Sorry, trying to catch up.  Anyways, after Stresseman asks Nodame to do a concerto with him, she skips school and goes to London with Stresseman for a while.  Chiaki starts desperately looking for Nodame only to find out that she’s performing a concerto with Stresseman.  He goes to watch it and tries to meet her after the concert but she refuses to see him.  Elise is happy that the concert was a success but Nodame seems as though a shell is only left of her.  Good Nausicaa reference in this scene.  Nodame all of a sudden leaves without her cell phone and because of that no one’s able to get a hold of her.  Funny scene where Elise calls Chiaki pretending to be Nodame.  She calls to see if Nodame is with Chiaki but no dice.  While trying to find her, he finally comes to term with his feelings for Nodame.  We find out that she ends up she’s just been training everywhere because she doesn’t think she can top her performance.  She then plans to head home but misses her stop and it delays her even more.  She eventually gets back to her place like nothing happened.  Also with Kuroki getting more kids/Nodame being popular, her apartment starts to look like a daycare.  All her friends wonder if she’ll ever go back to studies or her career.  Chiaki comes to her place and Nodame tells her she doesn’t want to play anymore and she felt guilty she didn’t play her first with him.  Chiaki grabs her and takes her to Nina Lutz’s place and tells her play the first piece they played together when they first met.  After everything, Nodame turns to her usual self and jumps to embrace Nodame, thinking he’s going to block her hug but he accepts it wholeheartedly, now knowing he doesn’t want to her to leave his side.  After that, Chiaki’s just doing his thing and Nodame does the Mozart concert with Chiaki there.  Kuroki and Tanya seem like they’re doing well, doing competitions together.  Can’t wait until (maybe) they animate the opera-hen!

With real life and sumo filling up my life, I wasn’t really able to review any episodes but here I present to you last few episodes of Cross Game.  After the game starts, Kou tells Akaishi about Akane’s surgery.  This makes Akaishi mad since he was left in the dark.  During the game, Kou consistently pitches over 150km/h.  Before the start of the second inning, Azuma tells Akaishi the only regret he has for staying in the team is never facing Kou’s pitches.  Ryou’s pitcher walks Azuma but strikes out everyone else.  Bottom of the second, Mishima bunts and is able to get to first.  Mishima tells Azuma he did it to avoid Kou from having a no-hit game.  The game continues without any other batter getting on stage for the first six innings.  Then on the seventh, Azuma is able to get a first and then steals the second.  Akaishi tells Kou that he’ll set up the bases so that Kou can get everyone home.  Kou tells Akaishi to not always give him the glory, to be the star of the game for once.  He’s able to get Azuma home, sliding in.  I like the fact that Azuma has broken out of the perfect home runs and starts to enjoy baseball and is actually happy to get the first run of the game.  At the bottom of the seventh, Kou strikes out Mishima pitching at the high 150s km/h but is disappointed that he’s not able to show 160km/h fastball he promised to show Aoba.  At the bottom of the eighth, Oikawa tries to repeat last year’s line drive but is caught by Kou.  At the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, Mishima is able to get a run in, sending the game into extra innings.  Top of the tenth, Azuma hits a triple.  Then Oikawa walks both Akaishi and Kou, then Oikawa doesn’t let a single batter get a hit.  As Seishuu hits the field, Azuma tells Kou to not let Mishima get on base or Ryuou will get momentum.  With still hitting his fastballs, Mishima hits a line drive straight to first, Azuma barely catching it.  After, Junpei tells Aoba to tell Kou he did a good job after the game, as she remembers him crying while practicing shortly after Wakaba died.  At the top of the twelve with two outs, Kou takes out a Tsukishima batting center coin and remembers all the home runs he did in the batting cage, and as he’s remembering this, he hits a home run.  Bottom of the twelve, it’s Ryuou’s turn on bat.   Before they get out, Azuma tells Kou to give Aoba a hug after the game is over.  The first batter hits Kou’s ball but is caught by Nakanishi, who throws it to first, getting the first out.  Kou confirms Wakaba’s dream once again with Akaishi.  Kou gets his second out and now Mishima is up to bat.  It’s two strikes and three balls and Kou throws a pitch which shocks everyone, including Mishima.  It’s the fastest pitch he does all game.  The speed is not shown but Mishima, Junpei, and Aoba suspect it’s over 160km/h but don’t mention it.  Mishima lets it through and he ends up walking.  He gets the last first out and Seishuu wins.  After the interviews and ceremonies, the teams head to their buses and when Kou sees Aoba, he hugs her.  Initially she slaps him away telling him she’s hates him but Kou tells her he knows, making her cry in his arms.  The day they leave for Koshien, Aoba is slow to getting out of the house.  Upon getting to the cafe near the train station, she meets up with Kou.  She asks where everyone else is and is told that they are visiting Akane before they leave.   As they finish their drinks, Kou grabs Aoba and they end up getting their photo taken by the store owner since he’s a fan of Kou’s.  As they exit, Aoba goes back in (we find out a little later, she went to ask the owner to get a copy of the photo).  Heading to the station, Kou realizes that it’s the the first that they are together by themselves so he tries to go back to get a copy but Aoba stops him.  He grabs him by the hand and drags him to the station.  As they wait for the train, Kou asks when they’re going to stop holding hands.  Aoba responds to him that he can let go if he wants to (he obviously doesn’t).  Aoba realizes that the whole time, with all the lying and everything, Kou understood him about everything, about the fun times they had with Wakaba and the sadness she felt when Wakaba dies and then ends with her saying that’s why she doesn’t like him.
Oh and what happens to Ichiyo and Junpei?  They are happily married!

