Yorishiku Sensei! ~Ping-Pong Master~

This week was, I believe, the penultimate week of Yorosen. But more importantly, it was Maasa's week of Yorosen. I was dissapointed that they were making us wait till now to see Maasa teach Table Tennis, but it seems they saved the best for last after all!

Maasa was great, and gave us lots to laugh about with her reactions, etc. So here's the Yorosen a la Maa-highlights entry!

A few seconds in, and we're off. Maasa's runs into the room yelling "Alright!" and swinging that racket around with. Regular watchers of the show know that one of the biggest joys of the week is to see what kind of outfit the sensei will be dressed in. And Maasa's is definately one of the cutest so far - with the white shorts, dark t-shirt with those heart and star accessories. Did I mention that her hair is looking extra pretty today? Well now I have. Don't you forget it.

Maasa asks the question you didn't even know you'd been pondering for the last 6 months... When are we gonna see some ping pong? Well here Maasa asks the question for us - the Messiah with the answers before we even ask the question.

Maasa tells us how we should hold the racket, either using the "Handshake" or "Pen-holder" method. Personally I'd play with the handshake, it seems easier. But Captain does play very well during her matches with the other method. She also reminds Momoko not to stick her pinky up while holding it. That's right, Momo! Keep it down, you don't want to see Maasa when she's pissed off.

After handing out the rackets - and handing Risako a worn-out one - Risako tries to steal Maasa's racket. That's a sin, Risako! Don't do it! Maasa's racket is the forbidden fruit, touch it and you'll damn mankind forever.

After a brief struggle, Risako gets it, and Maasa - "The ping pong master" - is left with the worn out one. What have you done, Risako!?

You tell her, Maasa! I tried to warn her, but she wouldn't listen.

Maasa then proceeds to talk about Fukuhara Ai, a famous Japanese ping pong player, who plays the game at a national level. It seems that Captain knows a bit about ping pong, as she manages to get the nickname "Crybaby Ai" out before even Maasa-sensei does. Impressive. But this won't win you the war, Captain. Maasa won't lose to you!

Yurina looks soo tall standing beside the table. It makes me laugh.

We see two episodes of games between each of the girls. But all of that was unimportant, because Maasa was the seed on the bracket, everything was building up to her entry into the field. And in the 4th episode, definately the best battle in the whole week, we see Captain versus Maasa - perhaps the two best players in Berryz. And be warned. This is not for the faint of heart. Maasa's yelling can be pretty intimidating.

It starts off badly. Maasa is soon 3 points down. But if I know my Maasa, she'll pull through... Pull through, dammit!

I was right, Maasa gets back into the game! Now the real battle begins! Maasa's coming for you, Captain. And she'll stop at nothing in her quest for domination.

Look at her celebrate! Chinami points out that this is a pretty intense match, and she's right. No wonder it gets an entire episode to itself. She's still 1 point down at the moment (the score at the bottom has yet to update) But that's ground Maasa can still cover. She has to, for our sake!

She did it! This image captures the exact moment of victory over Captain. Once again, Maasa has defeated her arch-nemesis. I wonder what those pretenders have to say about this defeat! But it was a good battle, and really, I suspect it could have just as easily come out in Saki's favour instead. They are both skilled, and I think they would probably do well at a regional-level.

I could go on and do the Chinami one, but to be honest, it'd be fairly anti-climatic to do so. Chinami vs Maasa was a match that moved so slow that it's hard to keep up with what happened. Even her opponents Yurina and Maasa were confused. Seems it was either her tactic, or it was the way she happened to be playing. But after such an intense and fast-paced fight like Captain's, it's pretty boring in comparison.