Cross Game, a manga (Japanese comic) created by my favourite manga author, Mitsuru Adachi, has been turned into an anime and is airing this season! The first episode has just been aired and subbed, and it already outshines the other 30 or so series premiering this season. Cross Game is simply a masterpiece of slice-of-life romantic drama, with some sports action thrown in.
Summary: Cross Game follows the story of Koh Kitamura, only son of the Kitamura Sports equipment store, and his relationship with the four sisters of the Tsukishima family, who run the neighbourhood batting cage and Clover cafe. The second sister, Wakaba, was born on the same day at the same hospital as Koh, and they have been closely linked since their earliest days. This causes Koh to be the target of quite a bit of jealousy among his other male classmates, as well as from Wakaba’s younger sister Aoba. In the meantime, Koh’s friends and rivals all are interested in baseball, and try to drag him into their world. Since he’s been swinging a bat since young at the Tsukishima batting cages, Koh’s naturally a good batter, but his fielding skills are awful. However, just as he decides baseball is rather cool, a life-changing event occurs.
Thoughts: It’s always difficult to write a summary for Cross Game, because the story is separated into two parts – a prologue set in primary school, and the main story set in high school. Episode 1 covers the prologue. I watched it the moment it came onto the Net, even though there were no subtitles yet and it was just in Japanese. The animation studio did a wonderful job of adapting it and still keeping true to the manga’s original storyline. I was in tears by the end of the episode, even though I knew what was coming. For all anime lovers out there, you simply must watch it. Reviews across all major anime sites, blogs and forums have been excellent, with many people calling it the masterpiece of the season, and the manga also just won the Best Shounen series in the Shokugakukan awards last year.
You can watch Episode 1 with subtitles streamed on Veoh, or download the torrent here, or direct HTTP download here.
