Anime: Major (2008) 5d733y

Read this review only if you have seen previous seasons

Another year goes by and... Well another season of Major finishes as well. This series really has fallen a very mundane model with an end that cannot be seen. Regardless for all the fans of this series out there they should be happy to know that this season is what you have all grown to love and enjoy. Well that is if you are still watching this series.

So just to recap for all thoses who have forgotten what has happened in the previous 3 seasons. Major follows the life of Goro Shigeno and his path to become a MLB player. The previous season before showed Goro struggle through high school to fight against Kaido. Now he finally has choosen his path and made his way to the United States to start his career in American Baseball. Most of the anime invovles Goro playing with the Memphis bats who are aiming to be come the champions of the triple A minor league. Throughout the series you also get filler episodes that show what has been happening with characters from previous seasons. Personally I didn't really care for most of it, but I guess when you spent soo much time developping all thoses characters you can't just dump them altogether.

Animation
In general the animation did not have much change. The only major thing that I noticed was all the colours used seemed brighter. I'm not sure what this means but I personally didn't like it that prefer things more dull. The other thing is everything seemed more edgy too and that gave me the feeling that overall the animation budget was probably not very high at all. In any case this wasn't a strong point of the series but overall did what it needed to do.

Sound
It had some good and some bad. The opening was ok it was upbeat and sorta catchy. But I personally loved the endings much more. Out of all the OP/ED before this season my favorite was the ending in season 3 called wonderland. However I think this season's ending was better. The rest of the sound is pretty much the same as before. It has similiar OST and the same voice actors so I don't have much to say.

Story
In of the main story it flows quite well. They start from exactly where they left off and keep going in logical order. Nothing really ever goes out of place and they tie everything in nicely. Having said that I think that the story has also become very standard and one dimensional. The only major difference for this season is instead of forming teams all the time he actually ed one. However even though this was the case he was still stuck with an underdog team. On the birhgt side the story isn't as ridiculous as other seasons aside from maybe the last couple episodes. You don't really see Goro playing as an one man team anymore. Although that in itself also had its redeeming qualities to it. Anyway the point is the story just doesn't dive far from what you would expect.

Character
The characters were quite weak this season. Goro himself really doesn't EVER go through much changing. Just like the other seasons the main sparks that change Goro only happen in the clutch situations. Overall Goro usually doesn't need to change his personality just MAYBE the way he chooses to do things. I think in no way is he a perfect character however in this season what you see from the start and finish product is, well unfortunately the same. The other characters also don't have much to say for themselves since they don't get much air time. You have the rare episode to give each "important" character some self reflection but you really don't see how that effects them in the long run. In fact the only character that really changes much is Junior who goes from being a conceded asshole -> just a more understanding but normal person. Thus the characters were quite weak this season.

Value and Enjoyment
As I've mentioned many times already nothing new is found in this series. You have the same premise the same characters and the same story... They don't have anything new to present or say just things you've already seen. It really has become more of an mindless entertaining watch then anything else now. Even thuogh the value is quite low I still enjoyed it. I think its not the worst sports anime out there even if it has been going on for a ridiculous amount of time. Either way I'm still gonna keep watching when the next season comes out and I think it's a good watch for thoses who have seen the previous seasons.

Recommedations:
One outs: Baseball version of Akagi and Kaiji
Ookiku Furikabutte: Think Baseball series with opposite kind of pitcher as Goro