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Yeah, Kataoka is staying on until Koshien, then the plan is for Ochiai to take over, so he's still being groomed for that I guess.

Episode 6

Despite the aggressive lack of animation, there were still some nice wallpaper-worthy portraits of the players. I kinda feel like we're spinning our wheels here, to get through these prelims. But since it's going to boil down to the finals eventually, I guess they wanted to catch up with teams we already know but won't get to see Seido play against as before, since they'll have been eliminated.

Nice to see Sawamura have a good inning. And to get the fangirls to take notice of him too. I'm still very much enjoying the background spectators, making up little stories for them on the spot. Wink

I kinda get the feeling the animators are doing that as well, since they don't have anything else to do. That may be why they're so detailed compared to normal crowd shots.

Looking forward to Mei vs Todoroki.

7

Motion comic or not, that was fun. More wallpaper shots, especially if you're a Mei fan. Blue is a good color for him. I'm sad Todoroki didn't get to have more fun with Mei. To tell the truth, I could've used more than one episode of this game, although given the lack of runs, it probably wouldn't have amounted to much.

Dayum, reporter girl was sure thirsty for Sanada! I so wish she'd go away. At least she was too busy drooling to say anything overtly ignorant like she usually does.

Last edited by Gina Szanboti on Wed Oct 23, 2019 6:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

8-9

Still don't see the point of having nearly a hundred players when only 20 get to even warm the bench. Fifty seems like enough.

This episode was pretty fun. More actual character dynamics, but still too much nuts and bolts about playoffs we don't even care about. And it's not like we couldn't care about them - we got to know these teams in past seasons, but since we only get a pitch or two of game play, they might as well just skip the whole thing.

This episode might just have had the most egregious display of faux-animation I've ever seen. Sawamura is holding forth with his usual bluster (and I like how he's utterly baffled at the idea that anyone could be intimidated by him), but instead of showing him ranting or something, they inexplicably gave us extended slow pans of stills of shirts hanging on a rack, caps hanging on racks, and a stereo sitting on a desk, all with speed lines on the sides. wtf??

Poor Asada. Having to room with those two maniacs would put anyone off their feed. But listening to Kuramochi and Miyuki talk about their respective roomies was great. More of this, please.

And no doubt we'll get more of Okumura and Sawamura butting heads. Wolf Boy seems like a blonde Furuya, except more direct.

Speaking of terror, I give you this week's conspicuous crowd couple (seen during the Teito/Ugumori game):

(click for larger image)

The guy on the left is another one that is so unique for a crowd scene that he must be a shout-out to a real person (and the guy in the upper right corner could be his brother). As to why the guy on the right looks so nervous...well, write your own caption, I guess.

edited to fix dead pic link

12

Oh this one was fun. I love watching Miyuki having so much fun being mentor and manipulator of his kouhai. Especially his interactions with Wolf Boy. And Okumura butting heads with Sawamura. Art!

I look forward to seeing Asada finally do more than stand around with a look of shock and awe at everything. He's starting to come around a little at least.

Can't wait to see Wolf Boy and Sawamura in a battery next week, even for a warmup.

13

Miyuki was on a roll this week being all captainy and catchery and stuff. So much on a roll in fact, that they repeated the same scene from the end of last episode twice at the beginning of this one! It's a good scene, but not that good.

But it was fun watching everyone be wowed by Sawamura's pitching, since he doesn't get a lot of that. And I always enjoy watching Miyuki think. Really, everyone got to shine in their own little ways in this episode.

I didn't even recognize Ichidai's coach without a hat. That's not the hair I expected under there.

that flashback was worth it. Seeing how goofy they were as first years was hilarious. Seeing how hard they have worked to get where they are now was awesome. Takako was adorable. It's gonna suck if they loose this next game, and considering who the main character is and how tournaments play out, they probably will

Another poster! Shocked

Yay, welcome!

14

Good episode. I don't remember hearing the BGM that played during Mei's reminiscence before, but I can't imagine them spending any money for new music. In any case, it's beautiful. Nice to see a little self-awareness from him too.

Hate the new ED music though. But I like the visuals. I don't think I've ever seen Ochiai smile before, so the still of him apparently kicking Kataoka's butt at shogi was hilarious.

15

Ah, that was a thing of beauty. You know it's going on when Miyuki gets goosebumps. Very Happy

So nice to see Sawamura knock everyone's socks off.

The two pieces of BGM they used during the recap part are my absolute favorites (so it's really weird that I totally didn't recognize the second one when they used it last week. Anime catgrin + sweatdrop

). So I can't even complain too much about the recapping.

Too bad we can't even rate the episodes now. Poor DnA, always treated like the red-headed stepchild around here. Sad

16

Omg, Sawamura got on base - twice! And they left him there both times! I still can't figure out why Kanamaru's foul tip was a third strike. He clearly hit it, I assume that ball rolling on the green was in foul territory since the catcher didn't go grab it, no one tagged him, and he never moved off the plate. So why was he out?

But lol at the crowd reaction him getting a double! Poor guy gets no respect. But I was right with him when he was mentally grumbling about how he'd probably have been yanked right out if he'd pitched like Furuya. Though I also get why Kataoka left him in, hoping he could get over whatever was messing him up and come out stronger. If he had done so, it would've been worth it, but he gave him too much time.

Also that was totally screwed up after the break. Why did they show the final score and Mei and Miyuki passing each other, then back up and show us the last half inning? Coming right off a flashback, I wasn't even sure if that was this game or some other past game.

