The BEST episodes of Cross Game
Every episode of Cross Game ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Cross Game!
Kō Kitamura, son of the owner of Kitamura Sports, lives in the same neighborhood as the batting center run by the Tsukishima family. Due to their proximity and the relationship between their businesses, the Kitamura and Tsukishima families have been close for many years, with their children going back and forth between the two homes like extended family. Because Kō and Wakaba are the same age and always together, Aoba is jealous of all the time Kō spends with her older sister. Aoba is a natural pitcher with excellent form, and Kō secretly trains to become as good as she is, even while publicly showing little interest in baseball. Then Wakaba dies in a swimming accident at a summer camp during fifth grade.
#1 - How Should I Know?
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 7/19/2009
Before the scrimmage Daimon tells Azuma that Shido will not fire him even if the varsity team loses, and Shido confirms this. However, during the first inning, Tubby's grandfather, who is the school's chairman, tells Shido and Daimon he is ratifying the wager with Maeno. During the first two innings, Ko allows the bases to get loaded before striking out the next three batters, and to focus him, Akaishi tells Ko to pitch as if it were late in the game. In the sixth inning, the game still scoreless, Daimon asks Azuma who were the portable team's opponents in their practice matches; Azuma says they played top teams from the prefectural tournament, and that Ko pitched easily the first six innings to give his team fielding practice. In the seventh inning, Aoba hits a single and then scores on Senda's sacrifice fly. During the final innings, Azuma asks Daimon if he wishes he had better hitters in his lineup, such as Miki, and as Ko strikes out the final three batters, Azuma says Ko is now the best pitcher they have played against all year. As the portable team celebrates their win, Aoba silently tells Wakaba that Ko did it.
#2 - Four-Leaf Clover
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/5/2009
Fifth-grader Ko Kitamura was born on the same day in the same hospital as his neighbor, Wakaba Tsukishima, who treats him as her boyfriend as a result. One day during summer vacation, she makes him take her to swimming lessons on his bicycle. On the way back, to avoid classmate Osamu Akaishi, who has a crush on Wakaba, Ko joins a sandlot baseball game organized by another classmate, Daiki Nakanishi. Because he has never played before, Ko fields badly, but because he has practiced in the Tsukishima family's batting cages he hits the game-winning home run. After their joint 11th birthday, Wakaba gives Ko a schedule of birthday presents for him to give her through age 20. Soon after this, Wakaba drowns while saving a younger girl at an overnight swimming camp. Ko does not know how to respond to this until, the evening after her funeral, he sees Akaishi weeping outside Wakaba's house and realizes he just needs to cry. The closing credits show time passing and by the end, Ko and Wakaba's younger sister Aoba Tsukishima are in junior high school.
#3 - I Hate You!
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/12/2009
Four years later, in the fall of her second year at Seishu Junior High School, Aoba is a pitcher for the baseball team, and still hates Ko for having monopolized her dead sister's time. Starting pitcher Keiichiro Senda, who considers himself popular, asks her out on a date without waiting for a response. When she does not show up, Senda goes to her house but is frightened off by the family cat. When Ko (in his third year at Seishu Junior High) delivers baseballs to the Tsukishima batting cages, he hits four home runs, which annoys Aoba, especially since she cannot match it. In a flashback, she remembers Wakaba telling her about Ko's potential to one day pitch 160 km/h fastballs, which Aoba claimed was her ideal in a man, but that if he does, Aoba cannot take him from her. Meanwhile, inspired by Aoba's pitching, Ko has been obeying Wakaba's order to follow Aoba's workout routine.
#4 - For Real?
