When you're watching TV,
make sure you sit far away from the TV,
in a well lit room!
So, how about that fall, huh?
What?
I'm talking about the season; do you like it?
I don't hate it, I suppose.
What kind of music do you like, then?
Pop? J-Pop?
Or perhaps you're into classical music?
Senda!
What?
Keep your mouth shut when you're running.
Who cares?
There's not much left here for us ninth graders any—
So you're just going to give up on baseball after middle school?
As if!
You know very well that the real challenge starts next year.
Can you write me a little note later?
Have it say, "Aim for the Koshien, Kei! -from Aoba Tsukishima" or something.
Senda!
Can you just shut up?
Screw this.
I'm going to check out the high school team to prepare for next year instead.
Created by
Mitsuru Adachi
（Serialized in Shogakukan's 「Weekly Shonen Sunday」）
Planning
Nobumasa Sawabe
Toshihiro Nakazawa
Planning Assistance
Shin'ichirou Tsuzuki
Masato Hayashi
Supervisors
Toshisato Okuno Shin Omura Takenori Ichihara
Original Planning Assistance
Masato Hayashi
Series Composition
Michihiro Tsuchiya
Main Character Design
Yuji Kondo
Art Design
Maho Takahashi
Subcharacter Design
Tomoyuki Matsumoto
Prop Design
Koichi Imano
Art Director
Color Design
Photography Director
Editing
Yutaka Kuramoto
Kayoko Ono
Miki Tsubouchi
Hiromi Komine
Sound Director
Sound Production
Music Producer
Music
Takeshi Takadera
HALF H・P STUDIO
Nobuhide Tanaka Toshiyuki Kuroiwa
Kotaro Nakagawa
Opening Theme
「Summer Rain」
Kobukuro
Lyrics／Composition: Kentaro Kobuchi
Arrangement: Kobukuro
（Warner Music Japan）
Music Assistance
TV-TOKYO Music
Warner Music Japan
Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment
Animation Producer
Animation Production
Ryosuke Sakurai
Producers
Shunji Aoki Naohiko Furuchi
Director
Osamu Sekita
Production Studio
Shogakukan Shueisha Production
SUBTITLED BY ANBU
Here's the juice you wanted.
That was quick, Senda.
I can run each base in four seconds flat, you know.
But I have to say, you're pretty legit.
You're already brown-nosing us for next year, eh?
I wouldn't say I'm brown-nosing...
How about you guys save the chit chat for later and start practicing instead?
Sorry, coach.
I'm having a hard time tying the laces on my spikes.
I see.
Well then, give it your best.
And I thought the school would fire his old ass
for getting us eliminated in the 2nd round two summers in a row.
He's quite a stubborn old fart.
A sandlot baseball game?
Yeah.
Some of the guys from the team you tricked into playing baseball
want to get together to play a game.
We scraped together some guys we know to play against, too.
And, of course, you will be playing for us as well.
That's fine.
It won't matter if we win or lose, as long as we have fun.
The guys who will be playing aren't on any sports teams at school, either.
They're all just a bunch of average joes with no backbone who like baseball,
but hate putting time and practice to it.
Whatever happened to that one chubby guy who sort of had some backbone?
He gave up after three months.
All right, let's put together another team.
We'll make brand-new uniforms, and—
Forget uniforms.
The game's this Sunday.
Don't forget.
Yeah, yeah.
Are these alarm clocks doing their job?
Yeah.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight.
I brought in all the seventh and eighth graders, Captain.
The ninth graders are all here, too, except for Senda.
Forget him.
He's probably busy catering himself to the high school team.
Captain...
Yeah?
Have you heard the rumors about the high school team?
Yeah, I've heard the rumors.
Are they just rumors?
Who knows.
I guess I'll find out next year.
By the way, how's Kitamura doing these days?
How am I supposed to know how he's doing?
Has he not been showing up at the batting center?
Like I said!
I've got nothing to do with it!
Then would you care to explain why the leotard disappeared
after you passed by the girl's gymnastics club room?
I wasn't the only one who passed by that room, you know.
Only one other person was seen walking past the room,
and it was a man wearing a ski mask, dressed all in black.
It's him!
It's got to be him!
Mr. Akichi!
A man wearing a ski mask, dressed all in black
just turned himself in holding the leotard.
What?
So you mean to say that the man with the ski mask, dressed all in black did it?
Bravo, Sherlock.
I'll be on my way now.
Kitamura,
you're quick on your feet and you have decent P.E. grades.
You should make use of your talents once you get to high school,
and join a sports team or something.
You don't want to end up stealing leotards, now do you?
Gimme a break, old man.
The fall sports season, huh?
How nice of you to come by, Ko.
You here for some coffee?
Nope, I wanted to swing by this way.
Who's inside?
He hasn't been around here for quite some time.
But it sounds like he still bats quite regularly.
Who is it?
You're going to slug some, aren't you?
Here's one on the house.
Nah, I'm going to head home.
Ko...
Winning or losing doesn't matter as long as you have fun, huh?
Time for laundry!
Come on, Aoba.
You should act more like a lady now that you're in eighth grade.
Whatever you say.
Where's Dad?
He's at the town meeting.
Just when I was about to have him play catch with me...
Don't you do that enough every day during baseball practice?
You want me to play with you instead?
