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4 February 2009: Major, Like Baseball, Is Cruel - or - Pitchers and Catchers Report in 10 days

Goro's dad
Major is a sequel to Princess Nine if you pretend Goro's dad was Ryo's love interest.

One of the reasons I offered as to why Major is superior to One Outs is that Major is about defeat and despair, while One Outs is about triumph. It occurs to me I may need to elaborate a bit for non-baseball fans.

Charlie Brown
Baseball is also about being haunted by regret.

Baseball is a game of heartbreak and defeat. All those platitudes they teach kids in T-ball and little league regarding how it isn't about winning or losing, but how you play the game? Lies. It's about losing. Or rather, baseball is about learning how to lose, how to lose all the time, and how to deal with it. Baseball is missed opportunities. It's about the Chicago Cubs. It's about the 86-year Curse of the Bambino. It's about great hitters still failing at the plate more often than not. And in the case of Major, it's about Goro and tragedy.

Hoshino
Goro's teacher is pretty cool, and not just because of her big fat braids.

This is not to say that Major is Narutaru or Saikano. It's just that Goro's life kinda sucks. And not just Goro, either. It seems as if plenty of Major's supporting characters find misfortune sliding in on them spikes up despite a six-run lead in the ninth. It's necessary, though. Goro is freakishly athletic, and these early episodes about his youth highlight stellar achievements that compare favorably with biographies of real-life players with accomplished careers in the majors. Major sort of needs to make the viewer commiserate with him a little in the face of his athletic prowess.

Ryoko
Ryoko is also pretty cool, and not just because of her big fat braids.

From what I've seen, it appears Major is (or will be) Goro's life story, following his career from his pre-school days to (I assume) the major leagues. It seems a bit silly to speak so vaguely about a long-running sports anime currently in its fifth season, but I'm still back watching season two, and I'm wary of what are surely considerable spoilers in the wild. Even navigating cast lists is hazardous, as various name changes and conspicuous absences (or additions) can reveal what does or does not happen over the course of the series.


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