Akiba Maid Sensou – 08

「鮮血に染まる白球 栄光は君に輝キュン♡」 (Senketsu ni Somaru Hakkyuu Eikou wa Kimi ni Kagaya-kyun)
“A Blood-soaked Ballgame: The Kyun of Victory Shines On You”

Episode 08 of Akiba Maid Sensou has the maids of Ton Tokoton and the newly founded Axolotl comprised of former Maidaliens duke it out in an unfriendly game of baseball. But when the episode starts living up to its title by offering blood-soaked vengeance for Manami’s sake, the girls are forced to look inward and see that maybe violence isn’t the only answer.

BASEBALL BLUES

This episode flew by at lightning speed since the baseball game was relatively quick. It was fun to see small segments of the girls whacking at each other with balls and bats as they refused to play a fair game. It was also funny to see that the Manager was so desperate to have an equal amount of players that she hired Venezuelan exchange students to play for Ton Tokoton’s team. But comedy-wise, it hit its stride near the second half after Ugaki and Manami’s closest confidant was killed off.

After those two had exacted their vengeance, Nagomi became almost an entirely different character. She’d been refusing to fight back by trying to encourage the other girls, including the maids of the Axolotl cafe, to have a peaceful baseball game for most of the episode. But by the time the two girls were killed, she was gleefully emboldened by the measures the girls took from that point forward to play a regular game of baseball, even if it means propping up their dead bodies and pretending they were alive this whole time. And all this time, the Venezuelan exchange students are just happy to be there, playing baseball and completely ignoring both the internal politics of the girls’ teams and the bodies dropping on the diamond.

The episode’s dark comedy was wonderful by this point as Nagomi was willing to overlook stabbings and death if it meant that everyone could put aside their differences for some fun baseball. Clips of the girls having a good time and Nagomi’s giddy expression are often followed up with shots of the Axolotl girls trying their best to act as if Ugaki was still alive. The ending scene was spectacular when they all sang a triumphant song of unity as the Axolotl cafe propped up the corpses of Ugaki and Manami’s confidant as if they were singing along.

Nagi also posits a neat look into the future as she reaches out to Ranko after the game to talk about their past. I’m wondering what she was getting at when she was urging Ranko to be more aggressive and acted as if she had lost her touch since she left prison. While it’s too early to tell what the show has in store for both of them, I look forward to learning more about their past and if we’ll get to see what role Nagi played to ascend to the top of the Creatureland Group.