This is a part of a collaboration review between myself and Irina (of I Drink And Watch Anime) with my parts represented by bold text and Irina’s in regular.
Hey look Irina, we did it, we finally did it, we’ve finished Cinderella Nine! I wasn’t sure we’d ever get here. I think we deserve a drink! Maybe several.
So this episode continues immediately after the previous and almost the entire episode is devoted to the same game of baseball… which on the one hand I thought was a nice change of pace–I mean this is a baseball anime after all it’s about time we spend some time with our girls playing the game. But, much like everything this show does, it’s not particularly interesting and for the last half of the game is basically just several minutes of still frames with various pans and zooms to ‘simulate’ a sense of animation and movement. It was basically impossible to follow what was happening after the first inning or so (I hope that’s a word) so you couldn’t even get that vicarious thrill of cheering along with your team. Most of the time I honestly couldn’t have told you who was winning or losing. Even ‘Harukana Receive’ was better at focusing on the match and in that show, it was basically just an excuse for front or back cleavage. Not that that’s a bad thing but they could afford to have people lose track of the match ‘cause there was something else going on, here, without that aspect, there’s really nothing left.
I liked the bit with best girl Akane having her mother see her catch a ball, it was sweet, probably the highlight of the episode. No comment…
I found that scene with the opponents having a flashback and character development moment in the middle of the game (during a time-out) to be utterly pointless–especially given it was the final episode. What did you think of it? Exactly the same. I was screaming at my tv that it’s ridiculous to try and force audience attachment at this point and I don’t even remember the main team, forget these girls. You need to do that midway through the season and build up the rivalry. Pfft amateurs.
And so after spending over 20 minutes on this single game it ends off-screen, with us finding the result via a newspaper article on a bulletin board… which kind of felt like a cheap slap in the face. The offscreen conclusion thing is a pretty common sports anime trope and I didn’t mind it. Maybe ‘cause I’m used to it, maybe cause just wanted the still shots to be over…
So yeah, they won that game but lost in the second round. But that’s not what’s important, their achievement has inspired their kohai’s and classmates to become interested in baseball too! Which I mean is nice and all but kinda seemed like it was sequel-baiting more than anything, which let’s face it, is never gonna happen… It did seem like sequel bathing and yeah never gonna happen. The really sad part is all the potential new characters seemed more interesting.
This said, I really feel bad for the other team that lost. They were so much better in the practice and they have also been working equally as hard since but they weren’t good enough to beat the worst team around. Those girls must be so bummed out. I bet heir school cancelled the girls’ baseball team again. If not, I mean this was the first time they agreed to pay for fun and it was a resounding failure so I’m guessing if the team still exists, no more fun Ever! That catcher is in so much trouble!
Because they were so inconsistent at showing us team development, the first victory felt unearned and the loss was inconsequential.
Anything else you wanted to add/mention before we wrap this up, Irina? Please don’t base your opinion of the Sports! genre on this anime?
For me, Cinderella Nine was an example of absolute mediocrity with some vague glimmers of interesting moments and characters interspersed throughout. I don’t think the show was beyond fixing but it seemed like that the budget wasn’t large enough to make it visually compelling enough and the writing and acting wasn’t good enough to elevate what was on the page. Also it was devoid of any kind of anime-inspired gimmick (stylised art, fan-service, etc.) that could have at least made it entertaining. What are your final thoughts on the series? I saw your ratings of the week post and it seems like you enjoyed the last episode at least, considerably more than I did. I thought the series was generally below average and just seemed low effort. I’m uncertain if anyone wanted this to be anything more than a time filler.
That’s all I can say really. We made it. It wasn’t as painful as I make it sound but I could have skipped his series and not lost much! Thank you for sticking with it Matt! I certainly wouldn’t have made it alone. Likewise Irina! And thank you all for reading these reviews, hopefully they offered some enjoyment!
Previous ‘Cinderella Nine‘ Reviews:
Episode 1 Review
No Glove, No Love – Episode 2 Review
A Wild Cheerleader Appears – Episode 3 Review
For The Love Of The Game – Episode 4 Review
Oh Right, Baseball – Episode 5 Review
Striking Out – Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
The Cost Of Success – Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review
Swing And A Miss – Episode 10 Review
Episode 11 Review
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Anime QandA 
The least a mediocre show can do is have some cleavage to distract us. Too bad.
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Exactly! So little to ask for and yet it couldn’t even deliver that!
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Is it us Matt? Are we the real losers?
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No other way of looking at it!
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well not with that attitude
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