Furuya’s done his job, but now Eijun’s on the mound.
What They Say:
“Potential”
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: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
In the bottom of the second, Furuya holds Yakushi to zero runs and Furuya’s up to bat first. On the first swing, he hits a home run and Seidou’s up by three now. This swing does a lot of things. 1. It’s pumping up the rest of the team to hit as well as the pitcher, of all players. 2. In Furuya’s mind, it makes up for the bad pitch he made.
It’s more telling of Yakushi’s batters that the coach decides to take Furuya out early and put him in left field. Furuya probably has the fastest pitch on the team and it’s hard for the Yakushi hitters to get used to a live ball that’s going that fast. He’s being sent to left field in places of Sakai after the first lineup from Yakushi. But if he’s in left, they can bring him back in if need be. Sakai, the third year who’s being taken out, offers up the outfielder’s glove in to Furuya. It’s the kind of move for the team that a third year is able to make only because of his experience, though I’m sure he’s not happy about it.
Eijun’s on the mound against the top of the lineup again, and everyone’s thinking he’s the secret weapon against the lefty hitter Raichi.
Before we jump into the matchup, we get a quick look at Ichidai’s upperclassmen to see what they’re doing. They’re just playing games at an arcade thinking that it should be them against Seidou, not Yakushi. But it’s exactly that kind of thinking that lost them the game and it’s exactly that kind of thinking that Seidou’s not subscribing to.
Kazuya calls for a ball on the outside for the first pitch to see how Raichi reacts. Eijun doesn’t have the best control, so either because he wanted to throw a strike or because he didn’t throw accurately enough, Eijun throws a strike just to the inside. Raichi sees the ball’s movement from right down the middle to just inside and gets the strike looking. But Kazuya’s having none of Eijun’s shit today and it’s either listen to Kazuya’s calls or don’t pitch at all. Eijun starts pitching to Kazuya’s mitt and Raichi first hit is just foul down the third base line and the count’s 2-1. The fourth pitch jams Raichi with a, inside fastball popped up straight to Eijun. The second baseman, short stop, and third baseman runs up for ball support in case Eijun doesn’t field it, but that’s no problem. This is the upperclassmen in action, protecting the first years’ sometimes pathetic fielding.
In the top of the fourth with one man on second, Tetsuya hits a ball far into the outfield, brings in the run, and gets to second without a slide. At this point, Yakushi calls in their real ace, Sanada, and we’ll see what kind of heat he brings.
In Summary:
The saying goes something like, “This is high school baseball.” Most of these guys are skilled, but they’re still raw. They have the reflexes and youth to make the plays the pros do, and they know what to do, but they lack experience at an upper level of baseball. Of course, when everyone on the field lacks that, it makes the game exciting and we never know what’s going to happen. Things like Eijun going against Kazuya’s first call and the final pitch to the inside are the kinds of reasons why I love sports anime. It brings the thrill of the live game to the screen and brings character motivation to it. Remember when the coach called for him to throw an inside fastball? Those are the kinds of moments we get and I love it.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24” Dell UltraSharp U2410 set at 1920 x 1200, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
