For Hoshiai no Sora this marks two episodes in a row of no family trauma, boisterous competition and the baka grasshopper dance.  I almost don’t know what to make of it to be honest – “surely Akane Kazuki is setting us up for a sucker punch here” is my gut reaction, but who knows?  In a year which saw Ikuhara Kunihiko make an anime that ended on an almost uplifting note, I guess anything is possible.  And maybe age does something to smooth a writer’s harder edges…

Ouji-kun doesn’t have much age on him (I have socks older than he is), but we certainly saw some smoothing going on there.  It all starts with Maki, as most things in Hoshiai do.  He’s spotted the flaw in their seemingly indestructible opponent – namely that this pair isn’t a pair at all.  Ouji treats his partner like an “accessory” – there to serve or return when the rules call for it and then get the hell out of the way.  This is obviously an exploitable weakness and Toumaki are certainly good enough to exploit it, which they do well enough to knot their match at 2-2 and force a “final game” (which in standard tennis terms is basically a tiebreaker).

Well, this may be standard fare for a sports anime but it’s damn good stuff.  This knife’s edge match is a rollercoaster, so much so that even Mitsue can’t help but give a couple of fist pumps.  Ouji is a bit of a paper tiger in that it doesn’t take much to upset his applecart, and for him even being forced into this situation pretty much amounts to a defeat.  But he does eventually figure our Maki’s angle, and he’s at least smart enough to realize that this is no fluke but a genuine Achilles’ heel.  That’s the problem for shrewd competitors like Maki – by being so good at figuring out opponents’ weaknesses and exploiting them, they tend to be the catalyst for those opponents to improve.

What I really like about this scenario is that even though Shijo Minami lost every match (which I also like, because that’s almost surely what would really happen) thee’s no false drama here.  The boys are perfectly OK with this outcome – Touma is a bit salty about losing but apart from that everyone is happy they gave a good account of themselves and showed real progress.  Maki even gushes about how much fun it was, even to lose.  For them this was a good result and they take the encouragement from it that they should.

Indeed, from a team bonding standpoint things have never been better.  Itsuki even changes in front of the other guys, which is about as big an expression of trust as he could make.  Sakurai-sensei builds on this by declaring that the team is going to have a barbecue at the riverside, but this is clearly a reflexive response to whatever went down in the past and got him in trouble.  Still, whatever the reason the barbecue is another chance for the gang to grow closer, and for everyone to experience Maki’s cooking prowess.  That includes Ouji, who shows up with his giant dog Kamuy (who isn’t golden, but white) and pretty much invites himself to the party.  Maki is wholly fine with this, and it’s pretty obvious that Ouji is gravitating towards something this team has that his doesn’t.  Petty grudges can be forgotten quickly when you’re fourteen, and the boys have the fact that they’re boys in common.

For all the adolescent positivity in the air, there are some Akane moments here too.  Maki blithely tells the story of how he used to catch cockroaches for 10 Yen apiece for his mom, and this coming right after Ouji casually confirmed for the others that he was a rich kid – that kind of intel can change the way others look at you at that age.  Touma’s sulking solitude as the others (especially Maki) bonded and had fun gave a little insight as to why life can be a struggle for him – any introvert will have felt a twinge when he described what it was like to watch other have fun and not be able to fit in.

And then there’s the matter of a parental complaint to the principal about the club – “enforced Sunday practice”.  This may refer to the barbecue and Sakurai’s record may end up causing problems for the team, though obviously the complaint is baseless.  If I’m betting, my money is on Rintarou’s overprotective mom being the complainant.  I can’t imagine this being a serious issue on its own to take the club down, but considering that they’re already on the student council’s termination list this would seem to present a tempting opportunity for them.