Spotlight Anime: Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu no Taikai Hen MAL Anime Information Page: Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu no Taikai Hen MAL Score – 8.42 (by 1888 users) Ranked - #104 Popularity - #1504 For the next week I would like to have a discussion about the anime that focuses on the key elements that we here on MAL use to critically rate an anime: Animation, Sound, Characters, Story, and Enjoyment. I would like everyone to approach this thread as if you were going to write a review and structure your initial post like this: Animation - insert rating Sound - insert rating Characters - insert rating Story - insert rating Enjoyment - insert rating Animation - discuss any pros and cons of the animation styling used in the series, try to include some specifics. Sound - describe any of the things you liked or didn't care for in regards to the music and sound effects used in the series etc... If you are having trouble writing up a review or coming up with specific pros and cons, please don't worry. Just do the best you can with it and if you can only write two or three sentences about any of the 5 elements then that's OK. Not everyone here is currently at a level which will allow them to articulate their thoughts and opinions. After your initial post is made you can feel free to civilly discuss issues of contention. I am sure there will be many opinions expressed here that some of us will disagree upon and criticise and it is for that reason that this entire club exists. So I hope everyone has fun and I am really looking forward to watching this discussion unfold. *Due to voting rule changes, this series is available for nomination again. RESULTS OF THE YOU DECIDE POLL Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu no Taikai Hen was NOT inducted into the club Anime list: 12 Yes - 66.6% 6 No - 33.3% 58 Don't know this anime - 66.6% of the total number polled 1 Abstained - 1.1% of the total number polled |
Orion1Jun 8, 2014 4:28 PM
| You do not beg the sun for mercy. |
| I know some people do not support inducting sequels, but I think that this anime is especially good and is better than the prequel (which I honestly wouldn't want to induct here). The reason why I think this anime is worthy of induction is because of how detailed the baseball games are. Personally, I've never seen a complete baseball match in real life, so I do not necessarily know whether the games are realistic or not, but I do feel that they are very believable and extremely interesting to watch. Apart from this series, I have watched baseball matches in Touch, Cross Game, Major (and One Outs, if it counts), but this anime has the most interesting games by far, no contest. Every other baseball anime mostly focuses on a certain player, and we're supposed to root for him, observing how he saves the day, and as a result of this about 75%-80% of the real match is skipped. However, in Ookiku Furikabutte we're rooting for every single player, because everybody's influence on the team is brought to our attention, and we actually have the pleasure to observe about 85% percent of the match. During each time the pitcher and the batter are supposed to play, we are shown the psychological state of mind of each player, especially the batter, which is not only helpful to a person who is not knowledgeable about baseball, but also extremely informative in the sense that it explains what the batter expects from the pitcher and explains why he chooses to bat the way he does. The anime also showcases teamwork very well. It's not on the level of Slam Dunk, but it's still above any other baseball anime I've seen. In every important game we are also told the strategies by both teams, and you can really see that each one of them is doing their best to defeat their opponents, resorting to any kinds of tricks. Basically, Ookiku Furikabutte heavily exploits what the real baseball matches can't bring us - psychological state of mind of players, explicit strategies by both teams, slow motion for intensity, and behind the scene moments. While to be honest, almost every other sports anime does this, I can confidently say that Okkiku Furikabutte does this exceptionally well. The high details of the games help the anime be more intense, and I must say that the last couple of episodes were on another level in terms of intensity. The anime might start a bit slow, but you'll see how it redeems itself. |
| Review I actually wrote for this spotlight: Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen Big Windup; The Summer Tournament Summary This is a show that is a real experience. It is decadently, surprisingly, passionately, amazing. I immediately warn you not to think of this as your average sports show. It goes beyond average and attains brilliance. The Sequel to Ookiku Furikabutte, this show expounds on Nishiura's progress through the Summer Tournament that had just started with a win against A-seeded last winner of the tournament, Tosei. We resume with the team after this victory, and their bye for the second round. The Summer Tournament referred to in the title is the regional Tokyo [Well, Saitama Prefecture, part of greater tokyo] competition formatted by knock-out with byes- a winner will attain a position in the Koushien Summer competition. The Summer Koushien is the biggest and probably most prestigious sporting event in Japan. To get there, you must win a spot in the prefectural tournament aforementioned. Different prefectures are assigned different numbers of possible places in the tournament. Tokyo gets 2 for instance. It may sound weird, that the most prestigious sporting event in Japan involves high school students, but it is the way it goes. Matches are televised, and the Koushien has long been idolised and used as reference in pop culture. To understand the real enormity of getting there, is hard. The drama is tear inducing. Interestingly, Hanshin Koushien stadium, where this second stage tournament is played, is not in Tokyo. It is in the South-East of Honshu, in the prefecture of Hyogo. The park is located near the capital city, Kobe [Population 1.5 million]. 49 Teams will make it to the Koushien each time, in the same knock-out with bye scheme. 