Ah, crap. Even I could see that this episode was rushed. The thing that set Ookiku Furikabutte apart from all of the other baseball series is that it takes every pitch seriously: it spends time at animating even the most unimportant pitches, treating them like they have the potential to change the entire game. In this episode, you could clearly see the creators rushing through these unimportant pitches. This really sucks. Even though there hasn’t been an official announcement yet, it really looks like the creators are planning to end this match at episode thirteen. There can only be one reason why they would suddenly decide on that.
I knew it was too good to be true, for A-1 to keep such an incredible animation-quality throughout this entire second season, while also animating Working and Senkou no Night Raid alongside it, added to Kuroshitsuji II, Occult Academy and Sora no Oto. They like,tripled their capacity in 2010 or something? The worst thing here is that trying to cram a new season into thirteen episodes just doesn’t work for this series. The reason why the first season was so awesome was exactly because of that gruelingly long match that took up eleven episodes. With this, they took away one of the best parts of this series.
And that really is a shame because this episode really was excellent as usual. Take a look at the point where Abe grabbed Mihashi’s arm tightly and let go of it again: it actually changed colour like you’d expect with a real arm. This episode was full of these tiny details that by far would have surpassed the first season if it actually would have gotten 26 episodes to fully drag out this series.
You can see the lack of time the most at the opposing team. Really, we only got to see a lot of the pitcher and catcher. Who are the other guys? To be honest, I have no idea. They lack the individuality of the team of the first season.
I know that there is still an option for a third season, but seriously: don’t hope for it. There have been plenty of series (and sequels) who suffered the fate of never being completed, even the very popular series couldn’t escape it. It’s the one thing I hate the most about anime: the tendency to not just fully animate something but rather just animate the beginning and then see whether or not the sponsors still feel like it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Bah, that’s a bummer. I just watched the previous week’s episode (the subs are a week behind more or less) and I was too thinking as you did, how amazingly consistent the animation in this series is, both this season and the last. So it’s kind of sad to see them slip up.
The only other series that has the same consistency is Monster, which while the animation rarely goes into the realm of excellent, it’s never, ever, bad. And for a 74 ep series that’s impressive.
Oofuri is popular enough to get that third season. They’ve caught up with the manga so after more content is produced for it I wouldn’t be surprised to see it.
It does suck that they had to rush this one out. The first season had all the time it needed but there was such a crunch to get the rest of it animated for A-1 that they couldn’t do it again. An OVA series would have been preferable I think.
Looks like THAT happened (which is what I was talking about). At the old pace at episode 8 this would have happened at episode 12, but alas the new pace is 2 chapters and part of the next chapter. So as I’ve said with the other post this pretty much confirms the 12 episode run of Oofuri.
Well at least the pacing isn’t a mess but also at the same time its just not as detailed as the first one. Interestingly that is a point of debate now. Some like the new pacing claiming it allows Oofuri games to be more “sports” like. Yet, I would disagree as I have the same view as you which is that I actually liked how EACH pitch was significant. Yes, its slow but I found that adding to the realism more than a fast paced game. More importantly its ONLY in baseball that we do see Nishiura shine, so the pace only allows us to admire them more.
In any case guess this is a Honey and Clover season 2 syndrom. Not bad per se but also not as good as it could have been.
Methinks the characters this season just aren’t as important as the characters last season were. There’s no players that stand out on Bijou Daisayama (that’s part of the story, they’re a bunch of faceless players who follow the manager’s commands to a T – the only ones that have seriously got any development seem to be the 2 catchers, one of whom is stuck in right)
I really thought this is one of these never ending stories that span over 5 seasons/years because how slow first season was. Hmm so if they’ve caught manga I’m afraid it’s going to end before it really started.
Maybe the new pacing is more “sports like” as far as WATCHING the sport goes, but it seemed to me (though I don’t have first hand experience so I could be wrong) the first season’s pacing was more like what PLAYING baseball must actually feel like for the players. And I found that much more interesting. Most of the same content is there, but it just goes so fast that the tension of each situation just isn’t as fully felt anymore. It’s not terrible at all, but as you say, it makes Oofuri lose some of what really set it apart, and it makes me sad this is how many people will be experiencing this game.
