Ookiku Furikabutte/YMMV

• Creator's Pet - Haruna, and the rest of Musashino High School. To the extent that Higuchi has been giving them 50:50 attention with Nishiura since 2008. Just when the fandom thought it was over, the fall tournament began and guess who Nishiura's first opponent is. It gets even worse when you realize Higuchi went into loving detail about the Kasugabe and ARC matches, and then completely glossed over Nishiura's three newcomer's tournament matches so she could throw them into a match against Musashino
• Designated Villain -- Mihashi's old teammates, Mihoshi High and to a lesser extent, Tosei.
  • For Mihoshi, It's Personal between all of them and Ren, including a Kick the Dog moment from their captain. Kano is weird about it, since Ren was forced off for his benefit and with his approval, because he's serious about being the top pitcher. However, while the rest of the team hate Ren, he apparently still wants to be friends because he knew Ren from before the team. He also believed Ren had actual talent and they had misjudged him -- which just makes him even more determined to win their pitcher's duel.^[1]
  • For Musashino, It's Personal between Haruna and Abe.
  • On the whole, between everyone but these four guys and everyone else, there are no evil rival teams. Even Mihoshi and Tosei are very gracious in defeat.
• Die for Our Ship: The backlash among Japanese yaoi fangirls when Shinooka was revealed to have a crush on Abe was incredible. They have taken to writing her name as 死の岡 and 死のーか, using the character for "death."
• Foe Yay: Abe and Haruna.
• Ho Yay -- The tough love relationship between Ren and his catcher, Abe. Yaoi Fangirls Squee at the scene where they hold hands in a bush, and Abe assures Ren that he "likes [Ren], more than just as a pitcher". The lack of female love interests also feeds the Subtext, as the coach is much older than the team, and the manager claims to have no romantic interest in any of the guys in the team (later revealed to be a lie).
  • Lampshade Hanging:

Ren: I - I - like you too!
Abe: uh, great, thanks... (thinks:Did it sound that creepy when I said it?)

• • No mention of Hanai and Tajima? Or Sakaeuguchi and Suyama after the latter's heartfelt, hand-holding encouragement during the middle of a game?
  • To add fuel to the fire, several of the boys have decided that tickling is an appropriate way to relax each other before going up to bat.
  • The Ho Yay extends to the members of the other teams: Takase of Tosei breaks down in tears after losing to Nishiura because he "wanted to be able to play more together" with the catcher, a third-year who's graduating, and ARC has Ootagawa's inexplicable devotion towards team captain and catcher Yoshida.
• Just about any two guys in the series can be shipped together fairly well, including some cross-team romances such as Abex Haruna and Riox Tajima.
• Moe -- Mihashi is an example of the rarer male version.
• Needs More Love

1. ↑ And still be friends.