Episode 8

The eighth episode of the Stars Align series. It premiered on November 28, 2019.

## Plot

Nao is being questioned by his mother about the boys’ soft tennis activity on Sunday. She demands Nao to focus studying for his senior high school entrance exam instead of spending his time on soft tennis. Due to a complaint from Nao's mother, the school principal informs Sakurai-sensei to suspend the boys’ soft tennis club activities for a whole week. Sakurai-sensei proceeds to tell the boys about the principal’s decision and also informs them that the bracket for the team tournament has been announced. The team will face Hatanouka Middle School as their first opponent in the tournament.

At Rokugo Watergate, Maki, Toma, Yuuta, and Mitsue discuss about Joy Kusakabe and a plan to gather information regarding Hatanouka Middle School soft tennis team. Yuuta announces they might have an idea. Later we see Yuuta borrowing some dresses from their sisters. The boys’ soft tennis club gathered at the school library the next day, discussing a plan to scout the Hatanouka soft tennis team during their practice. The team comes to the conclusion that Yuuta and Maki should cross-dress as girls and sneak in a video recorder to analyze their playstyle.

Maki and Yuuta go into Maki’s room to change their clothes and do makeup. During that time, Yuuta tells Maki about their gender insecurity, telling him that they are non-binary. Maki resonates with Yuuta by telling them that one of his mother’s friend (Shou Fujita) is a transgender male (FTM). And because Maki sometimes feels so out of place by solely existing, he could relate to Yuuta's insecurity. Yuuta thanked Maki for his support and Maki starts referring to Yuuta as “Yuu”, since they explain how it suits them perfectly. As both of them finish their preparation, Toma and Mitsue are surprised to see how good their disguises are.

Maki and Yuuta, along with Toma and Mitsue, meet up with the rest of the team at the station to go to Hatanouka Middle School. They are all surprised to see Maki and Yuuta disguised as girls, and how well they blend in. Before they can leave the station, Takuto Murakami accidentally encounters Toma and the rest of the team. He gets excited seeing them with two new girls and asks Toma to be introduced to them. Toma shouts at Takuto, telling him to leave them alone and lose his basketball match.

The team arrives at Hatanouka Middle School tennis court. Mitsue interrupts Joy’s admirers, winning over space for Maki and Yuuta to observe and record Joy’s playstyle. During that time, Mitsue gets surrounded and bullied by the girls she interrupts. After they’re done recording, Maki and the rest of the members give Mitsue words of support, thanking her for the distraction, and that she handled the situation with courage.

The next day, the team analyzes Joy’s playstyle from the recording. They’re hesitant to be able to beat Joy and start relying on the other two pairs to win the match. Mitsue reprimands them while Toma suggests having another practice match with the girls’ soft tennis team to get better. During break time, Itsuki pleads to his sister Namie for a practice match with the girls’ soft tennis team, to which she replies will mention it to their captain. Kei Takada silently eavesdrops on their conversation. At the same time, Sakurai-sensei also asks Murou-sensei for a practice match with the girls’ soft tennis team.

Later in the evening, Mitsue meets Sakurai-sensei at the art-prep room. She asks Sakurai-sensei to look at her drawings and tells him that her parents don’t approve of her drawing because they consider it to be a stupid thing to do and something people won’t respect her for. Mitsue recognizes how hard the boy’s soft tennis club has pushed itself, and adds that she loves drawing and wants to improve her drawing skill too, so that she could draw things as she sees them in her head. Mitsue, still feeling disheartened after receiving Sakurai-sensei’s advice, wanders alone at the Rokugo Watergate. Maki suddenly approaches her and convinces her to have dinner at Maki’s apartment. She then agrees and joins Toma and Yuuta for dinner at Maki’s apartment.
On the following day, now that the team is allowed to resume their activities, Yuuta tells them that they managed to secure a practice match with the girls’ soft tennis team this weekend.

After the end credit scene, Yuuta goes into their sisters’ room to return the clothes they borrowed. Yuuta is caught by their mother and she gets upset, stating that Yuuta is the only boy in the family and they should never dress up as a girl, adding that she thought to raise them properly, putting blame on Yuuta.

## Matches

No scored matches occurred in this episode

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Nao Tsukinose
* Nao’s Mother
* Takayuki Sakurai
* Sakura Murou
* Rintaro Futsu
* Itsuki Ameno
* Kanako Mitsue
* Shingo Takenouchi
* Tsubasa Soga
* Taiyou Ishigami
* Yuta Asuka
* Maki Katsuragi
* Toma Shinjo
* Hikari Asuka
* Izumi Asuka
* Shou
* Joy Kusukabe
* Takuto Murakami
* Namie Ameno
* Kei Takada

## Quotes

* Are we disciplining the club now? It's perhaps best for the school and parents. But.. What about for the kids themselves? – ***Takayuki Sakurai***
* I think in general; people might think it weird, but I think it can be hard for people to figure out for themselves who they are. – ***Maki Katsuragi***
* I have no idea what I want to do or who I want to be. – ***Yuuta Asuka***
* But I get times where I don't know the meaning of life, too. Why am I even here on this earth? It makes you wonder. – ***Maki Katsuragi***
* I think I do feel the same. If I had to say, I think I'm non-binary. But it doesn't feel right to be categorized like that. Still, the world always wants a decision one way or another. Being unsure makes issues. But what do I really want? What do I want to become? – ***Yuuta Asuka***
* I'm the same way. I feel so out of place just by living sometimes. It's like something is wrong but I don't know what. I'm not even sure that something's wrong at all. – ***Maki Katsuragi***
* Is it that important to decide between being a man or woman? Or does it even matter? Is it strange to worry about that sort of thing? I mean there's people out there who do. – ***Maki Katsuragi***
* You can't understand a pain of the heart you don't feel. But I think you can imagine the pain at least. I don't force myself to understand. But I think it's good to put myself in their shoes. – ***Maki Katsuragi***
* Even if that's true, don't force yourself to make a decision. There's still plenty of time for us. – ***Maki Katsuragi***
* ***Itsuki***: Even if we lose to Joy, it’s fine if our other pairs win.
***Nao***: He’s right, our other pairs could just win.
***Mitsue***: Say things like that and you'll lose all three.
* The boys... Even though soft tennis is totally useless, they push themselves so hard for it. I thought it's because they're stupid. But... But, I'm stupid, too. Because I like drawing. Is it all right to do what I want and have my own dream too? – ***Mitsue Kanako***

## Trivia

* Shingo refers to Nao’s mother as *oni* (鬼) which means demon.
* Joy Kusakabe is a model in the “NICEMENS” magazine. It was stated that he is 62 kg and 178 cm tall. Significantly taller than other average junior high school students.
* Itsuki refers to Mitsue as *Kana-nyan* in this episode.