Cross Game - The Day I’ve Been Waiting For
No, not “February 14th”… This is the episode I’ve been looking forward to pretty much since the day the Cross Game anime was announced. Although it’s been built up very subtly (Azuma ordering and eating every last bite of Aoba’s cooking a couple of weeks back, for instance), it’s not until Valentines Day that Azuma becomes the first REAL rival for Aoba. His confession to her in the batting cages is the most ice cold shit I’ve ever heard, I must have read that chapter of the manga a hundred times. As Akaishi and Kou admit in the locker room - “Now I think I get why that guy’s so popular.”
Fangirling aside, Azuma is quite probably my favourite character in Cross Game, and his emerging feelings for Aoba not only show another side to his already complex character, but give him more screen-time = BONUS. It also makes Kou a little bit jealous/discouraged in a very Tacchan way, which is great to watch too. So I will hereby happily declare myself an Azuma/Aoba shipper. I’m sure this comes as a big surprise, LOL
I am a bit curious at how the anime is diverging from the manga here though. In this episode we missed one of my favourite Azuma moments above - Aoba’s cousin walks in to take over the coffee shop counter earlier in the manga, and actually catches Azuma thanking Aoba for the chocolates she gave him. Which makes for this awkward scene between the two guys after Aoba runs off.
One of my favourite manga arcs occurs right after this chapter, as something happens between Azuma and Aoba that causes them to start spending a lot more time together. I like how the anime has been treating their relationship so far, adding lots of extra conversations between them about Aoba’s career in women’s baseball, to reflect their growing closeness. Azuma’s the only person on the Seishu team who seems concerned about Aoba’s own dreams as a baseball player beyond Koshien, after all. But by the looks of next week’s preview, what happens to Aoba in the manga appears to be replaced by an anime-original arc about her trying out for the national women’s team. I’m excited to see this - I LOVE the extra emphasis the anime is putting on Aoba’s struggles as a female athlete playing a boy’s sport and raising awareness about real-life joshi yakyuu - but I hope it’s not gonna come at the expense of that important Azuma/Aoba arc I’m thinking about… Although the only images in the preview were of the girls’ tryout, the final teaser line “If I was afraid of home-runs, I wouldn’t be much of a pitcher!” indicates that what I’m thinking of might happen next week after all.
