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Old 2009-10-27, 18:37   Link #301
Crontica
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After reading this thread i decided to watch an anime that would otherwise have fallen into oblivion.

Episode 1. Holy Shi- The main character makes the Protagonists from Overdrive and Chaos;head look like Heroes by comparison. Its like he suffered some kind of mental crash from the cold war.


Episode 3. Facing off the enemy team! We get to see how they plan to keep the game interesting. And the grass scene... *Cuts knife trough epic subtext*.

Last edited by Crontica; 2009-10-27 at 19:38.
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Old 2009-11-13, 12:31   Link #302
Proto
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I have watched till the end of the first match... and I have to say that so far I am not that impressed personally. It's not that it is bad, but it reminds me too much of the likes of Captain Tsubasa, maybe with a level up in the characterization department. Not that it is bad, but my personal peak for that type of series was 15 years ago. Does it get better?
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Old 2009-11-13, 15:39   Link #303
Guardian Enzo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Proto View Post
I have watched till the end of the first match... and I have to say that so far I am not that impressed personally. It's not that it is bad, but it reminds me too much of the likes of Captain Tsubasa, maybe with a level up in the characterization department. Not that it is bad, but my personal peak for that type of series was 15 years ago. Does it get better?
Hmmm - that's a bit of a tough question.

I'm tempted to say no, if it doesn't appeal to you by now it probably never will. But my recollection (it's been a couple of years since I watched it) is that OoFuri sort of wormed it's way into my psyche, despite never really evolving that much thematically. The relentlessly open nature of the material wore down my resistance, I guess. It's kind of the anti-"Major" (which I also love) for better and worse - there are no exceptional figures here. The games themselves are almost comically literal and realistic - sometimes it seemed like they were in real-time, they took so long to resolve!

But it worked better and better as it progressed, at least for me. What appealed to me was that it was a series that was openly and enthusiastically fond of all the characters. There were no real villains and really, what you see is a bunch of relatively normal teenagers acting like relatively normal teenagers. I thought it captured the emotional vulnerability of teenage males rather well, as well as their oddities and idiosyncrasies. It was just a show about rather likable but basically normal boys dealing with the pleasures and pressures of baseball and friendship in a (for me) endearingly transparent and feckless way. If that appeals to you, I don't think you'll see it done much better. But I could also see where it wouldn't appeal to everyone.
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Old 2009-11-13, 15:51   Link #304
Proto
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Hmm... I will definitely finish watching it since I do happen to like it. But I only like it on a "7.5/10" level, not the revolutionary series that seem to have changed the vision of anime for many people. Possibly because I can hardly relate to the characters given that I went to a heavily academic oriented and competitive school, nothing like what it is portrayed in the series, so as realistic as it may be it doesn't really resound with my personal reality. (you see those schools in anime that divides all classes by grades from A to D? My school was one of those, which didn't help much in creating a friendly atmosphere i guess. Worse of all, we didn't get all those massage rooms and high-tech equipment that the people in anime's class A did. )
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Old 2009-11-13, 15:52   Link #305
Guardian Enzo
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Originally Posted by Proto View Post
Hmm... I will definitely finish watching it since I do happen to like it. But I only like it on a "7.5/10" level, not the revolutionary series that seem to have changed the vision of anime for many people. Possibly because I can hardly relate to the characters given that I went to a heavily academic oriented and competitive school, nothing like what it is portrayed in the series, so as realistic as it may be it doesn't really resound with my personal reality. (you see those schools in anime that divides all classes by grades from A to D? My school was one of those, which didn't help much in creating a friendly atmosphere i guess. Worse of all, we didn't get all those massage rooms and high-tech equipment that the people in anime's class A did. )
I think you should definitely watch "Baka test"...
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Old 2009-11-13, 15:58   Link #306
Proto
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Somehow I feel like i'd be watching it for all the wrong reasons. Aw well, I'll check it when the time comes. Meanwhile, I hope I'm not the only ones who feels like punching the protagonist till he can cry no longer? As mean as it may sound , and as realistic as his insecurities may be protrayed, he really gets on my nerves.
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Old 2009-11-13, 19:00   Link #307
Guardian Enzo
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Originally Posted by Proto View Post
Somehow I feel like i'd be watching it for all the wrong reasons. Aw well, I'll check it when the time comes. Meanwhile, I hope I'm not the only ones who feels like punching the protagonist till he can cry no longer? As mean as it may sound , and as realistic as his insecurities may be protrayed, he really gets on my nerves.
On that I can definitely recall, my irritation evolved into empathy over time. Mihoshi makes Shinji Ikari look like Kamina, on that I won't disagree - when it comes to emotion Lag Seeing is a comparative stoic next to Mihoshi. Yes, he cries a lot and has the worst self-image you've ever seen. But somehow - whether his development of the viewer's - I think it becomes more endearing if you stick it out.
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Old 2009-11-13, 19:58   Link #308
Proto
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Well, at least I'm liking how they are taking the time to make the antagonists likeable and not just targets to beat. The series got good characterization foundations so far, I have to give it that.
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Old 2009-11-14, 00:22   Link #309
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I'm currently at episode 16. I guess it does get better as you start caring more for the characters. I'm starting to get used to the pace more, so the games are getting enjoyable as well. The series can go all the way up to 8.5 if it keeps the good game up.
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Old 2009-11-14, 04:20   Link #310
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Heck, this series could perfectly take 2 or 3 years to get the team to the finals at the pace it is going isn't it? Not that I mind, I guess the characters grow on you after they hammer the pace on you after all this episodes. I have to say that I teared up a little after the game was over in ep 24. Haha

