Big Windup!

Big Windup! (おおきく振りかぶって), often shortened to just Ōfuri (おお振り), is a baseball manga series by Asa Higuchi, serialized in the monthly seinen Afternoon magazine since 2003. It has been adapted into a TV anime series, animated by A-1 Pictures, which premiered in Japan on TBS. It received its international television premiere on Animax's English language networks in Asia, Animax Asia.

The manga series won the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for best creative work in 2006. In 2007, it won the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.

Story
The series, set in Saitama, follows the story of Ren Mihashi. Mihashi was the previous ace pitcher in his middle school's baseball team, but it seems that he only got the position because his grandfather was the owner of the school. His teammates (especially the team's catcher) hated him, and they always lost their games. Mihashi is thoroughly convinced that he is a lousy baseball pitcher and he graduates through middle school with extremely low self-esteem. He then transfers to Nishiura high school with plans of quitting baseball, because he does not believe he is good enough to succeed at baseball. However, he is dragged into Nishiura's baseball team by their coach. Assisted by his new teammates (and especially the catcher, Takaya Abe), he grows in stature, confidence and skill, helping his team excel with his own abilities.

Development
While growing up in Saitama, Asa Higuchi became familiar with baseball by reading the manga Dokaben. When she was in high school, the story of a local baseball team wound up inspiring her to come up with the idea for her own baseball manga. In the original version, Mihashi never spoke and characters like Momoe, Kanou and Haruna didn't exist yet. Following that, she collected data on high school baseball for over 10 years in order to create the manga, and she worked with the school she had attended, Urawanishi High School, in the year prior to the serialization. In fact, Urawanishi seems to have been the design for the school that the Nishiura boys attend. The two names are similar as well.

Five months prior to the serialization of Ōkiku Furikabutte in Afternoon, Higuchi published a one shot in the magazine titled "The Basic of Basics". The story was centered around the characters of the Musashino Dai Ichi school, who would show up in the series itself.

Anime
The series is adapted into a TV anime series, animated by A-1 Pictures, which premiered in Japan on TBS from April 2007. It also aired during the same month across several of TBS's affiliated TV networks, including MBS, BS-i and CBC. One month later, the series also aired on the Japanese Animax. The series was also subsequently aired in English across Animax's English language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia. A second season has been announced in the 13th volume of the manga. The first episode aired on April 2, 2010.

Staff

 * Original Work: Asa Higuchi's Ōkiku Furikabutte (serialized in the monthly Afternoon magazine)
 * Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
 * Series Composition: Yōsuke Kuroda
 * Character Design and Chief Animation Director: Takahiko Yoshida
 * Action Animation Director: Jun'ichirō Taniguchi
 * Accessories Design: Takuya Suzuki
 * Art Director: Yukihiro Shibuya
 * Color Design: Miyuki Satō
 * Photography Director: Ei Rōhei
 * Editing: Shigeru Nishiyama
 * Sound Director: Hiromi Kikuda
 * Mixer: Riyō Yamada (Sound Team)
 * Sound Effects: Tomozaku Mitsui (Sound Box)
 * Music: Shirō Hamaguchi, Akifumi Tada
 * Production: A-1 Pictures

Theme songs

 * Opening theme
 * "Dramatic" (ドラマチック)
 * Performance: Base Ball Bear


 * 2nd opening theme
 * "Seishun Line" (青春ライン)
 * Performance: Ikimono-gakari


 * 3rd opening theme
 * "Natsuzora" (夏空)
 * Performance: Galileo Galilei


 * Ending theme
 * "Medaka no Mita Niji" (メダカの見た虹)
 * Performance: Kozue Takada


 * 2nd ending theme
 * "Arigatō" (ありがとう)
 * Performance: SunSet Swish


 * 3rd ending theme
 * ""Shisō Densha" (思想電車)
 * Performance: CureaL

Reception
Big Windup! has achieved both critical and commercial success. In 2007, it won the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga, and the 11th volume of the manga was the best selling manga volume in its week of release, and sold over 400,000 copies in its first three weeks of release.