The Best Episodes Directed By Yoshiyuki Ichihashi

After its defeat at the Battle of Astarte, the Free Planets Alliance Navy returns to the planet Heinessen, the Alliance's capital. A memorial service is being held for the 1,500,000 Alliance soldiers who died in the battle, but according to Rear Admiral Cazerne, it's nothing but a political show put on by National Defense Committee Chairman Trunicht. Yang reluctantly attends the service, but while there, he encounters an old acquaintance he never expected to see

Motivated by painful memories of middle school, Futaba has taken on superficial friendships in high school. Kou refers to them as "friends-in-name-only." One day, Futaba encounters a classmate, Makita Yuuri, who is shunned by the other girls for putting on a "cutesy girl act," eating lunch alone.

Futaba resolves to tell Yuuri about her feelings for Kou. After class, she tells Yuuri and Shuuko how she feels. On the way back, Futaba happens to run into Kou, who's out late at night. Intrigued, she follows him, and finds Kou hanging out with some kids in the entertainment district.

Seirin managed to break free of Kirisaki Daiichi's 'spider web'. However, the game is still not over with Hanamiya having another card up his sleeves. Will Seirin still get their berth at the Winter Cup or is it over for them?

Imayoshi is able to immobilise Kuroko, and Sakurai manages to stop Hyuga's Barrier Jumper, both actions being instructed by Momoi. Aomine goes past Kagami and makes a 360 spin dunk at the same time. All 5 Touou players are now able to see Kuroko. However, this actually leads to a trap set by Kuroko, when Izuki goes past Imayoshi with a Vanishing Drive, something the crowd thought only Kuroko can pull off, and scores. Hyuga also managed to bypass Sakurai with a Vanishing Drive too, and scored. The revelation of Misdirection Overflow has pulled Seirin to within single digit difference. However, Imayoshi scores a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to put Touou's lead to 11, ending the 3rd quarter. Before timeout expires, Aomine did not pay attention as the rest of the players return to the court. 4th quarter starts, and Seirin starts off with Hyuga combining his Barrier Jumper and Kuroko's Misdirection Overflow to avoid Sakurai's quick defense and scores a 3-pointer, putting the difference back to 8. The real Aomine will reveal himself soon, so how will Seirin cope with the Aomine even more stronger than they have faced in the first half?

Aomine thinks that Himuro is good, although the latter had never appeared in a tournament in Japan. Back to the match, Himuro executes a superb fake on Kagami, then smoothly transitions to take a jump shot, to which Kagami and Hyuga cannot react to it. Before the match, Himuro said to Murasakibara that he wants to crush Kagami, and that being brothers with him is getting in his way to be the better basketball player.