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/19/2009
Nakanishi recruits Ko for a rematch of the sandlot game from fifth grade. When Ko warms up with what he calls a few soft pitches, Nakanishi has him play right fielder instead, claiming he wants a friendly game. Meanwhile, when Aoba plays catch with her little sister, Momiji, she is startled to learn that Momiji can handle her hardest throws because Momiji has helped Ko practice. Akaishi, now captain of the junior high school baseball team, watches the sandlot game and is reminded of Wakaba's boasts about Ko's abilities. With Ko's fielding and batting, his team wins in a close game. Afterward Nakanishi learns that Ko did not join the baseball team, despite his surprisingly fast fastball, because Nakanishi had been kicked off it for fighting. During practice, Aoba and Akaishi discuss unsettling rumors about the Seishu High School baseball team, which has had a second straight losing year. In his office at Seishu High School, Acting Principal Shido tells a man dressed as a coach that he is pleased with his plans.
#5 - Let's End This
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 10/11/2009
In the top of the fourth inning, Azuma hits a double but again fails to score. In the bottom of the inning, Mishima stands in the first base coach box, where he tells first-baseman Azuma he is having fun. Akaishi and Aoba are both impressed by Ko's pitching, and the end of six innings, with the score unchanged, Ko has struck out 10 of 18 batters. In the seventh inning, Shimano breaks a finger fielding Azuma's hit and is replaced by Mishima, making Ko and Akaishi worry about Seishu's chances. When Mishama bats, later that inning, he hits a solo home run to tie the game at 1. At the top of the ninth, Senda hits a single, thus ensuring that the best hitters of both teams, Azuma and Mishima, will bat again. As Azuma comes to bat with two outs, Ryuo sends out Oikawa as relief pitcher, and he intentionally walks Azuma before striking out Akaishi. Ko sacrifices control for speed to pitch to Mishima, who manages to hit a blazing line drive that Ko barely catches.
#6 - More Than Anyone in the World...
Season 1 - Episode 50 - Aired 3/28/2010
In the bottom of the 12th with Seishu leading 2 to 1, because Ko is tiring, Akaishi tells him to pitch all out to decide the game now. With two outs and a runner on first, Mishima comes to bat. Still pitching in the high 150s km/h, after reaching a full count, Ko walks Mishima with what Junpei calls the fastest pitch of the day. As Aoba watches Ko strike out the last batter, she remembers what he said before the game: that Seishu would go to Koshien, he would pitch 160 km/h, and he loves her more than anyone. After the game Ko hugs Aoba, who slaps him, saying she hates him more than anyone, then cries into his chest. The morning before traveling to Koshien, Akaishi visits Akane in the hospital, Nakanishi consoles Azuma for losing Aoba, and Aoba and Ko meet at a cafe near the train station, where they talk about Wakaba and Akane's influence, and then leave holding hands. During the closing credits, a newspaper headline says that Ko's final pitches reached 160 km/h.
#7 - No I'm Not!
Season 1 - Episode 29 - Aired 10/18/2009
Ko strikes out the last Ryuo batter, sending the game into extra innings, tied 1 to 1. At the top of the tenth, Ko loses control of his bat before successfully bunting, but is left on base. In the bottom of the inning, after fouling off Ko's fastball, a Ryuo batter loses his bat because his hands are numb from the previous pitch. With a runner on second, Oikawa hits a line drive that Ko, with his arm still affected by Mishima's hit, fails to catch. The runner scores, and Ryuo wins the game. After the game, Ko apologizes to a disappointed Aoba for losing, but she manages to smile. Ryuo goes on to easily win the prefectural tournament and their first game at Koshien. When Ko apologizes to Azuma for failing to make the play, Azuma tells him to focus instead on Aoba's disappointment at not being able to play in tournament games. As Ko and Azuma walk past the construction next-door to Kitamura Sports, they are told by a young woman who resembles Wakaba that it will be a soba restaurant.
#8 - Wakaba
Season 1 - Episode 30 - Aired 10/25/2009
Upon seeing the girl who looks like Wakaba, Ko remembers the summer Wakaba died. In a flashback, scenes of Wakaba from the first three episodes are shown, leading up to her death. In the present, the girl invites him to come to the restaurant when it opens.
#9 - Do Ghosts Grow Older?
