Forum - View topicREVIEW: Cross Game ep 1-5
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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YES YES YES!!!!!
I've been waiting for a review on this anime from ANN for a while. And I knew Key would do it (he did kudos Viz for streaming it). Review was simply perfect. Can anyone not cry from the first episode alone?! And even though the pacing was slow, I haven't been that addicted to an anime since... Code Geass, Gundam SEED Destiny, Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Casshern Sins. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Thrilled to see a positive review for Cross Game. It kept me captivated for the whole year that it was airing, and I've already started rewatching through Viz's streams.
Hopefully more people experience this excellent show and it can help create a growing desire for more Adachi stuff here in the West. So yeah, go watch it if you haven't. I'm sure the first episode will hook ya. Adachi is a master of his trade, even if he does reuse the same character designs over and over again 
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nechronius
 Posts: 275 Location: So Cal, USA |
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This one's definitely on my "will buy" list for both the manga and anime. Now I can only hope that they can do the series justice by releasing proper Blu Ray discs... (Now if only Claymore had proper BluRays, but that's entirely another issue...)
People really should give this a chance if they can get over the "not pretty enough, not enough harem, not enough melodrama, too sport-centric" that is atypical of the usual high school age dramas. Although it always made me laugh that the ears on all the characters looked like half doughnuts or large coffee mug handles. Oh well the merits of the series more than make up for its shortcomings. |
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Otaking09
Posts: 637 |
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Reminds me of those ol' Case Closed days on Adult Swim... Ahh, those were the days. |
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Kimiko_0
 Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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I've been reading how great this anime is for a while now from several forum regulars, but the sports angle (baseball in particular) always turned me off. With this much praise for it I'll give in though and add it to the to-watch list.
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TatsuGero23
 Posts: 1277 Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!) |
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Key, you can also find it on Hulu. Although I'm not really sure when you wrote this so it could have been Viz only for a little while. But I was pretty sure they were both up to date at the same time.
Great review though and nice job at dancing around the spoilers. Man your love for this series is boundless it seems. Can't wait for Vol. 1 of the manga this fall! |
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CaptainAvatar
 Posts: 381 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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I need to go check the legal stream out, and start hoping for a DVD release. Count me as one who would buy this day one.
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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She's an uber-cute little girl who dotes on a boy and then spoiler[gets killed off in the same episodes she's introduced, complete with her adorable image being played over sad music in the credits]; how is that not moe? And that was my big problem with this series, only the first episode of which I watched. It got hyped up as this totally pure piece of "real" emotion, but while I did get choked up a bit, one mere episode was not enough to get me to really care about these characters. You talk so much about Wakaba in your synopsis, but she's spoiler[DEAD by the end of episode 1!!] The only development she gets is that she's the tragic cute girl. And since all that happens in the first episode, what is the REAL plot of this? Boy wants to become baseball star? *yawn* Please enlighten me on what really makes this worth watching beyond the contrived tragedy of the first episode. |
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TatsuGero23
Posts: 1277 Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!) |
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That's pretty much it. Even after that person isspoiler[ technically gone by episode 1,] that character surprisingly still has a very strong influence or left a very deep impression upon the surviving cast even though the only thing we get of the character are flashbacks after that point. In fact the final episode pretty much sums it up in one extensively explored cliched line that never came off as a cliched notation in the series upon execution:spoiler[ As long as someone remembers them, they are never truly gone.] And basically the main story is: Boy wants to fulfill lost person's last dream and final wishes. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Well, moe instills a a desire to protect. spoiler[You cannot protect the dead. And remember how it was that Wakaba was killed. She wasn't super clumsy and drowned on her own. No, she was trying to save someone who strayed too far and got caught up in the current of the river.] Is she cute? Absolutely, with the way that she gave Kou a peck on the cheek and gave him a chart for exactly what she wanted for her birthday. Was she moe? Nope. spoiler[And she shows up quite a bit throughout the series in Kou and Aoba's flashbacks, so it's not like she's only there for one episode.] |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18175 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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(Somehow I knew someone was going to pick on that comment. . .) Matter of interpretation, then, but when I think of classic moe characters, she is not one that comes to mind. She never shows the kind of vulnerability that one would expect of a moe character and she evokes more of a "want to love her" reaction than a "want to protect her" reaction.
Oh, I agree that's too much to be expected, but you could name that fault about 99% of the anime series out there.
There's nothing contrived about it; senseless tragedies like this pop up in the news on a regular basis, don't they? Also, I would point out that I explicitly stated in the review that the REAL plot starts in episode 2, as episode 1 is more a set-up which lays the foundation for the main storyline. If you watch on past episode 1 you'll see that (as I also said in the review) this is not a story about a "boy wants to become a baseball star." Yes, he does eventually dedicate himself to being a pitcher, and becomes a top-caliber one, but never in the series do you get the sense that his ultimate goal is to be a star. Ko has two primary motivations: the explicitly-stated one is to fulfill Wakaba's dream and the very-subtly-implied one is spoiler[to earn the respect of the one girl who might eventually come to replace Wakaba in his heart.] That is what the series is really about, although there is, of course, a lot more going on than just that. Nothing I said in the review was without reason, especially the part about this being far-removed from a typical sports anime. spoiler[Wakaba's impact on the story becomes more clear as the story progresses, as barely an episode goes by without a flashback clip concerning her or at least some mention of her. In fact, I'd even call her impact on the story pervasive.] There's a reason why Wakaba has sailed into the third round of our Best Supporting Character tournament and is likely to make the Sweet Sixteen. Beyond that, there shouldn't be any concern about the rest of the series eventually getting reviewed, too. I know fellow reviewer Carl is also a big devotee of this series (in fact, me getting to this one first is the reason why he got first shot at Toradora!), so we should get all of it done as it gets released. |
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Kimiko_0
Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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Carl as in Kimlinger? He's a fan of this anime?
 Uh. Maybe I should reconsider then, as I rarely agree with his reviews.
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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Except that usually in real life it doesn't happen suddenly right after she conveniently confides her lifelong dream to the boy she likes. Seriously, the moment that happened, my inner cynic rolled her eyes and said, spoiler["Yeah, she's gonna die..."] The fact that it happened in the first episode was a bit surprising, but also killed pretty much any desire to watch the rest of it. And honestly, the rest of your description doesn't make me want to watch it much more either. It sounds just as maudlin and predictable as the first episode.  Ah well, maybe I'll check out some of this author's other work...
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Nom_Anor
 Posts: 246 |
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I think you are forgetting a few things. 1. It's a children's show. It's pretty much the best first episode I've ever seen of a show directed at 10-12 year olds. 2. It's a baseball show. But it's kind of like One Outs, in that it isn't really about baseball. I'd say it's about 10% baseball, 60% Slice of life, and %30 tournament shounen. So yeah. Don't expect it to be perfect. |
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Cosplaybunny
 Posts: 224 |
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Love love love this series. I really hope it does get a dvd release over here. It's nice to see the show getting a great review. The first episode does a great job setting the tone for the rest of the series, but it's hard to watch the second episode after the trauma. I hope this review convinces more people to give this show a shot. Sport anime is so under appreciated.
Vashfanatic- Are you really going to criticize Cross Game for being unrealistic? The purpose of fiction is to imitate life, not to be a perfect recreation of it. Fiction exaggerates life to create drama. It's why it's enjoyable to watch. Not to mention Adachi is more subtle than other manga authors (cough Urasawa cough). |
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