Cross Game
Alternate Titles: クロスゲーム
Original Japanese Release Date: April 5th, 2009
Episode Length/Run-time: 52 Episodes
Summary:
This is the story of baseball pitching prodigy Kou Kitamura and his friendship with a girl named Wakaba Tsukishima who has a dream that he will go to the Koshien tournament. Wakaba is part of a family with four girls who are very close friends with Kou’s family. Kou and Wakaba’s sister Aoba work together to help to help see to it that Wakaba’s dream comes true.
Review:
This is a truly wonderful series, rivaled in the baseball sports genre by only Major. However, while Major focuses very much on the sport, Cross Game is has an even balance of the relationships between the characters and the awesome baseball action. I must say that this show might have the best first episode in the history of anime. I actually cried after the first episode. There aren’t many, or any, anime that can command such a grip over the viewer in just 20 minutes. Truly remarkable. For the record, Chiaki cried too so I’m not the only one.
Cross Game does a great job of fleshing out the personalities of the characters. The dynamic between Kou and the Tsukishima sisters is really a pleasure to watch, especially the growing love between Aoba and Kou. Still, you see Kou’s loyalty to his childhood love Wakaba through the rituals her performs and the memories that he has of her. She remains a continuing symbol throughout the entirety of the show.
The baseball aspect of the show is also quite similar to Major in a lot of ways. Major certainly is still the king of flashiness but Cross Game shares its pacing. You’d never see Major spend more than two episodes max on a baseball game and usually it would be contained within a single episode. This is in contrast to Big Windup which will spend an excessive seven or eight episodes on a match.
I also really enjoyed the art, animation and character designs of the show. The character designs are some of my favorite in a long time. The animation was very nice, the art was consistent and interesting.
Really, overall, Cross game isn’t a series that a sports fan can miss. You’d be foolish. Add this to the triumvirate of great sports anime along with Hajime no Ippo and Major.
[starrater]