Princess Nine - episodes 22 to 26

I haven't cried that much since the end of Fruits Basket. That's really all I want to say, but I don't think I can get away with it.

The unimportant stuff first. Yuki episode: I can't believe her parents were such bastards. Through these few episodes, Izumi wavered in her attitude until she closed the book and became strong again. Damn, she took everyone for a ride during that series. It was so good to just see her acting plain nice for once, without the facade.

Then the first match in the preliminaries finally comes, and the girls play against one of the dirtiest schools in organised baseball. Their tricks, and the way that the girls retaliate, were marvellous, although at times it was a little underanimated. Sometimes if they just say "Wow! That was a marvellous trick!" without actually showing it, one feels a little cheated. At least that makes sense to someone who knows baseball well, unlike episode four, wherein the "Somehow we managed to get out of that sticky situation" tactic is used. Generally, the shock moves coming out of clouds of dust worked.
With only three episodes left, the rest of the season is played out in montages; however, it works and doesn't feel as rushed as it might have done. Director Mochizuki proved himself to be more than competent after all. Unfortunately, for having come this far, Ryo has forgotten her love of the game. 'I want to pitch until my mind goes blank', she says. This sort of dispassionate action is just plain sad.

Then romance comes up again and works exactly like it always does in anime; misunderstanding and unspoken oaths. Fortunately the whole series hadn't been made up of that so it had some impact, and closure was given for one character.

The final game is not actually Koshien, as might have been expected, but it's something just as good. It's not a sad last lot of episodes; the tears are of exhilaration, joy, relief and love for the journey that has been left behind.
Princess Nine was a rare beauty that enthralled all throughout; its sense of properness could instil a love of baseball in even the coldest of hearts.