The SSS participate in a school baseball tournament.
Yui seems to have potential...
... but it look like someone up above doesn't want her to sing.
Summary:
At SSS HQ, Yui auditions to be the new lead singer of Girls Dead Monster, but she ends up hanging herself with the microphone cord. The SSS members are not particularly impressed, but Yuri decides to leave the decision to current band members. With the Girl De Mo topic put aside, Yuri orders her crew to form teams for the upcoming school baseball tournament, and if any of the SSS teams do worse than the regular student teams then those SSS members would be in for some nasty punishment. Hinata quickly recruits Otonashi but he fails to recruit Hisako, Matsushita and TK who have been recruited by others. In the end, Hinata ends up with a team of 8 consisting of himself, Otonashi, Yui, Shiina, Noda, and three of Yui's ordinary student friends. Since there are only 8 of them, nobody plays shortstop.
Just admit that you got a thing a for me.
~~~Moe Attack!~~~
Looks like someone is immune to moe.
Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!... I mean PLAY BALL!
The three SSS teams (including Hinata's) barge into the tournament as unregistered teams and they easily move through the tournament because the SSS members are actually quite good and the ordinary student teams suck. The SSS' progress prompts Tenshi to enter her own team consisting of the school team players. After more rounds of competition, Hinata's team ends up facing Tenshi's team in the finals. Hinata's team has several good hitters and a decent pitcher in Otonashi, but their outfield (consisting of Yui's friends) leaves much to be desired on defense. Otonashi manages to recruit Matsushita as an outfielder using meal coupons, and this evens up the game. In the bottom of the 9th inning Hinata's team is up 8 to 7 with Tenshi's team at bat. With two outs and runners on second and third, Otonashi calls timeout to request for a change, but he sees Hinata spacing out. Hinata explains he has been in similar situation before in his life. In that game, the hitter sends a pop fly to Hinata who is the second baseman. It was supposed to be an easy game-ending catch, but Hinata doesn't remember what happened. He only remembers sitting in the locker room after the game feeling dejected. When Hinata was finally about to leave, he was approached by an older student who handed him something to "cheer him up".
Noda might be stupid, but I have to admit this is pretty awesome.
A little staring match before the real game..
After Hinata recalls his experience, Otoanshi wonders if Hinata will disappear if he makes a similar catch. Hinata denies it, but Otonashi is not so sure. The game is back on and just as scripted the hitter sends a pop fly to second base. Hinata gets ready to catch the ball, but Otonashi doesn't want Hinata to catch it since he doesn't want Hinata to disappear. Luckily for Otonashi, Hinata is attacked by Yui who is trying to get Hinata back for previous abuses. The distraction allows the runners to score and Hinata's team loses. Back at SSS HQ, a disappointed and pissed off Yuri wishes that both Hinata and Yui would disappear.
The game-losing play. Is that a camel clutch or a double cheek pinch?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Man, I wish real baseball was this fun to watch. You can probably guess I'm not a baseball fan. Real baseball games are too long and boring most of the time. I also wish real baseball was that easy. It'd be great if I can hit a home run by swinging the bat with only one arm (perhaps doable in Wii Sports). I'm beginning to think that the SSS is actually a team of people with superpowers. How else do we explain the one-handed home runs and diving catches while holding a broom or eating noodles? I loved the final moment where it looked like Hinata might catch the ball and disappear and Otonashi was running in to stop him just to have Yui do the job. I kind of saw it coming, but it was hilarious anyways. The notable disappointment about the baseball sequence was Tenshi didn't actually play. She could have programmed herself with an auto home run function and a 200mph fast ball to ensure victory. Not that she needed to play though as it turned out.
Anyways, after a stint on the serious dramatic side last week, Angel Beats! is back to slapstick comedy. Good for them, I say, because an episode following last week's formula wouldn't be nearly as fun. It'd probably be more intelligent though. Despite the hints about Hinata, nobody disappeared this week, and this may set up for multiple-death episodes in the future. Even if Hinata had made the catch he might not have disappeared, since his death is hinted to be having more to do with drugs even if the game was the catalyst.
Hinata aside, Yui also received plenty of screen time in this episode as the candidate to replace Iwasawa. They even replaced Tenshi's cool piano playing in the OP with Yui posing around in a guitar. I guess this gives them two versions of the OP single and 2x the profit (or at least they wish). Yui has plenty of spunk, but I'm not sure about her voice. I have a feeling she'll sound like a chipmunk, but voice and singing skills probably take back seats to promotion and packaging for a girl band like Girl De Mo. The other band members can probably take care of the music.
Overall the episode was funny, but not much went on in regards to the story. The decision to interrupt the baseball tournament raises more question about what Yuri is trying to accomplish. It appears that Yuri is just planning random events that she thinks will piss off Tenshi, and she seems to be doing this in part for her own enjoyment. I might be reading too much into this, but maybe resisting is just a way for Yuri to find happiness.
Oh, in case anyone cares, this post is late because I had a final today at 8:30 in the morning. Yeah, pity me lol. Still one more to go before I'm done with my undergrad studies. On that note, I probably should be studying instead of writing this.
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