Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. You folks ready for some baseball? The match between Mihashi and his previous team, Mihoshi (yes, it’s a little confusing), is finally heating up, as Mihoshi’s players begin to realize this isn’t the pitcher they’re used to. With Abe’s tactical and psychological support, Mihashi is striking out batter after batter, and gaining the confidence in his play that he’d been denied for years. With every ball Mihashi throws, he is developing into the weapon his team needs, a pitcher who could truly carry them to glory.
Unfortunately for our heroes, they’ve so far been benefitting from the fact that their opponents aren’t trying very hard. Most of Mihoshi’s players don’t take Mihashi seriously, and those who weren’t around for the middle school drama have even less incentive to care about this practice game. So it went for ace hitter Oda – but with pitcher Kanou having now begged him to actually commit, and the rest of the team presumably realizing they’re in actual trouble, I’m guessing Mihoshi’s engines will now be kicking into gear. Can our heroes take down Mihoshi’s best, and help their pitcher gain the confidence to succeed? I don’t know why you’re asking me, let’s just watch the damn episode!
Episode 5
Love these on-the-nose lyrics. “Boy meets girl or boy meets dream,” yep, those are the two anime paths
It certainly fits with this show’s consistent emphasis on the broad blue sky. This is a moment of awakening, when these characters first start to consider the trajectory of their dreams, echoed by that vast blue horizon
But hey, give me some high jangling chorus chords and a disco hi-hat beat, and I’m content
Some nice cuts as we reenter the game, catching us up to date in a montage of swings
Kanou claims this is “the last chance he’ll get to pitch against Mihashi,” but that seems unlikely. One of the dramatic strengths of sports series is that the rhythms of competitive seasons naturally facilitate a rotating cast of rivals and antagonists. Player relationships and motivations don’t have to be discarded after a single “battle” – old foes will resurface at future tournaments, offering the audience the inherent satisfaction of seeing familiar faces, and also allowing for conflicts and personal arcs that extend across multiple matches and even years. Chihayafuru is very, very good at employing this trick – at this point, each new tournament offers at least a dozen familiar faces, all waiting to show off their newest tricks
The perceptive Oda notes that Kanou was humming in the bath the night prior, implying he was already looking forward to the match ahead. I always find it interesting to see the ways characterization and self-presentation bends towards the style of a given writer or narrative. In Big Windup!’s case, most characters are amateur psychologists, because this author is clearly fascinated with human psychology – but for another narrative, every character could just as easily have a secret hot-blooded flame inside them, or any other authorial passion
It is frequently these authorial passions that create my strongest first impression of a narrative, moreso than the overt plot details. This used to create trouble when I was doing the preview guide – it can be hard to parse how a story’s every element is frequently instilled with its creator’s passions and worldview, since you’re pointing at an accumulation of small choices rather than some major plot beat, and thus fans will accuse you of “making up” something like, say, a story’s overbearing contempt for women
Really nice series of transitions for Kanou’s pitch. I like how the camera continuously pans right over a series of transitions, creating a great sense of momentum in the pitch
Hatake, the opposing catcher, has a conventional but confident signaling style. No wonder he didn’t gel with Mihashi, a nervous wildcard
Abe tells Mihashi to actually try as a batter, and not just cower until he’s struck out
At last, announcer girl gets some dialogue, as she excitedly relays the game state to her corgi
Next up, Kanou’s at bat!