34 teams play the first round, reducing that number to 17. These 17 will move to the second round, where the 15 teams who had a bye rejoin. From there the 32 whittle down to the one winner. 2010 saw Kounan win [And also win the Spring competition] which funnily enough, is the name of one of the teams Nishiura plays in the anime. After the Summer Tournament, there is the Newcomers Tournament, and the Spring Koushien- which is an invitational tournament of 32 teams, again in the knock-out scheme, but no byes this time. Saitama being a prefecture, there is 1 possible position open by invitation for the Spring Tournament, with a additional 3 wild card invitations possible, which could always be a Saitama team. This anime, if I haven't made it clear, is all about a baseball team playing baseball. And realistically so. This show has an extra DVD release episode, that slots in at episode 12.5. The show is based on the manga by Higuchi Asa, which is at... 83 chapters or something. The manga won the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Award, and the Kodansha award. It's on hiatus till November 2011 which is sad, furthermore, no-one is scanlating the manga and oh my god I would run screaming if someone offered me a bowdlerised American release. Which is another thing. If you did not notice the links on the main page for this anime, the series is not licensed, and probably never will be. This means it will never be dubbed. In my view, that is good. The dub of the previous show is one of the absolute worst I've ever heard. So if you have an opposing opinion, I am sorry to inform you will never receive your dubs so don't even try to whine. The animes got up to about chapter 56 of the manga I believe. The transition from manga to anime is done fairly well in my opinion. Certain aspects like blatant homosexual hints and sexual plays have been censored- this is from the small idea I can garner from raw manga and chapter summaries. Animation This is a anime produced by the studio A-1 Pictures. It is a new studio, In 2006 it started off with a children's program airing on NHK. In 2007, it started 3 anime one of which was Ookiku Furikabutte, in 2008 3 anime, 2009 started Fairy Tail, 2010 7 anime which included Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen. They are also confirmed for Ao No Exorcist in April 2011, which coincidentally I suggest you check out. This company is actually a offshoot of Sony's Aniplex. So, it may have an image that is not entirely its own. However, it has so far, a high level of achievement. Togainu No Chi is their worst work- but it feels like they were given 500 yen for the entire project in any case. A-1's animation of Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen, is very good indeed. The prequel had in it a distinct lack of clear cut lines. All of it was very fuzzy. The high definition really compliments this anime- and it has a high frame rate too, which is another big plus for a sports anime. Without this, Natsu No Taikai Hen could have fallen flat, with abject portrayals of characters emotions- as that is the big difference better animation let them do with the show. New ranges of emotions are displayed on the characters faces. Ookiku Furikabutte Natsu No Taikai Hen may be one of the most expressive and empathetic anime there is. This is in part due to Asa's art style, and in part to excellent animation. The OP and ED are smooth, the OP shows vignettes that feature on the cover of the manga volumes. Most of the animation on the baseball field, is stationary viewpoints, or tracking stationary viewpoints. There are only a couple of moving camera by view of the character vignettes. These are done very well- but the conspicuous lack of them credit to either a lack of budget- as this is an insanely expensive type of animation, or because there are not very many frames in the manga that show the moving POV. But Hang On! This is not the case. This lack, while not harming the production, does stop the anime from being too flashy. Oofuri is realistic, in relationships and baseball, so while the instantaneous judgement may be that surely these shots would contribute- they really don't. I think this is because, too much of this movement makes the show too action oriented. While this is a sports anime, it is not your normal sports anime. It does not feature “HURRICANE FOOTBALL KICK OF KRAKEN EATING DOOOOOM” or the like. No silly moves. Thus, few of these types of shots are used. There are often a few vignettes of simply the environment at hand. There is no urgency to the show, or at least, only the feeling of urgency we get from the characters- not the pacing. The pacing is an interesting topic however. The prequel had a game that lasted 12 episodes. The longest in this series is 3. The pace of the story has gotten faster, but of course, that is not the only element in play. The prequel was definitely, a more Shonen aimed animation style. There were flashbacks aplenty, recaps, and many other facets you find in the genre. Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen is more in Seinen style. Now hang on, if we refer back to the manga, it is indeed Seinen, published in a Seinen magazine, Afternoon- published by Kodansha, which includes titles like Mushishi, Vinland Saga, Parasyte and Oh! My Goddess! So what seems to have happened, is the first series was transmogrified into a more Shonen production, to draw in viewers that originally may not have watched the series. There is usually less ratings for a sequel, and A-1 probably realised they could make more money if they switched the style back to something more Seinen. This means fast paced, emphasis on meaningful dialogue, realistic art and impressions. So we have A-1 doing a few different things here with the animation- that not only change the style of the show, but create great watching as well. It's a definite improvement on the prequel, and great to look at standing on its own in comparison to any other anime. Art The art style of Asa is really, kind of weird. To watch it you will probably need to break it in over a few episodes to start to appreciate the art. One great asset that her art does have, is