(L) Cross game

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I am a little concerned about pacing as we've got only nine more episodes to go.

So now we have two episodes to go. The next episode clearly focuses on the remainder of the game with Ryou. As SeijiSensei no Musume reminded me, the goal has always been to play in Koushien, not necessarily win it. So we'll likely have one baseball episode, and one final episode to resolve the myriad of story threads left lying around for nearly an entire year. Here's a partial list:

Kou X Aoba - probably yes, maybe no
Akaishi X Akane - probably yes, maybe no
Kou X Akane - pretty unlikely
Azuma X Aoba - also pretty unlikely

All of the above X Wakaba - tears
The rest of the Tsukishima family X Akane - more tears

I'm hoping all that occupies at least 12-14 of the last 22 minutes or so and leaves 8-10 minutes for:

Azuma x Mishima - male (non-yaoi) bonding; baseball first, women if they happen
Nee-san X Nii-san - a few seconds of wedding video
Kouta X Manager-chan - you just know this one's going to happen
Momiji X Nomo - Momiji's already discovering boys, leaving Nomo to hang out with the guys (What gender is Nomo, anyway?)
Risa X ? - Risa completes her maturation, decides to pursue baseball and baseball players in particular; see Azuma and Mishima above (cf. Bull Durham)
Aoba's cousin - Why is he even here?

Originally Posted by leongsh

If it is only going to be 50 episodes, then so be it. It's just 1 episode shorter than originally expected

Obviously it's out of our hands. Still that's a pretty long list of things to sort out in 22 minutes. Losing an episode in the middle of a 50-episode opus can be dealt with later. Losing one at the very end of a show probably gives the writers fits. This whole practice of animating a story while it's being written is pretty amazing in itself. I'd love to sit in on one of those meetings among the manga-ka, the investors, and the animators (if they have anyone there at all) and listen to them discuss how to end a franchise like Cross Game. What an intersection of artistic and commercial imperatives!

Sakurai Takahiro continues to impress as a voice actor. He's especially effective in understated roles like Azuma or the Apothecary in Bakeneko/Mononoke. I grew to admire Tomatsu Haruka over the course of this show as well. I had only seen her referenced in other postings as the next big thing since Aya Hirano ("Haruka Tomatoes"), but she really carried off Aoba's personality well. Aoba always has a chip on her shoulder (look at any of her portraits with her sisters in the OP/ED), but she also has that spritely voice that you can hear especially well in, of all places, the voice-over for the billboard right before the show begins.

I'll just pass along without comment the Musume's observation that the real-life girls at the end all seemed quite "buff" and rather "butch." Aoba, charmingly, retains a strong streak of femininity despite her uniform. She holds her own in that department against some pretty strong competition in the likes of Wakaba, Akane, Ichiyou, and Momiji. In one sense, Azuma appreciates Aoba's abilities as an athlete the same way Chiaki's admires Nodame's talents as a pianist. But Azuma's attraction to Aoba is more visceral than just admiration for a talented colleague. He sees the desirable young woman inside the baggy uniform. Whether Kou can see Aoba that way remains to be seen.

[Guardian Enzo]

Do you really think it remains to be seen, Sensei? I believe Kou saw Aoba that way long before Azuma was a name that had ever crossed their lips.

I certainly agree that we have a ridiculous amount of material to cover in 22 minutes. That said, I'd be more than happy to sacrifice any postscript time that isn't dedicated to Kou and Aoba. That's why losing that 51st episode is such a hard blow to take. One of the things I loved about Seirei no Moribito - the only other anime that takes as much time and care and devotes as much energy to character development as this one - was that it devoted an entire episode to a postscript that the story had so richly earned, and that we would have felt cheated without. So few series ever do a really good job of wrapping up their main plot elements, never mind actually spending time saying goodbye to the characters afterwards.

[Nosauz]

Amazing episode, man Akaishi was just straight up mad beastly, just amazingly animated although they gave way too much screen time to arisa, considering I'd rather have had more kuruma sensei in the episode since the joke was still fresh with kuruma constantly hinting death flags for seishu. Still sad to see that there will only be 2 episodes because what seems to be the remaining material felt like an eternity, and two episodes justs feels very short in terms of finishing the series, but after watching this episode i have my faith in the animation studio hands down. Although they could have portrayed oikawa even more aroagant as that would make the following episodes just a bit better.

[Proto]

As the one and only Oikawa fan in this board I have to respectfully disagree with you. Oikawa and his forkball are as awesome as ever. It's just that his shortstop reacted a tad too late.

[Nosauz]

Originally Posted by Proto

As the one and only Oikawa fan in this board I have to respectfully disagree with you. Oikawa and his forkball are as awesome as ever. It's just that his shortstop reacted a tad too late.

o please... when he was trying to rationalize his almost homerun to azuma that made me chuckle. I'm not a oikawa hater, but i just feel like the poetic justice for his nonchalance toward azuma needs to paid back in full. Oikawa of pre mishima ryuou is probably his coolest mode, especially in the book store.

[leongsh]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Obviously it's out of our hands. Still that's a pretty long list of things to sort out in 22 minutes. Losing an episode in the middle of a 50-episode opus can be dealt with later. Losing one at the very end of a show probably gives the writers fits.