Season 1 - Episode 31 - Aired 11/1/2009
The girl, Akane Takigawa, apologizes to Ko for the construction noise. Later, Ko tells Azuma he does not know whether Akane really looks like Wakaba would now, because in his mind Wakaba is still in fifth grade. Mizuki invites Aoba to a summer festival the next day. Ko dreams of going to the festival with Wakaba, as she promised before she died, then of running to meet Akane at the Takigawa's soba restaurant. The next day, the anniversary of Wakaba's death, Aoba tells Ko to report his tournament result to Wakaba when he visits her grave. On his way back, he meets Akane wearing a yukata similar to Wakaba's. On her way to Wakaba's grave, Aoba sees them walking together and asks Mizuki if ghosts grow up. At the festival, Akaishi also sees them and asks Nakanishi the same quesiton. Ko and Akane meet her parents at the festival, and after parting with them, Ko meets Momiji, Ichiyo, Aoba, and Mizuki. When Aoba asks where his companion went, they begin to squabble but suddenly stop when the Tsukishimas see Akane at random through the festival crowd.
#10 - Hey
Season 1 - Episode 32 - Aired 11/8/2009
When Azuma asks Aoba whether Akane really does look like Wakaba, Aoba says, just as Ko did, that in her mind Wakaba is still in fifth grade. Ryuo loses in the semifinal at Koshien. One morning after the Takigawa soba restaurant opens, when Akane and Ko walk to the train station together, he accidentally takes her case of art supplies and goes to her school to return it, where he helps stop an exhibitionist by hitting him with a baseball. During practice, when Aoba makes a bad pun, Azuma tells her she and Ko are a lot alike. Akane meets Momiji at a park where they both are sketching and walks her home, where Aoba and her father formally meet Akane for the first time. After Aoba rescues Akane from being harassed by some boys, Akane recognizes her from Ko's description of the three Tsukishima sisters. Aoba later asks Ko why he didn't tell Akane about Wakaba, then admits that Akane is very like Wakaba beyond just appearance.
#11 - Or Is It Fate?
Season 1 - Episode 33 - Aired 11/15/2009
Seishu wins their first game of the autumn prefectural tournament. On a day without practice, Aoba and Ko each decide to clean their bedrooms, which neither does regularly. As thanks for saving her, Akane makes Aoba a frilly cushion, telling Ko that she always wanted a cute little sister like Aoba. While delivering it, Akane learns that Aoba had an older sister, Wakaba, who died. When Akaishi helps his father deliver liquor to the Takigawa soba shop, he again is shocked by Akane's appearance, after which Akane learns from Senda of her resemblance to Wakaba. After practicing in the Tsukishima batting cages, Azuma eats a meal cooked by Aoba at the Clover Cafe despite Ko's warnings. The next day Azuma has acute appendicitis and misses Seishu's next game. While watching it, Akane learns that Aoba cannot play in tournament games such as this one, and begins watching Aoba in the stands. The game is a pitchers' duel that Seishu ultimately loses 1 to 0.
#12 - Happy New Year
Season 1 - Episode 34 - Aired 11/22/2009
On New Year's Eve, Ko helps the Takigawas deliver soba. At the Tsukishima's, he meets Junpei Azuma, who had forgotten he is driving his brother home for a visit. When Ko is done, Akane returns a book to him, thanking him for helping her draw a good picture for a competition. Ko, Akaishi, and Nakanishi go to a shrine to pray for good luck, and Senda follows to avoid practicing with Midori but fails to find them. Yuhei Azuma returns and finds Aoba alone in the Tsukishima batting cages, the rest of the family having gone to the shrine. Junpei's wallet is stolen at the shrine, and Ko and his friends chase the thief, but he is caught by Momiji's "candidate" boyfriend. In the batting cages, when Aoba tells Azuma she will not try out for the women's national team because does not want to take time away from practicing with Seishu, to help them get to Koshien, he tells her she should try for a Koshien of her own.