expressions. Her forms are very very plastic. The manga can be tough going, because honestly there is not too much integrity throughout- the frames can look quite different from each-other and characters form tend to wobble. Of course, this is addressed in the anime- however, the freeness in the faces does continue with emotions expressed, so you get a style near to super deformed. This is not a hamper at all- but some can find the art simply jarring. This may be more because of the fact Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen aims to be mostly realistic. The backgrounds in the anime have really gotten better from last series, in their detail, and in their colour. They look wonderful. There has clearly been either research of baseball grounds, filming them and later animating them, or if they are original, huge work has been done. Details are done perfectly. The Sakitama game is a good example of brilliant backgrounding- while the other games take place in a larger and more enclosed ballpark, Sakitama is relatively open, and the detailing on the fauna and so forth is truly impressive. The school scene look relatively realistic too, certainly compared with many other anime. There is solid performance of the animation in this department. Even near filler parts of the plot- like a soccer game that Mihashi, Izumi and Tajima play in, the detailing stays charmingly high, and there is no static with the moving camera viewpoint. The colour pallet used in this show is decidedly bright. There is probably a strong use of green that pervades the anime, if you compared it to use of other colours. The tone of Oofuri is upbeat, overall, so this is a wise decision. Sometimes, the characters do seem slightly too bright. But, the anime is made to suit. Night-time scenes see a slight iridescent sheen to the characters. A conspicuous lack of bright and wacky hair colours and designs are present- possibly the most interesting colouring being how many characters have approximating carrot coloured hair. A few characters are shown with hair that needs to be cut if they are playing baseball, but that is not an error. Izumi starts off with short cut hair, which eventually grows long. This is not only an art usage to display versatility- it reveals detail about Izumi's character. This is something Asa is fairly keen on, which is simply practical. Usage of props to develop a character is ever present. Hanai kept getting dealt different items to explain his position as captain. Glasses are used very stereotypically- we see 2 team captains wearing them, 2 coaches, Shiga and then we have Akimaru, Haruna's friend who is a catcher. This is an interesting use, Abe looks at him instantly dismissively. A catcher with glasses in not like to be able to be very good, however, he is gifted with intellect those funny people with glasses always have, eh. Blushing is used a bit in Oofuri. I see on Asa's MAL page, someone says she has done a BL manga. It is not referred to on Wikipedia. I do not know if this is the case. If it is, it does explain a few things. The blushing is really rampant. I think this is a detractor to the overall integrity of the show. I feel this because I play baseball, and I don't blush much if at all. It feels like a feminine usage that is not very realistic. This detraction is a small one however. So, a powerful presence of good artistic style is evident in the anime, though a few insignificant errors due to this style are evident. Soundtrack The first seasons music can be very annoying at times. I almost stopped watching the first episode because of the music. In Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu No Taikai Hen, there is a new soundtrack. The music is by the guy who did the music for One Piece and a couple of other [minor] anime. When you listen to the soundtrack released for Ookiku Furikabutte Natsu No Taikai Hen, you are surprised. On its own, it is quite a dark, suspenseful, anxious collection of music. However, this does not come across to the anime. Its use in such a contrastingly upbeat anime quells its darker charms. It also does have a sort of sparky flavour to the beats. A intriguing idea is that the soundtrack, adds a layer of subtle undertones to the anime. A large part of the anime, is suppressing aggression, and attuning it to something more practical like a determined goal. This is manipulative indeed. It may be that it is in large part due to the soundtrack that viewers subvert negative emotions- and why this guy did the music for One Piece. This is not to say that the soundtrack does not have lighter pieces. It does, but the thing is, it is only as a reprieve to the darker parts, it comes as a melodious after-taste from the more busy and somewhat more cognitive darker parts of the music. 'Ime Mada Ha' is a example that it does have fully lighter tracks as well. But, this is more transcendental than happy. It lifts you above the hustle and bustle of a chaotic mixture of emotions the anime can easily build up and construe. The amount of chopping is quite large. But the amount that you really don't hear during the anime is larger. The music does seem into the anime very well. The most noticeable tracks like 'Ano Toki Kara' are used repetitively in largely relaxed scenes, so they are noticed. The chants that are used are actually also included in the Soundtrack. If I was reviewing the soundtrack, I'd say it was fairly mixed with erudite qualities. I would recommend buying it though. The quality of the music is certainly enough, I can't identify any faults in the broadcast quality, though I am no expert and not the one to ask. The soundtrack identifies its music at 320 bit rate. The added complexity the music adds to the anime is very welcome. Without music, the atmosphere may not be able to be expressed as much- not that you can't do it without music, but that to maintain a viewers interest in something like a sports anime, some kind of music is requisite. 