Cross Game

Kou Kitamura and Aoba Tsukishima are often at odds—even though their families happen to be close friends and business partners. Although the only child of a sports shop owner, Kou has never been interested in playing baseball. Despite this, he possesses an impressive batting ability honed by frequent visits to the local baseball batting center run by the Tsukishima family. On the other hand, Aoba loves to play baseball and is a star player with exceptional pitching form.

However, these two seemingly complete opposites share something very important to them—Wakaba Tsukishima, Aoba's older sister and Kou's destined sweetheart. Admired by the quarrelsome duo, Wakaba often finds herself the catalyst to their never-ending rivalry. But whether or not they realize that they have more in common than either would care to admit, only time will tell. The game of baseball may just be what the pair needs to ultimately overcome their own personal struggles.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kitamura, Kou Main

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Tsukishima, Aoba Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Azuma, Yuuhei Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Tsukishima, Wakaba Supporting

Kanda, Akemi Japanese

Akaishi, Osamu Supporting

Nomura, Kenji Japanese

Nomo Supporting

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Azuma, Junpei Supporting

Madono, Mitsuaki Japanese

Senda, Keiichirou Supporting

Kishio, Daisuke Japanese

Tsukishima, Momiji Supporting

Shitaya, Noriko Japanese

Tsukishima, Ichiyou Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Sakurai, Ryousuke Producer

Aoki, Shunji Producer

Furuichi, Naohiko Producer

Kyoutani, Tomomi Assistant Producer

Reviews

Nov 20, 2025

Snakesbestsna4ks

Recommended

As we all know, anime are generally over the top and unhinged. Even when it deals with stuff like romance, that dissociation from how it actually pans out in reality by how characters act like hyper-amped caricatures and the wacky fun that comes with it is what attracts us anime fans. But from time to time you'd come across shows that cut a little too close to reality and blindside you with this strangely reminiscent sincerity. For me, that first experience was Cross Game, which to this day I've yet to see a more authentic portrayal of adolescent romance and the nuance of human emotions.

There ... are no cheesy sparkles or exaggerated antics, its just people being people: quiet telling gestures, painful hesitation born from misunderstandings, or lashing out through subconscious actions. Sometimes the characters are side by side with blank expressions, not speaking a word but somehow that's enough to tell us the layers of emotions they're feeling. I can't think of any other anime that has made me so aware of the silence between characters - whether words are being exchanged through their locking eyes or otherwise facing away from each other. And somehow, I always understood what was being communicated without anything spelled out.

The lack of overtness just makes perfect sense within a narrative about falling in love because the viewers, as humans, would instinctively pick up on and can decipher the cues. It's also the reason for the author, Mitsuru Adachi's fame despite the almost pinpoint perfect overlapping sameness between his entire catalogue of works, which is proof I'm not just spouting nonsense. There are also the often pointed out complaints about the lack of focus on the baseball theme as a sports series but you guys need to understand the baseball aspect is simply a part of the characters' lives - it plays the bigger role of both incentive and obstacle in the overarching melancholic yet lighthearted drama about moving on that is Cross Game.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 4, 2024

Whe3333

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler-less, TL;DR, fast, simple, and easy-to-digest review:

Ball, Strike, Out

5/10

Animation? Ok (+)
For 2009 release, the animation ain't that bad... just below average. The artsyle doesn't have much details and relied on simplicity. The art reminds me of Doraemon and other children-oriented animes.

Characters? Ok (+)
They are mid at best. Most characters have very slow character development, including the main cast. Kou is bland, Aoba is insufferable, Azuma is as bland as Kou but cooler... I guess, Senda is annoying, Akaishi is a friend you want when you are being bullied, and the rest are just NPCs. They have very slow skill development given that they have 50 ... episodes to become the very best. And most of them have not improved that much at all. They all still relied on the MC and their star batter. What is this?! Modern day LA Lakers?! I feel like if this team is featured in Wii Sports baseball, they are not even close to Matt's team. I can beat them easily. Poofesure can even 99-0 them lmao.