I haven’t watched this episode yet, but I remember it in the manga and I’m scared to see it here. When reading the manga I knew it was coming since I’d been spoiled, but it was still amazing to watch. It felt like the whole world slowed down there. And I just know time-wise they just WON’T have the luxury to imitate that feeling in the anime, and it will change the scene and take away some of the impact. (A LOT of things have had less impact than the manga version this season, to me. I knew it wouldn’t be quite the same but extent of the difference sometimes is just such a shame…)
The opposing team wasn’t looked at very in-depth in the manga, either, though. Though I did feel like I knew them a tad better reading the manga, I guess some teams just aren’t mean to stand out as much. I suppose it’s realistic, if a little sad.
Oh, though to clear some things up for other commenters, the anime is close to catching up with the tankobon releases, but in Afternoon Oofuri is currently up to chapter 77 (with chapters usually 50 pages, though they’ve been getting shorter lately…). This episode was around chapter 48. I don’t know if it’s common practice or not to let anime versions get ahead of tankobon releases, but if it does happen, they definitely had enough for a full second season. On the other hand, if it went at the pace of the first season, it would have been a rather odd stopping place. Also, a 13 episode series at least season’s pace would have ended….right where this episode is now! (That is to say, a HORRIBLE stopping place, lol). Where this season is shaping up to end really is the most natural place to stop. Problem is, it just doesn’t fit well into the usual season size. I imagine that’s the reason for the weird pacing, more than anything else. It’s completely understandable….yet I can’t help but be grumbly about it, hehe.
I read somewhere that the 2nd season is only 13 episode. I guess they need to speed up a bit to wrap up everything before episode 13. I think it’ll be a long time before season 3 (if any).
But yeah, Bijoudai players are not given much exposure in the manga as well. It’s a shame.
@NarwhalTortellini: Are you the one with a translation blog? And yes me and Inkka have been repeating time and time again that Oofuri anime is not CLOSE to the actual source material. Bijoudai game will run into the 53rd chapter and there are 77 chapters currently. Though my grumble about the pacing is that the acceleration really began with the start of the Bijoudai game, episode 8 onwards, as compared to the previous episodes. Though that isn’t to say A-1 hasn’t done a great job making sure it doesn’t fall apart. But yes I agree about the grumble factor or rather what makes me grumble about it is that this pace has made Oofuri more narrative driven.
Rather than the excruciatingly slow but nerve wracking games one had with the first season, allowing to be such a breath of fresh air for trying something different. You had time to contemplate about the game, something I don’t see much with other sports anime that I found good (Hajime no Ippo and Slam Dunk for instance), and really internalize it. On the other hand with such a decision now well… Its just become more of a matter of progressing the story, the narrative strength of the material shines through but it is disappointing nonetheless to only focus on narrative at this point (lets face it there are a ton of good stories out there so good narrative alone for me just won’t cut it). This is a shame for me because well… lets just wait till episode 12 for that comment but I’m sure you’re aware what I mean by what a waste the pace is with admiring Nishiura for the next following chapters XD
I began to know yesterday that the first series that A-1 do in full step is Oofuri.It’s a little shame that they do that to the second season of the first series that they do.But because of this.They can’t abandon this series easily.. right?
At least the pacing turn out to be something that can still acceptable Although it’s a bit rushed.Maybe because it’s Bijou…
You know the charm in Oofuri’s baseball game is the charming opponent team and full-detail baseball match.But bijou didn’t has the first.(Sakitama gets only 3 ep but they can execute the thing that called charming very well).So I didn’t concern with Bijou too much like others.
More than that I really hate them to play dirty and make Abe injuried and the interaction in this team didn’t look interesing either. So..It’ll better if they cut most of bijou time and gave more time for Nishiura and detail baseball match if they want to do this pacing. At least the detail game will come back…Maybe?
Ahh…If this pacing happened in first season.I’ll still can’t understand baseball for sure.But look like I has some experience from ss1.So I can understand the fast-pace game.Really thanks to ss1.
(Ah..I want to say about some absurd comment about this pacing here. I ever think maybe it’s because it’s summer.You know the tosei game they played in the rain.So the game will be a bit shallow and slow.But now they’re playing under the sun.So the pacing will be faster because of the temperature. I see the color in 2nd season is more colorful than first season too much too.)
Ohhh How can I think that STUPID theory like this? Haha+
and Wow that translator come here! I really want to thank you for your last entry too much.(hug)
This anime rocks, i love how the characters don’t take a back seat to baseball. Amazing stuff, i can’t wait to watch 37, i want to know how Mihashi steps up. I thought he showed amazing composure and wanting to proove himself for Abe. I thought he would crumble so easily, you get 35 episodes of i can’t do this with out abe and now he shows some hidden confidence, awesome stuff. I hope he can show what he’s capable of.