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This anime is incredibly slow and some of the characters are frustrating, it's over rated and yes, I am keeping in mind this was created in the 80s. There are some good rivalries that keep you interested but there is soo much non baseball drama going on and not enough baseball drama considering this is a baseball anime.

Before going further let me start off by saying I'm only 63 episodes in. I plan to watch all but if this doesn't get updated then my rating stands.

--- MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS GOING FORWARD ---

Story 6/10: The story is alright. It has some points what make ... you binge watch and at other times it's so slow and boring you just want to skip. The slowness is understandable in the beginning when they are trying to build characters and get you emotionally involved with them, however there is a little too much slowness in the pace that is unnecessary. You already know Kazuya is going to die from the other descriptions of the anime. "a tragedy hits" well with two competing brothers that's obvious. Because the baseball rivalries keep me interested is the only reason it scored 6/10 for me. There aren't enough games either, where are the practice matches? The plays are also rushed and don't feel like they're putting enough emphasis on the game itself

Art 5/10: I mean it was made in the 80s so it obviously won't compare to anime of today, but it feels mediocre compared to Dragonball (82) & Akira (88). It also isn't completely horrible like others of it's time. This anime lands right in between the two.

Sound 6/10: The music is alright, again suited for the 80s in which the anime was created. The opening songs don't really get me pumped for the show in any way. But again if you compare it to todays anime openings that are like miniature trailers it's no wonder.

Characters 5/10: The main characters are somewhat frustrating. I have broken down the characters below with the most issues. Some of the characters aren't too bad and the development individually can be seen for some as a pose to others. There are some that had no reason to even make an appearance.

Uesugi, Tatsuya - Isn't actually lazy like the description indicates. He pretends so that his twin brother Uesugi, Kazuya can have the spotlight. He doesn't want to see his brother upset from losing so he himself doesn't try. As a result he never honed his talents so naturally became second as his brother worked really hard to become the best. He secretly loves their childhood friend Asakura, Minami but submits to his brother for no reason. Even though he gives his brother and Asakura, Minami all the time in the world to be close he still sulks and gets upset about his brother making a move. After his brother dies, he still isn't vocal about his feelings towards Asakura, Minami but wants to act like he's a boyfriend and get mad at her getting attention from being a gymnast or getting attention from other guys. (the guys part is mainly her fault though and I will explain why when we get to her) When Nitta, Yuka starts to show interest in him she won't take his subtle hints about him not being interested and he doesn't say it directly to her either. Which is annoying, stop leading the girl on to believe she has some sort of a chance. That being said over time you can see a real change in him starting when he started the boxing club.

Uesugi, Kazuya - He knows he doesn't compare to his older brother but still basks in the spotlight his brother lets him have. He doesn't even try to get his brother to try harder without using Asakura, Minami as the prize. He acts like Asakura, Minami is property to be owned and even though he knows that she doesn't like him like that he persistently tries to force his feelings on her. To the point where he tells her she's going to ask for her hand. It's almost like he's afraid of losing to his brother so he's trying to own her permanently. He never sticks up for his brother even though his brother holding back is the reason why he was able to become the best. His brother is call the stupid brother and Kazyua just lets them.