17

I think Teito's catcher Inui is like Sou's classmate in Mix. This must be his 17th time repeating 11th grade.

Sports reporter girl is back with her inane and thirsty commentary. Fujio really needs to find a new coworker.

Despite it being yet one more way to avoid animating anything new, I did appreciate Miyuki's reminiscence and wistfulness at having only 3 more months to play with them. :sob: Plus Sawamura's blue funk turning out to just be absolute focus.

I still chuckle at someone in another thread trying to school me about classic anime short-cuts when I complained about AoD this season. There are short-cuts and then there are slide-shows, and this is the latter (one of these days I'm going to time it to see how much of an episode consists of static shots). Might as well just read the manga, except this is in color and has great music and Takahiro Sakurai.

18

Possibly the best episode this season (which puts it somewhere middling or a little above to the previous seasons I guess). The teaser before the OP almost felt like it was animated! Plus nice Miyuki shots and gratifying Sawamura praise. Normally I'd probably roll my eyes at such self-serving dialog for the MC, but in this case, after all the shit Sawamura has endured, it feels earned.

Lol at him and Furuya arguing over who was responsible for losing the game. "If I were a more trustworthy pitcher you would've been subbed out sooner, so it's my fault!" "I don't like how you said that."

I also enjoyed the conference in Miyuki's room, which despite being a seemingly random request from Sawamura, turned into half the team showing up to learn something. I think I would have rather heard more of that than watch the highlight reel of the Inashiro/Ichidai game, even though Miyuki was in sensei mode for that too.

Plus we got a fun conversation with Okumura confusing the hell out of Sawamura again.

Plus also we got Wolf Boy's story to get an idea of why he's such a jerk. Backstabbing from someone you respect can have that effect I guess.

Plus also too and besides, we got a cute end card after the preview. So all in all, a very worthwhile episode.

On an almost completely unrelated note, I just found out that Sawamura's seiyuu, Ryōta Ōsaka, also plays Apollo this season in DanMachi. Even knowing, I can barely hear a speck of Sawamura in Apollo's voice. I had no idea he had such range! Very Happy

19-21

Nice to see Asada get some good screen time. I hadn't even realized he was particularly tall, since most of the time we only see him from the shoulders up or sitting down eating. And I enthusiastically agree with his appreciation of Kuramochi's abs. >.>

I don't remember who Takatsu is. :/ He's sure got an attitude.

So was Kataoka teaching them about Men in Black for a Modern Japanese course? Laughing

22

Just practice, but lots of fun, with plenty of evil Miyuki and mentor Miyuki goodness. Plus more animation than usual, even if often off-model.

Lol at Yui-shounen's face when Wolfboy agreed to catch for Furuya. I really like Yui. He's got such intense eyes, despite being so baby-faced. There's definitely a catcher's brain behind those saucers.

So it looks like it will be at least a couple more weeks before Sawamura's big game? Maybe we'll get to see more of Kawakami, which is always good.

Apropos of nothing, I wonder why Miyuki bats left? Is it just for the advantage? I know people say it puts you a few steps closer to first base, but you also have to turn around before you can take off, which seems like it would offset that advantage. Switch-hitting is a good skill too, since you can switch depending on the pitcher, but he always bats left.

23

So after 22 episodes of motion comics, now you want me to read the exposition over tourist shots of all the baseball stadiums in Japan?? Madhouse, you're killing me! At least we got a little juice in the final few minutes. Hopefully with all the homework out of the way, we can finally see some action next week. Of course I use the word "action" advisedly.

I've been so starved for some forward motion storywise and, well, motion-wise, that I marathoned the whole series up to this season over the last couple weeks. They used to be so much better at making it at least feel animated, and frequently it actually was! I miss that so. It was almost like watching it the first time (though I didn't hate the first dozen episodes so much, knowing what was coming) since I'd forgotten who won which games after 3-4 years away from it.

One thing that caught my attention on review was how cleverly Yuki handled Miyuki over the Nabe drama. Miyuki is complaining about not feeling up to the job of captain, and Yuki just says, "So do you want to quit?" Which was a very subtle but pointed way of putting Miyuki in Nabe's shoes, to show him that feeling frustrated doesn't mean you want to throw in the towel. Really a fine piece of writing there.

I think I know how Furuya felt, pitching alone to a wall. Smile

24

Woo hoo! About damned time! Love all the telepathic conversations, plus watching the spectators get pwned by their underestimation of Seidou. Everybody got to show off, but it felt earned against a worthy opponent. And it wasn't totally a slideshow (though Miyuki's supersonic pickoff at 2nd would've been so sweet to see animated). Also, kudos to the accurate but cleverly misleading title, "Incomplete."

Mine's girlfriend* was absent this time, so we were spared her ignorant commentary. *Rewatching the series, I came to the conclusion that she must be his gf, because despite her claims of being a journalist, the only reason someone as stupid as her could possibly be there is if she's his baseball date. Journalism is just their cover story because of the age difference. ::nods::

One thing I only just noticed this time is that apparently Japan and the West (or just the US?) differ in their view of which batter is the cleanup. They noted that Haruichi has always been "cleanup" (said clearly in the audio, while the subs translated it as "third batter," which is when he always bats), then a couple minutes later Miyuki is referred to as "yoban" or fourth, which the subs call cleanup. I've always thought of the 4th batter as the cleanup, so I never noticed this until they moved Haruichi out of 3rd.

Looks like next week might be even better. Hope they keep this up. We've waited more than long enough for them to kick this thing into gear.

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