One outs [review]

On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 0 comentarii



Alternative Titles
English: One Outs
Synonyms: ONE OUTS Nobody wins, but I!
Japanese: ワンナウツ

Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 25
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 7, 2008 to Mar 31, 2009
Producers: Madhouse Studios
Genres: Sports, Psychological, Seinen
Duration: 23 min. per episode
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Synopsis
The story begins when Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the fictional Lycaons in Japan's Pacific League, heads to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meet Tōa Tokuchi, a 134-kmph (83 miles per hour) pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called "One Out." At Kojima's urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons under an unusual contract: he gets 5,000,000 yen (about US$46,000) for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen (US$460,000) for every point he gives up.
@Taken from MyAnimeList

Review


[Story: 10]
The story revolves around a man named Toua Tokuchi, whose background is effectively unknown. All we know is that he excels in a form of gambling through baseball called "One Outs." This seems to be a theme in madhouse animes, such as Kaiji and Akagi, where the character's past remains a mystery and unknown throughout the story. Anyways, Toua is finally defeated in One Outs by a man nicknamed the "unlucky prodigy batter" Hiromichi Kojima, and due to the stakes of the gamble, Toua leaves the gambling world to lend his prowess to the weakest team in the Japanese Pacific League: the Saitama Lycaons. I won't post any spoilers, but basically the story from here on out is Toua's "conquests" of one team after another, using his sharp wit and gambling instincts to overcome star players, intelligent strategists, and even cheating on the opposing team's part to emerge victorious all while making a pretty penny off his special "One Outs" contract. A great addition is the current tally of Toua's salary due to the contract at the end of every few episodes and by near the end of the series, that number is scary huge.

[Art: 9]
Not outstanding but gets the job done. The way every character is drawn beautifully reflects their personality (i.e. Toua looks almost sinister at times) and as such really enhances the cinematic effect of the anime. It is also fairly realistic, unlike the weird style used in Kaiji and Akagi (although I found that style appropriate for those animes). Since, the story and character are so great, however, I'm not giving art much weight toward the final rating.

[Sound: 8]
OP and ED are decent (nothing special) and sound effects are accurate and well-executed. BGM is fairly limited but it does a good job setting the right mood. Like art, it's pretty overshadowed by the story and as such won't factor much into the final rating.

[Character: 10]
There are several "round" characters in the anime (characters that develop in terms of character and maturity), though surpirsingly one of them is not the protagonist (Toua Tokuchi). I'm referring to the Lycaons team as a whole. Throughout the course of the anime, they change for the better. But Toua, the protagonist, does not. So then, why do I still award a 10 for character? The answer is that Toua's character still works beautifully. He remains the cool, calculating, canniving SOB from begininning to end and while this personality doesn't change within him, it changes his teammates for the better. Through watching him win games with his cunning, you will see the Lycaons as a whole evolve from a downtrodden team that's last in the pennant race to one that is much more positive and has a better outlook on things by the end of the series. So what's amazing is not Toua's ability to change and become a better man himself, but rather his undeniable ability to lead and change every man on his team.

[Enjoyment: 10]
After everything I've said before, the 10 I awarded in enjoyment should be self-explanatory. If you don't care for baseball, or even dislike baseball, but have an appreciation of strategy and psychology among other things, I think this anime will still blow your socks off. This anime is easily addicting enough to make you want to watch the whole thing in one eight hour sitting.

[Overall: 10]
An outstanding anime and one of my favorites overall.

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