#13 - February 14th
Season 1 - Episode 35 - Aired 11/29/2009
Because of their fall record, Seishu is not invited to the spring Koshien tournament. Akane wins that year's Koshien poster art contest with a painting of a pitcher that Aoba claims depicts Ko's form. Ko corrects her, saying that Akane based it on his photos of Aoba, which he had used to model his pitching style. From Akaishi, Akane learns of Wakaba's relationship with Ko. Aoba tells Azuma she will try out for the women's national team in March, and when she teases him about being given chocolates for Valentine's Day, he says the only girl he would consider going out with is her. For Valentine's Day, both Aoba and Azuma receive many chocolates. When Aoba drops Ko's chocolates off a bridge, she buys replacements, including one extra to give to Azuma for her. When Ko delivers it, Azuma says that he likes Aoba because she is hard to figure out, because she is not true to herself. That evening, Akane asks Ko to show her photographs of Wakaba. As she looks through his albums, she comments that it is obvious Wakaba loved him, and would still love him today. As she leaves, she gives him chocolate.
#14 - To Women's Baseball!?
Season 1 - Episode 36 - Aired 12/6/2009
The day of Aoba's tryout for the women's national team, Ko and Azuma see her off at the train station. During the journey, Midori, Matsuyama, and Kojima tell her that her play during Satomi's match with Oka a year ago inspired Satomi to win the girl's high school championship. At the tryouts, the Satomi players point out Shimano from Ryuo, who looks and plays like her cousin from the boy's team. In Tokyo, Ko waits out the rainy day in Akane's soba shop. During her batting tryout, Shimano is overshadowed by Oka's Ozaki. Kojima and Oka's Sawaguchi watch Aoba's pitching and are impressed by how her speed and control have improved. Before the coaches announce the results, Shimano insists on showing how she bats against a pitcher instead of a machine, and draws Aoba as her pitcher. Aoba strikes her out with three pitches, and Aoba, Matsuyama, and Midori all pass the first round of tryouts. At Seishu's practice the next day, Aoba pitches to Azuma, a challenge they both enjoy, until he hits her with a line drive.
#15 - I Guess I Slept Well
Season 1 - Episode 37 - Aired 12/13/2009
Aoba is hospitalized with a broken foot and unable to play for a month. She claims will not affect the team, given she cannot participate in tournament games, but Ko tells Akane that Aoba really is frustrated. Because Azuma feels guilty, he stops hitting hard in practice and visits Aoba daily in the hospital, and because of this both Ichiyo and Nakanishi suggest he has feelings for her. Midori is disappointed that Aoba cannot participate in the second round of tryouts, and is herself wait-listed for the national team. Junpei Azuma proposes marriage to Ichiyo, who says yes on one condition, which she does not name. To keep Aoba occupied in the hospital, Ko brings her a ball and glove, after which a nurse says she looks more lively. Akaishi gives Akane two tickets his family cannot use and tells her to invite Ko to the performance. While watching Ryuo advance in the spring Koshien tournament, Aoba tells Azuma she will train hard when she gets out so Seishu will have a pitcher for batting practice who can match Oikawa.
#16 - It’s His First Date
Season 1 - Episode 38 - Aired 12/20/2009
Ryuo continues to advance at Koshien. Akaishi gives Ko an introduction to kabuki theater to study up on it, saying that he set up Ko to take Akane to a performance because he wants to see Wakaba's smile. Outside of Aoba's hospital, Azuma meets Daimon, who says his new team will beat Ryuo. Aoba tells Azuma that Ko's date with Akane is his first, then assumes the glove maintenance kit Ko sent her is from Azuma. After the play, Ko and Akane visit the neighborhood where she grew up. Ko later gives Akaishi kabuki-themed snack food. At the start of the school year, when Ko becomes a third-year student and Momiji enters junior high school, Aoba is discharged. With Aoba out of the hospital, Azuma starts hitting hard again. In return for the kabuki tickets, Akane gives Akaishi a handmade mobile phone charm that she modeled after him, then later gives another to Ko.
