School Rumble Ni Gakki – 09

Summary:
With Satsuki still unable to make her shots, Tae sends Asou to give her some help. But getting Asou involved only makes Satsuki stiffen up more. She starts blaming herself and the situation is made worse when she sees Mikoto playing better after having learned a lot from Asou. Satsuki runs out of the gym, and Lala goes after her, giving her someone to hug. Later that day, Asou calls Satsuki to the gym again and asks her what she thinks about him. Satsuki doesn’t realize that he’s referring to his coaching until after she’s already confessed that she really likes him. Satsuki ends up running away again and does not showing up for the next practice.
The team is to have a match with the first year male players, but instead they find that their opponents are Tougou, Harima, Imadori, Tenma, and Yakumo of the Outlaw team. Tougou announces that the winners of this game would be more appropriate as the regulars. With Tae and Lala both up for the challenge, the rest of team decides to play. The game starts with Imadori making his first basket. He attributes his success to his shoes, which causes Lala to give him a stare and then “borrow” those shoes. But as a team, the girls are no match for the Outlaws. The score quickly becomes quite lopsided (45-12 in favor of the Outlaws). Lala gets pissed off and runs out, so Tae steps in to replace her.
Lala actually goes out to Satsuki, who was watching the game through the door of the gym. Lala tells her that everyone needs her and attributes their teamwork to her. She’s figured out that Satsuki is bothered by love and says “that is that, this is this.” Lala finally seems to get through to Satsuki by saying that everyone is waiting for her, Lala is waiting for her. And so, a determined Satsuki rejoins her team when they’re trailing 102-32 and immediately makes her first shot. The girls make a stunning comeback, closing the gap to 119-108. On the Outlaw side, Tenma keeps screwing up, but Tougou doesn’t seem to mind because they’re comrades now. Harima is uneasy watching the two get along so well.
During a time out, Tenma suggests that they use a special technique. This technique is very reminiscent of the manga Tenma read previously and is successful in helping her get a dunk. Unfortunately, it’s all pointless because she gets called for a traveling violation. The next possession goes to Lala, but Tenma enters the scene again, this time as the defender. With Lala’s aggressive play style, she keeps fouling Tenma and does it so many times that she’s forced to leave the game. Tae realizes that the time has finally come to call out her substitute: Tenma! Except that Tenma is on the other team now…except that it doesn’t matter because Tenma goes running back to the girls. Since the Outlaws are now down a player, Asou decides to join them.
With the score 132-129 and only 15 seconds left, Satsuki and Mikoto are up against Asou and Harima. Asou thinks that Satsuki will try to drive the ball herself, but is proven wrong when she passes it to Mikoto. And with Harima now covering Tenma instead of Mikoto, the only one close enough to try to stop her is Tougou. But even he can’t prevent her from making her double clutch shot. As amazing as it was though, it only netted the team two points, meaning that they lost 132-131. With this win, Tougou is happy to be able to claim this court as theirs. But with Imadori tired, Harima trying to join Tenma’s team, and Yakumo leaving to prepare dinner, the only Outlaw that remains is Tougou. Lala also returns Imadori’s shoes, but her style of playing wore them out so much that all that’s left are shoelaces.
After the game, everyone heads to Asou’s restaurant for dinner. Mikoto reveals that she doesn’t plan on playing anymore, however everyone including Asou and Satsuki encourages her to continue. Before she leaves the party, Lala tells Satsuki that although this (basketball) is over, there’s still the issue of what Satsuki is going to do about that (love). In any case, Lala offers her assistance. Satsuki ends up telling Asou that he should stay as a coach because he as a coach could make Mikoto a great player. She then leaves the two of them alone to finish cleaning. Asou once again tries to make Mikoto continue basketball, but she says that she needs to think it over slowly at home. When she gets back to the dojo, she finds Hanai there, ready to play basketball after he heard Yakumo had started playing.

The best part of the episode was the parody of the manga that Tenma was reading in last week’s episode. All of it just cracked me up: Tenma’s special attack, her allies, and most of all, how she got called for traveling. It’s a shame Tougou’s team isn’t going to stay together because I’d love to see what other techniques they’ve got lol.
Overall, the basketball game was pretty fun to watch, though the rest of the episode maybe not quite so much. There just weren’t as many laughs during the beginning or end (with the exception of the final Hanai joke), and I didn’t really find myself rooting for Satsuki in terms of her relationship with Asou. It also seemed like they were rushing the end of the episode a bit as they cut out several parts of the party scene compared the manga chapter, which included both Eri and Sara. I would have liked to see more Eri, but at least this episode features Yakumo in a basketball jersey 🙂