It can be ended in accordance with the manga within 2 episodes but it would be a tight squeeze. The remaining chapters that have to be covered are mostly action pieces which can go by very fast.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

This whole practice of animating a story while it's being written is pretty amazing in itself. I'd love to sit in on one of those meetings among the manga-ka, the investors, and the animators (if they have anyone there at all) and listen to them discuss how to end a franchise like Cross Game. What an intersection of artistic and commercial imperatives!

That would be most interesting to sit in to watch and listen. There are a number of shows where that happens. Another current example similar to Cross Game is that of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The manga is about to end and the most recent chapter (i.e. chapter 105) is well into the end-game and is spectacular.

My guess is in these kind of discussions, there is a lot to talk about what can be set aside and what can be expanded on. In Cross Game's case, it was likely discussed to extend and show the girl's baseball in part to expand on Aoba which was mentioned within the manga but not given any attention in there, as well as there being one of the main sponsors of women's baseball in Japan also sponsoring the show.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

In one sense, Azuma appreciates Aoba's abilities as an athlete the same way Chiaki's admires Nodame's talents as a pianist. But Azuma's attraction to Aoba is more visceral than just admiration for a talented colleague. He sees the desirable young woman inside the baggy uniform. Whether Kou can see Aoba that way remains to be seen.

Based on what has been shown so far, I think there is very little doubt that Kou can see Aoba that way. What really remains to be seen (for those only following the anime, that is) is how that last barrier between Kou and Aoba will be torn down. Not saying anymore. I just can't wait to watch it happen in the anime.

[Proto]

o please... when he was trying to rationalize his almost homerun to azuma that made me chuckle. I'm not a oikawa hater, but i just feel like the poetic justice for his nonchalance toward azuma needs to paid back in full. Oikawa of pre mishima ryuou is probably his coolest mode, especially in the book store.

I'm being half sarcastic in my posts, but actually that part of his character is what makes him so funny for me. It's that non chalance that makes his character sort of comical in this epitome of the seriousness situation.

Other than that, I'm bad at making long essays out of what I consider to be something very simple. We are coming to the logical conclusion of what the series has led up to. Now the final moment dawns upon us. I'll say and I repeat what I said in that other thread at this point in the series: Go Ryoh! Crush those haughty protagonists. The drama of a defeat would be much more of an eye opener for Kou and Aoba of what is truly important beyond baseball.

[poko-kun]

I see Masochist.
lol Just kidding, but that would make an interesting scene. Proto

[MeoTwister5]

Actually I don't really care whether Seishu wins or loses. To a certain extent it's no longer as much the point as actually being there to fight Ryoh.

There is only one main issue for me in the next episode (or maybe the last):

160 Kph??

Will he or will he not make it? I put 10 bucks on this kid with him making it.

[poko-kun]

Kou was doing his best. See his first pitch? ^^ And Aoba knew his intention.

I love the scene Kou looked right at Aoba.
That's so sweet....

[MeoTwister5]

God my flight at the latest has been moved to 4pm on March 29, Hong Kong time. Subsmith usually gets it out between 12nn and 2pm at the earliest.

Which means I'll be sitting my ass inside the airport terminal by the time subs come out. Which forces me to watch the RAW in the morning or the night before. Which means I'll have to bust out a Japanese dictionary and dig out by sheer force of willpower every little bit of Japanese I learned in college.

AGONY.

[Willen]

Originally Posted by Proto

As the one and only Oikawa fan in this board I have to respectfully disagree with you. Oikawa and his forkball are as awesome as ever. It's just that his shortstop reacted a tad too late.

I place the blame on his catcher.

[Proto]

Now that we are two weeks from the grand finale, I will expose the pet idea I've been thinking about for a while now. I was thinking a second iteration of the 'Cross Game' week we had a while ago in order to make more people aware of the existence of this excellent, yet often disregarded series. However, since most of us already have a Cross Game avatar/sig and it is not causing as most impact as it was the last time we tried, I think that for maximizing impact we should (as in, all the regulars to this thread) use the exact same sig and avatar for a week. In order to agree on one, I was thinking that people could post their nominations as a post here (or send it in a PM to me if the mods deem this discussion inappropriate) and we could use a poll service to decide on the sig/avatar we will be using. (please limit nominations to two in each category).

On a separate topic , I was also thinking that the thread could use a 'overall series thought' poll similar to the one series on subforums get once the series is done.

For one, I'd be nominating the sig I'm using:

[Shiroth]

I like your idea, as far as nominating sigs, i'd rather go with one that shows the baseball side of the series. Possibly the sig MeoTwister5 is using.

[king12354]

How does Kou know about the 160 kmph thing with Aoba? I thought Aoba just said that to Wakaba and it seems odd for Wakaba to tell Kou what types of guys her sister likes.

[Proto]

Actually, Wakaba was the one that told Kou, I think it was back during the 2nd episode.

"It's easy to make Aoba like you, you just have to pitch 160 km/h!!"
"That's easy to understand in a certain way."
"Kou nara dekiru!"

Something like that.

[BetoJR]

I nominate mine and Enzo's twin pair of avatars, for the effort.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by BetoJR

I nominate mine and Enzo's twin pair of avatars, for the effort.

Seconded!

I nominate Enzo's sig picture.

[BetoJR]

See how this works? Subtlety.

[germanturkey]

i thought we agreed earlier that you two couldn't post one after the other

i agree that there is enough of a following to do a overall series impression. i don't know how it'll be done though. i also nominate Enzo's sig. speaking of sigs, series needs to finish faster so i can make my sig...