Major 2nd – 01

OP Sequence

OP: 「越えていけ」 (Koete Ike) by キュウソネコカミ (Kyuso Nekokami)

「大吾の夢」 (Daigo no Yume)
“Daigo’s Dream”

Do you like underdog stories? Because this is an underdog story and I love underdog stories.

General Impressions

If there was one thing that grabbed my interest while researching this show for our 2018 Spring Preview, it was the fact that Major 2nd wasn’t shy at establishing itself as its own entity and not a spinoff of a successful baseball anime that came out ages ago. However, what may have impressed me more than that was the fact that this spinoff was able to use the established status quo to give us the beginnings of a story that has some serious underdog vibes.

Enter Shigeno Daigo, the son of successful professional baseball player Honda Gorou (go watch the original Major anime if you’re interested in watching his story). With a love for baseball that could rival even the biggest fans, it’s no surprise that he’d want to follow in his father’s footsteps. However, he has two giant problems and arguably they’re both pretty difficult to solve. One, he has a huge issue being compared to his father and that leads to him over-thinking things which tends to cause him some serious problems. Second, he has a terribly weak shoulder that prevents him from trying to do the things that his father once did. Both of which, as I’ve said earlier, have some serious implications when it comes to being a successful pitcher in baseball.

Things that, when combined with all of his hard work not paying dividends like one would expect, lead him down a rather depressing path that eventually leads to him quitting the thing he had the most passion for. However, I’m sure all of that was pretty clear from this first episode. Which is why, based on where things left off, leads me to what I’m here today for — to play the role of a hype man since there are so many exciting things in-store for us and it’d be a damn shame if you walked away without even considering what’s coming.

Without spoiling too much, let’s just say that we’re about to embark on an adventure where we get to watch Daigo face his problems head on with a little bit of prodding from his soon-to-be rival Satou Hikaru. An adventure that’ll involve a lot of self reflection, a little bit of ugly crying, and hopefully a fantastic payoff as we watch Daigo try and figure out just where his place on the diamond is. As a small added bonus, it looks like the anime is taking some liberties with how they’re presenting the source material and this leads me to believe that they’ll be able to cut out a lot of the fat without losing the core message behind it all.

Overall, not too bad of a start for an anime based on baseball and a main character that has some real serious problems at being good at that sport. If you have the chance and are looking for a show that’ll only require a little bit of investment, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a shot.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「プライド」 (Pride) by 池窪浩一 & 高橋優 (Ikekubo Kouichi & Takahashi Yu)

Preview