A little different than before: I’m reviewing the two seasons together and will have combined reviews, but will be graded separately. This is one of these really under-rated gems of a series that I hope you;ll check out. From L to R: Mizutani, Izumi, Mihashi, Tajima, Abe, Hanai, Suyama, Sakaeguchi, Nishihiro and Oki. Ookiku Furikabutte [...]
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Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it [...]
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At the end of the first season of Oofuri, we left Coach Momoe and the ten boys on her Nishiura High baseball team savoring a hard-won victory against a stronger team in their first summer tournament.  But rather than sharing responsibilities jointly with his battery-mate, Abe the catcher is more or less using Mihashi the [...]
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Higuchi Asa, the creator of Oofuri aka, “Big Windup,” studied high school baseball in Japan for ten years, and it shows.  Baseball playing itself fills most of the anime, with some games lasting several episodes.  Many critics have also commented on the high level of realism in this show, which highlights the raw emotion and [...]
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Apologies, I seem to have missed Ookiku Furikabutte’s DVD only episode. It’s a bit of a second epilogue and it’s very much like the DVD only episode of the first season: focused on the aftermath, both for the lead team and the ones from the opposing team. It’s been a while since the series finished, [...]
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Still paranoid main protagonist. The end of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition is nigh with the eighth review out today, for the 2nd season of Ookiku Furikabutte titled Ookiku Furikabutte Summer Tournament. If not for the customary sport-genre handicap I dished out for all sport genre anime titles I reviewed for quite some [...] Related posts:Review: Ookiku Furikabutte (おおきく振りかぶって) Review: Buzzer Beater 2007 Review: Cross Game (クロスゲーム) Review: ONE OUTS – Nobody wins, but I! (ワンナウツ) Review: Princess Nine (プリンセスナイン 如月女子高野球部) Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
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Ookiku Furikabutte ~Natsu no Taikai hen~ has ended! I was seriously expecting 26 episodes... In the end, there's only 13 episodes. Too short!~ I want my 3rd season!!Anyway, According to HMV Japan, the DVD and Blu-ray volume 7 of Ookiku Furikabutte ~Natsu no Taikai hen~ will include an un-aired episode 12.5. It will show what happened between the episodes 12 and 13. Hurray! I can't wait for its release on 22nd Dec 2010. It's gonna be a long wait..If you haven't watched the first season of Ookiku Furikabutte, you can read my review here.Here is my review on the second season:Story: (9/10) – Very GoodThe story continues from the first season. Mihashi and his teammates face Sakitama High School team in the next round of the High School Baseball Invitational Tournament as they aim to play in the finals at Kōshien.Characters: (10/10) – AwesomeI know I said it before but Mihashi is really irritating! In this season, he gains a bit more confidence, and starts to open up a little bit more, but it just takes him a damn long time to speak out what he wants to say! But.. his (���◇���) is really funny!!Other than the usual cast (Nishiura boys), this season also features new characters.Here are the characters (new and old) I like:Abe Takaya - He's my favorite Oofuri character! Haruna- He only appeared in a flashback! (v.v) I want more Haruna!!Tajima - He's as cute as ever!Hamada - Too little appearance!!!Abe Shun (Abe Takaya's little brother) - He's so cute!!Ichihara and Daichi - They are the battery of Sakitama. Ichihara is the pitcher and Daichi is the catcher. They make a really cute battery.Art/Animation: (8/10) – GoodThe animation has improved slightly as compared to the first season. Music: (9/10) – Very GoodI love the Opening theme 'Natsuzora' by Galileo Galilei. It has the summer feel to it and suits the anime very well. Enjoyment: (9/10) – Very Good I would have given 10/10 if it's more than 13 episodes. Sigh.. why only 13 episodes?! Anyway, though there's only 13 episodes, I enjoy all of them thoroughly!Overall: (9/10) – Very Good The endearing character developments, the thorough analysis of the baseball games, and the cute interaction between the characters make this anime a win!
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The original Oofuri was a big hit with me, despite the fact that I generally have an aversion to sports stories.  While Touch, an Adachi series, involved baseball, Oofuri was the first series I watched that was unashamedly centered entirely on baseball, and by the end, I found myself wishing that I had bothered to join [...]
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I’ll just kick in the door immediately with this review: having only 13 episodes hurts. Ookiku Furikabutte was a show that set itself apart with its gruelingly long baseball matches. Take that away, and you take one of the essential parts of the series away. Nevertheless, don’t write this sequel off, because it also has [...]
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Excellent epilogue of an excellent series. Overall, I’d really rate this as high as the first season: both have their own points at which they stood out: the first season really had an awesome climax with the second match. The second season in its turn trumped it with an even greater attention to detail. It’s [...]
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I think that if I did not know about the series’ plans to suddenly cut off the series at episode thirteen episodes, I would have absolutely loved this past arc. Still, even though knowing that this arc could have been God knows how much better, I still loved the way that the past match evolved. [...]
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Ah, crap. Even I could see that this episode was rushed. The thing that set Ookiku Furikabutte apart from all of the other baseball series is that it takes every pitch seriously: it spends time at animating even the most unimportant pitches, treating them like they have the potential to change the entire game. In [...]
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It looks like Oofuri has found its way onto my top 10 again.  This series just keeps on being an absolute joy to watch.  Episode 7 also brought the series further in terms of character development, most importantly that of Abe.  Much of the first season was focused on Abe and Mihashi learning to work [...]
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And finally the real match of this season has started. To be honest, the previous ones did not feel as good as in the first season, with only three episodes dedicated to them. But yeah, they served their purpose well as build-up for the real meat. It’s here where every detail of the match gets [...]
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Interesting to see that as the team keeps winning more, we get to see more and more of their family members. This episode showed a ton more parents and siblings who came by to support the lead characters. It’s an excellent way to flesh them out, and I’m glad that with such a large cast [...]
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Maria with her ripe oranges is the manliest character on Big Windup! by far.
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Team building. I like how this series uses the quiet moments in between the matches in order to do this, rather than scheduling in a random episodic adventure somewhere. A lot of stuff happened in this episode, and it immediately started with the message that the opposing team that the lead characters faced in the [...]
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After recently finishing the first season of Ookiku Furikabutte, I quickly caught up with the currently-airing second season. While the latest game isn’t as intense as the match with Tousei last season, it turned out to be a great vehicle for some good-old-fashioned character development. Especially for Hanai, the team captain. Hanai interests me greatly. [...]
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And so the first match that did not have Mihashi at the centre has ended, and even though it’s mostly been used as building and warming up, it still was a fun and interesting game to start off the second season with. Mihashi works surprisingly well as a side-character (which I guess is a trait [...]
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After waiting a bit for first impressions to start popping in, I ended up picking three series to try out at this early point in the season.  Ookiku Furikabutte, of course, I was going to follow anyways due to being a huge fan of the original. Giant Killing, solely on the praise given to it [...]
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