(L) Cross game

[MeoTwister5]

Kou has always liked Aoba. I probably cannot stress my belief in this enough.

[BetoJR]

Let the arguments begin.

I'm down with the "Kou always liked Aoba" camp, myself. And vice-versa.

[willx]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Kou has always liked Aoba. I probably cannot stress my belief in this enough.

I neither agree nor disagree. I think they were too young when Wakaba was around to really think about "liking" in a romantic manner. I think he loved both Wakaba and Aoba. Thinking about the start of this series makes me tear up again..

Reply hazy, through these mist of tears..

[SeijiSensei]

Please, wasn't there enough discussion about this when the show aired? If you all start going round and round again on the subject of Kou and Aoba, I'm unsubscribing from this thread.

[Guardian Enzo]

You prefer zero posts for a year to posts on this topic?

[SeijiSensei]

I just don't see what more there is to say on this subject. I'm also really tired of shipping discussions. They have derailed any serious commentary about the overall story in the Shin Sekai Yori threads in favor of long-winded discussions of pairings and whether X really loved Y. I'm just fed up with that sort of thing.

But carry on.

[TinyRedLeaf]

I guess it's a good thing that I've stayed away from the Shin Sekai Yori sub-forum.

To be fair, though, there aren't any "shipping wars" in Cross Game, just a lot of different opinions about when Kou and Aoba started to have feelings for each other. That they would become a couple was never seriously in doubt. It was just a question of when. Unlike most other long-winded romance shounen/shoujo dramas, Cross Game managed to set up a plausible obstacle that prevented its two stars from becoming a couple sooner. The pent-up anticipation among viewers made the eventual pay-off that much sweeter as a result. It's an important part of understanding what made the drama so addictive.

[willx]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

I guess it's a good thing that I've stayed away from the Shin Sekai Yori sub-forum.

To be fair, though, there aren't any "shipping wars" in Cross Game, just a lot of different opinions about when Kou and Aoba started to have feelings for each other. That they would become a couple was never seriously in doubt. It was just a question of when. Unlike most other long-winded romance shounen/shoujo dramas, Cross Game managed to set up a plausible obstacle that prevented its two stars from becoming a couple sooner. The pent-up anticipation among viewers made the eventual pay-off that much sweeter as a result. It's an important part of understanding what made the drama so addictive.

And pent-up anticipation it was.. Who can say that they didn't appreciate the explosion of emotion as Aoba cried and buried herself in Kou's chest..

Outlook is positive

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Nafi

P.S. I somewhat disliked the ending but also got satisfied (hard to explain).

Spoiler:

Aoba basically grabs his hand and they wait for the train and Kou doesn't let go. It's a unique ending, but still unsatisfying. They both share mutual feelings, but Aoba still doesn't express it "kindly". She does express it, but in her own way. I wish the series ended a bit differently, and that whole Akane and the catcher guy having romance is still a mystery.

It's been a mad, mad, mad quarter and it was only on Christmas Day that I finally had the time to finish the eighth and final volume of the Cross Game manga. To commemorate the occasion, I re-watched the last few episodes of the anime.

And that's when I realised again that my earlier answer to the above observation was unnecessarily complicated. There's a simple reason that the ending was effective despite its unconventional conclusion. Throughout the last few episodes, one point was being hammered home constantly, the simple truth that both Kou and Aoba are inveterate liars.

They'd been hiding their feelings for so long that it had long become a habit for the both of them to always say the opposite of what they mean. The fact that they felt compelled to lie about the exact same topics reinforces how alike they were. More importantly, it underscores how Kou and Aoba are perfect for each other — they knew and understood each other so well that they could see right through each other's lies.

And so, their mutual charade had become a private game of crossed meanings, to the point where it would be completely out of character for either of them to be anything but the opposite what they truly were inside, where it really mattered. Amusingly, it might even be confusing for either of them to be "truthful" to each other.

The more anime-conventional reason for Aoba's "unkindness" would be that she's tsundere, though I don't think there's a need to resort to such pat "explanations". You need only put yourself in Kou and Aoba's shoes, and re-live the many emotional burdens they carried, the obligations they felt they had to fulfil. If such a situation were to unfold in real life, I could easily imagine two people like Kou and Aoba to handle it in more or less the same way.