'Ashita Kara' I think may deserve some extra attention. It's used as a wind-down tune, in depressing context. There is a quality to it very much like of a fairy tale tune. It has aspirations of fantasy- yet these are brought down by the anime to make it feel like a much humbler tune. It is probably one of the best tracks on the soundtrack, and the best used in the anime. The OP, 'Natsuzora' by Galileo Galilei, is so appropriate it very almost feels cliché and a bit erroneous as such. Almost, but doesn't. The lyrics it contains may not be as pertinent as the prequels 'Seishun Line', but it is getting there. You start to feel a real connection with the anime, as the song unfolds and we are introduced to the anime- which is the sign that it really worked. The ED, 'Shishou Densha' by Cureal, is not as good. It may be that the animation attached to it was not good enough, but really, I think it was not as good as many of the soundtrack titles, and as a wind-down song which it tries to be, it only has a slight feeling of discord. This can be seen as sly, because by doing this, it can make us feel detached from the anime- and the anime being good- we want more. What does this make us do? Make us addicted- so we are sad and crave more. The prequels ED's, 'Arigatou' and 'Medaka No Mita Niji', do the opposite; They attached us emotionally. Diagetic Sounds Diagetic Sounds [diagetic means present in the production. Voice acting and Soundtrack are dealt with separately. This little bit is about noises like bat sounds.] are very important in a sports anime. Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen has quite a seemingly large expanse of different sounds- which it needs. In many ways, sound can be simply a technical issue, but for Oofuri, it is essential. The amount of different sounds of the bat hitting the ball appears sizable. It is baseball porn. Crowds sound faintly [or cheer] when appropriate, and the sound of training while a individual scene is being focused on is also done satisfactorily. I can only give Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen full marks on this- it does not present any way of opposing this. Characters The characters are what makes this show. Oofuri is about baseball, but what the hell would it be if it didn't focus on the people playing it. Utterly boring is the answer. Might as well just watch an actual European baseball game where there is virtually no commentating. The human aspect is what makes sport. Oofuri, and Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen in particular, has brilliant characterisation. This is mostly because of the realistic nature in which they are portrayed. It should be said, that the creator Higuchi Asa graduated from Hosei University [Quite a prestigious university this is] with a major in Sports Psychology. This should be pertinently obvious from the prequel, particularly Shiga's rabidly rambunctious ramblings. This very much contributes to this realism that is able to be portrayed in Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu No Taikai Hen. Maria Momoe is the coach and founder of the team that is Nishiura. Her past is somewhat mysterious- played softball then became manager of the baseball team of Nishiura a few years before the current story. She then goes to nursing school, while working part time- we assume window cleaning primarily. Now she is back, ready to coach a fresh batch of first years, spending her saving on the club even. This is extremely erratic and irregular behaviour. We are given much to ponder on the motives of Maria. Her extreme talent in baseball, her keen and perceptive eye, and her constant outgoing nature- is extremely puzzling. Her coaching is very attentive- however, whenever we are given internal monologue of Momoe, the lines seem very much too simple to what her actions belie. They do however offer good insight on the general workings of the team or a specific character or a tactic/strategy she will or will not use in the baseball. For some reason, I feel that many of the overall aspects of characterisation used in Oofuri come back to Momoe. I have the suspicion that Asa writes her own personality and ethics into Momoe. Maria is the totem pole of the team- the backbone support, the foundations, and the overall aim of the team, all is expressed most keenly through her. In the prequel, she would be shown arching her back, stretching out, blushing, seemingly in ecstasy, quite often. This stops happening in Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu No Taikai Hen. I am quite thankful for this, as those vignettes were simply ridiculous and erroneous. Maria is also the device used to clearly say that Oofuri is not shonen ai. She has large bouncing overflowing breasts, and no effort is gone to to hide this- though conversely, there is no flamboyant showing off, and no ecchi fan-service. She is the conspicuous female representation for the hormonal young boys and there are multiple scenes where her physique is focused upon, with varying results. Shiga Sensei is the teacher supervisor of the team [It is very common in Japanese schools not only to have many clubs of different followings, but also that if you do have a club, you must have a supervising member of staff, an outsider like Momoe would not be allowed to be in this position herself. This position is for self-explanatory reasons- though in rare cases it is not required.] but it is strongly suggested throughout the story, that the reason he is doing this, as he is not familiar with baseball particularly, is Momoe. Whatever their relationship, there are facets that suggest that the two are more than associates. Shiga seems to personally know Momoe from his last school- and the neurophysiology and meditation that are the technical spiels may suggest that he did a course with Momoe in her nursing school and became attached. Shiga does not say much about himself. He is a responsible adult in most senses of the word though. He is thus used as a part role model for the kids. His character would be one of the weakest in the show- as there does not seem to be much behind his thinking. The weirdness of his technical knowledge is, really, not so weird if we stop to think for a minute. Of course, this knowledge is probably spewed from Asa's sports psychology course. Shinooka Chiyo is the volunteer manager. She does it for love of baseball. There is not a hint of romantic attachment to any of the