4/5 An enjoyable baseball-driven animated series. The second part features more on baseball (almost entirely on one game)...
  by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
In Japan, sports-based anime have been quite popular. From series such as the basketball anime "Slam Dunk", soccer anime such as "Captain Tsubasa", football anime such as "Eyeshield 21 and tennis anime "Prince of Tennis", comes an anime baseball series that is just fun and enjoyable.

In Japan, baseball is a big part of Japanese culture. Aside from soccer and sumo wrestling, Japanese baseball has been covered in manga and anime series such as the popular series "Touch" as well as"H2, "Princess Nine" and "Idol Ace", to name a few.

In 2003, Asa Higuchi began a manga series which is serialized in the monthly seinen magazine "Afternoon" since 2003. The series has won an award such as the "Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize" and the "Kodansha Manga Award" and eventually was made into a 26-episode anime series in 2007.

Animation was done by A-1 Pictures (A studio from the Sony's anime production division, Aniplex) and shown on TBS and Animax Asia. What many people don't know is that Higuchi has researched and collected data on Japanese high school baseball for ten years before she started on the manga series.

With the first 13 episodes released in August, the second and final part of "Big Windup!" (also known as "Okiku Furikabutte" aka Ofuri) will be released in the US courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment.

The series is directed by Tsutomu Mizushima ("xxxHolic", "Genshiken" and "Kujibiki Unbalance), written by Yousuke Kuroda ("Gungrave", "Infinite Ryvius", "Mobile Suit Gundam 00, etc.), character designs by Takahiko Yoshida (who has worked on "Honey and Clover", "Gad Guard" and "Welcome to the NHK") and music by Shiroh Hamaguchi ("Ah! My Goddess", "One Piece", "Sakura Wars" and "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children").

The animated series initially revolves around a boy named Ren Mihashi. Mihashi is a pitcher who has low-self esteem and lack of confidence courtesy of his former junior high school who criticized him because he was made starting pitcher of his junior high school team because his grandfather owned the school. Because of that, he underwent some major bullying from his baseball team, to the point that everyone expects the worst out of him and expect him to lose each game. In fact, Mihashi buys into all the negativity they give him and he blames himself for his teams losses and ruining his schoolmate's love for the game, thus Mihashi's self-confidence is totally shot. So, bad that he's always cringing in fear, always thinking that others are thinking negative of him and that he will ruin things for everyone.

Mihashi decides to go to Nishiura High School and ends up being coached by Coach Momoe for Nishiura High School's first baseball team. In the first part of the series, Mihashi learns that by listening to catcher Takaya Abe, he can be a successful pitcher. Abe knows that Mihashi has true pitching talent but he needs direction which he is willing to give. But he and his other teammates know that it is important to get Mihashi's self-esteem up and thus, the team goes through intensive training and even going against Mihashi's old high school to get the team's spirits up.

For the second half of the series, Nishiura High School enters its first summer tournament. But unfortunately for them, for the lottery, they end up picking last year's champions, Tosei High School.

The DVD set features a total of 13 episodes on two DVD's:

DISC 1:

* EPISODE 14 - Challenge
* EPISODE 15 - The First Run of the Game
* EPISODE 16 - Don't Underestimate
* EPISODE 17 - The Third Runner
* EPISODE 18 - Another Score
* EPISODE 19 - Tosei's Real Power
* EPISODE 20 - Turning the Tables

DISC 2:

* EPISODE 21 - One More Run
* EPISODE 22 - Defense!
* EPISODE 23 - Precisely
* EPISODE 24 - The End of the Game
* EPISODE 25 - After One Win
* EPISODE 26 - The Basics of Basics

Where the last volume of "Big Windup! -Oofuri-" focused on Mihashi and the team development and dynamics, the second volume and the final half of the series focuses on the first round of the summer tournament between Nishiura High and Tosei High.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"Big Windup!" is presented in 16:9 and sports a lot of painted backgrounds with its baseball field surroundings, neighborhoods but for a TV series, sports quite a bit of detail for its players and their baseball equipment. May it be the dust on the baseball, their gloves or the catcher's shin guards. Each character has their own personal traits and for the most part, animators captured the wide range of emotions of each character quite well. For the most part, there is a country like feel to "Big Windup!" but for the most part, a television series that does look quite nice! Bare in mind, this is not a OVA or film, so for a TV series to a good amount of detail is a major plus.

The series does sport a soft kind of look. The colors are not as eye-popping vibrant as I would have liked but actually is quite consistent with many other television animated series.

As for the audio, the English 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound is actually more livelier compared to its Japanese vocal counterpart (featured in stereo). The soundtrack of course is more dialogue-driven, so expect to hear more use of the front and center channel speakers. But for optimal sound on both soundtracks, for those with a receiver that is able to make all channels stereo, I found this setting to be the best. And both English and Japanese vocal tracks are quite solid.

