Cross Game

I recently finished watching the baseball anime Cross Game. I thought it was pretty good. I have watched a lot of sports anime in the past, and have generally liked them a lot. They tend to be exiting, with some comedy, and the occasional filler arc if the anime is long enough. Some examples of my favorite sports anime are Hajime No Ippo and Giant Killing.

Now then, this anime had a different emphasis, and that was on romance. I would say about half the anime was about romance, and the other half baseball. I really enjoyed the baseball half, I got caught up in the emotion and excitement, especially in the final arc, which is what you want out of a sports anime. I did not enjoy the romance part, but it wasn't badly done. The romance was able to keep me guessing for a while, which was good. So the baseball part I would give a 7 or 8, and the romance a 6.

If the review was over now, I would give it a 7, but sadly it is not. They felt the need to have a filler episode...and I really hate those. Not only was there no new content, but it was also entirely about the romantic part of the anime. Also, at some point near the middle-ish, they started to have an opening of Momiji either drawing a cat, or giving a quiz. This was pure fluff, and annoying, and I hated it a lot. I can't stand when any anime, and even more so an anime less than 100 episodes does something consistently just to waste time. They already had a recap, which I guess is tolerable, why couldn't they just extend that?

Anyway, due to the recap and idiotic intro, I am forced to give it a 6, and if the ending was not as awesome as it was, it would be a 5. So there you have it, 6 out of 10.