I've typed it as a total, but, assuming I've expressed plenty of my internal beliefs and feelings, I'll just paste it to the beginning, so that you'll be able to just read the total and make a fast decision.
This is what I think 2nd lacks, just the harmony with itself, the high IQ baseball it made intended, with highly detailed RPG, like Hajime no Ippo had. Instead, they've nearly dropped detailes overall WHILE pruning character power levels, at the same time making characters show their big feelings, making it hard to use empathy there, because not much happened, can only say "omg just play normally
...
already 4Head ", when in the 1st this was the fans work, they yelled from stands and made you feel for players, trying their best. But here, it feels like Major making a step to Dia no Ace, with random no setup events having a chance to make u just roll eyes and say "whatever happens already". Not nesessarily the improvement, ehm.
But if you've watched the first one, you're nearly obligated to watch the 2nd, a mere connection between them is already enjoyable, the bitter side is that it may be mosly this element that will carry.
Honestly, it lost a lot of qualities first anime had, it gained some details thing, but lost so many other elements, it feels like some pocket budget 1st. As I said, it does have that Dia no Ace dreadful scent, which had completely random outcomes every time, for, I guess, "realism", but it backfired as hard as possible, printing that indifference to the outcome feeling I honestly DONT want to feel. I mean, finding flaws mode is fun to use when the info can be used, but when the project is already up to gold, there's nothing to use from those unfounits you've generated gathering smaller infounits with organse of senses... It's an artificial story, don't need it to be random, how can one be exited if it's literally "whatever happens, all Random Number Generator", now generate a nickname for me as well pls coz whatever my name will be, let's all be indifferent. It should teach some meaningful stuff + it should be cool at the same time. And "meaningful stuff" is usually some "improved from training, that's why it happened this way"(did pitch out some really strong batter who every1 thought is gna get the homerun or big hit, etc.), or whatever else plot, but this RPG factor or some interesting plot factors are abscent so much. Sure anime had some good old Bats "no motivation, whatevah, I will kill u guys if I will miss the date with Jenny" lazy molding skill of baseball vibes, but in a new key of just girls bumping that boy puberty muscle mass increase wall, but way too many random moments in between them. Hope we got why random moments are bad already, why reality thing is not good because there are actual MLB matches, can watch those and it will even be more detailed, with every pitch speed and course, can even sit and write down all pitcher/batter habits strengths weaknesses etc if able to see em, but this is not a freggin MLB, this is an artificially made piece of content which should entertain right here right now, with limited time. Real matches last 1-2hrs and its exhausting to wait for anything dramatic to happen, but in anime there should be those moments. That's why I gave only 7 for Enjoyment, honestly ok Art is 9, good new effects and stuff, drawing is whatever to me, I can see shadows and stuff done well enough, Story 7 as well, I mean, Hikaru bumping into the chest is way too dragged by ears, some other moments as well, they an author cannot make something happen with crossing all events logically and just drags it by ears, I personally instantly see it, like, set it up, man, don't just throw it in randomly. Reminds some Sasukeh moments where he just forcefully survives 100500 Deidara explosions zero scratches recieved, like that Tao girl that were smug about not getting dirty and playing halfhearted(which in 1st ssn would've been seen isnta and beat out of, btw), these dragged by ears moments that are almost against all odds in the situation, it's like a negative set up or something, really makes feel dreadful. This feeling like robbed of some dramatic setup, as if ur Niko from GTA IV and Roman is showing u his home for the first time and u realise it was all a lie, all that bragging. I know the anime is still partly done well and sometimes almost at the 1st Major lvl, but at times it drops like a forkball. Pitchers throwing 4 balls left and right without stopping on 3, all the atmosphere on not giving the damn is getting to me, honestly making not give the damn as well, keeping in synch by default. The first ssn could've been more RPGy, but for some reason it wasn't, author didn't show us that everything is trainable, like it was with Goros' left hand pitching after breakin the shoulder, which is a great real life lesson as well, I would've enjoyed some plot like that for the 2nd time EASY, because it's SO REAL, can rehab irl big time, some ppl cure their freggin fatal knee injury in some 4 months when every doctor says that 2year and dont even try faster, I mean they prob use some peptides or w/o hormonal stuff but ye, worth a try when it's a career yeh/na question in the air. Making that shoulder gain power was, after all, the thing that was most