episode.

BL moments

• Abe and Mihashi hold hands again
• Abe having Haruna-complex
• Mihashi remembering how Abe gives importance to him

Episode 09 - The Past 「過去」

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