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This is a solid anime. Take it for what it is, a slice of life sports anime about first year high school students, and you will like it. I would categorize the feeling of it as "cute" in a young teen boys and their enthusiasm for a sport.

The story is simple, it follows the main protagonist, a first year baseball club member, and his team. I like it because they act like first year students. The athleticism, isn't over-the-top completely, unbelievable (though of course it is not realistic, but what sports anime has realistic athleticism?). You will find out a little back story for ... the main characters, but not too deep. It mainly focuses on them playing baseball. It's a simple, but enjoyable story.

The setting, the premises, the story is all captivating and intriguing and makes you want to find out more. But then you get a few episodes in when the action really starts, and the characters just keep thinking/talking the same drawn out, repetitive, analytical, self doubt... over... and over... again. Every. Single. Episode. Overdrawn out explanations of what's happening, what the character(s) are thinking, the history behind certain actions. There's so much drawn out dialogue and inner-thoughts it's disrupts the flow of the story, and gets mundane to watch. It's still a 7 because the art is amazing, the action scenes are beautiful to watch, ... the setting is very interesting, but the character execution definitely falls flat. The character's are so vivid visually in their emotions, they don't need 3 minutes of inner dialogue (EVERY. SINGLE. TIME! So frustrating.) to explain the fear, confusion, or whatever other emotion they're feeling when their faces say it all.

Edited to add: I was intrigued enough to read the manga, and it is by far, much better story-wise and pace wise. The manga really made me fall in love with this series. I get now why they stretch out the episodes so much (because of where the manga is currently), it's all filler, filler, filler. My score and opinions on the anime are still exactly the same, even after reading the manga.