Hello everyone, and welcome back to the site. Today I’m eager to return to Big Windup!, whose last episode ended with Abe at last agreeing to try Momoe’s practice methods. Is Abe actually capable of the humility necessary for genuine teamwork, or will this just reaffirm his belief that all his teammates are idiots?
Abe and Momoe have made for an interesting contrast over Windup!’s first two episodes. Rather than attempting to genuinely connect with his teammates as human beings, and cultivate their skills into well-rounded baseball players, Abe has essentially been trying to fool his players into winning in spite of themselves. He’s not bothered by the fact that Mihashi is skittish and unbalanced; those qualities make him easier to manipulate, so Abe considers them a plus. In contrast, Momoe wants her team to be well-rounded, confident, and resilient, with each player carrying their own weight, and knowing they can trust their teammates to support them. The two butted heads over Windup!’s first two episodes, but it’s already become clear that Mihashi is dedicated to genuinely improving, and that Abe is losing his grip on his pitcher. With Momoe having assigned Abe the task of actually speaking honestly with Mihashi, let’s see how our battery fare in episode three!
Episode 3
We begin right where we left off, with our key trio working on Mihashi’s pitching strength. Separating Abe and Mihashi for individual training was a smart choice for a few reasons. In in-universe terms, it makes sense to have the battery do additional practice to work on their synergy, and it makes even more sense for Momoe to want Abe and Mihashi to connect as individuals. At the same time, in an extra-narrative sense, separating these two allows the show to develop their personalities and relationship in isolation, giving us well-defined leads to care about, rather than cluttering the narrative with the rest of their team before those teammates have any narrative role
This show is moving at a pretty fast pace! I actually felt Abe’s character turn last episode came sooner than I expected, but with Momoe announcing their practice game is tomorrow, it seems the story in general is working hard to keep things moving. Whether it’s an adaptation or an original, Mizushima’s productions always possess this distinct sense of momentum, the promise that next episode will offer precisely the payoff you’re looking for
Mihashi being asked about his former team’s pitcher prompts another wave of self-loathing. They’re going to have to do something about him only associating baseball with shame
Hah, I like Abe just grimly looking on as Mihashi breaks down in tears. “So this is what I’m working with”
This show has some nice backgrounds, but its visuals seem to suffer from that characteristic smudginess of the early digital painting era
More psychological/physical training, as they point out numbers to improve their hand-eye reaction speed, as well as broaden their field of visual focus. Their coaches’ scientific approach to training neatly mirrors Abe’s psychological manipulation; it feels like the author is combining their two passions, baseball and psychology
Momoe smartly gives them incentive to commit to this practice, by tying their performance to their lineup in the practice game. Manipulation can be used for good or evil; manipulation used for good is frequently just called “leadership”
Some nice, expressive cuts for Mihashi freaking out
Abe has been “attempting to connect” with Mihashi through his usual blunt style, and of course Mihashi clams up in response. Abe’s tactics obviously won’t work, but I can certainly relate to his feelings; when you’re someone who is used to carefully managing your own emotions and behavior, being forced to cooperate with someone who’s utterly ruled by their emotions can feel incredibly frustrating. From your perspective, it can feel like they’re not respecting your efforts, and not taking the situation as seriously as you are, as they’re being driven by emotions that have no substance to you
“You crying makes it look like I’m picking on you!” Yeah, Abe is very tired of babysitting. Frustrated with Mihashi’s behavior, he reverts to his initial plan, and tells Mihashi just to follow his signs
“Whatever I say… will just make him disgusted. I’m so scared to talk.” Mihashi immediately offers us the truth behind the other side of this dynamic: he knows he is entrapped by feelings that Abe cannot relate to, and that any attempt to explain them will sound like an excuse, so he just shuts down
“Am I really not someone who should be a pitcher at all?” Propelled only by threats of abandonment, Mihashi once again spends the night awake and tormented by anxiety. He desperately needs someone to tell him he belongs here, but he can’t even believe that himself, much less articulate his desire for it
Mihashi runs into Hatake, his old team’s catcher, who still bears a grudge
Easy to see why Mihashi is still so scarred from his middle school years – Hatake doesn’t just berate him, he even threatens to break his arm for continuing to pitch
Fortunately, Abe watches all of this. Mihashi clearly isn’t capable of articulating the extent of his own trauma, but if Abe can see what Mihashi’s suffering from, he might gain some sympathy for his timid pitcher
And yep, here’s our moment! Abe grabs his hand and assures him he’s genuinely a good pitcher. Mihashi doesn’t actually believe him, of course, but we’re making progress!