#17 - Since Forever
Season 1 - Episode 39 - Aired 12/27/2009
Akaishi visits his old elementary school and remembers Wakaba describing her Koshien dream. Aoba teaches Ko new breaking pitches, which Azuma describes as her way of climbing on the mound in Koshien using Ko's body, and resumes training after her cast is removed. After Ryuo wins the spring Koshien tournament, its coach denies to reporters that he is worried about Seishu in the upcoming summer tournament. Akane becomes a waitress at the Clover Cafe. When Akane visits a flea market in another township, Aoba suggests that Ko accompany her, where in return for Aoba's coaching Ko buys her a garish T-shirt. Aoba tells Azuma that she does not regret not making the women's national team, then complains about how quickly Ko learns new pitches, saying that maybe she has underestimated him. When Ko gives her the shirt, she thanks him, to his surprise. Because the women's national team is short on pitchers with fastballs, the coach asks Aoba to join their training camp.
#18 - Idiot!
Season 1 - Episode 40 - Aired 1/10/2010
Distracted by the coach's request, Aoba burns a customer's order in the Clover Cafe. One night, Ko escorts Akane home because she thinks she is being followed by a stalker, and together Ko and Aoba catch a man who had recently stalked Aoba before finding her too scary. As punishment, Aoba forces the man to use the batting cages until he is exhausted. After Ichiyo tells Junpei Azuma she will marry him if Seishu goes to Koshien, he joins the team as an enthusiastic assistant coach; Ichiyo later tells Ko that she never said she would not marry Junpei if Seishu does not make it. When they go shopping together, Aoba tells Akane about her invitation to join the women's national team, and Akane suggests she chose the course that leads to the fewest regrets. While Junpei and Aoba scout a Ryuo practice, he asks whether she likes his brother. When she cannot answer, he suggests that she be honest with herself, and she later reassures him that Seishu will go to Koshien.
#19 - Koshien, Here I Go!
Season 1 - Episode 41 - Aired 1/17/2010
Akane tells Aoba that she drew a lot as a child because she was sickly and could not play outdoors, unlike Wakaba. Akane claims Wakaba had no weaknesses but before Aoba can name one, Ko suggests her taste in guys. Ko visits Wakaba's grave on their 18th birthday, after which both Akane and Aoba give him cake and he buys the scheduled, slightly expensive earrings for Wakaba. A younger player tells Ko that the team has gotten a lot better because of Aoba's influence and gets Ko to confirm that she and Azuma are not yet officially dating. The brackets for the summer prefectural tournament are announced, which have Seishu meeting Daimon's current school, Kurokoma, in the second round. Aoba surprises Azuma by praising Ko's pitching, but that night she cannot guess what Akane and Wakaba see in Ko. Akane tells Aoba that she and Ko are a lot alike and that if she learns to love herself, she will see what Wakaba saw in Ko. At practice the next day, Aoba is surprised to see how hard Ko works. She asks him if he likes Akane, and he replies that she looks too much like Wakaba
#20 - Everyone's Summer
Season 1 - Episode 42 - Aired 1/24/2010
Maeno announces a training camp for the week before the tournament. On her way home from school, Aoba finds Akane having a spell of weakness in the train station and walks her home. On the team's day off before the training camp, Mizuki complains to Ko about Azuma and Aoba being together so much; Nakanishi's girlfriend competes in a track-and-field tournament but loses in the quarterfinal heats; Junpei introduces Ichiyo to his parents; Akaishi meets former portable teammate Makihara, who tells him to beat Ryuo to save Seishu's face; Azuma gives Senda batting tips at the Tsukishima cages; Tubby scouts a Ryuo practice, where Mishima tells her to not let Seishu loose before they meet; Akaishi and Ko practice pitching at the secret training place they used in junior high school; and Aoba tells Ozaki she has chosen to help take Seishu to Koshien instead of joining the national team. Aoba then pitches for Ozaki, striking her out. The next day, the Seishu training camp begins.
#21 - She Hasn't Changed...
