Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine – Episode 12 (END) - Power of Team Work

Yoshimi is surprised that she manages to hit a homerun.

Starting off from last time, things seem tough as both teams are now tied. Will Tsubasa and her friends win the first round?

From the looks of it, it seems that Tsubasa’s team is slipping again as Sayaka’s team managed to score one point. In other words, they are now tied. However, that tie didn’t last too long as Yoshimi manages to hit a home run. This is when she believes that she would strike out again. She only needed to believe in herself to make it happen.

Makino seems worried that Sayaka is taking too much responsibility.

Either way, this doesn’t help Sayaka’s team spirit as Yoshimi’s surprise home run crushed it. It appears that Sayaka’s goal of winning the tournament is starting to become a pipe dream. Makino, who becomes worried eventually calls a time out. She tells Sayaka that she and her team members are relying a bit too much on her. It’s understandable given that Sayaka worked so hard to revive the baseball club. In other words, Makino doesn’t want Sayaka to carry the rest of the team by herself. She wants Sayaka to trust her teammates more. Makino isn’t wrong since after all, baseball is a team sport.

While Murphy’s law hits Tsubasa’s team, they are not giving up without a fight.

From the looks of it, it seems that Sayaka’s team started having a comeback and eventually tied again. This is partially because of Maiko starting to pitch poorly due to her tired wrists. Eventually, Aoi sprains her ankle. As a result, Tomoe takes Aoi’s place while Yuki does the pitching. Sure, she didn’t have much confidence at first, but she manages to pull through. I guess that summer training came in handy.

While this is a suspenseful end, it becomes obvious who won this game.

In the end, Tsubasa’s team made it. Thanks to Suzuki catching the ball and touching home base, Tsubasa’s team won the game. Of course, Tsubasa’s team lost in the second round as we see in the headline of the school’s newspaper. It’s bound to happen since they just started.

Still, it’s impressive that they won their first game and they just started. Even so, it’s nice that a month after the tournament, several girls want to join the baseball club. Yes, even the blue haired girl with glasses who works in the school library. She initially said that she can’t when Tsubasa asks her if she is interested in baseball. Tsubasa lends her hand and encourages her to play baseball.

Final Thoughts

While I had reservations about the show because of that manager possibly being male. Thankfully, this situation was averted that since there isn’t really a manager. Instead, Tsubasa with some help of her friends built her team.

I like how the team developed throughout the series as they overcome their problems. This ranged from losing their first practice game to the funding not going through. Not only that, there are some nice moments between Tsubasa and Tomoe is nice. Also, Akane is precious, although she puts herself down at times when things get tough. Of course, there is that development between Kana and Maiko as well. I can ship them too since after all, Kana cares about Maiko’s well-being a lot.

While the animation at times leave much to be desired, Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine is a fun watch. It was nice to see Tsubasa build her team and manages to make it pass the first found in nationals. With that, will they make it further next summer if there is a sequel? We’ll see. Of course, there is Tamayomi, which is a school girl anime focused on baseball that will receive an anime adaptation in the future.