Story? Meh (-)
A sports game that took SoL route most of the time. A bizarre choice and not a good one. I expect sports anime to take the play-by-play approach, where we see our characters play, make mistakes, and learn from it to overcome the odds. In this anime, I only see some few moments of that, and the rest are SoL, and not a good one and boring. As a SoL enthusiast, I can say that they failed there. (Update from Ashita no Joe) At least in Ashita no Joe, they flesh out their characters and plot development there more than enough, even if that show has SoL element dominated there compared to the sport side. Here, they just have SoL element for the sake of it.

Pacing? Trash (---)
I have to suffer many episodes to see them shine in baseball field?! Too many unnecessary down times, too few sports moments. Feels like watching a snail travel in 1km road. And the payoff? Terrible. You can skip some episodes and not be confused.

OST? Meh (-)
Decent... but forgettable.

Enjoyability? Bad (--)
Very low replayability. Too many snore moments. The only intense moments in this anime are if the main team hits the ball, if the star batter didn't get ball 4'd, and if the MC strikeout'd opponents. That's it. This anime is for people who wants very slow character development and wanna watch the lives of athletes behind the scenes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 15, 2023

PixelB

Not Recommended

Funny

Cross Game humors itself to be a sports anime. It's not. This show is ABSOLUTELY NOT a sports show. It tricks you into thinking that it is something that it is not. While 80% of the show or more has focused on the "theme" of baseball, the reality is that it might as well be nothing. 80% of this show is absolutely nothing. It's too generic. People just throw balls and practice. There are no play-by-play games. Not a single game is described in detail. A large majority of games are skipped off-screen. People run. Coaches talk and do knocking drills. People hit balls. ... There are no descriptors. At all. I'm convinced that Mitsuru Adachi, the author of Cross Game, can't write any compelling baseball manga.

See, a baseball anime would actually have details about the damn games. There would be play-by-plays. Monologues of players at bat, the catcher's monologues of the calling of the game, and the pitcher's monologue of his own mental state of mind are shown. This is especially so when games are in tense situations. Not all plays should so slow-paced and detailed, but certainly, for the exciting showdowns, this stuff is pretty normal and necessary for a viewer to get invested in the play, characters, and stakes at hand. This show does none of that, and it extends to the entire cast of characters as well. In a sports show, each character should show their progression: their strengths and weaknesses, their struggles, and their eventual payoff for hard training. At the very least, the main characters should. I am well aware that characterizing 9 characters--an entire baseball team-- and other side characters is extremely tough while also trying to include baseball games and a plot. That being said, it's unacceptable that none of the characters have any shown progression in baseball. There are basically only four named characters on the baseball team of Seishuu Academy: Azuma, Kitamura, Akaishi, Nakanishi, and Senda. Azuma's a batting genius. He's got no flaws, and never had a slump. He barely has any mishaps, and even in the final game in extra innings, he barely breaks a sweat. Kitamura's a pitching genius. He's only got one flaw, which is his lack of stamina, which also eventually gets phased out. That's it. Akaishi, Nakanishi, and Senda don't even get enough screen time for me to exactly pinpoint any flaws or strengths unless you consider Nakanishi to be fat and slow. You don't know any players' batting skills other than Azuma's, and you don't know what pitch types they prefer.

Is it not enough evidence that there's no attention to detail when you consider that the game-winning homerun doesn't even show you what type of pitch was being thrown, and what count it was at? There's no attempt at making this show's focus on baseball.

So the show clearly tries to distance itself from sports. What is it after? Romance? Slice of life? Characterization? Well, it dabbles in all of those aspects but also fails to deliver. Aoba and Kou's relationship really reminded me of Akane and Ranma's relationship in Ranma 1/2, which is a good thing, but there are basically no slice-of-life scenes outside of baseball-related activities. I hate to say it, but even the slapstick rom-com that Ranma 1/2 did was successful in character development and it achieved what it was trying to do, but what is Cross Game trying to do?

There's romance in this show, but it's very slow and unrewarding. Regardless, the only reason the romance ever progresses is because of forced drama. There are a lot of dramatic situations that force people to expose fragility in order for the show and characters to progress, and it's just lame. As I said, there are no slice-of-life scenes, there's forced drama to increase tension in the shallow baseball games and romance, and all of these genres are half-baked in the show. There's no identity.

if the show decided to take one genre and stick with it, I'm sure the show would have been an enjoyable experience. Too bad it never does.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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