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ONE OUTS
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Animation - 7.0 |
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Sound - 7.0 |
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Story - 7.0 |
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Character - 6.5 |
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Value - 7.0 |
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Enjoyment - 7.5 |
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Average - 7.0 |
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| Average |
6.2 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| Note: This review is based on B2E fansubs which offer both good HDTV quality and good translation. Recommended.
Quote:
In a world where there's only winning or losing, it's only called "cheating" or "violating" if such behavior is exposed. Once the game has ended, it's no longer cheating. It's justice. It's only your stupidity which can allow others to cheat.
Originally created as manga by Kaitani Shinobu and directed by Satou Yuuzou (Akagi, Kaiji) One Outs is a show about mind games and gambling... in baseball. So, yeah, Tokuchi Toa, a punter who favors baseball-themed pitch-the-out-to-win gambles, finds himself hired by one of the weakest teams in Japan's professional baseball league, Lycaons, under a weird contract - he gets ~50.000$ for every out he pitches, and loses 500.000$ for every point he gives up. While any other pitcher would soon go bankrupt under such conditions, the above-human talent and sinister mind of Tokuchi Toa soon proves his employers that their decision to hire him might have been the worst in their entire lives. So starts the career of the richest pitcher in the world, Tokuchi Toa, a player whose biggest enemies are not in the opposing team, but in his own.
I was genuinely surprised with One Outs. In my entire life, it's the first sports-themed anime I see which prefers mind over spirit, intelligence over hard work. And since I'm all for mind games and I don't even know the rules of baseball I was inclined to give this show a warm welcome. Unfortunately, while One Outs might as well have the most intelligent plot and best main character in the history of sports anime, it's also flawed in pretty much every single other aspect. Mind games are cool, I admit that, however, since all the pressure is concentrated on "Tokuchi versus his employer" battle of wits, it leaves no one to care about the games themselves. I never really cared if the team will win or not, and sometimes it isn't even clear if they did, since all you ever see is Tokuchi and his schemes. The show also discards absolutely everything what are not baseball matches, in other words, you will never see any character development or even baseball-free interaction between characters. At the same time while I was delighted by the One Outs' mind games, I was also frowning at its many shortcomings, making it hard for me to honestly tell how much do I actually like the show. The ending of the anime, or rather the promised halt, led me to decide that the good parts cancel the bad parts quite well, making this anime stay somewhere in the middle of all the stuff I have watched. It might have been much better if they let it go to the real end. Not like I have seen many sports anime which actually do something as innovating...
Conclusion: It doesn't matter whether you like baseball or not, One Outs is a show worth watching by anyone who is interested in mind games and falls into 13+ demography. If you love intelligent, albeit undeveloped, leads you might be able to turn a blind eye to this anime's many shortcomings. I can hardly call One Outs a good show, but it is fun nonetheless, especially if you are into such things as gambling. You might want to check Akagi or Kaiji if you've liked this one, or, of course, you could watch few hundred times more intelligent, the king of mind games, Death Note, if you haven't already.
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| Average |
7.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| WOW no one watches this? No way!
If you like Kaiji and Akagi, you will like One Outs. Basically, its those two about baseball, minus the emo and up the I-top-you factor. Toua leads the Lycaons to the championships with his amazing inherent talents as a gambler and pitcher. The whole (inherently stupid) team looks on and maybe gains some intelligence, if not some morale support due to winning a lot.
Again, the animation style caters to yaoi fangirls, but is still accessible to anyone who enjoys the high quality output from Madhouse Studios. The OP and ED are a little emo but are still accessible. An initial knowledge of the baseball game is needed, but worry not because this show explains everything. There are four arcs, each one very entertaining except the last one kind of drags on (as well as spending four episodes on what I believe is a stupid tactic by the opponents).
And I'll be waiting on my second season of Kaiji.
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