I’m tempted to blame the four-minute recap which cold-opened this episode on the production suspension.  But the truth is long recaps are the bane of shounen anime, and Major has not historically been immune from them.  I’m not sure why shounen especially seem prone to this illness – perhaps it’s a function of long-running series more than anything, and long-running anime are disproportionately shounen.  Whatever the cause, they annoy the bejeezus out of me every time they happen.

Eighteen minutes of new Major 2nd content is obviously still a lot better than what we were getting for most of the spring, of course.  And there was plenty to chew on this time, which coincidentally is pretty much what Fuurin did to Itsuki.  I guess their manager is regretting not letting Yokouchi throw sliders right from the beginning – while not wanting his boys to take a girl-heavy opponent too lightly, that’s just what he did himself.  But given what Fuurin did later on, I’m not wholly convinced it would have mattered.

I’ve been on-board with the notion that Fuurin needed an adult coach/manager – it’s only common sense that a bunch of 12-15 year-old ballplayers would, and their current advisor is about as checked-out as it’s humanly possible to be.  But by gosh, Daigo is pretty damn capable in the role himself.  He has attention to detail, good instincts, and a relentlessly positive attitude which rubs off on his teammates.  That marks a hell of a change, but it’s interesting the way Mitsuda and Watanabe are playing this out so that it doesn’t seem unbelievable.

There were some flashier moments here – for Daigo and generally – but for me, his finest was a very quiet one and easy to miss.  It came after Tanba-kun (I know he’s a big lad but please, stop casting Sugita Tomokazu as a kid) had just struck out looking on three pitches.  Striking out was no shame – everyone in the order had done so since Yokouchi unleashed the slide-piece.  But Daigo (he’s so mild-mannered that when he’s even a little vexed, it really stands out) tells him “Let’s pick at least one of those to swing at.  You never know – you might get lucky.”  I tell you, no adult could have come up with a better bit of corrective coaching – he makes his point very clearly, acknowledges the challenge, but chides Tanba for not even giving himself a chance to succeed.

What’s happening, in fact, is that we’re seeing very deliberately, brick by brick, just how far Daigo has come.  An observation here, a throw there (and it was a great one), a comment by the opposing coach about his swing.  Watanabe and Mitsuda don’t throw two years of development at us all at once and make it seem like a writing hack – while it all comes very naturally, we’re seeing that Daigo has matured into a baseball force.  I still think he takes the humility thing too far – he should be catching and certainly shouldn’t be batting ninth.  But he’s more than just a leader – he’s a performer.  And is there maybe just a hint – one day, a pitcher?

Daigo does have his work to do here, largely with Tanba.  He has a throwing yips problem (infielders get that) and while you’d think first is the best place to hide it, in practice first basemen get called on to throw a lot (especially in bunt-crazy Japan).  Tanba is generally lacking in confidence (and possibly ability) but Daigo saves his ass by making a tremendous play in left after Tanba’s third straight error.  We also get some new info – Kandori-san (the third baseman) has a gun, even if she has hands of stone.  Sakura can’t pitch every game (I disapprove of Daigo’s decision to pitch her on back-to-back days here) and Akira is nowhere close to ready – might Seira be a pitching option herself?

The next opponent is Seiwa Junior High – and that’s notable because two of their core players are our old friends Andy and Urabe.  They don’t seem to have changed all that much – they were already advanced for 6th-graders – and they now know not to take Daigo lightly.  It’ll be fun to see Urabe pitch again (assuming he wears the ace number for a reason), and with Seiwa being a small-ball outfit that’s going to make it even riskier for Daigo to let Anita catch again (and I hope he doesn’t).  I’m a little skeptical of Sakura’s ability to contain a really good offense with her finesse repertoire, and maybe Seiwa is the team that can put that to the test – we’ll see…