Oi, guys, post something, I'm trying to give in reports as I watch but it seems I'm just double and triple posting here.

edit:
ep 25:
10 minutes in: wtf, he's back to his usual self, does this series has no memory or something? This is not a stress relief, it is stress inducing :X
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Old 2009-11-14, 04:37   Link #311
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I'm rewatching the series at the moment (since both the "Big Windup!" DVDs have been released) and am up to ep 12. I must say that for me it was one of the few baseball anime series that I really enjoyed. I tried a number of the previous baseball series and none of them worked for me, at least Ookiku Furikabutte has a firm basis on reality.

It certainly would be nice if more was animated. Guess I will have to settle for Cross Game (which is the other baseball series I found even more enjoyable than this one).
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Old 2009-11-14, 11:53   Link #312
Guardian Enzo
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Given the huge DVD sales in Japan, I'm surprised a 2nd season hasn't already been announced.
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Old 2009-11-14, 12:33   Link #313
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Given the huge DVD sales in Japan, I'm surprised a 2nd season hasn't already been announced.
i dont even think theirs enough manga material to cover another 26episode season.
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Old 2009-11-14, 13:04   Link #314
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Manga in on 12 volumes, I believe. If I'm correct, I think the anime only covered the first six. I'm pretty certain we'll see an announcement of a 2nd season in 2010, if not the anime itself.
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Old 2009-11-14, 18:01   Link #315
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There's PLENTY of material for another season. Two, really. Higuchi really loves to take her time developing this. Consider the big games have each taken a whole year of manga to cover. In series time it's been about 4 months. I hope this means we will see Oofuri for...ever.

I, too, got the DVDs as review copies and that's how I got into this. I didn't like it all that much until it was over, at which point I went back and rewatched it and lost my mind about it. Mihashi annoyed me the first go through, and Abe was my favorite charcter because he was the only one who seemed to feel the same way. But following the manga makes me feel much more charitable toward Mihashi, especially with the leaps and bounds of maturing he's made more recently, and also raised the other characters to be right behind Abe. The character development in this is so good. Ah, god I wish I'd joined a baseball team when I was younger.

Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeease second season...
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Old 2009-11-14, 18:28   Link #316
Theowne
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Oi, guys, post something, I'm trying to give in reports as I watch but it seems I'm just double and triple posting here.
What can I say? To me this is the perfect baseball anime. It's the complete opposite of the Major style of sports anime. I might like Cross Game and Touch for their combination of slice of life and basball, but for portraying the sport alone, Oofuri was just something else. It doesn't try to branch off into other genres, it just picks one focus, high school baseball, and delivers on it. The games themselves were completely different from what I'm used to seeing. There's no home runs, no easy plot devices, no amazing hitter to save the day. Just detailed play-by-play runthroughs and I remember being so captivated I ran through the entire second game in a day.

I dunno. There's just something about it.
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Old 2009-11-14, 18:30   Link #317
Guardian Enzo
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I think Mihashi is plenty likable in the anime - eventually. It's hard to explain why or exactly when it happened, but at some point I just stopped wanting to strangle Ren when he went all moe~moe~kyun and wanted to give him a hug and a mug of hot chocolate instead. Maybe it was just the accumulating evidence of just how deeply damaged he was and how resistant he was to getting close to anyone.

All this discussion has reminded me of another thing I loved about Oofuri - the parents. All of them crack me up, especially Ren's mother. Their antics at the games kept me in stitches and were a needed distraction when those games dragged on for weeks at a time.

Again, this is not a series to everyone's tastes - it's got more homoerotic subtext than anything this side of 07 Ghost, the pacing is glacial, Ren with all his timidity can be a lot to take, and all that weird psychobabble from the math teacher was just plain bizarre. But for some reason, it all seemed to blend together into a compelling whole, even if those individual elements might not appeal to a particular viewer.
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Old 2009-11-14, 18:37   Link #318
Proto
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One thing about this series that did surprise me were the teacher and the coach actually acting like a teacher and like a coach. As sad as that sounds.

Quote:
and all that weird psychobabble from the math teacher was just plain bizarre.
Na, that was cool and understandable from the first wach. For real mind boogling psychobabble from a math teacher, Arjuna or a certain episode from Seraphim call are better examples

Last edited by Proto; 2009-11-14 at 18:47.
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Old 2009-11-14, 18:48   Link #319
Theowne
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It just goes to show that you can be compelling without resorting to cheap plot devices. Baseball games can be exciting without superstar homeruns or ace player-villains, and baseball teams can be compelling without evil coaches or rivalries.
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Old 2009-11-14, 18:49   Link #320
gonzo562
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Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo View Post
Manga in on 12 volumes, I believe. If I'm correct, I think the anime only covered the first six. I'm pretty certain we'll see an announcement of a 2nd season in 2010, if not the anime itself.
oh wow didnt know their was that much material now. I hope a 2nd season will be announced.
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