No real surprises in episode 9, except perhaps that the entire ep has a morose and depressing air that exceeded even what might have been expected given all the foreshadowing.

No surprise that poor Yuki died, as it was the most flagged anime death since Sayaka’s. This episode was really about how everyone reacted to it. It was interesting to note that Yuki had already outlived her prognosis by 9 months, which apparently everyone except Minami knew. That understandably annoyed her to no end, as she was also the last to know about being frozen out of playing baseball. She also felt terribly guilty about her last conversation with Yuki, where she defended results over process – which seemed to cheapen the struggle that Yuki had gone through to stay alive. Unfortunately Minami reacted by lashing out against the team, which led to Jil slapping her (surprisingly rough stuff for this series) and Ayano punching Jil. Minami runs away as the team heads off for the staduim. What a mess.

Of course the drama was pretty clumsy as it always is with this show – lots of tears and dramatic upswells of music and cliches flying fast and furious. But there was still some emotional impact given the sheer tragedy of the situation, and the existential dilemma Minami faced due to her last conversation with Yuki was rather profound. And herein lies a truth that the anime really hasn’t addressed so far – any philosophy that’s so rigid that it can’t adapt to the situation isn’t a good philosophy for real life. It applies to Drucker, and it applies to baseball, too. If “no-ball, no-bunt” is a good strategy at all – and I have grave doubts as a lifelong baseball addict – it certainly isn’t a good one if you don’t adapt to the game situations. No strategy is. But, on that note, it sure looks like a Hodo player is bunting in the PV – so maybe this is a conundrum Moshidora is going to confront after all.

Is that a BUNT???