In terms of dialogue, there is quite a difference in terms of language used. The English dub does use certain words that some may consider profanity but for the most part, the series is not vulgar, nor is there really anything violent. It's just certain words used in the English dialogue that gives the series its TV 14 rating.

Subtitles are only in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

On the second DVD, you can find the textless opening and ending theme plus FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"Big Windup!" is an enjoyable baseball anime series!

In a way it kind of reminds me of the classic American baseball film "The Bad News Bears" in which a team of baseball players that were no good, overcame adversity and through teamwork, became an awesome team. In "Big Windup!", it's almost a similar situation which the team has its share of talented players and not-so-talented players but compared in size to the other competition, Nishiura High baseball players are much shorter nor are they physically as strong as compared to the senior baseball players of other high schools, nor do they have a top notch training facility as other high schools and last, this is the high school's first year as a baseball team.

But the strength of the team relies on defense and pitching, with Mihashi having pinpoint accuracy when it comes to pitching, it all comes down to Takaya Abe, the catcher to direct him. At first, Mihashi does get a bit too much (or very annoying) for the viewer as he is always afraid, whining, crying and quite literally is acting like a baby but when the team dynamics start to come to play, this becomes less noticeable and the series becomes more enjoyable.

I will say that the first part of "Big Windup! -Oofuri-" is more viewer-friendly for those not familiar with baseball. This second part is now more baseball-driven as the majority of the episodes revolve around the whole nine innings between Nishiura High School and Tosei High School and the strategies involved by the two opposing coaches, making their calls and the players adapting.

Most sports series do not focus on this many episodes on one matchup but "Big Windup! -Oofuri" does. As a baseball fan, I enjoyed it. And as a fan of Japanese baseball, I enjoyed it even more, especially how it captures the cheering squad as you hear the theme songs of Pink Lady's "Southpaw" and other themes being played by the trumpet player and drummer. Personally, I enjoyed the strategy that was featured in this anime series, I don't think I have seen any sport anime series show the realistic nature in such detail as this anime series. Needless to say that Asa Higuchi's research paid off.

But I have to admit, with so many episodes dedicated to the matchup, I was starting to lose my patience because I knew there were only 26 episodes in this series and I was hoping to see more episodes that were not related to the tournament.

But suffice to say, for those who are casual sports fans or a non-sports fan, this second part may not be your cup of tea. In fact, only the last two episodes are not involved with the first round tournament. Episode 25 going into the day after and episode 26 focusing on players of Musashino Dai (Ichi High School). Which was surprising because there was no real conclusion to the series and made me wonder if there were plans like other sports-related anime in having this series going longer than 26-episodes.

But overall, I really enjoyed "Big Windup!" and finding myself wanting to watch even more after it ended. This is truly a series about underdogs who have a lot to offer but must go through sacrifice and working as a team in order to become successful. And for the most part, the series balances out the baseball aspect but also the series crazy antics and the humor of each character. It's basically a fun series to watch and enjoy.

"Big Windup!" doesn't take long to get into the action and unlike "Slam Dunk" or "Prince of Tennis", this is not an anime series that really goes into the dramatics of relationships or love triangles or anything like that. Nor is it a series that tries to promote its characters as cool and visually appealing for female fans. It's pretty much an anime series of a group of young teens who want to be a very good baseball team but knowing they have to do many things in order to become successful. And as a viewer, you end up rooting for the underdogs (which of course is Nishiura High School) and hope they can beat their opponents.

If you are a person who enjoys sports-related anime series especially baseball, "Big Windup!" is absolutely fun and entertaining.

3/5 Should be called "The Big Letdown Part 2"
  by Michael Harmon (davis california)
Was this Part 2 horrible? No, but it was a Big Letdown. First off let me say that I loved the first collection (ep1-13) and gave it 4 stars. It was entertaining fun seeing Mihashi(Ren) grow and become friends with all the guys and it encompassed more than just the game of baseball. This second boxset basically was just baseball. No school, no home, no hangin out like the first set; no just baseball. 11 episodes in a row of the same game which was hard to watch. Whereas the game in the first box set was fast moving with meaningful inner dialogue and strategy, this 11 episode game was drawn out and had way too much of the opposing teams perspective. At one point I thought who am I supposed to root for? Also Mihashi's cousin arrives who was cool but was pretty much squandered by pretty much sitting in the stands. I would have liked to have seen her and Mihashi together more but her character was sadly wasted. The next episode was pretty much a filler episode but I was happy to see Tajima back to his likable self as he is by far one of the coolest anime characters EVER! The saddest thing was the last episode didnt even have anything to do with Mihashi and the boys. I was hoping for at least a narrated diary episode of the remaining tournament so we could see how far the guys got but no, just a bonus episode of another team we dont care about. Why they ended the series this way I don't know. My wife liked both box sets so I guess take this review with a grain of salt. Just know, this set is not even close to the first. Whereas the first set was a great watch with cool characters that grew and were entertaining with situations that were fun, this set is just 1 boring drawn out baseball game and then no real ending.

