God. If balls touching already makes something gay, how much gayer is it when balls are grinding against each other in mid-air?
But that’s how it works in manga/anime – the opposing effects collide and struggle against each other in midair. Rarely happens with balls in real-life games of sportsball, admittedly, mostly because they tend to sensibly restrict themselves to just one ball being around. But for visualizing the struggle in a comic, there’s no better way. Sorry.
And it also stresses how intensively personal this conflict has become. A conflict can basically not get any more personal than being ball-to-ball*.
Also note, please, that the balls have the right shape now. In the last episode, the umpire was holding a spherical ball, looking exactly like a soccer ball. That was a mistake on my…uh, on the prop department’s part. Of course you don’t play cricket with soccer balls! This elongated shape should be a lot more accurate.
No update yet on Riko’s condition. If she has regained consciousness in the meantime, I hope the sight of balls grinding in midair didn’t immediately cause her to faint again…
More on Monday.
*Between two guys, I mean.