Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine – Episode 1 – Time to Play Ball?

Tsubasa wants to form a girl’s baseball team. The tricky part is trying to finding some members to recruit.

In the past, it seems that there are no girl’s baseball teams. Now that thirty schools have a girl’s baseball team, Arihara Tsubasa, an energetic girl wants to form one. Their teacher, Kakehashi Momoko decides to help Tsubasa and her childhood friend, Kawakita Tomoe form one. Tsubasa manage to receive the forms from Momoko so she can form an association.

Meanwhile, a blonde hair girl named Nozaki Yuki and a somewhat timid Ukita Akane is trying to find club to join. Somehow, Akane seems to have an interest in baseball after seeing her friend play it during grade school. She thought it was cool. I have to admit that Akane is cute, especially with her hoodie. However, she doesn’t seem to have much confidence in herself when it comes to sports. She would rather be the manager instead.

During their practice, Akane is having issues catching the ball. I can understand why since I am never good at baseball when I had to play it during physical education during grade school. Just like Akane, I was afraid of the ball hitting me since it’s hard. It must be that I am really bad at sports, which is a fact. In fact, I never really enjoyed them. Either way, this only adds more to her lack of self-confidence.

On the other hand, Yuki is surprisingly good at catching and eventually throwing. Yes, she is good with throwing the ball with her left hand given her throw. This is when we find out that she actually played basketball after she reveals it to Akane. She believes that she holds her team mates back. She felt this way when she messed up at a critical time by failing to pass the ball or throw it into the hoop during a match. Afterwards, she just stood there after that happened.

From the looks of it, this gives me the impression that Yuki might have been the ace of the team. Now that she messed up, she is afraid of doing another team sport and letting her team down again. Thankfully, she eventually gets over it when Tsubasa and Tomoe decides to play Triangles with the children. Yuki decides to join in.

While Yuki failed to bat the ball the first time, she eventually did so the second time. This gives Akane the courage she needs to try again. This time, she manages to get the ball and throw it to Yuki, which she throws it to a boy. In other words, Tsubasa didn’t quite make it.

Despite Yuki’s team lost by one point, at least she and Akane gained some confidence while having fun. This shows that if they try at least once, they will eventually make it. From the looks of it, it seems that Yuki and Akane is going to give baseball a try.

From the looks of it, it seems that Tsubasa is upset at the student council. They apparently won’t allow them to practice baseball at school. I wonder why? We have to wait and see next time.

Aside from that, there is some good news. There are no signs of the manager so far. Given that the story is told from Tsubasa’s point of view, maybe there won’t be one at all. If that is the case, I think this is a good thing as it will save us from the drama of the manager being male from the viewers. I guess we will find out for sure in the next few episodes. ¶