You?
That was good!
You really are my little sister.
Well, I was playing catch with Ko earlier.
With Ko?
All right.
Is Ko going to pitch for you guys?
Yeah.
You won't have to worry about dead balls, at least.
He's got control, I guarantee it.
We'll have to see about that.
There's no bigger kill-joy than being walked all day, you know.
I'll hit everything straight out of the park!
Yeah, let's have some fun.
That's the best way to play baseball.
Throw me some warmup balls, Nakanishi!
Sure.
How long has it been since we last paired up as a battery?
It was back in sixth grade, so I guess three years ago.
Oh yeah.
Let's take it easy and start light for now.
Sure thing.
Change pitchers.
Oh, come on now, Nakanishi.
We haven't even started playing yet.
You take right field.
I said, hang on!
I'll throw hard once we actually start playing, okay?
"Hard"?
You're the one who said,
"Take it easy and start light for now."
That's why...
That was "light"?
Tanaka, you're pitching.
Are you even listening?
We can stop if your hands are hurting, Momiji.
I'm fine.
Ko and I would play catch for more than half a day some of the times.
You really shouldn't treat Ko like those other guys.
Ao!
Oh, right.
He could become the best pitcher in Japan once he puts his back into it.
He might even be able to throw 160 km/h.
As if!
Sorry, Momiji!
No worries.
I'm used to it.
Thanks for playing with me.
I think that's enough.
One out!
Right field!
I got it!
You ain't got shit!
Anyone can see this is going to be an inside-the-park home run.
Run back!
Double play!
Change sides!
That was awesome!
He made that inside-the-park homer look easy!
Did you see that?
Why don't you join the team instead of just staring at them like that?
Why don't you guys join the team instead of just staring at them like that?
Who'd want to join a crappy team like that?
We're levels apart.
That might be true now,
but they'll get ahead of you guys if you just sit around doing nothing.
What did you say?
Who the hell do you think you're talking to—
Tsukishima didn't say anything wrong now, did she?
No, not at all.
Sorry, Tsukishima.
We just don't really feel up to playing baseball right now.
I see.
Sorry for bothering you guys then.
Tsukishima.
Yes?
There's nothing to apologize for.
Change sides!
I see you got some familiar faces together, there.
Didn't you let Kitamura pitch back in grade school?
Yeah.
Aren't you going to let him pitch today?
I wanted to have a fun sandlot game today.
It's the last inning, and we're down by a run.
There are two outs, but we've got runners on first and second.
We'll tie the score with a single,
but we can make a comeback if I hit a long one.
Here's the single!
All right, we'll tie it up first!
O-Out!
That's the game!
I see.
A "fun" game, huh?
Good game, man.
It was good to finally play a sandlot game again.
What are you thinking?
Nakanishi, Kitamura.
See you guys around.
Throw it hard this time.
Hard?
Yeah.
Don't take it easy and throw it light;
pitch one with all you've got.
All right!
I said pitch, not waste time.
Sorry.
I guess that was too hard.
Why?
Huh?
Why didn't you join the baseball team when you can pitch like this?
Ow...
Uh, reality check?
You're the reason why I didn't join, remember?
I-I was?
I heard this rumor...
Rumors again?
Is it true that when you guys joined the baseball team,
the ninth graders were a bunch of delinquents?
"Delinquents" doesn't begin to describe it.
They're a bunch of scum.
I would have quit the team within three months if it wasn't for Nakanishi.
I went over to the baseball team club room that day with my application form.
And then...
That was three months after school started!
What took you so long?
I thought I asked you to join me at the beginning of the school year?
I didn't have the confidence.
But as I kept practicing at home and scoping out the baseball practices at school,
I somehow thought maybe I could actually do it.
And then, that happened.
Fine, okay.
But who cares.
Thanks to that, we got to have some fun playing sandlot baseball.
Let's make another team and play again.
Of course, this time, with brand-new uniforms—
Screw uniforms.
I see.
So those scumbags will be there waiting
when you join the high school team next year, huh?
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
Do you think you'll be able to handle them?
There aren't that many people
who can handle those guys very well, you know.
You've got mud on your spikes, Makihara.
Oh, thanks, Senda.
But do you think things will be okay next year?
It looks like we won't be getting a new coach.
You dumbass.
It won't be like this year.
This year sucked because they got a crappy coach
who wanted to make a team out of a bunch of crappy twelfth graders.
We would have gotten to the top eight if he had used us eleventh graders properly.
So naturally, the team's going to be strong when we become the twelfth graders.
We might make the top four—
If we get lucky, we could even make the finals!
The school seems to want us to go all the way to the Koshien.
Are you sure they're not talking about a field trip?
Perhaps.
This is excellent, Daimon.
Thank you, Principal.
Don't get ahead of yourself now.
I'm only the Acting Principal, as you can see.
Acting Principal.
My apologies.
Coming home from practice?
That's none of your business.
I guess it isn't.
I'm not lying about his talent, Akaishi!
Too late.
No it's not!
I'm saying, you recognized his skills way too late.
Who's that?
Hell if I know.
I don't mind this,
but why do we have to practice in secret like this?
You're our secret weapon, that's why.
Next time, on Cross Game Episode Four:
Secret Weapon.
Did Aoba tell you something?
No, Wakaba did.