My collection of short anime reviews

Still paranoid main protagonist.

The end of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition is nigh with the eighth review out today, for the 2nd season of Ookiku Furikabutte titled Ookiku Furikabutte Summer Tournament. If not for the customary sport-genre handicap I dished out for all sport genre anime titles I reviewed for quite some time now, this anime would have given the current front-runner of the audition a run for its money. The first season of this anime was favorably reviewed by me here last year. The second season did not actually matched its predecessor in general, but with a caveat, the whole series so far is still a very good watch and deserved a third season.

Quoted for truth!

Story:-
Fresh from their first victory in the prefectural tournament, the team trained for a bit (no training camp this season) then played the second game, which the team won. Then, then is more training before the third round match, of which the team also won. Lastly, there are more training done and then the far more important fourth match come, which will decide the winner for a quarterfinal place. Watch this anime to know the result of that game.

The second season started right off the bat from where the first season finished off, and you will be forgiven if you think you are watching the 27th episode of the first season instead of the first episode of a new season. There will be no recap or flashbacks from the first season to refresh the memory of the viewers. Watching the first season is definitely mandatory to understand what really happened in this newly minted second season.

As far as the story goes, nothing has changed from what you can see in the first season. It is still your typical clichéd sport-genre storyline where there are plenty of positives traits such as determination, never-say-die attitudes, hard work and things like that (and of course, the Koushien). Instead, what have changed in this sequel is the presentation. Taking a leaf from the playbook of the second season of Nodame Cantabile, the pacing in the second season has been vastly accelerated with very minor omission from the manga. This is very noticeable during the baseball team second game, which spanned only 3 episodes. This makes me unable to follow the action in that game sometimes, wherewithal of all of the fast-paced scenes and abnormal amount of dialogues. If the same pacing of the first season applies to that particular second game, it will definitely take two or three times longer to finish. The torrid pacing slowed somewhat in the fourth game, but the damage has been done.

Just like the storyline, character developments in this season continues where the first season left, and this aspect is actually where this anime has improved from the first season. With more games (3 of them, 2 with significance), the members of the team grows almost exponentially compared to their rates in the first season. Just like what I wrote in the first season’s review, this is what I hoped will happen in its subsequent sequel(s). The main protagonist grows rapidly during this season as expected, but so are some of his fellow club mates, like his nagging boyfriend.

The ending is even more awesome in the second season, and I hope a third one will come some time in the future. If the manga is any indication, it will not be anytime soon.

His relationship with his boyfriend can never get better.

Character Design:-
My comments for the same section in the first season’s review still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comments for the same section in the first season’s review still applies.

Music:-
The OST is still hard to notice at all (hard to blame this anime for this though due to its nature), but the OP and ED themes are good.

Animation/Direction:-
For animation quality and choreography, my comment from the first season still applies. The director screwed up somewhat with the pacing, but apart from that his directing is up to par with what he has done in the first season.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Just a little bit off the track compared to the last season. Durarara and B gata H kei, which one will be next? 

The team shouts this slogan every time the team something good.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-fI