I love baseball. I love baseball, but it’s 2017 and the Chicago White Sox (my team) are currently in the middle of a rebuild. This means they’ve sold off their best pieces (Chris Sale to Boston and Adam Eaton to Washington) for a bunch of prospects, with more likely being traded at the trade deadline at the end of July. All this to build a team with a lot of potential that could, in a few years, become the 2016 Cubs.
The point of all this is to make a comparison with Big Windup, of course, the show that was released about 10 years ago.
Last year, the White Sox were AWFUL from a catching perspective. They cost the Sox wins last year because of how bad their pitch framing was, and probably how bad their game calling was. This is exactly what happened to Big Windup‘s Mihashi and Mihoshi Junior High School. His catcher wouldn’t work with him and, despite Mihashi’s great control, no one can get outs if the catcher isn’t working with them. But I’ll halt that digression for now.
I love baseball, and I also love sports anime. I dunno how many baseball anime titles I’ve watched, but I’ve loved them all. Big Windup, in all fairness, stands about in the middle of all of them. It’s really baseball focused, though, so I’m not surprised if it wasn’t for everyone.
Those that do know baseball can know Mihashi’s situation like I described above. Mihashi isn’t a bad pitcher, but he doesn’t have the confidence to pitch independently like, say, Jose Quintana, but they both have great control. Mihashi says he had one walk in his entire junior high career. For reference, the fewest BB/9 in the modern era was by Carlos Silva in 2005, who had 0.43 BB/9. He threw 188.1 innings that year, and only 9 walks. THAT’S ridiculous, and no one has been really near that since. Throwing ONE WALK in an entire junior high career is absurd, and just goes to show how good Mihashi’s control is.
That’s really how inside baseball Big Windup can be, but it’s also very enjoyable beyond that. I know tons of people who know nothing about baseball and also love the series.
Its games (there aren’t many in the first season) are super exciting, and the first one gives you personal investment into it. It’s Mihashi’s new high school team, Nishiura, against his former junior high teammates from Mihoshi Junior High School, now also in high school (some of these junior highs feed into the high schools, so Mihoshi Junior High’s baseball team is Mihoshi High School’s baseball team eventually). The game is to give Mihashi the confidence he deserves for the pitcher he really is. He needs to beat his junior high classmates in the game they always chided him on.
The second big game is in the regional tournament for the chance to play in the Koushien. It’s also against the team that won the regional tournament last year. This is the true test for both this team of first year high school students AND Mihashi as a pitcher. This game also lasts half the entire series, basically, clocking in at 12 episodes total. It’d be faster to watch an actual baseball game play out than watch these 12 episodes!
I do want to take a moment to really appreciate Mihashi the pitcher, independent of his catchers. He’s a control pitcher that only throws 60-65 mph, probably topping out around 70 mph. He also has a repertoire of four pitches: fastball, curveball, slider, and screwball. Two things:
1.) His speed is absolutely ridiculous, in the wrong direction. No major leaguer throws at 60-65 mph regularly, though some will hit that speed for the occasional breaking ball to throw off the batter. It’s still rare. Most major leaguers throw somewhere in or around the 90s for their fastballs, but Mark Buehrle had, in 2015, the slowest average fastball at 84.06 mph. He’s the majors version of Mihashi.
2.) His control is absolutely ridiculous, in the right direction. ONE WALK in junior high! He can also hit the ball into any spot he wants in the strike zone at any time in the game.
Baseball is a game played with eight other people, though, and Mihashi has a great supporting cast behind him. He has a great play caller and pitch framer in his catcher Abe, plus two great hitters in Tajima and Hanai. You can be the best pitcher in the world, but you won’t get anywhere if your team can’t score runs (*cough* Quintana *cough*).
With the big cast inherent in baseball, I would have liked to see some focus on the other characters. This season, it’s pretty much just the Mihashi and Abe show, not that other characters (Tajima, Hanai, and Sakeguchi) don’t get some focus. But there is always room for more.
That’s not to say it’s a bad show. As I said, I love Big Windup. I love sports anime, and I also love baseball. It’s a show that’s all about baseball. And it’s a show that’s approachable to anyone, baseball fan or not. Both of its seasons, after years of sitting in license limbo, are also available now!! The first season is available in the affordable S.A.V.E. edition from Funimation and Right Stuf put out the second season just last year. No excuses not to seek out this wonderful show.
