Figure Heart no Kuni no Alice Chapter 35

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/heart_no_kuni_no_alice/


The feel-good cliché is that the journey is what's important. Let's be honest. That's a load of crap. Everyone knows the destination matters—a lot. A good ending can redeem a bad series and push a good one towards greatness. A bad ending nearly always ruins a series, even the best of them. Cross Game's ending is a good one. Very good.

The end of Cross Game is of course a baseball game. It's a fine game, the kind of dryly funny, unpredictable match that the series is known for. But that's hardly all it is. It's also a crossroads, a place where Cross Game's characters and ongoing relationships meet and take a turn towards their final destinations. Akane fights for her life and shifts ever so slightly the direction of her affections. Ko gives Akaishi a gentle push to be less selfless. Azuma picks up some of Akaishi's selflessness and moves further yet from his days as a baseball robot. Azuma's flighty older brother reaches the final punch-line of his running joke of a love life, Aoba's amorous cousin Mizuki makes a sort of peace with his own unrequited feelings, and even bratty one-time manager/idol Risa can be spotted taking another step towards full-blown baseball fandom. This isn't just some game; it's a slice of life, in the best, most profound sense of the term: broad, varied, and poignant.