Nine

When we last saw our main characters, Niimi Katsuya and Nakao Yuri were beginning to see themselves as a couple, but Katsuya was being pursued by a rising track star, Yasuda Yukimi, and Yuri by rival Bunan's third-year pitching phenom, Yamanaka Kentarou. New complications arise in this episode, as Kentarou's younger brother Jirou joins the Seishuu baseball team and promptly falls for Yukimi.

The Nine saga comes to a close with the third installment, 1984's Nine: Kanketsuhen (Nine: Final). Niimi Katsuya, Karasawa Susumu, and Kurahashi Eiji are all third-years, as are Nakao Yuri and Yasuda Yukimi. The principal romantic relationships are set. Katsuya is paired off with Yuri, and Jirou-kun (a second-year) with Yasuda Yukimi. Katsuya's former romantic rival, Jirou's older brother Kentarou, has gone on to college or pro baseball and is out of the picture. Thus, Nine: Kanketsuhen focuses on some of the side characters, as well as the climax of Coach Nakao's decades-long quest to get to the holy of holies, the high school baseball championships at Koushien.