I liked Cross Game, I'm not completely sure why. It has a lot of things that I normally like in anime but most of them didn't grasp me as much as they could have. Maybe it's because it was about baseball, which I know nothing about. Or maybe the emotions didn't hit me as hard expressed in it's back to basic art. I still liked it a lot, though, I got through it's 50 episodes in no time and if you know my habits you know that I really do just drop the ones I don't like as soon as I've had enough of them, which is often two episodes in.
NOT REALLY ANY SPOILERS!!
YES, I DID LIKE THIS ANIME
I do like my love stories slow and realistic, that's what probably struck a chord with me. I like a love between two people who actually know each other deeply, and trust each other on a very instinctive level. Passion is good, but not as good as that feeling of having a rock in the crazy storm of life, and just being willing to work for a relationship can make it so much more real.
Just like the art the anime is simple, back to basic, nice to watch, cute and funny, but simple. I'm sure other people found more meaning in this anime than I did and there is that layer that kept me watching, but I can't figure out what it is exactly. Maybe because it's very basic it feels honest, without a lot of decoration, both visually and emotionally. Even though I guess it deals with a story that could have been a lot more complicated it all happens very naturally, slowly but steadily.
I liked the story, I like that the drama isn't painted so dramatically and I like the way the story works and develops the main characters.
It has a lot of nice characters, I mean nice in the actual sense. I don't like it when anime's put in mean people for no reason other than trying to make you root for the main character more, like with rivals in love or in a game. They really have no function being mean if the couple you are rooting for is actually in love, or if the person you are rooting for to win is actually the best. They will figure that out even if their rivals are the nicest people in the world. I like that Cross Game avoided a lot of people being mean just for the hell of it.
WHAT I NEVER REALLY GOT
What I didn't like about this anime. Well, I think the art was a little too simple, simple is good but when you find yourself wondering what the expressions on peoples faces are supposed to be, it's a little too simple for me. I didn't have that a lot but the points where facial expressions are supposed to present words unsaid are often the most important parts, and also the parts that sometimes left me a little confused.
I had a few character issues, too. The male lead, though showing some character development, seems very unchanged to me, while a lot happens that could have given him more depth. He always seems to have some sort of control over his emotions, giving us little insight into him and, me personally, not a lot of reasons to love him. I did love the female lead who makes up for that lack of emotional connection easily. There's also a little to many comic relief characters for my taste, and some characters just sticking around after sort of being done playing their part. A lot of screen time seems to be lost that could have been spend on me getting to know the important characters a little better.
The baseball thing. I think this might be a personal issue seeing as I've never really been into sports but I just didn't really get it, I cared because my characters cared, but I didn't actually care myself. I have watched a few other shows and anime about ambition, passion and a business wouldn't really have cared about going into it, but a lot of those have a way of getting me to love what they do, making me curious about it. Cross Game didn't really explain to me in it's own way why people love baseball, it just gave me characters to love that loved it, and that's not enough for me, once I spend that much time with it I want to understand why.
Also, I found the ending a little bit confusing, but that's probably because I like my endings to tie up all loose ends and I know that's not very realistic but it made me feel a bit unfinished. It wasn't as though there's this great plot hole that needed addressing or something just a slight bit of insecurity about the ending.
OVERALL
Overall I found it very enjoyable (I know that sounds condescending, it's not meant to be) and I would recommend it to basically anyone because I think a lot of people can find stuff in it they like. This is not one of my favorite anime's, though, because I like my characters to dig a little deeper, and because I there's a lot of things that I can't get myself to care about. But it's a good story with nice characters and I had fun watching it :)
