One Outs

Animes focusing on sports seem to grab my attention, such as Hajime no Ippo and Ping Pong the Animation.

One Outs is no different. Of a similar caliber, this story focuses on Tokuchi Toua, some kind of anti hero which you personally don't like, but you cannot be helped but to get impressed by the levels of his deduction, skill and mind games.

It's about playing the sport of baseball, which is very famous in Japan, America and even over here in The Netherlands, as even I used to play it as a child in a lite version called softball. I'm actually impressed at the amount of details that are provided in the episodes when speaking of the technical terms.

The techniques, skills and tactics provided are backed up by the more clever characters by using math and observation in order to win the various matches. Although Tokuchi's specialty is playing the duel baseball version of One Out, where a batter and a pitcher play the ball only, the main story plot is facing off against other teams.

These others usually have 1 or 2 new challenges for Toua to overcome, such as a very agile runner, a smart coach, or a home run champion. Outsmarting each other is the reason I kept watching, as these battles are not only entertaining, but they fit the real rules of baseball too.

One Outs is the occassional anime which can still manage to interest me in this vast industry.

Rating: 7.0