Chizuru and Ryu are back on good terms (Chizuru evening telling Sawako and Ayane that he comforted her) and everyone is getting excited for Christmas.  Kazehaya decides to get a Christmas party together for all the singles in the class and invites Sawako.  She really wants to go but she tells him she needs to ask her parents first.  After school, Sawako in the classroom by herself contemplating whether she should just write her name down.  Kazehaya enters the room and convinces her to go.  When she gets home, she tries to ask her dad but being that he’s really excited for the day to come so she decides to not go to the party.  She still decides to make gifts for Chizuru and Ayane, and also starts making a toque for Kazehaya, never intending to give to him.  Sawako gives Chizuru and Ayane their gifts earlier since she can’t go to the party.  Christmas eve, she finishes Kazehaya’s toque but a very exited Sawako dad mistakes it for his and Sawako doesn’t have a heart to tell him.  She decides it’s okay since she never intended to give it to Kazehaya.  Later that night, she gets a call from Chizuru, who then passes it off to Ayane, who then passes it off to Kazehaya and realizing she’s missing a gathering with her friends, she starts to cry on the phone.  Sawako’s mom casually takes the phone of her hands and starts to talk to Kazehaya.  Kazehaya tells her that the party would be more than Sawako, during this time Sawako’s dad realizes what he’s done (or rather what he thinks he’s done) and decides to give Sawako her Christmas gift early.  It’s a brand new cell phone so she can keep in contact with her friends.  She asks her parents if she can go to the party for a brief moment and they tell her that it’s okay.  Sawako runs to the party but everyone’s left.  Only Kazehaya has been waiting out in the snow all this time.  He tells her that he had a feeling she would show up so he waited since she didn’t know where they were off to next.  Kazehaya tells her the gift exchange has ended but she gives her a Christmas gift, a cell phone strap.  He tells her that he doesn’t know if it’s worth anything to her but that’s when she pull out her phone she just got just before leaving her place.  She then takes out a…haramaki (loosely translates to belly warmer) that she initially made for her dad.  She tells him that there was an misunderstanding and the gift she intended on giving to him was taken by someone else.  She tells him that if his parents or grandparents want it, but Kazehaya tells her he can accept it too.  Next day, last day of classes before winter break, the guys start discussing Sawako’s brief visit to karaoke and leaving and starts to question if Kazehaya came with her.  Ayane tells them that Kazehaya lost a bet and as his punishment he had to wait for her.  Ayane doesn’t want to expose these two until the perfect moment, like birthdays and Valentine’s Day.  Sawako is worried she won’t be able to see any of her classmates until classes start again.  She asks Chizuru and Ayane if they can hang out during the break and they tells her of course she can.  They go out to eat afters school and they find out Sawako’s birthday is on New Year’s eve.    They tell her about their plans to go to the shrine (hatsumoude) with Ryu and invite her as well.  She call her mom to see if she can go and tell her it should be okay, especially since her dad thinks he did something bad to Sawako (ie stopping her from seeing her friends on Christmas eve) and then the girls convince her to invite Kazehaya.  He agrees to come.  On New Year’s Eve,  Chizuru and Ayane comes over to Sawako’s house.  Their gift to her is to make her look cute for Kazehaya.  They do her hair, put a bit of make up and head to the shrine.  Before they get there, Chizuru and Ayane leave, telling her Ryu won’t meet up with her and Kazehaya either.  She heads to the meeting spot alone, where Kazehaya is stunned by how she looks.  She tells her Ryu won’t be coming here either and for a moment she’s worried that he might just go home but then he tells her to come along and head to the shrine.  She reflects on how happy she is to be spending her birthday with him.