4/5 Big Windup!'s Conclusion Arrives
  by ONENEO (Buffalo, NY)
Much to the dismay of many critics, I likened The Big Windup to one of the better Shonen (fighting-based) anime series out there only rather than an ongoing tournament, the sport of baseball acts as the catalyst to tie together all of the teenage (and older) characters.

I'm sticking by that claim because quite frankly, the show retains all of the best aspects of a shonen piece with a healthy dose of believability.

Previously released only as an online video-stream, Big Windup! was a Geneon property picked up by Funimation that's finally come to dvd format for those of us who prefer to enjoy our anime on the 42 inch plasma with surround sound (rather than in our media players through two tinny speakers that came with the computer monitor).

Coming at a total runtime of 315 minutes, Big Windup! Part 2 (Oofuri) consists of episodes 14-26 spread across 2 discs packaged within a standard-size dvd case. The show wears an appropriate, if not slightly conservative TV 14 rating (no violence, nudity or foul language).

Extras are limited here to textless songs and a nice assortment of Funimation trailers on the second disc.

As is standard fair with sub & dub anime, the language options consist of the original Japanese dialog track (in stereo) and an English language dub presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround with the option of English subtitles available under either choice.

The story picks up with young student Ren Mihashi's baseball endeavors coupled to his life as a regular high school student.

Whereas the first edition established Ren's desire to play ball even if bot hhe and his team's skill left a bit to be desired, this installment starts out right at the end of spring training. Mihashi has discovered some newfound confidence thanks to beating his old school in the big game (again in the first release). With Abe calling the pitches, the once insecure Ren has a few tricks up his sleeve. However, the big summer tournament is just beginning and as fate would have it, the Nishiura Nine find themselves going up against the defending champs in the very first round.

Being the second and final installment of the show, this set does represent the conclusion of the franchise and is done well accordingly (although you will get the impression that the tale could have gone longer if there had been demand for a continuation).

The story's an even-flowing, fun romp through the rigors of both school life and after school sports activity. It's bright, clean and pleasant in its delivery that uses elements of team-building and personal growth as the backbone to a lot of baseball-game onscreen action sequences.

If this sounds a little odd, don't let the sports-themed arc to trip you up from enjoying a tasty little tale that works for the same reason shonen (fighting-themed anime) is so popular: the viewer ends up caring more about the characters than the specific forms of competition that are used to advance the plot. As it stands however, the baseball animation, scoring-system, and physics are exponentially more realistic (and relatable) than mystical fighting tournaments with monsters and magic spells.

The music is nothing overly dramatic or spectacular but it's catchy and rhythmic in all of the right places. Interestingly, when available as a video stream the only language option was the English dub. Funimation has wisely included the superior Japanese vocal track on this dvd set. Not to suggest that the English dub isn't worthy; the dramatic attempts just simply feel a bit less forced in the chipper and lively Japanese form.

In all, Big Windup! Part 2 continues to make use of some of the livelier aspects of popular shonen anime with a nice likeable cast of characters and some sports elements that nearly anyone can sit down and enjoy.


5/5 Underrated! Definitely a Must Watch!!
  by songie
I LOVED LOVED LOVED this anime. I'm so completely and desperately in love with each of the characters - of course, particularly Mihashi & Abe-kun. Deliciously suspenseful, packed with action, and yet not lacking the sentimentals - I can watch the episodes over and over and over again. In fact, I HAVE watched the episodes so repeatedly that I've decided to buy the DVD set, lol. There are only 26 episodes in total to this anime series, split into 2 DVD sets. I'm extremely disappointed in the shortness of the series, but hope [with all of my being] that with enough fans and supporters, they will make a second season!! I STRONGLY recommend the Japanese audio/English subs, as the voice acting of the characters is crucial to their distinctive qualities.

From the mass of anime titles available, I definitely think that Big Windup (or 'Ookiku Furikabutte') is one worth owning. Though an underrated series, not as well known as my other favorite animes (e.g. Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, FMA, Ouran HS Host Club..), it is just as addicting and wonderfully satisfying to watch!! In addition to the great story and inspiring character interactions, the artwork is actually extremely good and wonderfully pleasing to the eyes - an attribute that is often overlooked in anime these days.