players, as she says herself. Asa needed to put in a volunteer manager, otherwise there would be no lynch-pin of empathetic support for the team- what I mean by this, is if there was no Chiyo, it is most likely the audience would have a lot less love for the team. A team without a manager initially supporting them would, when they did have supporters, have these supporters being too blatantly '-dere' and the audience could potentially be repulsed and think supporting this team would be foolish and simply going with the flow, which happens too often with sports anime [rightly or not]. Chiyo herself is fairly shy, but somewhat curt. Fairly intelligent it seems too. Her love of the team and their progress is truly touching. Chiyo in the prequel did the foreshadowing narration endings of each episode, and in some ways, this may have made her character too pressing or cliché. Her character is not as pressed upon us in Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen. In fact, she does not get too much screen-time. She is still used generously in key frames to represent that keystone of support, but with the addition of Hamada and the introduction of other fans and the parents, she does become less necessary. She will probably become more important in any future seasons as the team starts to re-evaluate their playing and re-evaluate their relationship to Chiyo. At the moment they have a very lax relationship with her, but it is certainly suggested Fumiki might be developing feelings for her. Ren Mihashi is the main focus of the anime, the pitcher of Nishiura. His past is tragic indeed. His parents being elopers, he went to Mihoshi academy in Gunma, that his grandfather was chairman of. This is because it was free- him also staying at relatives. He gained his love of baseball when he spent a short time staying in 'gishigishi' apartments with his mother and father playing with Hamada and other friends. This love of baseball he brings to Mihoshi, and he joins their baseball club. Either because the coach recognised his talent [it is mentioned that Ren is the only one the coach adds the honorific -kun for.] or because of his grandfather, he was granted ace position. Mihoshi being naturally introverted and very shy and unassuming and a bad talker, thus he quickly attains bad favour with his team. They naturally become convinced of his awfulness and blame him on their continued losses from lack of moral and lack of skill, there being one exception, his neighbour Shuu [-chan] who is the other pitcher, and the one his team-mates think should be ace. This is a really bad situation. Mihashi loving baseball, never steps down from his ace position. Admittedly this is plain retarded, but Mihashi can't help but be selfish if it means he can pitch. This pathetic, annoying, even disgusting Mihashi, is the main character of the anime. This can be a bit much for many people, and it is one of the reason this show is not rated as high as it really should be, because the real beauty is how Mihashi's character evolves, how he is used, during the anime. Mihashi's progress through the anime shows him flowering into a fully fledged person, finding confidence in his actions and his thoughts. Timidity is a base personality trait, and this will not change. It is more how he addresses his blatant ineptitude in life. How he at least becomes comfortable with what he is doing, and who he is. Mihashi is so unsure about himself he will not give himself any praise, will not promote himself, will not voice his opinions without being forced to. This is the story of how he gains confidence enough to do so. As he progresses, the team progresses too. It all hinges on Mihashi, how they will continue to fare. With no moral, the team will do badly, and with Mihashi having good moral, so will the rest of the team. Mihashi holds the perhaps unreasonable key to the teams well-being. This is not to say that the others do not have a large influence on the team themselves however, they are a small and tightly bound bunch. So, progress he does, and we have a beautiful metaphorical relationship painstakingly snaking itself throughout the series. The utter poetry of how this is accomplished is breath-taking. So, while Mihashi may be [or may not be] a disgusting character, the way he is used makes him genius and the use is extenuated- in the same way Atom Tetsuwan is a brilliant character by how Osamu Tezuka uses him, though he seems not be in singular analysis. Takaya Abe, the second main character, was abused. Let's not skip round the mantelpiece with a pot of tortellini. That is how he feels. Abused by Haruna Motoki. Quick recap on his painful past; Abe, out of pure chance, gets assigned to catch for Haruna. Haruna pitches quite fast. So, Abe gets hit a lot. He gets better at catching his pitches so they can win. So far, doesn't sound a problem. However, it is Haruna's callous, arrogant, and plainly aggressive behaviour that exacerbates Abe into bitter anger. There is no compromise in Haruna's language. Haruna will only pitch a certain amount in a game, and will not compromise. If he feels a game is not worth his effort, he will not try, and will not compromise. Haruna himself was mistreated by his last coach, who used him and then tossed him away when he became injured. That is what has caused him to be paranoid about injury. Although Abe gets to play in the seniors because he is the only one who can catch Haruna, they crash and burn because of Haruna's attitude. This is cracking point for Abe- though he finishes playing the year with Haruna. Because of this abuse, Abe has become even more strongly manipulative and evasive, himself paranoid of being mistreated. When Mihashi joins the team, he immediately domineers Mihashi. It is perhaps a crutch to their relationship that Mihashi can perfectly locate his pitches [This is perhaps the most unrealistic thing in the anime. Although it is nowhere near impossible, it is unlikely.] because if he did not, they might have more of a conversation in their battery. Abe is not only a irksome big meanie though. He respects every person he meets- even Haruna. There is obvious influence that Abe has accepted from Haruna in fact. The constant