It’s a 20-Fold Kaioken! A Kamehameha With Everything on the Line/This is the Last Trump Card! Goku’s Extra-Large Genki Dama/Awaken Warrior of Legend… Super Saiyan, Goku Son!

Okay so, slept on this show for a couple of weeks so here the super condensed version of the three episodes.  Ginyu, in Bulma’s body tries to steal Piccolo’s body but at the last second, Gohan throws the frog (Bulma) at the last second, putting Bulma back in her own body.  Meanwhile, Goku is being beat on by Frieza.  Goku contemplates using 20X Kaioken but doesn’t know if his body can handle it.  Frieza eventually gets Goku kept underwater drowning him.  He’s pretty much done for until he thinks of all the people living on Earth and realizes he doesn’t want any of them to die so as a result, he uses 20x Kaiken with a massive Kamehameha against Frieza.  It’s not able to defeat Frieza and now Goku has used too much energy and doesn’t have much left.  However he sees a vision of Vegeta and Bardock, and Vegeta telling him to keep the pride of the Saiyans, he’s realizes he only has one chance.  He decides to use the Genki Dama.  The only problem is this takes a long time so he starts collecting the energy in front of Frieza without him realizing what he’s doing.  Eventually he finds out but Piccolo comes to take his mind off the Genki Dama.  Frieza is too much for Piccolo and at one point, he’s about to get killed but Gohan and Krillin distract him enough to turn away from Piccolo.  Frieza decides to blow the entire planet up but forgets that Goku been creating a Genki Dama all this time.  It’s now complete and Goku aims it straight for him.  Frieza is able to catch it but couldn’t stop it from exploding on him.  Goku, Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo believe they have won the battle but then Krillin sees a bad damaged but alive Frieza emerge from the water. He tries to kill Goku but instead Piccolo moves him out of the way, as a result hitting Piccolo.  Goku tells Krillin and Gohan to take Piccolo, pick up Bulma and return to Earth.  Frieza won’t let that happen so instead he picks up Krillin up in the air and makes him explode.  This is the last straw for Goku resulting in getting an emotion from Goku that’s never been there before, anger.   This results in Goku becoming… the long awaited Super Saiyan.  Goku tells Gohan to take Piccolo and start heading home.  What Goku is going to do next, we all know but we’ll wait for that until Sunday!

Nodame is so into practicing she forgets to go to Chiaki’s concert.  At her lesson, she’s told by Auclair that the Beethoven’s third movement of Piano Sonata No. 31 lacks the proper emotion, rejection, depression, etc.  However, Auclair calls her “Megumi” instead of “Bebe-chan” so she gets really excited.  However after being stopped by Lucas, she realizes she has forgotten to ask Chiaki for concert tickets to him and Rui’s concert.  No worry, Chiaki’s reserved seven for her.  Nodame asks if she can come pick them up the next day but she’s told that he has to go Rui’s place for work, to see her progress on the solo.  Because of this, she realizes what kind of emotion is needed in the Beethoven piece.  Next evening, Nodame has everyone over for dinner.  However, the pizza everyone pitched in for, she ends up burning it.  Luckily, Nodame’s got some Chiaki cooking so that ends up being served.  She seems really depressed and Tanya suggests her to just go and see Chiaki but she seems like she’s enjoying the mood so no one pushes it any further.  They all go to the concert and Rui’s expectation far exceeds what Nodame was expecting.  She ends up at Chiaki’s place and he realizes that there’s something wrong with Nodame, but he decides to play along.  He asks if she can stay over, and at one point, she suddenly embraces him and asks if he likes her.  The next morning, he’s getting ready to leave for Italy and he’s about to call to Nodame when she shows up right behind her and…. she asks him to marry her.  Not knowing what to do, he passes it off as a joke and leaves.  Later that day, Stresemann sees Nodame sitting on a bench and goes up to her like his usual self and she seems down so he jokingly tells her that if she needs a place to cry, then cry in his arms, to which she obliges.  Meanwhile Chiaki is with Jean and Yuko and his mind is filled with the proposal of that morning.  He realized that she was running away from something but since he didn’t want to believe it, he passed it off as a joke.  He wonders if he should call her.  At the same time, Stresemann is talking to Nodame and asks about the proposal.  Then Stresemann asks Nodame to play for him since he has not heard her play since they were both in Japan.  After hearing her play, Stresmann asks if Nodame wants to do a concerto with him first, instead of with Chiaki.  I can’t believe this is coming to an end as well!

