aliceylain | (no subject)

I seem to be on a rewatching kick, as I rewatched the first season of Ookiku Furikabutte in its entirely this past week. I'm still quite enjoy it, even though I know what's going to happen in the plot. And when I think about why, there are the usual suspects. The characters are engaging, the games are well-paced, and who isn't a sucker for an underdog story? But the real draw for me, to be honest, is the main character Mihashi.

Yes, Mihashi. The one who cries, trembles, and can't go against someone's decision if his soul depended on it.

I won't act as if I've watched all the shounen and all of the sports series out there in the universe. But of the ones I've personally seen, the only one that's had a main character that isn't overflowing with confidence is Oofuri. I remember being struck at Mihashi lack of confidence was when I watched the first episode waaaaay back. Here was a kid who believed that people hated him, who felt that his pitching was lousy, who cried very easily, and who shied away from compliments as if they were double-edged swords. And shounen/sports series main characters...are never like that. They aren't always egotistical (although some are annoying so *cough*Echizen*cough*), but they usually have some measure of confidence in themselves. Mihashi has absolutely no confidence and when he strikes people out, feels that it's all due to the guidance of the catcher and not his skill at all. It's surprising and refreshing to see a series tackle such a main character.

I'm not surprised that the anime series here in the United States. Watching a main character cringe and stutter and cry is not what people expect in a sports series. Secondary characters? Sure, that's been done. But the main character in a show that's aimed primarily at boys? Heck no. But while some may not enjoy that (my brother sure didn't when I tried to get him to watch it), I love the show for that. The fact is that talented people aren't always confident and sometimes confidence is a hard thing to grow. I like that Oofuri goes in that direction.

I also like that Mihashi doesn't magically become confident after a win or two. While the show is an underdog story about a group of freshmen playing in Japan's summer high school baseball tournament, it's also largely a story about the relationship between Mihashi and Abe. Mihashi is overly dependent on Abe to control all aspects of the pitching game. And Abe is one of the worst communicators in the history of ever, and even doesn't really care to understand Mihashi in the beginning. While they're able to get by in the first season of the anime series with Mihashi blindly following all of Abe's calls and Abe doing his best to not yell at Mihashi all the time, it's very clear that the partnership won't survive too long on just that. Mihashi will need to learn to have confidence in his skills and at least realize that Abe's game-making skills wouldn't matter at all if Mihashi didn't have the talent to throw the pitches that Abe wants. And Abe needs to realize that Mihashi needs that confidence and help him grow it.

So while Tajima is hilarious in the series, Mihashi Ren will forever be my favorite.

EDIT: IN ISN'T-THAT-IRONIC NEWS, I reread posts that I made back in 2007 about Oofuri and I apparently found Mihashi very annoying back then. Oh, how time can change a person!