Forum - View topicREVIEW: Cross Game Episodes 39-50 Streaming
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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Well done... Excellent review, of a masterpiece of a series.
So... what are the chances of everyone else seeing it this way enough to get some DVD releases of it?! Gotta have this; my favorite sports anime, on my shelf!!!! |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18461 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Carl pretty much said what I was going to say and gave the grades I would have given; he just beat me to it.
That final episode - especially the second half - ranks among the three or four best all-time in my book; I'd put it on the same level as Princess Tutu's finale, for instance. The final line of regular dialogue also is one of anime's two or three best all-time. (spoiler["Ah, he had seen through it all. Through the despairing loss of Waka-chan, through the happy memories, through all of my stubbornness, through all of my lies. He had, for a long time. What a hateful guy. The most hateful person in the whole word. . ."] The transformational scene the Carl refers to is also going to be one of my top contenders for Scene of the Year; scenes which can bring the action and relationship aspects of a long series to a simultaneous climax are rare indeed and deserve to be recognized when they're done masterfully well. |
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Otaking09
Posts: 637 |
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....FREAKIN' A!!! Don't think you can put it better than that, ladies and gentlemen...! I wish(and hope) America doesn't ignore this one, please. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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It's sports anime, so of course it's going to be ignored.
I at least applaud Viz for putting out the manga and streaming the anime, but I hold practically zero hope for this magnificent show ever getting a DVD release here. |
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matthewlow
 Posts: 147 Location: San Ramon, California |
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Well said. This review is making me want to rewatch Cross Game again... and the last episode just streamed about a week and a half ago.
Still crossing my fingers for a DVD release, and I'd take subbed only at this point. But I can't recall any subbed only Viz releases in recent memory, so I'd be willing to settle for an iTunes release so I don't have to worry about it randomly disappearing from Hulu one day. It's one of those series I can see myself rewatching multiple times, and the ending even more than that. |
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nechronius
 Posts: 275 Location: So Cal, USA |
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Add me to the list of Cross Game fanboys. The series was utterly engrossing for me, even if my interest in baseball is casual at best. Volume 3 of the manga can't be released quickly enough for me here in the states.
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Darksorrow29
Posts: 412 Location: United States |
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Let me start off by saying I thought Cross Game was an excellent series, plus it's always a treat to read a review from Carl or Theron... but if I was to have one complaint about Cross game, it would be about the spoiler[baseball]
spoiler[Coming from an avid baseball fan and after watching a show like Big Windup, it's honestly rather hard to take this baseball show very seriously. Even when you reduce your expectations and standards... somethings are a bit silly. It's been awhile... but here are some gripes I had. Kou was severely over powered as a pitcher. Maybe that was the point but I thought that made the games kind of boring. I think throughout the whole show he had 1 hitter that threatened to hit well off of him? There's also very little depth in his pitching. I think it took about 40+ episodes in until they actually mentioned him throwing a curveball in an actual game (although they did mention how he had to learn other pitches earlier on). Azuma - another absurdly over powered member of the team. If I recall... not a single pitcher could CONSISTENTLY keep him in check, in the whole show! How about the length of the games? If I recall correctly the semi finals match was less than 10 minutes o_O. Not that compelling for me. It was also a shame to see his teammates do so little overall. Yes he had the battery with the catcher... but what about his friend Nakanishi? Poor guy doesn't even get a key hit in the finals. ] Just some minor gripes for me. I loved everything else about the show. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1365 |
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only if i could ever understand the whole point of baseball's running from one corner to another, as well as other strange actions... it was actually explained to me in the past, and i almost understood it, but could not memorize...
games like football (soccer), hockey, basketball are conceptually much more straightforward, so these are easier to grasp for people who were not fed with baseball right from maternity home.. since this animé seems to be of really, really high quality in the essence, i might overlook that confusing baseball thingy and watch it anyway... |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Eh? Running from one corner to the other is pretty simple. One full rotation around the the "corners" is required for a point, or "run" to be scored. As long as the runners are not tagged out or forced out then they are "safe" at those corners, and then another batter goes up and tries to allow the runner(s) to score.
Just watching a single game of baseball should be all that's needed to understand the very basics of it. But yeah, that's actually why I really like baseball. Because it's completely different from every other team sport out there. It's not at all like basketball/football/american football/hockey/rugby/etc. which just have one team with a ball trying to get the ball to some specific area of the court while the other team defends and then vice versa. |
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SgtMustang
Posts: 158 |
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Such a masterpiece of a series. Anime has a reputation for having trouble w/ endings, and cross game's is a home run. I'm not a fan of slice of life or sports animes, I usally tend towards sci-fi/action/cyberpunk, but cross game has managed to climb its way to my favorite anime. Everything about it, the chars, the pacing, the games, even the art and animation(well maybe not the people w/ buckteeth), it just all comes together perfectly. Never has a series been able to make me cry and at the same time smile like this one has. And have no trouble admitting I've cried during it, if you can't watch it and not, you prob have no soul. Series def should get a blu-ray release.
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nechronius
Posts: 275 Location: So Cal, USA |
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Come now, I think it's ok to reveal that Cross Game is about baseball and that your criticism is about the baseball part of it. 
Yea the baseball here is not as "hardcore" as you may find in other shows, but I think it's part of what makes the show more approachable to a larger audience. Unfortunately not that more are watching... I do agree about the power levels you mention, as clearly a few players are seemingly superhuman, spoiler[namely Kitamura, Azuma, and Mishima among others], and the idea that a high school student is capable of spoiler[throwing a fastball in excess of 97mph consistently for that long], I can only offer that occasionally you *can* get a super freak who is well ahead of the curve, at least at the high school level (LeBron James anybody?). Yes, mine's a weak argument, and yes, I do agree with your assessment, but for the sake of drama I was willing to accept it a bit more readily. As for Nakanishi, I think a lot is said for him in just the simple fact that spoiler[Azuma acknowledges him. For a guy who claims not to remember names or faces of players without skill, that's saying a lot, even if Azuma's words are mostly lip service. I know he's softened up a touch by that final episode anyway, but it was still nice to see the three of them together. Azuma had no reason to go to the hospital with them, seeing as how he's never even met the patient, not that I recall anyway. And even if Nakanishi never made any key hits, he did make a key play in the last game and is the reason Ko is playing baseball again]. |
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SgtMustang
Posts: 158 |
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Azuma did meet the patient, was there when the char was introduced. |
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Saphiro01
 Posts: 71 Location: California |
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Viz... Even if it's a 'print by request' campaign... PLEASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE give me legit Cross Game DVD's! I'd even settle for Bluray's that have an english subtitle translation only.
 
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kyokun703
 Posts: 2505 Location: Orgrimmar |
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Seriously. I'd totally buy this. C'mon Viz, do something nice for the fans for a change (other than randomly canceling manga, letting mid-volumes go oop, never releasing anime sets, etc.). |
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CaptainAvatar
 Posts: 381 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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Count me as one whom also wants a DVD release - sub-only is fine by me if we can just get it on physical media. Maybe Viz could cut a deal with Sentai? Haven't they released some shows that Viz does the manga for?
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