While visiting Akane at the hospital, Kou asks when her surgery is.  She tells him it’s the day of the final game so she’ll have to postpone their date.  Kou tells Akane that he’s a good liar so he will tell Akaishi that she’ll be out in a couple of days.  Akane asks Kou to tell Aoba the truth.  Kou tells Akaishi the lie which he accepts without question.  Kou then asks Aoba to come along to visit Wakaba’s grave with him the next day.  While there, Kou tells Aoba the truth. He prays the surgery to be a success and tells Aoba that Wakaba won’t let her cry again.  Back at practice, Nakanishi tries to keep Kou and Aoba’s “date” a secret to Azuma but he overhears everything.  Aoba tells Azuma that Kou and Akane were planning their date and then jokingly asks him out to a movie.  Azuma then tells her not to ask so lightly since he actually likes Aoba.  Early next morning, the day of the game, Kou asks Aoba to do final check with pitching.  While doing this, Aoba asks if Kou likes Akane.  He tells her that he does, then Aoba asks if he likes Akane more than Wakaba.  He tells her that you can’t compare someone who’s passed away.  She then asks if he likes Akane more than herself, to which Kou asks if he can lie.  While warming up, Kou spots Momiji, to which she gives him a peace sign, and Kou celebrates.  At the hospital, Akane’s surgery is a success so Aoba sends Momiji a text message, instructing her to give Kou a peace sign, all a coincidence.

Akaishi and Aoba visit Akane at the hospital where she tells them that she’s promised a date with Kou after the tournament.  Akaishi asks her about her condition and she tells him that she may require surgery, then tells them that she only told them because she asked.  In the semi-final, Seishuu plays Nishikura, a team that plays from behind, a point for point, then gets in an extra run at the end to win the game.  Senda hits a home run off the game’s first pitch, making coach Maeno feel uncomfortable.  Nishikura gets a run in at the bottom of the inning.  Compensating for his worry about Akane, Akaishi hits the second home run in the second inning, making Maeno comfortable again.  The game goes on without getting any runs in, the coach of Nishikura believing it’s all according to plan, until they realize that they’ve failed to get on base since the second inning.  Seishuu gets six runs in the eighth inning, and the game is called for Seishuu 8 to 1.  Kou goes to visit Akane at the hospital after the game, where he praises Akaishi’s performance, then asks when her surgery is.

I haven’t really been into reviewing lately but that might be due to the Olympic craze that happened in my city.   Anyways back to Kimi Ni Todoke.  Tohru leaves, he tells Ryu to tell Chizuru to show up next time.  Chizuru heads over to Ryu’s place to give him her present, where Ryu tells her that she’s late and that hopefully she’ll get over Tohru for the last time.  She gets angry and throws the present at him and leaves.  The next day Sawako and Ayane still don’t know what to do with the situation.  Kazehaya tells them that just by being there and worrying about her helps Chizuru a lot.  Chizuru shows up and ignores Ryu during class but eventually runs into each other and Chizuru asks what he meant by the night before about her being late.  Ryu eventually tells her that he wanted Chizuru to be rejected to finally get over Tohru.  Chizuru is upset with Ryu because he thinks she only came to visit Tohru.  Sawako and Ayane eventually find her where she breaks down to them and tells them how angry she is at Ryu, not knowing he’s listening and leaves.  Chizuru tells them what makes her angry the most is how she treated Ryu.  The girls go out and enjoy the rest of the day (end of episode 20).  Next day, Chizuru looks refreshed but still ignores Ryu.  When walking home from going to karaoke, the girls talk about what Chizuru would say to Tohru, with Chizuru joking around saying she would confess to him.  Then Tohru actually shows up and steals Chizuru away.  The two walk together and Tohru talks about memories with Chizuru growing up.  At the end of the walk, Chizuru confesses to Tohru and Tohru tells her he likes her back but as a little sister.  Chizuru congratulates Tohru as he leaves after dropping her off at her place.  Tohru is greeted by Ryu where he gives him bread that Chizuru threw at him the day before.  Ryu goes to Chizuru’s place only to be told that she is not home yet.  Ryu goes to the docks where Chizuru was at the time Tohru moved out.  Chizuru realizes it was Ryu that asked Tohru to come visit her and asks Ryu to comfort her, then they embrace.