Asakura, Minami - Is the most annoying female character known to man. I just want to punch her. She is childhood friends with both Uesugi, Kazuya & Uesugi, Tatsuya and has shown favoritism to Kazuya since they were children. When Kazuya finally tells her he loves her instead of answering him she tells Tatsuya she loves him. This puts both brothers in a competitive state where they want to compete for her Kazuya becomes more rushed and tries to control the situation with ownership (see above) and Tatsuya now feels like he's not good enough because she is always giving more attention to Kazuya. When Kazuya tells her he is going to ask for her hand in marriage she starts to cry. Why? just tell him you aren't interested in him. You lead him on and then get upset when he's serious. She also manipulates Kazuya by telling him to take her to Koshien. Of course he's going to want to take you if he feels like you'll love him more if he takes you. When Kazuya dies, she then does the same this to Tatsuya, she starts giving more attention to Nitta, Akio. She hides herself in his hospital room when Tatsuya went looking for her and visits Nitta, Akio everyday when she didn't need to do that more than once or twice. She knows that Tatsuya gets jealous but she does it anyway. Then gets surprised when Nitta, Akio shows interest in her. She doesn't deny that she thinks Tatsuya as her boyfriend when Akio asks but she also doesn't deny Akio in the same way she didn't Kazuya. She then gets jealous when Tatsuya is getting attention from Nitta, Yuka. She also has Nishimura, Isami interested in her. Instead of telling him herself she's not interested she wants Tatsuya to act like a controlling boyfriend and make him back off. When she gets kicked off the baseball team as a manager because she is prioritizing her gymnastics club and they already have a manager, she gets angry and wants Tatsuya to do something about it. Why don't you do something yourself like quit gymnastics. The coach wasn't wrong when he said they don't need a manager who is only half ass-ing their role. You are not the center of the world get over yourself. For being childhood friends with both Tatsuya and Kazyua she really doesn't actually get Tatsuya, she's always putting him down around others who believe in him. Like when the baseball team was first trying to recruit him she kept saying there was no way he could do it, he isn't going to follow through blah blah blah yet, at this point he was doing very well in the boxing club. When she finally went to see his match because Kazyua was dead and wasn't in the baseball club anymore, she distracted him by yelling and she told his friend to make the match stop because it was dangerous. At this point he has been in the boxing club long enough that if you really cared you would have said something at the beginning. She also pretends like she doesn't know what's going on and plays innocent way too much. Almost like she's the victim.

Yoshida, Takeshi - is a pitcher rivalry to Tatsuya. It would have been a great rivalry because they portrayed it very good through character's personality and actions, however, after a few episodes they just get rid of him by making him move away. So what was the point.

Nitta, Akio - is a baseball rivalry for Tatsuya, originally Kazuya. His character is a good match for the rivalry between the two and you actually want to watch the development between the two.

Coach - the coach they bring in as the interim coach is extremely drastic in his methods to make the team better. This may be because it was created in the 80s and the abusive nature of the coach was realistic for dramatic purposes. Unlike now a days where it's absolutely not okay in society. If you can look past that and see why the coach needed to be so drastic you could understand.

Nitta, Yuka - is the younger sister of Nitta, Akio and is supposed to bring the romance rivalry into play. She's annoying when she's being clingy to Tatsuya and fake when she pretends to be nice to others. She runs into people or gets in their way and then blames them, however this is how her character is supposed to be in order to show she's young. So it's more normal than the annoyances that come from Asakura, Minami.

Matsudaira, Koutarou - is the catcher and was close to Kazuya before he died. His character is annoying at this point because he acts like Tatsuya isn't the one who lost his twin brother like he himself was the closest to Kazuya, so he acts like a brat for a while especially when Tatsuya wants to join the baseball club and he's the only one against it. Other than that he's a great supporting character

The other characters don't really matter, they're real character supporters.

Enjoyment 6/10: It depends on the individual person whether this is enjoyable or not. For me only episode chunks are enjoyable. Overall the anime is paced incredibly slow for no reason. Which makes me feel bored watching.


Overall 6/10: I give this a 6/10 If you were to condense the episodes to the only ones that matter for character development and rivalry and baseball games then maybe it would be better. I feel obligated to finish it in its entirety and that's the only reason I haven't dropped it. It also doesn't start to get really interesting till you get to the 30s episodes after seeing the brother die. And they don't really show a lot of the effects of his death either. I would understand if they used that to slow down the pace of the show but they didn't. The few episode that catch my attention is what keeps it interesting.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

This anime is amazingly done! the story was well adapted for the anime where they were able to give you some background of the characters and build each of their personalities while having a stronger overall back story with Mifuyu. I really liked how they kept giving bits and pieces of his tormented past and then it all came together when he was finally able to let out his feelings through his song and ultimately let go of the pain and move on. The emotions you feel in the song all come together and it made me want to cry for him. Then ... you see the reactions of the audience who knew him in middle school and you just knew this was some heavy stuff. He blamed himself for saying what he did and blamed his boyfriend for following through. If you really put yourself in his shoes, you think, people say things out of anger all the time but when the results of what you say cannot be taken back there's nothing you can do about it and you're left with a wrenching feeling you can't explain.

This was beautifully represented. Aside from the heaviness of Mifuyu's background story you can't help but laugh at all the reactions of the other characters during other instances of the show.

It's a shame it was only 11 episodes I wish it was longer, but the pace was just right, it wasn't too slow and over explanatory and it wasn't too fast that you couldn't keep up .

I rarely if ever have given a 10 to an anime but this was amazing. Good job to the the production company and writers.