“He repeated exactly the same gesture the first time he entered the box.” Abe’s powers of observation are kinda scary
Through noting Kanou’s precise rituals and dead-on concentration on Mihashi, in spite of his poor first swing, Abe correctly deduces that Kanou is too nervous to hold back and wait for the right pitch. He gives him a seemingly hittable redux of the first pitch, but its unexpected curve puts the ball awkwardly in play, drawing an easy out
Dear lord, this boy applies more consideration to high school baseball than I’ve applied to anything in my life
In contrast, Mihashi actually relates to Kanou’s frustration, and feels almost guilty for winning this round. If not for the inherently antagonistic position thrust upon them, the two would likely be friends, and clearly have nothing but respect for each other’s skills
Frustrated by his own failure and his teammates’ lack of concern, Kanou actually explodes at his teammate. It falls to Oda to keep things civil
And now Kanou is nervous on the mound. As is appropriate for Big Windup!, his fortunes begin to fall when he loses the psychological battle
Oh wow, that’s gotta sting. Still rattled, he opens the inning with four straight balls and walks a runner
Abe’s next, and Momoe advises him to bunt as a sacrifice play
Mihashi’s imposing play has driven a rift between Mihoshi’s pitcher and catcher. Kanou wants to genuinely defeat his opponents, while his catcher is just looking to mitigate damage – it seems likely Kanou will overrule some defensive tactic eventually, and give his opponent something to really sink their bat into
The animation of the runner sliding home is excellent, and further enhanced through the handcam-reminiscent camera movement, imitating the feel of an actual on-field camera. Big Windup! is very good at using subtle tricks of camera movement to enhance the energy of its action
Kanou makes his long, sad walk back to the mound. As his anxiety grows, it feels like the camera is pulling back more and more, presenting the field as more intimidating over time
Mihoshi is in shambles. The dissolution of their battery is made even more clear when the catcher calls for a forkball, but then can’t even catch it. Second base takes third, and then another hit takes him home
You could take this psychological approach to basically any sport, but it feels particularly appropriate for a show focused on pitching and catching. If the pitcher loses his nerve, your team is essentially sunk – the margins of good pitching are narrow enough that you’ll pretty much immediately start hemorrhaging runs if your pitcher isn’t at its best. Big Windup! thus takes a natural next step, by turning baseball into an outright battle of will between opposing mental states
Having let a couple hitters on base, Kanou is now even more nervous about throwing strikes, and thus walks another runner
Mihoshi calls a timeout to get Kanou’s head straight, but it ends up just serving as an opportunity for him to lambaste his teammates for refusing to take Mihashi seriously. Favoritism towards Mihashi was just a convenient excuse for them to assume winning was impossible, and at this point, the assumption of Mihashi’s inferiority is destroying their chances of victory. Kanou really gets into it with the catcher Hatake, until Oda once again settles everyone down. In spite of Oda’s clear physical skills, it’s his cool head that his team needs most
“We’ll flip the game, so pitch with confidence!” Hatake is a mean kid, but he’s not a monster. When he sees how his behavior is upsetting his pitcher, he makes a strong effort to change course
“Do you want to join that circle?” Mihashi still feels a longing to be accepted by his old team
Abe is great. In spite of acknowledging Mihashi might be happier with his old team, his ultimate conclusion is “well, I need him as a pitcher – and besides, he’ll do better with me leading him anyway!”
Momoe takes Abe aside, telling him to focus on the pre-cleanup batters, and also “take care of Mihashi.” She knows how crucial this inning is – this is the point where their opponents will attempt to rally back, and potentially shatter Mihashi’s fragile confidence
And Done
The battle continues across another… jeez, we just got through an inning and a half, huh? Well, those innings were so packed with physical and psychological drama that it certainly seemed like we got a lot done. And indeed, the match has taken a crucial turn now on both sides. With Mihashi’s pitching successfully shutting out his teammates, Kanou began to feel more and more isolated from his team, ultimately resulting in two clean runs for his opponents. Fortunately, Oda managed to force some honest communication between his teammates, and Mihoshi’s players now seem genuinely dedicated to winning this match. Meanwhile, the growing unity among his opponents has actually made Mihashi feel genuinely nostalgic for his old teammates, in spite of all the hard times. As Mihoshi rally back, it looks like we’ll be entering a new phase of the psychological battle, as Abe attempts to convince his pitcher that he belongs with his new team!
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