SORA YOU HAD ONE JOB. And now we know exactly why this episode is called tears and whose tears they are. I’m… not actually all that surprised by this outcome, but I am kinda bummed that we waited this long to get the results. I mean, I’ve thought we’ve been on the second to last episode of this match for… probably the last four episodes. But regardless! This episode had a pretty nice wrap up to the match and I’m excited to see where we’re going to go from here.
So, it really is no surprise that our team ended up losing the final shot. Where would the drama be in all of that? I mean, is it truly a sport’s anime if our team doesn’t get aggressively beaten by a secondary team? Of course not. What would they learn from winning? But you know what? I honestly felt like Nabe and Chucky when they were so confused about how down the team was. Yeah! They went up against a really good school and Taro alone is a really good player and they managed to take the team on and only lose by 2 points? Honestly, they should be proud of themselves. But then when Chiaki broke it down, I guess I can definitely see why the more experienced players were incredibly disheartened by this loss. But it looks like most people were able to bounce back from the defeat! And not only that but seeing that their adviser was impacted by the results as well really made me smile. He hasn’t really done a whole lot for the team aside from either threatening to disband them and expel members, but seeing him put a little confidence in the team just brings me joy. He believes in them!
As for the following days after the match, the team finally takes a break from playing Basketball and Madoka finally has the chance give Sora his mom’s bracelet. Of course, we do have to wait quite a bit while Sora finishes cleaning duty, but on the plus side: Glasses Nao! Glasses Nao! Glasses Nao! I love her so much! And if it weren’t for Sora sprinting down the hall, we would have never seen her. But of course, because he stopped to talk to Nao, the class president has the chance to make Sora actually do his cleaning duty for once. Which! Good for her! Accountability is important! But as that builds up Madoka waits alone in her classroom and eventually gets a confession. Personally, I don’t know how I feel about the response to the random classmate. I mean, I’ve been around the block a few times and an answer like that typically means that she has feelings for the protagonist and personally, I don’t ship Madoka and Sora. I mean, maybe if they both get fleshed out a little bit more, I might come around to it, but for now I just like the idea that Madoka is just really supportive of him and wants him to succeed… as friends.
I will admit though, the whole conversation about the kind of person Sora likes was pretty funny and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a pretty nice moment between the two and I really do think that we could explore this relationship more and I hope they do! Prove me wrong! Make me ship it! But ultimately my feelings towards her “giving the gift” can be described as: MADOKA NO. YOU TOLD HIS MOM THAT YOU WOULD GIVE HIM THE BRACELET DON’T DO THIS. I get why she feels that she can’t be the one to give Sora the bracelet but… it’ll just make things more complicated in the end! Madoka, you were tasked with giving Sora the gift! What if something were to happen to his mom? What if the meaning really isn’t that deep? Gah…. now we have to wait and see what the repercussions of this action will be!
But let’s leave that alone for now, because it’ll definitely be something that we’ll deal with in later episodes. Instead let’s talk about the highlight of the episode for me: the baseball scene. It was absolutely pointless and silly, but all-around a good time. Honestly, when Nabe and Chiaki were going back and forth and the catcher was making comments to himself it felt like it could have been a skit from Saiki K. And when Chiaki just pulled out a random ball to get Nabe out? That was fantastic, I hope they have more moments like this going forward – it’s nice to have some absurd humor tucked into all the seriousness.
As for the end of the episode, I’m not too fond that Kite commented on Sora’s pass when the classes were playing the sport. Yeah, we get it. You lost the game and Sora could have made better decisions, but was this really the right time and place to call him out on it? No. I’m constantly going back and forth with my opinion of Kite. One week, I really enjoy him and think he’s a great character, but then the next week comes around he quickly falls out of my favor. Maybe I’m just picky and need to let Kite get his arc with the team before coming to a conclusion, or maybe I should just accept that this is who he is.
But never mind that! Next week’s episode is called “The Last Piece” and I have a feeling we’re going to finally get a the mystery player that has been in the openings and endings and I’m excited – hopefully he’ll be a good addition to the team!
