I’d be bored too if I go through an inning per episode.

By no means am I a fan of shonen sports anime. It’s not because I hate sports. I do. But, if I can sit through several genres that I wouldn’t be interested in if I never gave it a shot, I cannot fault the genre.

In my opinion, sports anime gets dragging. One game can last several episodes, which is just too much for me to watch out for on a weekly basis. By the time the game ends, I’m several weeks older and the characters are still the same. “What? No character progression?! Wait, they’ve only done one game.” Also, if I follow a sports anime on a weekly basis, I usually forget what happened on the previous episode. Not being a very sporty person, the result is what matters. Not the one defining moment when Character A finally finds his strength.

I didn’t plan to watch Cross Game. I’m not such a big fan of the animation even if it’s one of the last things I tend to overlook for the sake of the story. Of course, that thesis statement prevails and I’m won over by the story.

If anything else, the baseball part of the story is progressing faster than the lives of Kou and Aoba. The build-up to a clffhanger for game episodes is good without having to resort to one inning per episode. It manages to keep me interested in the baseball because it was more about growth rather than that defining moment, and the story even if it’s so slow. Thank you, hazy, for the recommendation.

I watched the first twenty-eight episodes in marathon fashion. Four days is not bad for someone who has to share disk space. While the games last several episodes, I was marathoning it so once one episode’s done, I continue onto the next episode. The shitty part is episode 28 is a game episode that had a really good build-up and I’m left hanging. No such luck. I had to wait Mondays when the subs get out. Yes, I’ve seen succeeding to the current episode. See argument above.

After continuous watching, I had to wait a week for what happens after this.

I like fast-paced stories, where character development happens in a snap. Most recent anime only last 10-12 episodes. A 20+ episode show is a rare thing nowadays.  There are only two sports shows I was able to watch to finish: Slam Dunk for the comedy and Hungry Heart: Wild Striker which I was able to watch daily when it was airing on Animax. Captain Tsubasa had too many episodes that I’m not sure if Animax showed all. The completed sports anime in my list are shows that have been watched from start to end without the thought of “What happened in the previous episode again?” With Hungry Heart, I got a daily dose, which is a lot better than a weekly shot.

I can resort to referencing the manga, which I did, but I hate reading manga that involves movement like fighting and, of course, sports. The satisfaction of seeing movement without really seeing it is non-existent. Also, the Cross Game manga’s not yet finished. Either way, it opens up another can of worms because I’m left wanting to see a certain scene animated. Oh, how I dig my own grave.

Now the problem. I’ve been watching it weekly ever since and it’s a slow and painful. I don’t think I can wait for it for another eighteen episodes to marathon it again. FAIL. Oh, the dilemma. I’ll probably just watch it weekly. It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it.

Note to self: Sports anime are really for marathoning. I should also try to watch One Outs because I heard it’s one game in one episode.

P.S. The Cross Game Quiz has nothing on the Nomo’s Drawing Song. I wish they would have something similar in the future.

Reference Reading on a Similar Topic:

• schneider – Watching Anime: Weekly Watching VS Marathons
• zeroblade – On Appreciable Versus Enjoyable Anime

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 pm and is filed under Anime Cross Game Manga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.