nagging about what is right and wrong for Mihashi nutritionally, and from Abe's side, behaviourally. Some copied reflexes. He wants to like people. He begins to like Mihashi over time, that is for sure. His internal monologue shows he really, really, starts to care for him. The word 'nakama' would certainly come to mind. He is the main instigator in opening Mihashi up, though his negativity at times can also cripple Mihashi. Abe has a large amount of natural bathos in his character. Yuuichirou Tajima is really hyperactive. If he is not based on an ADHD person, he assuredly is anyway. He is so energetic you could fuel a car with his sweat, I'm sure. The reason he decides to attend Nishiura is because it is 2 minutes by bike and he won't miss it if an ambulance goes past. Yeah, I wish I was that simple minded too. Yuuichirou can be a breath of fresh air, with his precocious antics, though, he somehow can also concentrate on batting when he needs to. He is a natural talent at baseball, at soccer too, an over-achiever at sports. He is said to have the best combined physical education score for his year. Tajima is portrayed as a fool, though he is deceptively sharp at some things. Tajima adds flair and pizazz that the team might lack without him, and although many other types of characters could take his place, he is extremely likeable. The team all are envious of his skills, and this may provide extra motivation for them to achieve, to do like Tajima. Azusa Hanai is the unanimously voted captain of the team. Very righteous and self-motivated, Hanai can also build up tension and strong emotions. Tajima puts him on tenterhooks, agonising over his own inferiority. He seems to overcome this barrier half way through Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen, but it is worth noting just how doubting he is of his own position. Hanai can hit the ball himself, plays outfield competently, and use to play clean-up [4th or 5th in batting line-up] but with hitters like Izumi and Abe not to mention the formidable Tajima, he can retreat into his shell, and become inferior to any of the other players. He makes for a very motivating character, and one of the most convincingly real characters too. Kousuke Izumi is often surmised as a 'smart arse'. This may be partly true, but he is certainly not an annoying character. I was looking a some Oofuri related thing, and they had a vote for 'coolest' character in Nishiura, and Izumi was the leader by far. This concurs with my belief that Izumi is very fun indeed. He is skilled at getting contact on the ball, though can't hit it deep. He probably has the highest average through the games we have seen so far. He also plays outfield, and he is a quick runner so can of much use. His smart arsed comments come off more wise than priggish, and he seems to be quick at grasping peoples natures and interpersonal relations. He has a strong friendship with Mizutani, albeit this swaying between nurturing and bullying. He was friends with Hamada in the past, who was his senior, and now enjoys taunting Hamada with an indifferent attitude. Yuuto Sakaeguchi is a sagely and kind soul. He often tries to calm tensions between team-mates and make every party satisfied. He often acts as go between with Abe and Mihashi, as the two are so bad at communicating properly. He is the classic nurturer personality, and you feel genuinely happy and possibly jealous for his little brother. He plays shortstop or second baseman, and is the 'anchor' of the in-field. While he can stay calm with others problems, he is quite susceptible to stress and anxiousness himself. He pulls together the team, but as such he is too valuable to ever have depressed because it would greatly affect the team. Fumiki Mizutani is very awkward, and he knows it. He constantly blunders, blames himself, acting foolishly all the way. He is, in many ways, extremely pathetic and indefensibly idiotic. He does enjoy playing with the team though, and is happy at having friends. He has a strong relationship with Izumi, and seems to have a crush on Chiyo. He is the weak link in the outfield. He may be one to have his head in the clouds most of the time. Shoji Suyama is not very outspoken. He has few lines in Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen. You do find out, though, that what he does speak out at, he does so in a loud assured and confident tone. He is passionate, but collected, and doesn't dilly dally or waste words. Directly approached he seems more hormonally unsure. Sakaeguchi thus gets on well with him. He plays third or short stop. Oki Kazutoshi is the first baseman for Nishiura. He is extremely timid like Mihashi. He generally keeps his head down and just plays baseball. A lefty, which is the reason he has plays first for years, now Momoe is trying to get him to pitch a bit as well. We don't get much of a view as to Oki's motivations. Shinatarou Nishihiro is the most unskilled, or unversed, of all the players. He is usually kept in reserve as the tenth player. Why he joined the club is unknown, as he is one of the smartest first years in the school apparently not having to study for tests. He seems to be unable to detach himself from his body. This may appear to be an odd thing to say, but to play a physical sport you need to throw away most analysis. Sport is more based on reactions and muscle memory. The roles in baseball where this is not completely true is catcher and pitcher, that is all. Nishihiro cannot perform well because he is not used to stopping his thinking to focus on the action at hand. It's a mean thing to say, but it is true. Yoshirou Hamada is the self-voluntary cheerleader. Shiga and Momoe make the importance of this task clear to him, however he stays his resolve and continues to aid the team. He has apparently developed 'Little League Elbow', which is stress on the Medial Epicondyle- part of the humorus around the elbow area. This is caused by over-pitching [or other over-arm motions] when young. It is treatable, with 8 month average rehabilitation time. Hamada never bothered to properly treat it. This may be because of his family situation. This family situation is also the reasoned he has had to repeat a year