Just want to say that I finished Season 1 of Big Windup! (おおきく振りかぶって, Ookiku Furikabutte?), and that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a great coming of age story wrapped in a sports anime about High School baseball. It has lots of great sport action--amazing how the animators can stretch one opening ballgame into nearly an entire season of action...but there's so much more to this story than just a sports drama...it's also about believing in yourself, and the importance of friends who believe in you, even when you are too busy being your own worst critic. It's about never giving up, sticking to a goal or task even when the going gets tough. The voice acting is superb...I especially enjoyed the supporting characters Abe (team catcher) and Tajima (clean-up hitter) masterfully voiced in English by Greg Ayres and Todd Halberkorn respectively. The characters are true to life teen boys, with all their insecurities and gross out humor, etc. Tajima does talk openly about his masturbation habits, so parents should be advised in advance if this is an issue you'd rather not expose to your kids without first discussing it with them, but otherwise, this is a wholesome show that fathers and sons could probably enjoy watching together, especially if Dad is a former baseball jock himself.
Monica Rial makes a late appearance in the narrative as Ren Mihashi's female cousin, whom Ren grew up with and used to live with, but moved out after both of them hit pueberty in their early teens. She calls him "Ren Ren", which cracks up Mihashi's friends on the team.
The bonding that takes place between Abe and Ren is really special and a joy to watch; Abe can be hard on Ren at times, but it is for his own good, and as often as not Abe is telling Ren he's better than he thinks he is. As Abe says more than once, Ren has "really worked his ass off".
The boys enter the school year and the major regional tournament; they draw lots to decide who they will play first and end up head to head against the previous year's championship winners.
They are a green team full of all Freshman, going up against a seasoned team of mostly upperclassmen. Nobody expects them to win, but any given game day, any team has a chance of victory. This anime will have you on the edge of your seat, and the high points and conclusion are very emotionally satisfying, but the anime does a good job of maintaining dramatic tension and suspense the whole way through.
Another quasi-sports Anime I've been enjoying lately is the older title, "I, My, Me: Strawberry Eggs!", about a cross-dressing high school gym teacher...an enthusiastic young man with pony-tail hair ends up having to dress as a woman to get a job at an exclusive private school...and hilarious hijinks ensue...but at bottom it is the story of a caring teacher molding her(his) students' lives and helping them to grow up into mature young men and women. This story is also very emotionally satisfying, all joking aside.
The main character is voiced by Crispin Freeman in his male persona, Sally Dana in the female persona.
I My Me! Strawberry Eggs (あぃまぃみぃ!ストロベリー・エッグ, Ai Mai Mi! Sutoroberī Eggu?) is the story of Hibiki Amawa (天和 響, Amawa Hibiki?) and his/her students at Seito Sannomiya Private School. The main female student protagonist is Fuko Kuzuha (樟葉 楓子, Kuzuha Fūko?), voiced sweetly by Carrie Savage. Fuko has a crush for her teacher but it's unclear if she's a lesbian, or feels subconsciously attracted to Hibiki's actual rather than apparent gender.
Hibiki as the resident of Gochiso apartments is known only as "bra man" to the students, owing to an unfortunate incident--and who have no idea this somewhat eccentric man is actually their teacher in real life.
The reason Hibiki is able to pull off the cross dressing is due in part to his long hair but also because of a special necklace given to him by his land-lady, "Ba-chan", which changes his voice from Crispin's deep register (remember this is the voice of Alucard we're talking about here) into Hibiki-sensei's higher female register.
I have watched through Volume 3 and look forward to the conclusion in Volume 4. Along with Suzuka I've been really impressed with how emotionally moving many of these sports anime narratives have been for me. I love the drama and emotion of each and every one.
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