Here’s the windup…and the pitch…
What They Say:
“Fearless”
I want to pitch to that mitt again… A meeting with catcher Kazuya Miyuki changed the 15-year-old Eijun Sawamura’s life. He said goodbye to all his friends and knocked upon the door of Seidou, a prestigious baseball school, intent on testing his own strength. There, he met many proud baseball players who were betting everything on the sport! A classic tale, yet new and fresh. All the emotion and excitement of the popular baseball manga is at last coming to television in the form of an anime!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Bases still loaded, Seidou still down by one run, and Seidou’s captain and cleanup hitter still at bat. On the other side, a dream team of junior high players still make up the Inashiro team with their ace pitcher Narumiya Mei at the point, currently on the mound. He throws the ball, the changeup, and Yuki swings the bat. He makes contact with the changeup just as Isashiki did innings ago and it goes deep into the outfield. Two runs home for Seidou and suddenly Seidou is up by one run with runners still on secod and third. On the ups for Inashiro is that there’s two outs. Masuko hits it deep into the outfield on the first pitch, but Inashiro makes a great catch to save the inning.
Now, Seidou’s back on the defense with the momentum in their favor in the bottom of the eighth and the guy with the moving fastball is back on the mound. Narumiya may have kept his composure on the mound, impressed that Yuki could hit his best pitch, but he lets out behind the dugout.
Inashiro’s 6-7-8 batters are up for them with Eijun up against them and Kawakami ready if necessary. On the crossfire pitch, the hit goes to left field and Furuya misses the defense. He was guarding too deep and couldn’t catch up to the relatively shallow ball. The next batter shows bunt and hits one down the third base line. Eijun and Masuko both go after the ball and almost collide, but Eiju manages to get the out at second. On the first pitch to the next batter, Kazuya throws to first to try and get the pick off, but fails. The move’s aggressive and shows that Seidou’s still fighting hard despite being up one run. It’s just one run after all and, as was shown in the top of the inning, that lead could go away quick. A second crossfire pitch is the cutter that Eijun’s been trying to master and Eijun gets the double play on Inashiro in the bottom of the eighth.
Going into the ninth, Seidou is up to bat and Inashiro down by one. Narumiya has thrown over 100 pitches and, if he goes out, it might be the end for the Inashiro team. Kazuya’s up first for Seidou. Kazuya hits a double just past the first baseman and Seidou is still fighting on offense. Furuya’s next up to bat for Seidou and Narumiya can only think of last year’s loss.
In Summary:
Seidou’s still fighting. Of course they are. They’re a team of experienced players and the ones we’re focusing on are the relatively inexperienced ones. Eijun, Furuya, and Haruichi are all on the field now and Inashiro’s coach wants to take advantage of that. If they get no chance, it’ll be the end of their season and Inashiro will only have next year to look forward to. Quickly, it’s looking that way, but there’s an entire inning left. Who knows what could happen.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar
