Cross Game – 19
Great fodder for screen captures in this episode. Kou visits the Tsukashima grandparents’ home, a place he used to visit fairly frequently with Wakaba and her family. This was the first time he’s gone there since that summer. As you can expect, there are a lot of memories that come swimming back to the characters in this episode as they remember their old summers together there. One of the plot threads which lingers throughout involves an inscription Wakaba made on one of the trees of her and Kou’s names. The resolution to this is one of those really charming moments that is a unique property of this anime. In the second half, we see Isami Mizuki enter the scene. He’s a relative of Aoba’s, and from the looks of the preview for next week, might be vying for a closer position in her life. It will be interesting to see more of Kou’s reaction next episode. And Azuma’s comment? Well, watch it for yourself, but that guy really has a sense of humor. Insightful, too.
Music continues to be well-used as always. I like the track which begins right after the midway point, as Kou is in the hills searching for the tree. The gentle piano chords reminded me somewhat of Thomas Newman’s quieter film scores.
Well, Cross Game continues to be as captivating as ever. In other news, Tokyo Magnitude is still going strong, Taishou Yakyuu Musume may not be breaking any boundaries but provides what it promises (as well as a great score), and Sora no Manimani really doesn’t look like it will ever become what I wanted it to be (see my earlier posts). I’m also nearly finished watching Touch. Boy, I am really going to miss that one.
3 responses so far
As nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to discreetly introduce a new character, the whole winter trip seemed like a big waste of time to me. All we really got out of it was a quick glimpse at how annoying Aoba must have been as a kid.
Things started to pick up pace once Azuma made an appearance (as it usually does) but from there the episode seemed to end much too soon. We would have been much better off cutting out some of the winter scene (I don’t need a 5 minute mini-arc about how Kou can’t fall asleep) or having Azuma come along.
Really looking forward to next week’s episode. Hoping for more Azuma wise cracks and a surprising amount of cousin lovin’.
Well, the trip basically was a device to show a bunch of memories between the three. Whether that’s a waste of time is up to one’s opinion, I guess, since technically there are no real plot developments, but Cross Game isn’t really just about the plot developments, it is slice-of-life in every sense.
In comparison to previous episodes this one was a wash. Cross Game is one of the few long running animes that can make a semi-filler episode worth watching. Even when there isn’t much going on I’ve never thought about skipping ahead in an episode before this one. It was a decent episode, but not great for Cross Game.