Posted by : doctodd
Posted on : 2007-10-01 
Back in the summer of 2005, I was cruising this site looking for a new anime to watch. Major caught my eye for some reason, so I looked up the info, and found it was about young kids playing baseball. I'm a huge baseball fan, so I was sold. The first 6 episodes were an emotional rollercoaster. In it, young Honda Goro, just 6 years old, idolizes his pro pitcher father Shigeharu. He has a pretty kindergarten teacher who, as luck has it, is single. Her name is Momoko Hoshino. Honda Goro meets Sato Toshiya, a nerdy kid whose parents never let him play sports. Goro teaches Toshiya about the game of baseball, and passes on his love for the sport. Shigeharu meets Momoko, falls in love, and just when they're on the point of becoming engaged, a devastating tragedy strikes, and Goro's life is changed forever. And that's just the first 6 episodes.
The anime is more than just a baseball anime. It's a timeless story about Honda Goro's coming of age. What makes this anime so amazing is the characters and their relationships. A good example is the relationship between Honda Goro and Sato Toshiya. They go from childhood friends, to rivals in junior high, to teammates at Kaido, and finally back to being rivals. Yet through all of this, they are able to sustain their lifelong friendship. Characters will come in and out of Goro's life, and it's always nice to see old friends return, like Komori. The baseball games and situations are imaginative, fully realized, and well animated. In season 2, there was a great episode, #38, where Goro and Toshiya play on 5 man teams in a sudden death tournament trying to make it into Kaido. This forces them to come up with new strategies. Season 3 features many emotional, thrilling games, and the Kaido match is just epic. I just finished watching Season 3, and I can't wait for the next season.
If there is any fault with the story, it is the longstanding relationship between Shimizu Kaoru and Honda Goro. While it's obvious that Kaoru loves Goro, Goro is apparently clueless. Doesn't he like girls? What's wrong with this guy? It can be frustating to pull for them to get together, and their relationship remains underdeveloped.
I can't say enough how great this series is. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate Major. It has to be one of the most underrated gems in all of contemporary anime.
Posted by : omnislaya
Posted on : 2007-03-03
The animation is sharp and keeps its at the same level mostly throughout the anime. The storyline though based on Baseball but revolves around quite heavily on relationships, that was established because of a simple game. It looks at hardship that has to be endured for results to be achieved, mirror-ing life situations.
The story is heart warming yet at certain stages does seem quite depressing, up to the point that it was so good and tragic that tears were falling without notice.
After finishing the entire series, and watching countless of others. This has to be 10/10.
Posted by : SSS 
Posted on : 2005-07-31  
Story: The seemingly simple story of a boy and his goal of becoming a pro-baseball player masks the true significance behind this anime. I like how despite the slight childishness and simple theme of the story, the anime encompasses many serious themes such as friendship, love, lost, and growth. The only thing that seems slightly out of place is the ending, it fits with the story overall and is pretty nice.
Characters: I think my favorite character is Shimizu, because she is very funny. That being said, I think the main characters are introduced well and grow along with the story; especially Goro, who learns to become much more responsible than at the beginning of the anime. All this ties into the alternate theme of the story in which it really has nothing to do with baseball, but doesn't really take away from the story.
My Opinion: This was a good anime, definitely worth your time. I kind of hope that there will be a sequel, but who knows. I think I took a point off because the ending was good, but didn't really seem "satisfying".
Posted by : eisenmeteor
Posted on : 2005-07-18
Been wanting to write a review for this series for awhile now. At first when a friend of mine recommended this, I was skeptical to it. This anime didn't interest me that much. But as with so many of my other first impressions, I was wrong yet again, which is a good thing since it's a good anime.
I'll be honest and say, first of all it's the only anime that I haven't jumped over the intro and outro. So needless to say, I like the intro and outro alot. And I can also say this anime made me cry twice. May seem a bit strange to people who haven't seen it. I mean, it's about kids playing baseball. What can possible make someone cry then? Well that's something you'll just have to see for yourself.
The vocies are okay and I've more or less stated before I like the intro and outro songs alot. The animation is good as well so I don't really have anything to complain about. The only thing I would complain about would be Goro sometimes.
The story revolves around a boy named Honda Goro who loves baseball. Goro's father is a pro baseball player and Goro always admired him and wants to be as great of a player as him. When we first meet him he's still in kindergarten and is already showing signs of promise and talent for the game. At this time he's too young to play in tournaments and with teams.
The first part you get to know Goro and his father and other people around him, as this is in the beginning you get to see how his father after an injury tries to get back into pro baseball and how he overcomes his injuries and raises Goro.
Then begins the story of Goro when he's finally old enough to join the Mifune baseball team. But even here there are obstacles for both him and his teammates to overcome as they play and try to win the tournament.
Overall it's an emotional ride with some great character interaction that's not to miss out on.
I feel as if there's alot more to say about the series, but I'll keep my mouth shut now and say even if you're not interested in baseball (like me), you can still enjoy it. And maybe like me, you'll come to love this anime. This is one I can recommend to most people. Of course there are some things that are less great about the series, but then again, is there any anime that is perfect?
Posted by : TomWorth
Posted on : 2005-02-24
Alright, it's only 6 eps into a 26 ep series. I know that there should be NO reason to post a review this early. In fact, it could be said that anything this early would be nothing more than premature.
All I can say is that the first 6 episodes of this series have already set this series at 5 stars. The rest of the show could be dry and boring, and I really wouldn't care because of the emotion that is delivered so far.
The opening and closing themes are really crap, and that's the only thing that I have to complain about in this series. The characters are wonderful, the story is among the best I've ever seen, and it's really emotionally powerful. This is one of the few series for which I've jumped for joy and burst into tears.
Going past my praises, I'll explain the series a little bit, although it's much better if you just see it for yourself. Imagine a sports anime that contains absolutely NONE of the annoying cliches of sports anime. It centers around baseball (Japanese baseball is a very interesting topic on its own), but more importantly, it centers around a young boy named Goro, his father, and his teacher. Goro is aspiring to be a major league pitcher, and wishes to follow in his father's footsteps. Goro's father has gotten to old to become a pitcher in the minors, so he is forced to retire. His last hope is becoming a batter and starting from scratch. Goro's teacher is a woman who Goro looks up to as a mother figure (his mother died when he was little), and she has very strong feelings of love toward Goro (not in a sick way for anybody with a dirty mind). There is also another HUGE character, that I'm not going to get into now because they don't appear for quite a few episodes and I don't want to spoil anything by promoting this character.
You might or might not believe me about how great this series is, but before you turn away, please JUST WATCH THIS SERIES!
As a side note, there are only 4 other series that I've seen that I'd give 5 stars to (I've seen well over 250 series). Those series are FLCL, Hajime no Ippo, Akira (not a series but a movie, duh), and Paranoia Agent. I'm very picky about what I call brilliant, so me giving this rating is a big deal. I don't just throw around ratings like this.
Posted by : kei18kun
Posted on : 2005-02-20
Animation is nice and clean, character-wise is pretty much the kid and the teacher now, storyline is motivating, but it's still in the early episodes, so I have to wait and see how it goes.
I like this anime because of the real life expectancies that it shows, which is not always happy endings all the time, but it does give me a good feeling and motivates me to go on.
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