likely the essential RPG element for the story, but the Daigo RPG did stop even much before the 2nd ssn(of 2nd Major), he learnt some technique, aight, now throwing a bit better, where's the rest of RPG, why is there no info about how he's building the shoulder up, I mean, why not, Goro did all kinds of stuff like that even with a strong one, and it reflects the reality as well, u can build muscles, in any exercises suitable, for pitching even, EZ, and if he had ABSOLUTELY NO way of building the shoulder enough for monster speed pitching his pops did, Major 2nd could've had a thing about breaking balls, some deeper breaking ball meta, detailed breaking balls strats, that's what the 1st ssn did lack, all Fastball-Fastball-Fastball till the very end almost, when atm some Kershaw uses all kinds of em pitches, some clutch once in a thousand times Euphus, and the trick with a moving fastball + fast slider(Katori thing from the 1st), making best batters swing like a yard away coz they look extremely similar, this is what Major did lack, as for me. That Mayumura skillset, where he in reality had not as insane fastball as Shigeno did(even if a close one, it seems), but made up for it more than enough with insane breaking balls development, where he could pierce em through the strike zone by one pixel and before that make em fly in and away completely outside of the strike zone. 1st ssn had these things with "pitches looking similar and super hard to hit", with Katori "kousoku suraida" feint with pitching into the ball course to feed Goro a fake slider he was training to hit, because they've defined what he's trying to hit by looking at where his eyesight is directed to. Or with Bravo(Cuba) pitching in the World Cup, where he had 3 similar lookin curves, and the biggest curving one pitching out the almighty Kyoshiro. Fox was also doing tricks like that to make up for Sanchezu lack of control coz he's a slow starter. But still those were like rare ones, although I like how they were set up to, it felt so natural that it was unreally cool. In Major 2nd not only setups aren't done sometimes, but also stuff isn't that cool as well. Honestly, everything is pruned, like that shoulder of the main hero. If you prune the starting abilities of the hero then make up for it with deeper RPG stuff, that technique of throwing like Kyoshiro is a good start, now add some mad training with some rubber strings, some athletic ball throwin or whatever! :O
The anime is done in a way that really has that deep RPG intended, yet the author makes the skip of details value even larger than in the 1st Major, where it worked perfectly with the monstrous power characters' irrational kind of vibes, being in the zone not caring about details and smashing, the "flow" essence of irrationality, giving all plots in maximally natural way, at the same time drawing crazy shonen energized scenes. But here in 2nd, when no strength, need precision, right? And this is what makes it really weird, approaching us from the "This is actually The Smart Terrotory, bby" way, with the main protagonist Daigo being a catcher, seemingly moving to that Jeff Keene thing with being efficient as a supercomputer with teamplay and ordering pitches and smashing hard by doing that, yet all details just SINK ezpz, who threw a sinker with details boiz, making random number generator matches with Daigo not droppin a single sweat particle, watching his pitcher throw 3 balls, each worse than the one before, some TWELVE times in a season, while showing him as "attentive to all details and smartplaying it", and ofc it turns to 4 balls each time, every1 is surprised, ikr, how comes. Even in the 1st ssn, that had that hard-boiled irrational madskill flavor, some Komori or Toshiya did insta yell "TIIIME!!" at like Ball 2, let alone 3, and asked pitcher if he ate some tomato with milk, or told him he's danzo, gabella, kapit, and he will just lose all ERA the next pitch, like Keene did, or Goro with "Kawabata, lemme talk with Toshi for a sec I'm sure that he understands the situation" and then straight up flaming him to the ground for being confused as a catcher. But they DID give the damn, even back then, in the irrational monsterpower 1st Major!
When watching 1st, I could relate on so many things, it felt like I've lived through the same even if not being a Major Leaguer. 2nd needs plenty of fixing in the future if there will be one, to make ppl relate to it easier, so far it's been some minor(league) value of that, some niche elements of sympathy. Let's hope Masuda will get it better next time, and, hell ye, all to gym, boiz, rebuild em shoulders :>
Jan 17, 2022
I've typed it as a total, but, assuming I've expressed plenty of my internal beliefs and feelings, I'll just paste it to the beginning, so that you'll be able to just read the total and make a fast decision.
This is what I think 2nd lacks, just the harmony with itself, the high IQ baseball it made intended, with highly detailed RPG, like Hajime no Ippo had. Instead, they've nearly dropped detailes overall WHILE pruning character power levels, at the same time making characters show their big feelings, making it hard to use empathy there, because not much happened, can only say "omg just play normally ... |
