“Ookiku Furikabutte” a.k.a. “Big Windup!” was a sports series that had its anime released in 2007 but not much has been noted on it since. Now 10 years later and an announcement has been made of an official Blu-ray box release.
The Blu-ray box will be featuring a jacket illustration done by character designer Takahiko Yoshida, a key animator and animation director of a variety of series and the character designer for sports series “Yowamushi Pedal.” The official release date is set to be January 24, 2018 for Japan but no confirmation has been made for a western release.
The baseball series first began as a manga series by Asa Higuchi. Sometimes known as “Orifu”, the series was serialized in the monthly seinen Afternoon magazine since 2003. It is still ongoing and currently has 27 volumes. The anime adaptation of the series came out in April 2007 and ran for two seasons with a total of 40 episodes plus two OVA episodes before officially ending in June 2010.
Tsutomu Mizushima was the acting director of the series at the time and also worked on the storyboard and the screenplay of the series. While there have been many episode directors, key animators, storyboard artists, one of the main writers of the series was Yousuke Kuroda.
The story of the series takes focus on one Ren Mihashi. When in middle school he played as the baseball team’s ace pitcher but had apparently only got the spot because his grandfather owns the school. Because of this he ends up not only hated by his teammates, but as they constantly lose games, he believes himself to be a rather lousy pitcher and develops an extremely low self-esteem. Ironically enough though, underneath his nervous demeanor, lies a skillful pitcher waiting to bloom.
When he enters into high school, he makes a plan to quit baseball but ends up getting dragged into Nishiura’s baseball team by their coach, Momoe. As he watches their practice he soon finds himself placed into the team and under the guidance of his new teammates and most especially Takaya Abe, Ren soon finds himself growing in confidence, stature and skill.
Source: Crunchyroll News