because of missing too much school. He claims this is because of his own stupidity though. At any rate, he is largely ingenuous and fairly selfless. The huge amount of variation in the characters is very showing. However, the skill of depicting these characters, and relating them to the audience, is startlingly masterful. I stopped at the end of Nishiura because I think it gives you a good idea of what the characterisation present in the series is like [Superb]. There are no '2-bit' characters. All have realistic depth and back-story to them, which may not be presented, as it is not some simple episodic trash-can of a 13 episode slice of life that shows everything every character brings up being explained in detail. Ookiku succeeds with its characters like no other show I've seen. Honestly, it makes me fear that Asa based her characters on real life people. If she hasn't, her powers of characterisation in a story are momentous. Voice Acting The sound quality of the voice acting is better than the last season, we immediately notice. We will also notice change in the voices, as characters change. Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu No Taikai Hen, has voice actors who are the same sex of their character!!! All of them. This should be noted. Also noted that this doesn't regularly happen anymore in anime. The show is significantly better off for it. Tsubasa Yonaga [Jun Yamamoto] plays Mihashi. Because of Mihashi's character, it would have been to easy to alienate the entire audience with this loser. However, Yonaga's performance implants into Mihashi a small amount of general appeal. Yonaga has not been in too many roles. Nakamura Yuuichi [Tomoya Okazaki] plays Abe. And plays him oh so well. He performs the hot headed Abe, with a soft side, brilliantly. Abe subsequently has quite a fan club, and perhaps, rightly so. Here we see how we have a relatively unknown VA that is cast for the main role, but opposite him, a highly competent and experienced VA. This also seems to show through a bit in the anime, at least the relationship Yonaga and Yuuichi have. The voice acting is consistently high quality in Oofuri. We occasionly see multiple roles for voice actors- everyone's favourite Jun Fukumiya shows how good he can be, with Izumi Kousuke, and then how absolutely horrible he can sound, like a bloody bloated hippo with a cold, with Oda Hiroyuki. There is not much to be left desired in the Voice Acting department, so much of which is purely opinion based anyway. There does seem to be at times, straining in the voice acting to express the feelings of characters, that is not done as successfully as possible. I do think that the role of Hamada Kenji [Harry MacDowel] was perhaps poor. You kept expecting something more blatantly Wrong from him. While the foreshadowing was of course, meant to be there, you felt like he could be a killer or some other over the top sinisterly malevolent person. As such, it was either anti-climax or out of character when nothing that bad happened. Plot I think I should really say something here. Remember Nishiura? Sounds a bit like Nishiko, doesn't it? That was Asa's high school. The same school that is shown in the anime. They even have direct to anime shot of the place, with the school having pictures of the anime advertised on its site. So, she went to the school she is portraying. She has lived in Saitama for all her life. She played softball for a long time. I think the previous statement is about as much as we would expect. That she has based so much of her story on her own life, seems a bit scary. That is, because so often, part auto-biographical works, fail really badly. However, Ookiku simply doesn't. It is because there is not complicated plot. It doesn't need much plot, indeed it doesn't really have much. SPOILERS: ACTUAL PLOT BELOW THIS SENTENCE, IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ THEN LOOK DOWN TO CONCLUSION. The plot in Ookiku Furikabutte; Natsu No Taikai Hen, is, they progress through the second [bye], third [Sakitama], and fourth [Kounan] rounds of the tournament. At the fifth they meet Bijoudaisayama, and lose. The next episode is the last, and outlines them entering the Newcomers tournament aiming for the Koushien. Of course, there are a complete multitude of small inconsequential events upon the way like meaningful conversations. Conclusion I immensely enjoyed this show, because it continued the brilliant narrative the first season had, and then made it a true masterpiece with excellent Animation and Sound and the progression of the characters, which was the real emotional factor to enjoying the show. Too often anime are making themselves cliché, or being plain lazy. I'd like to see more honest and, to use a highly supercilious term, deep, anime. Ookiku Furikabutte, is a great sports show. It is not like other sports anime. It may even be more of a drama. It panders to an irregular audience. Yet, somehow, it's appeal is wide, and great. Yet it is also a very technical baseball anime. If I was asked to recommend a sports show, it'd be this one. So for me, I'd absolutely vote yes, because I think it is one of the very very few sports anime that is actually a very good watch and well produced by creator and studio. |
| I'm into sports series because I thoroughly enjoy sports. But, meh, 38 episodes, if I include the prequel, can be daunting. I noticed this is an adaption of manga , so how's the pacing the the matches ? |
live2win said: I'm into sports series because I thoroughly enjoy sports. But, meh, 38 episodes, if I include the prequel, can be daunting. I noticed this is an adaption of manga , so how's the pacing the the matches ? I haven't read the manga, but I think the pacing of the matches is appropriate. It's not too fast and not too slow. If you're interested to know how the matches are, you can read my post above and decide for yourself if this anime is something worth investing your time in. |
