I just finished watching the first episode of One Outs, and I just HAD to come and make a post here.

One Outs is made by MadHouse and the same team who created badass anime series Akagi and Kaiji. Of course when I learned that that team was making a new series (this time, from what i understand, it’s not based off a manga like Akagi and Kaiji), I was really anxious to see what they were gonna do. When I saw it was a baseball anime, I wasn’t too sure about it, but just based on the people who are making it I still decided to give it a chance.

So is it any good? Let’s check it out

Story (at least what episode 1 covers >_>)

The story starts with Hiromichi Kojima, star batter from some fictional baseball team, training to refine his abilities. That is because, even though he won multiple awards for his batting prowess, he never won a championship, and he’s betting everything on that training.

During the training, the pitcher he’s practicing with hurts his hands, so the pitcher and the manager go out to find a replacement. On their quest they stumble upon a baseball field with lots of people on it, playing a game called “One Outs”, where the pitcher tries to out the batter, and if the batter can’t hit the ball further than the infield he loses. Simple enough, but being made by the Kaiji/Akagi team, of course there’s gambling involved. Now comes Toau Tokuchi, another pitcher.

Your average badass

After learning there’s gambling, the pitcher and manager looking for a replacement go in and bet 1000 on the batter. Then they become a bit obsessed considering the batters all lose and they think the pitcher sucks. So, after learning that they were actually betting US dollars and not Yen (lawlpwnd) the pitcher tries his hand at batting against Toua, who raises the bet to 4000USD. Of course, he fails as a batter.

At the end of the episode, Hiromichi Kojima the star batter tries to get in a match against Toua, who again raises the bet (this time to 40000USD) and… the episode finishes there.

Impressions
I’m impressed. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s nice to see how the Kaiji/Akagi team handle this. While it may look like “just baseball”, just like Kaiji and Akagi, they can get pretty psychological, with someone commenting on why, psychologically, someone is winning or losing, basically over analysing the whole situation (in this case it was a fat and ugly black woman).

HE'S IN DESPAIRÂ !Â

Overall the characters for now look average, except for Toua, who is really reminiscent of Akagi, with his overall badassness and doing daring bets and all.

The art style borrows a bit from Akagi/Kaiji, but is more… smoothed out I guess. Fans of the Akagi/Kaiji will like it, and people who didn’t like the art in said shows might still like it since it’s much smoother.

Otherwise the animation isn’t too bad, the soundtrack works really well with the overall feeling of the show.

Finally
I don’t know exactly where they’re going with this and how long the series will be, but I know for sure that Toua will join the star batter’s team, and lots of weird stuff will happen from then on. 
I can’t say for sure, considering not much happened in the first episode, but I say that anyone who liked Akagi and Kaiji should check this out, it seems to have a lot of potential. Psychological, dramatic, and just overall exciting, I think we might have a winner here.

Dammit, don't end the episode at such a climatic moment

 That’s it for now, but I’ve got a bunch of other stuff coming up.

jobocan Anime