Season 1 - Episode 43 - Aired 1/31/2010
While scouting Seishu's first opponent in the tournament, Junpei meets Daimon and turns down an invitation to watch Kurokoma practice. Risa returns to Seishu for a photo shoot the day before Seishu's first game but refuses to interrupt the team practice. Various members of the team ask out Aoba based on whether they perform well during the game, while Ko asks to be excused from dating her if he strikes out at least 10 batters. The game is called for Seishu after five innings, but only Ko makes his promised goal. Daimon, watching from the stands, discounts Ko's performance based on how poorly the opponents batted. Aoba asks Ko if he wanted to avoid dating her so much, then advises him to conserve his strength in the future. Kurokoma plays Sena, the team led by Miki, and loses in a close game because Daimon refuses to use his ace pitcher against a "no-name" school.
#22 - A Careless Pitch?
Season 1 - Episode 44 - Aired 2/7/2010
Azuma tells Aoba that to understand her popularity, she needs to recognize her good points outside of her baseball skills. When she asks Ko what those are, he tells her that one can to be too close things to see them clearly, and as she watches fans cheer him during the game against Sena, she admits he might be right. After Miki bats for the first time against Ko, Miki admits to Akaishi he may have transferred from Seishu too early. Seishu gets on base each of the first seven innings but fails to score, while not allowing Sena any hits. When Ko complains about how well Miki knows Seishu's abilities, Azuma says Miki has not accounted for Aoba's influence on the younger Seishu players and in the bottom of the eighth, one of them hits a three-run homer. At the end of the ninth, Miki hits a home run, preventing Ko from pitching a no-hitter. Seishu wins 3 to 1.
#23 - That's My Line!
Season 1 - Episode 45 - Aired 2/14/2010
When Seishu wins another game in the tournament, Mizuki complains because it means putting off camping with Aoba. Because she is not feeling well, Akane does not go to work nor to the game, which worries Akaishi. Based on Aoba's coaching, Ko adjusts his pitching form during the next game, which sacrifices control but gives him a speed near 160 km/h. Despite his walking many batters, Seishu wins to advance to the quarterfinals. Ko tries to explain to reporters how Aoba is important to himself and the team, even though she cannot play in tournament games. Akane enters the hospital to be tested for an unspecified illness, which disturbs Akaishi's focus. When Aoba visits her, she is startled by Akane repeating something Wakaba once said about Ko. During the quarterfinal game, Akaishi is still distracted, but with Ko's improved control while still maintaining his speed, plus Azuma's batting, Seishu wins.
#24 - I've Got a Bad Feeling
Season 1 - Episode 46 - Aired 2/21/2010
Akaishi and Aoba visit Akane in the hospital, where she tells them that she promised to go on a date with Ko after the tournament, and that she may require surgery. In the semifinal, Seishu plays Nishikura, a team that has come from behind to win every game by one run. Senda hits a home run on first pitch of the game, and Nishikura scores a run in the first inning as well. Spurred by Akane's worries, Akaishi hits another home run in the second inning. In the eighth inning, with Nishikura having failed to get on base since the second inning, Seishu scores six runs. Nishikura does not score in the bottom of the inning and the game is called for Seishu, 8 to 1. After the game, Ko finally visits Akane in the hospital for the first time, where he praises Akaishi's performance and then asks when her surgery is.
#25 - Can I Lie?
Season 1 - Episode 47 - Aired 3/7/2010
Ko promises Akane he will tell Akaishi that she will be out in a couple days, saying that he is a pretty good liar. Akane tells him that her surgery will be on the day of the tournament final against heavily favored Ryuo, so she will have to put off their date, then asks him to tell Aoba the truth. Ko tells Akaishi the lie, then asks Aoba to visit Wakaba's grave with him. While there, he prays that the surgery is successful and tells Aoba that Wakaba would not let her cry again. At practice, when Aoba jokingly asks Azuma out to a movie, he asks if she means to ask him out so lightly, saying he seriously likes her. The morning before the game, Aoba asks Ko if he likes Akane more than herself, to which he asks if he can lie. While warming up in the stadium, Ko spots Momiji, who flashes him a peace sign, after which he celebrates. At the hospital, when Akane's surgery is over, Aoba tells Momiji by text message to give Ko a peace sign to tell him it was successful.