Grabbing his hand actually helps Abe connect with Mihashi in another way: he can feel his calluses, and understand just how much effort Mihashi has been putting in. Mihashi lacks the confidence to assert his value or explain his trauma, but Abe is still able to recognize both across this sequence. And this recognition is crucial for their eventual synergy; there’s a profound difference between saying “you’re a good pitcher” because you think that’s what your idiot pitcher needs to hear, and saying “you’re a good pitcher” because you genuinely believe it
Abe now understands Mihashi well enough to even get mad on his behalf, as he reflects on how Mihashi’s middle school teammates drained him of all his natural confidence
“I like you not just as a pitcher, but as a person. Because you’re working so hard!” Aw Abe. He tries to play it cool, but it only takes a moment of understanding Mihashi’s true situation for him to immediately sympathize with the guy
At last, with Abe having cried alongside him, Mihashi overcomes his fear and shame enough to admit he wants to be a pitcher, and he wants to win. Mihashi was caught in a common self-hatred loop, wherein your terrible self-image prompts you to believe you actually deserve failure and suffering, and thus you resign yourself to these conditions as a form of penitence. But Abe told him he likes him as a person, and thus he’s daring to believe he’s worthy of his old dreams
Man, I really wasn’t expecting these deep dives into the psychology of trauma! Big Windup! is apparently the Monogatari of baseball anime
I feel like the mangaka intentionally designed Mihashi’s super-deformed face to look like a kind of expectant baby bird
Abe pores over the opposing roster. I’m really looking forward to seeing how he applies his unique tactical approach to an actual game!
Kanou, the pitcher who replaced Mihashi, doesn’t actually seem to bear him a grudge in the way the catcher does
After noticing how Abe’s built up Mihashi, Momoe drives the point home by rallying the whole team, and having them collectively announce that they want Mihashi on their team
In spite of finally connecting with Mihashi, Abe still finds his personality pretty darn frustrating. But his perspective has clearly shifted: rather than seeing Mihashi’s weakness as a tool to be exploited, he now truly wants Mihashi to overcome the past, and gain the confidence to become a great pitcher
Our team opens the first inning with a solid bunt, which the pitcher nonetheless easily retrieves. Presumably Mihoshi’s pitcher is pretty good at moving around the field, since he wasn’t actually able to be pitcher throughout middle school
Baseball actually feels like a sport that lends itself better to fiction than reality. The internal narratives of the sport can be fascinating, but you only see the tip of the iceberg in the actual play. It’s Abe’s narration that brings the dynamics of this faceoff with this pitcher to life – unlike sports with more obvious points of conflict or physical acumen, you really have to understand baseball to get much out of it
And Done
We’re really in it now, eh? Big Windup! maintained its relentless pacing this episode, carrying us all the way through training camp and into the first inning of their practice game. And though there were some speed bumps along the way, actually meeting Mihashi’s old team provided Abe with the context he needed to genuinely understand his teammate, and sympathize with his shattered confidence. This episode offered a thoughtful illustration of emotional trauma’s lingering consequences, and presented both its leads as complex individuals with largely incompatible perspectives, who nonetheless are determined to succeed together. Having been on both sides of Abe and Mihashi’s conversations, I was consistently impressed with how well this episode evoked the mentality of each perspective. And with their goals now aligned, I’m eager to see how Abe steers his fragile pitcher to victory!
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