In this episode of Sora Kake, we are treated with a totally pointless baseball filler. Goodie. A mysterious masked QT-powered pitcher has been defeating professional baseball teams by striking out all the batters in the spirit of dojo yaburi. Former star player, Itsuki Kannagi, is called out of her forced retirement to deal with the menace.

The first duel on the mound results in a draw, and Kannagi goes through rigorous off-screen training with the demon of baseball, Leopard, to boost her QT power at the cost of her life. Meanwhile we find out that obvious identity of the masked pitcher to be Akiha, who was kicked out of the pros some time ago for being a QT user, and is now enacting her revenge on the league by beating all the teams single-handedly (with some QT enhancements from Leopard). Akiha soon finds out that using her enhanced QT powers are taking a strain on her body and that she has three more powered pitches to throw before her body gives out.

Itsuki completes her training and meets again with Akiha for a duel. Seeing Itsuki’s passion, Akiha throws aside her motive for revenge for a pure contest against her. Itsuki manages to hit Akiha’s QT pitch but falters afterwards from the force of the impact and dies. We then find out that the entire duel was a setup from the beginning to rid the world of QT powered baseball players, and Akiha powers up for one last throw against the bearded man and his assistant.

Masked demonic pitcher.

The crowd gasps in awe.

Min-chan, get outta there. You’re no match!

Those pilot shades are c’est magnifique.

Dramtic pose moment.

Children at the orphanage, because every sob story needs orphans.

Nina and Itsuki discussing various things.

This suit… These glasses… They’re quite simply…

FABULOUS!

Look alive guys.

Last up to bat is…

Itsuki Kannagi!

Can you withstand the force of my balls?

I never knew baseball was so violent.

Itsuki receives instructions to train with the demon of baseball.

Maid Imo and Nami don’t get enough screentime.

Akiha is a Char.

RIP Kazane and Takane.

This is a shrine, but where are the maidens?

Huzzah! It’s finally time for Leopard to make his appearance.

Leopard’s totally innocuous iron rod.

Grab my iron rod!

Now only one thing can stop Leopard from escaping his prison…

Boiled potatoes!

Itsuki’s back to whack some balls.

Seriously, the masks aren’t fooling anyone.

The crowd cheers Itsuki on. Banzai!

Whoa. Just like **** Ruth!

This is a baseball bat that shall bludgeon the heavens.

Nami and Imo arrive to cheer for Akiha.

The true Akiha returns.

If real baseball was this epic I’d be inclined to watch more often.

Sorry guys… I’ve done enough, right?

That green haired girl went down easier than expected.

ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ITSUKI?!

Impressions:
This episode was almost as pointless as Naruto or Bleach filler. While I’m happy to get an episode focusing mostly on the amazing Itsuki, none of it even matters at the end of the day. Let us never talk of this episode ever again.

What, that’s not a proper impression you say? Fine. I can’t help but feel that the whole QT users ruining baseball motif is a stab at the how the steroid era has tainted baseball for the past decade or so. The writers love to keep throwing all sorts of sexual undertones at us with Leopard commanding Itsuki to grab his iron rod and getting blown away by its power at first. The pitcher (Akiha) and catcher (Honoka) metaphor also peeks its head here too if you wish to see it. The masks Akiha and Honoka wear are no doubt a homage to Sunrise’s proud tradition of masked villains like Char, Zechs, Rau Le Creuset, etc. I don’t think there’s much more to really talk about since this episode bears no significance on the plot.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Anime, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.