| I think this was the best show to come out last year. It does what all sequels should do: get right into the thick of things without babying the viewer with flashbacks. Especially with it being such a short season. Now that the team has been full introduced, they start do deconstruct the characters, and how the view their roles. Mihashi and Abe's stuff was very compelling, something that you don't normally see happen with two main characters (them questioning the convention they set in the first series of trusting each other no matter what), and a superb ending. |
| tl;dr at all. First, if I wanted to watch baseball I'd watch a baseball game. I have trouble following baseball games because it's not played at all where I live, does not appear on tv and I just learned about its existance when I was more than old enough. The pacing of this anime is horrible. 45354354 episodes per game is only good if you adore baseball. I don't watch sports anime because I like the sports, I watch them because I like the pacing and character development. Just because an anime is exemplary for a baseball fan it does not make it an exemplary anime. Just because a dog behaves perfectly like a dog in an anime it does not make it worthy of induction. Which is another aspect in which this anime fails. As for episode 9 every character is still a spineless wimp, without having shown any growth at all. They are still the same annoying brats they were at the episode one of the first series. By the end of this game, ie. this series, they will still be the same. In ten years, when they are grown and have wives, they will still be the same. The only interesting element into this combo of characters is that all of them are natural ukes, which makes the pairings honestly fun. The art is annoying. The sound is annoying, I can't hear those damn trumpets anymore. Will most likely be a 5/10 because the fluidity of the art. Would it be worst I would hate this series forever. It's only good for the ominious quantities of BL fanart it burps out constantly. |
 Waratte Oemashou Sore ha Chiisana Inori |
ladyxzeus said: The pacing of this anime is horrible. 45354354 episodes per game is only good if you adore baseball. False. I haven't seen a full baseball game in my life (just bits and pieces and I wasn't too impresed), and the way this anime handles the games is terrific. For more explanation, you can read my post above, since that was the only thing I talked about there. This anime is not exemplary just for a baseball fan (I'm clearly not), it's both very good and exemplary to any person who appreciates the sports genre, which is why we're inducting titles in the first place. ladyxzeus said: if I wanted to watch baseball I'd watch a baseball game. The baseball anime (and any other sports anime) provides something that a real baseball match can't provide, which is character's thoughts during the game, explicit strategy plans, behind the scene moments, etc. I do agree that the main character is a wimp (not anybody else, though), but I think he got better with time, so he's slowly changing, so I don't know if I can agree that there is no character development at all. |
| if i had watched this i would totally say yes if its even half as awesome as the first season. maybe ill make room to watch this though, because oofuri is just that awesome. |
ladyxzeus said: tl;dr at all. First, if I wanted to watch baseball I'd watch a baseball game. I have trouble following baseball games because it's not played at all where I live, does not appear on tv and I just learned about its existance when I was more than old enough. The pacing of this anime is horrible. 45354354 episodes per game is only good if you adore baseball. I don't watch sports anime because I like the sports, I watch them because I like the pacing and character development. Just because an anime is exemplary for a baseball fan it does not make it an exemplary anime. Just because a dog behaves perfectly like a dog in an anime it does not make it worthy of induction. Which is another aspect in which this anime fails. As for episode 9 every character is still a spineless wimp, without having shown any growth at all. They are still the same annoying brats they were at the episode one of the first series. By the end of this game, ie. this series, they will still be the same. In ten years, when they are grown and have wives, they will still be the same. The only interesting element into this combo of characters is that all of them are natural ukes, which makes the pairings honestly fun. The art is annoying. The sound is annoying, I can't hear those damn trumpets anymore. Will most likely be a 5/10 because the fluidity of the art. Would it be worst I would hate this series forever. It's only good for the ominious quantities of BL fanart it burps out constantly. As I said, the maximum is 3 episodes for a game in this series. You are writing about the last series. It might be the most technically correct anime for a baseball fan- but that is a coincidence. The reason I like baseball is because of Oofuri. That is the only reason. And what? I dislike your post so much. Their characters are changing realistically for teenagers. They will certainly be the 'same person' but anyone who is not the 'same person' has either lost their mind completely or are badly portrayed as unrealistically inconsistent. |
| Not sure how I'll vote on this one. I liked the series, and it really is one of the better examples of how a sequel should be done, but the characters were still lacking something. Maybe lacking is the wrong word. Mihashi does start to grow a spine because of his teammates, and they also show some definite signs of growth. I just felt that more of there was too much of an effort to cram all of that development into one series, and because of that there's little in the story to actually cement that growth in the viewers mind other than the ubiquitous baseball match. It's a tough call as I've just finished re-watching Cross Game, and to be honest that easily tops the entirety of Ookiku Furkabutte, even though they're supposed to be to fundamentally different stories that just happen to involve baseball. I'm leaning towards a no though, as this seems more like the typical shounen sports tale, like Eyeshield 21 for example (which I've also just finished), than it does a standout example of the genre. |
| What a day! What a lovely Day! |
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