Ookiku Furikabutte is an interesting anime that caught my eye. If you like the game of baseball or are interested in the sports-themed anime, then this anime might be very enjoyable. However, the reason why I believe that the anime has flaws is due to its plot predictability, the underdevelopment of the supporting characters, and the over-centralization over the baseball theme.
Despite finishing this anime in a mere two days, I found myself thinking behind all the enjoyment: what made this anime appealing to me? After much consideration, I found out that the reason why I enjoyed this anime stemmed simply from my interest in competitive sports and that a sports-themed anime was refreshing in an anime era driven by harems. But after detaching myself from that perspective, I found myself realizing that the plot setup was very similar to many other sports-related animes and that the characters are developed in a very predictable fashion. I found some parts of the scene redundant and found myself looking forward to the baseball scenes not because that was what the anime was about but rather because the underlying plot was mediocre.
Additionally, in this anime, the focal point was centralized on the main character and a few (1 or 2) other characters. While this is often the case for any anime, baseball is a team sport, and for a 26 episode series you would think the supporting cast would get more development. However, in the anime, I believe many characters were underdeveloped or their stories/perspectives were overshadowed by the extreme focus on the main character. Regardless of how much you like the main character, the plot cannot be great with a weak supporting cast just like in the game of baseball a team is no better than its supporting players.
Also, I found that the anime was not only underdeveloped in some areas, but it was overdeveloped in others such as its baseball theme. While many viewers might watch it simply for the baseball aspect, I believe this anime spent too much screentime on the actual games. This drew out the storyline and while watching a baseball game might be exciting, one can watch a baseball game in real life too. I believe the distribution of screentime was distributed poorly overall.
While there are more than a few things that are wrong with this anime, there are also some noteworthy features that deserve praise. For one, it has a lot of cliffhangers. This is important for an anime because it adds to the audience's curiosity. Despite the redundant and often predictable storyline, that is one of the reasons it draws viewers to keep watching. Also, it does do a very good and detailed job describing the game of baseball and depicting the personality of its main character. However, despite the allure, Ookiku Furikabutte is simply an okay watch. While viewers like myself might enjoy it, other viewers that have different interests would find the anime unbearable. To me, part of what defines a great anime is its ability appeal to viewers that are not specifically into that genre.
Take away the intended audience and Ookiku Furikabutte suddenly loses its luster.
