I didn't think a detailed game in nine innings would be so dramatic in the heat of passion. The kid from Mihasi High School is moving into high school, away from the old one. At the new school, he is taken against his will to the baseball club as a pitcher (handling balls) because they lack players for the team. The coach of the club is Momoi-san - a woman who has been passionate about playing since childhood, which in itself is unusual. The team of first-year beginners immediately decides to break into the main competitions of baseball school clubs in Japan "Koshien". To do that, they have the fighting spirit and one talented player across Tajima's fields. However, they do not know that Mihasi's pitches are too unconventional for a classic game, and when the team relies on the pitcher, his most important problem comes out - catastrophic self-doubt.
In high school, Mihasi had no friends, he was also ignored outside training and the club's players, and worst of all, any losses were blamed on unsuccessful pitches. Mihasi is still trying to change something in himself by going to another school, but if it were not for the coolness and patience of Abe - a teammate catcher (taking balls), nothing would have worked for Mihasi. Abe, on the other hand, went through a serious school of batting boy from another top-level player, unbalanced and willful, so he had to think for himself and for him.
The pitcher from Mihasi is extraordinary, Abe's catcher is talented, but the relationship between the two is too intimate, to say the least. It's not sloppy, it's senen-ai. This is slightly bewildering, because when in the midst of a game or training the characters suddenly switch to tenderness, for the viewer it is almost always unexpected. Such a high relationship knocks out of the rut of sports contemplation. However, the feeling remains rather positive. Another thing is that Mihasi also suddenly begins to behave like a smear, his tearfulness and self-doubt in ordinary life is so on the verge of tolerance, in stressful situations just annoying. Stuttering when communicating with friends, not the ability to express a simple idea in words, any comment is always perceived at its own expense. I don’t doubt that there are such cases in life, but this one is clinical. In my opinion, the authors went too far with the idiocy of the main character, although they tried to hide it under the guise of a quack-deform.
Graphics, by the way, attracts attention: a very beautiful watercolor of pastel colors. The characters are cute or funny, depending on the plot; interestingly written characters of the whole team of players, including the coach and parents. And although I absolutely do not understand anything in baseball, the anime is filmed so that by the end of the series you already begin to think in the rules and shout in the right places “Out!”.
7 out of 10