Ookiku Furikabutte Season 2 – First Episode Review

Episode Summary: Mihashi and the rest of the Nishiura High School team are relishing their victory against Tosei, and are getting more excited to prepare for their next opponents, Sakitama High School.  A couple of girls from the dance squad approach the team manager about becoming cheerleaders for the team, and there's more enthusiasm building.  The team goes on a group outing to Sakitama's next game, to get a feel for what they'll be up against, and the coach provides them with a new batting lineup.

In the meantime, the elder brother of one of the Tosei players does some information gathering by taking a friend out to dinner and grilling him about the factors that helped Nishiura gain the upper hand.

Thoughts: I recall three years ago or so when I watched the first episode of Ookiku Furikabutte (known as Big Windup! in English) and thought that it seemed like a really nice little sports series.  I liked how the characters all seemed like really sweet young kids, and even though Mihashi had a clear amount of talent specific to his pitching, the series didn't seem preoccupied with super moves and the like (I watched quite a few episodes of Prince of Tennis back in the day, and got really burned out on watching sports moves that seemed as though they would have been more at home in Dragon Ball Z).  I decided that I'd like to watch the series... but of course life got in the way and I never did.  Funimation licensed the series and brought it back to my attention, but I still didn't purchase it to watch.  Then a second season was announced, I watched the first episode, and suddenly regretted putting the series to the back of my to-do list, because this episode doesn't operate as the beginning to a sequel series so much as a direct continuation of season 1.

Last fall I approached the sudden influx of sequel series with the attitude that they were worth reviewing in my normal manner on the basis of how welcoming they were to new viewers.  While sequels have a duty to appease their loyal fan base, I'm of the opinion that some of the best sequels are ones which are also able to draw in new viewers instead of marginalizing them with a lot of jargon or other esoteric information.  Darker than Black 2 was a show that balanced out its returning characters with a mostly-disconnected story, so that it was easy enough to understand even with just basic knowledge of the concept from Wikipedia.  I ended up watching and enjoying the entire second season even though I hadn't seen but 2 episodes of the first season way back when.  Inu-Yasha, on the other hand... let's just say I wasn't going to be able to do the required homework on that one in the small amount of time available to me. While I get the impression that the characters are portrayed very genuinely in Oofuri 2, its major problem is that most viewers aren't going to be able to come in cold since it spends no time with character re-introduction, story recap or any other sort of info-dumping that could potentially hold the hand of a newbie and guide them in.

To be fair, there are some inklings of the character dynamics that shine through despite the lack of expository information. Mihashi is obviously quiet and nervous, but perhaps the hero of the team's previous victory.  He tends to fade into the background of most scenes that he's in and tends to be afflicted most often with the "cute face" that's peculiar to this series (you'll know it once you see it - he looks sort of like a bird).  The team's coach is a woman known as much for her skill as her large bosom.  Her presence adds sort of an interesting dynamic considering that generally, other than the team's manager or a main character's love-interest, the cast of shounen sports series mostly contain male main characters.  The situation with the members of the Tosei team who appear in the episode seems as though it could be fairly interesting, especially in regards to the older brother who seems to be just a bit too harsh on his younger sibling.  The characters feel like people who I would like to know more about, at the very least.

That, perhaps, is the episode's major victory, even though watching it was mostly an exercise in confusion.  I learned quickly that pausing the episode while frantically searching for information on the character of the moment would do me little good, but that alone was still a good sign; I was interested in knowing the facts about the situation and the history behind the characters in spite of being tossed straight into the midst of their lives.

Unfortunately, saying things like "these characters seem like nice people" isn't that convincing enough of an argument to give a blanket positive recommendation on the show, for myself or, more importantly, others.  But I will say that I'm tempted now to go back, pick up the DVDs, and get acquainted with the story and character a bit better.  Then I might be able to amend my thoughts with something more enthusiastic because, despite feeling almost completely in the dark (which is frustrating!) there's some little bit of charm that seems to shine through in this episode and I feel like it might be worth checking out.

Pros:

• There's a refreshing lack of bad attitude and super-powered sports.
• The characters seem very likeable.

Cons:

• This episode is truly not for the uninitiated - those without a working knowledge of season 1 will be going in cold.

Recommended? At this point? I would have to say no despite having good feelings about the show.  It's simply too reliant on the previous season to work as a standalone piece.  Perhaps after watching season 1 I might have something different to say.