Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko - Episode 10

Who knew playing baseball whilst wearing a space suit would be so difficult?  Well, I suppose we all did really, but that doesn't seem to stop the esper-cum-alien who appeared for Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko's second city versus shopping district baseball game from doing just that.

Despite this handicap, Makoto finds himself on the losing team once again, but more importantly said esper continues to take more than a passing interest in Erio despite her reformed ways as an alien herself - thus, it's left up to Makoto to chase this particular problem away, only to find it returning that evening as Makoto and Erio look set to do a little star-gazing.

Still, the ensuing conflict of futon versus space suit at least reveals first the face, and then the name, of our esper - Yashiro Hoshimiya, a decidedly rude yet determined young girl.  Eventually, Yashiro seems to depart the scene, leaving Makoto to enjoy a telephone conversation with Ryuuko as she informs him of her forthcoming baseball game, and possibly a "date" at the forthcoming festival were he to cheer her on to victory.  Come the next morning however, it seems that getting rid of Hoshimiya wasn't as easy as it first seemed, with Meme inviting her in for breakfast before leaving Makoto to take this rumoured runaway to what she calls "home", albeit via a diversion to a local pool and a suggestion that there is perhaps something to Yashiro's claims of special powers after all...

Never mind the vagaries of its plot, watching Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko has always been about having a fun time and enjoying its characters, and this episode to me personifies that sense of what the series is all about - Makoto continues to be a sharp and witty male lead who has a handle of pretty much everything around him (aside from Meme perhaps), while on this occasion his phone conversation with Ryuuko felt wonderfully natural and believable from beginning to end.  Hoshimiya's introduction potentially adds another angle to proceedings, although it remains to be seen exactly how she fits into things as we move towards our final two episodes with a feeling that nothing much is going to get resolved before the show finished.  Luckily, I don't really mind too much at all as long as though remaining instalments are equally entertaining and outright fun.