As for the Aoba and Yuhei's "romance", well, that was clearly a lie from the get-go. Almost everyone could tell from the start, including Yuhei himself. So, I don't think there's much of "mystery" behind it.

[germanturkey]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highsc...184715391.html

i've found Koh.

[Guardian Enzo]

That coach ought to be shot.

[DragoonKain3]

Manga is one thing, but it happening in RL is quite scary actually. And this isn't a rare occurence either, as I remember in this very thread we were talking about RL highschool pitchers like Koh during the time the anime aired. Even the article states that Matsuzaka has done it before, and even the opposing pitcher as well.

They should have some limits or something. I fear for the future careers of these talented boys. But I guess for them, the glory of Koshien is something that must be achieved at any cost. :shrug:

[Guardian Enzo]

I think it really is a cultural "needs of the many" thing - though that's not the say that American high school coaches don't abuse arms too. I remember when Major S1 aired, to beat the hated Yokohama Little Goro basically pitched himself into having to switch throwing arms because he tore up his shoulder so badly - and it was more or less presented as a good thing. And he was 11 years old!

[Eclipze]

I'll leave this here:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/z790cG9At2I

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Song: 恋焦がれて見た夢は (Koi Kogarete Mita Yume), by 絢香 (Ayaka)
Cover by: 福本まなか (Fukumoto Manaka), 11 years old.

[SeijiSensei]

I'll just leave this one.

Images

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No 160's for this guy. His fastball tops out around 91 mph (145 kph), yet he still mystifies the most powerful batters in American baseball. In the regular season Uehara Koji struck out 101 and walked just nine! He is the most remarkable Red Sox pitcher I've watched since the legendary Pedro Martinez.

Matsuzaka Daisuke and Okajima Hideki have World Series rings from 2007. Two more for Japanese players this year. Tazawa Junichi was the set up man for most of the season and got some key outs in the playoffs as well.

[Reckoner]

Well I was in a bad mood and wanted a feel good anime to cheer me up. Decided, hey why not rewatch Cross Game? Burnt through all 50 episodes in the last two days. Damn this show is great, and I feel I almost enjoyed it more the second time around than the first.

Too bad they don't make too many main characters like Kitamura Kou. Amazing character really. Same goes for Aoba, she's basically one of the few living examples of a "natural" tsundere done right.

I know the show ends at the appropriate place, but I always did want to see just a little more. It was a bit abrupt for my liking in some ways, but it just shows how endearing these characters were that I just wanted to keep watching them go on.

Now I'm sad that it's all over again. Damn it.

[Proto]

wanted a feel good anime

Didn't watch Aria

That's all I read.


Nah but really, I think I rewatched every episode of Cross Game 2 or 3 times while it was still airing. Amazing series really. Too bad it will take MIX forever to get anywhere as emotional engaging with the pace it's going.

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by Proto

That's all I read.

Too many people think ARIA is the greatest thing ever. Hype force field surrounds that show for me .

Originally Posted by Proto

Nah but really, I think I rewatched every episode of Cross Game 2 or 3 times while it was still airing. Amazing series really. Too bad it will take MIX forever to get anywhere as emotional engaging with the pace it's going.

Only reason I haven't started reading MIX is because I can't imagine Adachi topping himself.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say for me that Cross Game kept me from quitting anime back in 2009-2010 since it was a very bad stretch for anime those years. Only problem is now I have a hard time getting the motivation to watch current anime since almost everything this season is terrible compared to it.

[Pocari_Sweat]

You know I totally forgot I had this series on hold until Reckoner told me he was re-watching it and I remembered suddenly that Guardian Enzo's avatar was Kou from Cross Game, so I powered through the last 15 or so episodes yesterday and... wow. I just ruined myself from anime for the rest of the year.

Seriously, the amount of emotions I was left with by the end of the series was insane. And that last scene with Kou x Aoba... gyaaaa. Now that's what you can call a really heartwarming romantic scene. And Kou you're a legend. You are possibly the best down-to-earth male character I've ever seen.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

Only reason I haven't started reading MIX is because I can't imagine Adachi topping himself

But Adachi doesn't need to top himself to be better than almost anything out there! Even in an early chapter of MIX there was a wordless flashback sequence that lasted a few pages that I found to be genius and made me think "he's still got it".