10/05/2016

Hi everyone and welcome back to Anime Wedensdays here on Blog Medley! So who watched the Blue Jays game last night? Boy did it turn into a nail biting affair going into extra innings tied 2-2. Thank goodness Edwin Encarnacion ended it with a big home run before our pitchers collapsed. As predicted John Gibbons leaned on his starters, in this case Liriano, once extra inninings started since he used up any “reliable” reliever he had. And since we’re on the topic of one of my favourite sports, let’s take a look at some of the most famous Baseball animes ever produced!

1. Ace of Diamond

The most recent baseball anime Ace of Diamonds, was a huge success running from 2013-2016 with 126 episodes and 5 OVA episodes. This was the biggest baseball anime produced since Touch (and I’ll be getting to that in a moment). Ace of Diamond follows Eijun Sawamura and the rest of the Seidou High School baseball team as they embark on the perpetual quest to qualify and win the Koshien, the highest honour of high school baseball. I said it was the biggest baseball anime since Touch (in terms of episodes and budget) but it is also the best one since then. If you ever wondered how high school pitchers train, this would be the anime to watch. It’s focus on character development is brilliant as we see Eijun transforming from a “thrower” to a “pitcher” towards the end of the series, though he still lacks brains at times with his crazy antics haha. And the anime doesn’t just focus on one individual but on the entire team and follows each of the major team members’ troubles and trials they must overcome in order to succeed. Besides the character development, Ace of Diamond also presents realistic, heart pounding, baseball action as we watch Seido and other High Schools duke it out in the qualification tournament. Furthermore, it also follows the troubles of each position in baseball throughout the games and tournament. For example, the catcher not being authorative enough and bends to the pitchers unwise decision to throw a fastball instead of a changeup. If you can’t wait around for the playoff games to start at night then this would be the anime for you to watch in the meantime

2. Touch

Touch was an extremely popular baseball anime back when it first aired in 1985. It ended up running for 101 episodes and 4 movies were produced with the last one completing the series in 2001. Touch follows the Uesugi twins as they try to take their school and love interest, Minami Asakura, to the Koshien. Kazuya Uesugi the younger of the two brothers was considered to be a brilliant pitcher, one that appears once every decade or so and was relied on by the team to make it to the Koshien. While the focus was on him during the first part of the series, we see how everyone at his school and hometown treated him like a hero while his younger brother Tatsuya was called a fool, lazy, useless, and a bunch of other negative names and labels. Minami, being the childhood friends of the two brothers, knew otherwise of course and would attempt to persuade Tatsuya to go and play baseball like he used to. However, Tatsuya preferred to let Kazuya take the spotlight while he played around. Unfortunately, Kazuya passes away in a traffic accident just prior to the finals and his team collapsed from the shock as well as a lack of pitching talent with him gone. And thus the second half of the series follows the unheralded older brother, whom no one but Minami acknowledges, to lead the school team to the Koshien. The story takes on an even bigger twist when the coach retires and brings in a new coach that he believed would lead them to the Koshien and win it all, though the rest of the team thought the new coach was a demon in disguise haha. While this is an old anime, it is an extremely good one and I would recommend you all to watch it. The movies like Touch: Miss Lonely Yesterday and Touch: Crossroads were also great and follows Tastuya and Minami during their college days and Tastuya being pushed by Minami to go play in the Major Leagues instead of wasting his talents.

3. Major

Another huge baseball franchise would be Major which started in 2004 and finished in 2010 with 154 episodes. Unlike the above two series, Major starts following Goro Honda in kindergarten as he strives to become a profesional baseball player just like his father was. This long and amazing tale depicts many different barriers and struggles a person must go through before reaching the Major Leagues even if they have the talent. I actually haven’t finished this series yet as the anime started and stopped a few times in addition to the lack of subtitles at one point. However, all the episodes are subbed now and it is an excellent anime to watch if you’re interested in baseball.

For those who’re Blue Jays fans, don’t forget to tune in tomorrow (Thursday) at 4:30pm ET as the Jays take on the Rangers in the first game of the AL division series! And if you’re interested in Japan, don’t forget to come back on Friday to Travel Fridays here on Blog Medley as I’ll be bringing you the sights of Kyoto!

© 2016, Anson Wu. All rights reserved.

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