So I was recommended One Outs by Johnny and...well, I certainly wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I am. I'm more than halfway through the series, and it's pretty much my first Sports anime. I mean, anyone who knows me knows my love for Inazuma Eleven which is a Sports show, even if it's a bit hyperdimensional, but save for an episode of Haikyuu, several random episodes of Suzuka, several seasons of Teekyuu (also known as the greatest Sports anime of all time), and the little bit of Captain Tsubasa that I watched, this is the first down-to-earth Sports anime that I've invested myself with.
And it's not like I don't know what Sports shows are like, but I suppose it's because of what I was expecting that I was caught off guard. The amount of time the show spends off the field is staggering- in that in the 15 episodes I watched, not a single one was without actual baseball happening and taking up the majority of screentime. This is surprising because it's pretty rare for a Shonen anime, to spend literally every episode of its run on the action, and I suppose it has its 25 episode runtime to thank for this, though even Haikyuu had its breather episodes.
My point being, it's a very digestible series because of its pacing. It never feels like one episode is going to lead into a boring or slow one, and if there's character to be developed, it's going to happen on the field (which must have been pretty great for the people watching while it was airing weekly, definitely). This isn't to say that the characters are particularly interesting or deep, because they aren't really, largely because Tokuchi, the protagonist, is the one who ends up being either the initiate or the responder to the action, and the rest of the team generally reacts to or goes along with his decisions. I don't think this is a flaw, though. Actually, I'd say the show takes this in stride, because despite this lack of emphasis on the entire team or character depth and the use of shallower character writing, it never feels like time is wasted. The teams' characters have just enough variety, both in how they emote and how they think, that they're easily identifiable, but at the same time they never feel boring, and this works solely because of where the action is focused: on Tokuchi.
Speaking of him, I wasn't expecting this to be a Game anime in the way of Yu-Gi-Oh (pre-Duel Monsters) or NGNL (if it were consistent), but it definitely is and that's where it shines. Tokuchi's a gambler, but rather than making his character a devious trickster who makes outrageous stakes, he's a devious trickster who makes outrageous bets and finds himself always bound to one outrageous, self-imposed stake. The difference being, it's not about what will happen if he loses, it's about what he'll do next. Each match is a psychological war made up of a series of psychological battles, and the excitement comes from how exactly Tokuchi both sets up challenges for others and knocks down those set up for both him and his teammates (the latter is generally the most interesting to watch if only because he protects them pre-emptively). Whether he'll win usually isn't too much of a question as generally when the team owner gets excited, things are actually going Tokuchi's way. You know how it is: bad guy cheers, good guy's safe. Good guys cheer, bad guy's safe. It's pretty standard Shonen. But it's how Tokuchi manages to set up and overcome these obstacles that makes it so interesting. And it's not as if Tokuchi never faces any problems of his own, because he does. Oftentimes I'd consider the games a war of attrition rather than one-sided (depending on the case).
But yeah, good stuff. Definitely plan to finish it, it has a pretty firm hold on my attention with no real signs of letting up.
