The high school baseball anime Big Windup! comes to a satisfying but incomplete end in its Part Two DVD set. Collecting the final 13 episodes of the series, this set is not quite as good as the first. It goes to some extraordinary lengths to fill its remaining episodes. However, it remains compelling throughout and will make you hope that more will be made.
The show continues right where it left off at the end of the previous DVD set. The upstart Nishiura High School baseball team is playing in their very first summer tournament. The team has drawn Tosei High School, the winner of the previous year's tournament, as their first-round opponent.
The two teams are a study in contrasts. Nishiura's team is entirely made up of Freshmen while many of Tosei's players are Seniors. Tosei has a full roster compared to Nishiura's squad of only 10 players. Even the cheering sections are radically different. Tosei's section not only has a full band but also a chorus of players who didn't make the roster. Nishiura's cheer squad consists of just three guys with a drummer.
The setting of the game is far from ideal. The conditions are dreary with a constant light rain that could stop the game the minute it gets heavier. The team's catcher Abe is worried about the condition of their talented but nerve-wracked pitcher Mihashi. Both teams are anxious and eager to play as they each have their own stakes on the line.
The fighting anime Dragon Ball Z is notorious among anime fans for the way it could drag out a single fight for episodes on end. The makers of Big Windup! took a page out of their book in the way they handle Nishiura's game against Tosei. Eleven of the thirteen episodes on the Part Two DVD set are devoted to that game. Eleven. In comparison, it only took five episodes to cover Nishiura's practice game against Mihoshi Academy on the Part One DVD set.
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