
Finished ookiku furikabutte
pretty much watched it in two days lol
25 eps and a special.
I really liked it. Its about baseball.
Although other anime like cross game (which I like a lot too) are about baseball. Cross game is more like slice of life oriented.
I feel furikabutte is more baseball oriented.
They cover a full game. In like 10 episodes.
So if you are into baseball you will definitely like this one. You will see a lot of famous plays (like double plays or squeeze plays) and a lot of technical baseball terms. Again, even though the anime is very enjoyable, if you know a bit of baseball of have seen a few games in your life you will enjoyed even more.
I’m not a baseball fan myself but I have seen many, many games. I’m not a fan but I don’t dislike it. And I found the anime very interesting. From a sport perspective and from outside baseball centric subjects too.
Now to the other stuff in the anime.
I have a like/hate relationship with the main character ren mihashi. He is kind of a really annoying character, but at the same time fun and kind of “cute”.
Hes the very innocent kind. He’s in high school and pretty much didn’t had any friends since he was in elementary. So you can tell he have social issues.
But after a while you meet his mom and shes kind of weird too… so I don’t know whats the reason of his weirdness anymore. The anime is about who’s mihashi. He’s the pitcher, but who is he? His part, his experiences before. A kid that loves baseball so much, but because he had a horrible experience in junior high he is in a deep mental depression and feels he is the worst and will just hurt everyone (which is a typical character in anime if u ask me, the insecure type).
But still, he loves to pitch and he wouldn’t give the mount to anyone else. Whats is catchy about this pitcher and anime is that after you see his character you would expect he’s some kind of pitching machine with 160km/ph fastballs. But no! Here’s the trick! He pitches incredibly slow! But he has a pro control of the ball and divides the strike zone in 9 pieces. Meaning he can pitch to 9 different places and it will still be strike! Besides that his amazing control of the ball.
The anime is centered in mihashi, but with a lot of other players in the spotlight too.
After testing mihashi the catcher Abe Takaya he immediately notice mihashi is not normal. Instantly he diecides to use Mihashi to win games. The TakayaXMihashi relation is very important in ookiku furikabutte. Abe is a very serious kid with a very logical way of thinking. He thinks everything in dept and the reacts. At first he thinks Mihashi will serve him to get to koshien or bigger goals. But as time passes he realizes what a catcher is about. And that’s taking care and developing the pitcher. After he realizes the hardships that mihashi has gone through and get to know him a bit better his motive changes completely. What he wants is to show a world of win and laughs to mihashi. He wants him to win and he wants everyone to recognize mihashi as he and his team have.
The last character I will talk you about is Hajima. He is the 4th batter of the team. You may think 4th batters have to be big guys who give home runs but again, this anime got another catch. Hajima is a small kid incapable of delivering a home run. But he got an incredible sight and flawless batting style. He can bat almost any kind of pitch. He is the most fun character for me. He is the kind of dumb/cool/relaxed character. He just want to face strong opponents and think about getting to koshien and doing good. But at the same time eh is a great friend and a extremely happy person. He’s really dumb too! Lol. He just have air in his head, but he just say everything with 100% confidence even though hes just being silly. That and more makes him my favorite character.
Overall, this is a great anime. The animation is very good. Is not Bones but is quite good. I never felt like it was some kind of frame this and frame that series. Everything was very fluid. The drawings are good. The music is good. The second OP theme is very good in my opinion. All the others are good too, but that one was just very nice. The series is full of comedy, friendship, hard work ethics and of course baseball.
I recommend this series. Give it a try!
http://myanimelist.net/anime/2159/Ookiku_Furikabutte
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Windup!

PS. Second season coming in april 2010!