Oh god, no. It’s going to continue into the next episode (which is also going to be the final one). This is exactly what I’ve been fearing for 20 episodes now: this show just isn’t good at baseball matches. and to drag them on like this. It’s a shame that this show had to be about baseball. I can understand that without it, the characters couldn’t have developed the way they did, but this also made this kind of finale inevitable.
Overall the creators tried to put in some nice twists and all, but writing a good baseball match is all about building up tension. Over the entire series. At this point Kou and Azuma have been so god-moded that I’m not exactly rooting for them to make it. Even though Kou slipped up, the bugger actually hit a home-run later to make up for it.
In any case, at this point I consider this to still be a wonderful series, but when compared to Touch, in the end I have to say that Touch was better. While its characterization may have been not as good as Cross Game, and it may have been a tad too long for its own good, it was more balanced, and every part about it was well written, even the lesser exciting arcs. It all amounted to some great character-development and excellent baseball matches. Even the final climax was wonderful to watch, despite the seemingly cliched set-up.
I don’t think that the problem with Cross Game would have been solved if the creators spent more effort into the baseball matches. The thing is that the slice of life was just that good. I seldomly have seen it this witty and consistently enjoyable. The biggest mistake that this series made in this that could have been fixed is the way in which they treated the opposing team: the development of these people sucks when compared to the main cast. These guys needed much more attention if they wanted to make impact in this match.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
i dropped Cross Game quite a few episode’s ago, i compared it to princess nine, and i have to say, it doesn’t hold a candle.
Hmmm are they skipping content like crazy? If I’m right, they will have to stuff like 5-6 chapters in the final episode. (didn’t see this episode yet, don’t know how much it covered)
dude, swen, princess nine was crap, it is not ven worth comparing it to cross game. and i think the base ball
The game will end in the next episode and the series will rerun to it’s slice-of-life character in the last 1.5 episodes.
Overall, I think I enjoyed the characters more for Cross Game than Touch, which makes Cross Game a more solid read than Touch was, but yeah, not a big fan of Cross Game’s baseball matches and especially not the final one. (Though I guess I’ll be shot for saying that.)
@userA
That would be good, but I’ve read Cross Game will only be 50 episodes… Meaning we will get half an episode at most for the slice of life, finale stuff.
Meh, ok, I saw the episode.
They really rushed through a lot of stuff. Which is fine, but the episode felt sloppy. A lot of stills used too. And they de-emphasized the flashbacks a lot. The one with Kou throwing the ball on the wall was a really nice and touching moment in the manga and they really rushed through it here.
I’ll say it already. Cross Game needed one more episode. This episode was rushed, and the next one will be rushed too. Sure they can fit all the content in 20 minutes, but for slice of life moments to work, they need a slow, proper, pacing.
What the hell is up with anime creators and rushed finales?
Not to worry, since Kou hit that homer, the game will end quick and you’ll still get 0.75 episode of slice-of-life. A bit disappointed with this episode thou.
At least in manga the last game seemed way to drawn out. I had impression that is was done just to ‘hit’ 160th chapter. I will not complain if in anime the last game is shortened.
As for the rest of baseball games – i enjoyed them. Still Touch seemed more ‘down to earth’ – god modes do not mix well with a slice of life.
anime sure makes LONG GRUELING baseball matches in the manga short. waiting for the manga was a pain. Mitsuru Adachi went awol, putting the manga on hiatus …and crap….. sigh…..but it was worth the wait…
im really a fan of cross game’s op and ed song…even H2 opening songs… H2 would have been phenomenal if they decided to follow the manga completely and finish the anime..to bad it didnt
also TOUCH WAS TOO LONG FOR ITS OWN GOOD. marathoned it like there was no tomorrow. despite watching all episodes and movies of touch, im not really a fan of it… i prefer H2 9if only they finished it…deim!!!!….
It’s kinda sad that this amazing series is coming to an end. Despite the running time of 50 episodes it never felt dragged out (like felt Touch for me). I will seriously miss this show!
If Kou hit that homerun at the the end, then the match is over I believe. So you don’t have to worry about the next episode.
lol. Just saw the preview, I guess it will drag on for a bit more.
it wont drag on…
In my opinion, Mitsuru Adachi is brilliant in weaving together and developing his characters thoroughly and subtly throughout the story. But, aside from Touch and perhaps Rough, he always seems to wrap things up very quickly in a way that doesn’t entirely satisfy all the time spent developing the characters and sub-plots. Unfortunately, the endings to many of his managas do not seem to match the pace of the rest of his storytelling.
I was secretly hoping the anime would fill in the details Adachi left out. However, it seems this anime will be faithful to the way the manga ended. Don’t get me wrong, I thought for the two main characters, it wasn’t a bad ending at all, very slice of life, but it wasn’t entirely satisfying in respect to everything else.
All that said, I think this anime has been a very good adaptation of the Cross Game manga. Where it has differed, it has been an improvement (e.g. like the opportunity for Aoba to consider the female pro-league and largely summarising the childhood background of the characters through very effective flash backs). I will miss watching this anime when it ends.
I look forward to what Psgel and others have to say.
Apologies for what turned out to be a rather long comment!! Probably why I don’t leave them too often ;-P
Touch was annoyinngggggg… Say no to love quadrangles! Cross Game had REAL slice of life, Touch just had love quadrangle angst >
For Adachi, from what I’ve seen so far H2 is the best in terms of the baseball matches. (Imagine Kou and Azuma still close friends- but on opposing teams).
But I think the characters, slice of life, and romance are best in Cross Game.
I just can’t bring myself to compare her baseball mangas… H2 and Cross Game are both good. And they both also have different charms. Sometimes I totally just forget that adachi’s manga are Romance/slice of life mangas… Her baseball mangas aren’t for baseball, but the way she ends her baseball mangas Like h2 and cross game makes feel that something is missing. In h2 the manga ended after they won the semi finals in koshien , and in cross game, manga ended after entering koshien
sorry to burst your bubble, but adachi’s a guy by the way ^^