Cross Game #01 — Jim Morrison is Displeased

April 5th, 2009

 

Seriously, who names their team The Doors?

New Season Disclaimer:

I prefer to give every show a chance. You never know when your dream-eating insect wielding Mai HiME knockoff will turn out to be a psychological romantic thriller, or the strange moeblob show will be full of wit and urine jokes. However, my preferences are still my preferences, and while I’ll endevor to at least convey why I do or do not like things, there are genres of shows that I just plain don’t particularly enjoy. My opinions are based on nothing more than a gut reaction to what I watched literally 10-15 minutes prior and should be construed as nothing more and nothing less than that.

Impressions:

Man, Synergy… you gave up my espers to make this? That makes me sadder than you can imagine. Production is serviceable at best, and the lack of detail just makes everybody’s faces all blend together. Oh yeah, and the one that they spent about half the episode on dies at the end of it. I think I did like how they handled that since it was shown from Kou’s perspective where the kids aren’t really told anything and they’re just brought to her funeral without really knowing what was going on. They all grieve in their own ways in the aftermath. On the other hand, given that we had maybe 10 minutes to get attached to Wakaba, it has approximately zero impact on us as the audience. Whoopsies!

I’m not a baseball fan, I’m not really a drama fan, and I will carry a chip on my shoulder over this replacing Shiho ZKC to the grave if I have to. This wasn’t even in the same timeline as the rest of the story though, so I’m really not certain what to think of this. Next episode skips ahead what appears to be at least four or five years, so… bleh. I can only assume that there’s going to be a hell of a lot of angsting over Wakaba to make this episode actually be important. Ugh. Give me back my espers, dammit.

Cross Game OP

 

Preview:

Preview text goes here

Posted in Anime | 5 Comments »

5 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • TheDoors says:
    April 5, 2009 at 4:47 am

    Don’t worry. NO angsting. Not one bit. IF the anime does follow the manga.

  • buckyball says:
    April 5, 2009 at 4:52 am

    (apologies for jacking your blog, Arudoc!)
    It’s too bad the animation quality is so poor at times; this is one of my absolute favoritest manga.

    I wouldn’t classify this series as a drama, more like a bittersweet slice-of-life story (which doesn’t seem to be up your alley either, heh). But for those of your readers who might otherwise pass on the series:

    The first episode gets the only WTF plot twist out of the way, and also all the emo and angst. The audience doesn’t get attached to Wakaba, but her importance to the story comes from the way her presence and absence profoundly affects the other characters. When I read Cross Game and Touch, I’ve always felt the mangaka must have been drawing from close personal experience.

    Finally, the baseball issue; to a certain extent this will turn people off. I would like to remind people that Aria, Yakitate Japan! and Hikaru no Go were about gondoliers, bread-baking, and a boardgame. In good writing, the subject is there to serve the plot.
    (sorry again for jacking your blogspace!)

  • Mark says:
    April 5, 2009 at 7:31 am

    They condensed the first volume into an episode so it makes sense that you didn’t feel for Wakaba’s death. Adachi made it pretty sad in the manga, though, even from only seeing her for like 100 pages.

    “I can only assume that there’s going to be a hell of a lot of angsting over Wakaba to make this episode actually be important.”

    Actually no, those few years mean you don’t have to see anything like that. There’s the rare sombre moment but little more.

    Seriously, what’s with all the baseball-anime hate? Even my friend who totally hates all sports really enjoyed the first volume of Cross Game and is suddenly looking forward to the anime. I’ve never watched or played a real game of baseball in my life (or much of any sport) and yet their anime adaptions often end up being excellent.

  • Rincewind says:
    April 6, 2009 at 6:34 am

    Adachi? Im SO in. Nuff said.

  • Relaxwithmark says:
    February 6, 2010 at 7:33 am

    I have the Cross Game vol. 1 manga in the original Japanese. I could not read much at all. But I tried with a dictionary. It was great to find the anime with subs. I agree the first episode did not make sense with the co-main character dying. But as I have continued to watch (I love baseball) I was pleased to see the deceased character return in various flashbacks, in intricate ways I could never have guessed. Basically she did a lot more in her young life than we were led to believe. And it plays out through out the story. I am eager to see how it goes.