katlyn.larkin - 2016-10-06 22:43:57

The world of high school baseball is a place filled with the emotions of both the players on the field and the supporters in the stands. But no high school baseball experience is more ripe with emotion than that of Ren Mihashi, an incoming freshmen to Nishiura High School who wants nothing more than to be a pitching ace for his new high school team. But an already timid nature and a rather bumpy past seem to set him up for failure. That is, until he gets to Nishiura. There, a ragtag team of freshmen only players, led by a whirlwind of a coach, seem to have different plans for Mihashi. Perhaps he can really bond with his new teammates, especially his new temperamental and loud catcher, Takaya Abe, and learn a little bit more about baseball, and himself, in the process. 

I didn't realize how much I loved sports anime until I came across Ookiku Furikabutte. I had seen one or two sports anime before finding it, the main one being Prince of Tennis, so my knowledge of what a sports anime was came from that; long sweeping battle-like matches where the players literally blasted supernatural signature sports moves at each other. Ookiku Furikabutte is not that kind of sports anime. Often looked over in comparison to other sports giants like Kuroko no Basket or Prince of Tennis, Ookiku Furikabutte is very grounded in reality. The players utilize real baseball techniques and not strange superhero moves. The baseball games sound like you're really on a baseball field experiencing the game live. The anime even throws in a little sports science. And these scenes are never boring, because of Ookiku Furikabutte's strongest aspect: its characters.

The characters feel like real people with real struggles. Each one of the main boys on the Nishiura team can probably remind you of someone you know; I found myself latching on to the catcher, Abe, very early on since we share a similar sharp temperament. But all of the players, their classmates, even their families, all play key roles in the story, and they all feel like real people we've met before. This is in part due to the anime being adapted from a manga where the mangaka based the story on her own high school team. And although we don't see much of the rival teams, when they are introduced we also get another round of very real characters. "Authentic" seems to be the best way to describe Ookiku Furikabutte. It is an authentic sports story about authentic people with authentic relationships that anyone can connect with. 

I highly recommend Ookiku Furikabutte to anyone seeking an authentic and strong sports anime. The story may not sound like anything thrilling or exciting at first, unless you're a huge fan of high school baseball, but the amazing characters, sounds, animation (for a sports anime that came out before Free! and Haikyuu), and feel certainly make up for its simple premise. 

aiden.beier - 2013-12-17 04:30:24

I watched this show during a marathon of baseball anime (my genre addiction for the week), and while it did stand out in the way of characters and story a little, it kind of ruined it's self in the second half of season one.

We start off with the ever so common ace pitcher and catcher pair, Mihashi and Abe respectively, but Mihashi, instead of having overbearing cockiness or confidence in his ability, has an extreme inferiority complex due to his horrible experience in middle school. He thinks he sucks at being a pitcher, but loves it so much he doesn't want to stop. I am nothing like this, so I can't really understand his motivation, but that is the individualization of the human race. I'm not questioning it. Anyway, Abe discovers Mihashi is actually very good at what he does, though no mater how many times he tells him, Mihashi never truly believes Abe. The story goes on to see how Mihashi discovers his talent and bonds with Abe and the rest of his team. Very quickly he had to face his past with a team he had just met, equaling out to be very stressful for him and insightful for the rest of his team since they were very curious as to why Mihashi was to timid around anyone and everyone.

This would've been great, if they had stuck with it. The first 13 or 14 episodes stayed on plot and it was going so well. By this time we had only seen the team play one game on screen, and then they start the summer tournament. They might as well have combined the next 10-11 episodes and made a freaking movie because once their first summer league game starts IT DOESN'T END. They halt all story and character development and replace it with none stop gameplay. It was basically the same thing all ten episodes. Things are normal, both teams trying to outsmart the other, coming up with different strategies and figuring stuff out along the way about their opponents. Through in a few accidents here and there, you constantly here Abe talking to himself in his head about what pitch he should make Mihashi throw next, and he does that for like every batter that steps up to the plate. The whole thing was filled with repetitious stuff and they did it for such a long time, I lost count of how many episodes were spent on the one game, and had to go look it up later. They can try to justify it with the fact that they were playing the best team in the league last year, but with the way they were playing, they only looked like they were good enough to be the best a handful of times.

Thank God they made a season two otherwise this show would've been a good pie burnt in the oven and thrown away. All that yummy goodness thrown away for nothing.

So, even though they kind of ruined the end I still very much enjoyed watching it just because Mihashi is hilarious and his teammates are interesting. Also because it was baseball marathon week and as long as it didn't suck I was enjoying myself no matter what the show was. Normally I don't like baseball, so this addiction was very surprising to me, but worth it.

Recommendation- watch it if you have tolerance for stupidity.