Major S1

This is my favourite anime. Having rewatched Major twice, I feel like I ought to at least write something about a series that had such a major impact on my life. This is my first anime review and I thought I'd start off my anime reviewing with Major season 1 (starting right from the top).

Major is about Goro Honda, a young baseball fanatic whose father, Shigeharu Honda, is a baseballer with a history of injuries. Shigeharu fights on bravely in spite of his misfortune, and serves as a wonderful role model to the young Goro who desires to one day play professionally like his father. Goro doesn't have a mother, so his father is everything to him (him and baseball). This is the story of Goro, the lifelong friend he makes in Satou Toshiya, and the girl who is swept away by Goro's talent and passion for baseball, Shimizu Kaoru.

In season 1 Goro plays baseball for the Mifune Dolphins, a team that was on the verge of disbanding prior to Goro's magnificent arrival. Together, Goro, and Kaoru, along with the newly befriended Komori, will revive the Mifune Dolphins from the ashes to be able to compete with the likes of the elite Yokohama Little (Toshi's team).

I feel excited just reminding myself of this series. I won't go much deeper into the plot so as to not spoil it, and will instead discuss why this anime had such an incredible impact on me, and why I absolutely recommend it to sport fans and non-sport fans alike.

First, there is Goro. He isn't a perfect human being, far from it, he's a flawed character who finds himself obsessed with baseball, for better or worse. What he is though is an incredible pitcher, and his talent gets noticed from a very young age. He does however come to learn from his mistakes along the way, to play as a team and not attempt to take the world on alone. Goro might have extraordinary talent, but he works insanely hard and baseball is quite literally his life. The way Major as a whole tells the chronology of Goro's story, his legend, is quite unique and we get to watch him grow along the way.

It's fun watching Goro succeed, it's sad watching him face serious hardships, it's so very human the way we bear witness to the ups and downs of his life. Now as I played a lot of sport growing up I may relate to this series more than someone who didn't (not regarding talent), but I find Goro's story of passion, dedication and humanity can be related to any kind of field, be it another sport or even something unrelated such as music.

Heck, I'm not even a baseball fan (despite the anime in my favourites) and I still loved watching Goro play baseball. I find the storytelling is so compelling that I don't need to care what it is Goro is doing, I'm invested. This series was one that I binged, binged and binged again, with no regrets.

We learn along with Goro the importance of family, the importance of friendship, and the importance of having a goal. We discover what it's like to be the center of the team, to be the key player that everyone admires. Yet, this doesn't make Goro complacent. He strives for greatness with every passing game, and his devotion to the game can truly be contagious...

The side characters also grow on you after a while, it ends up being the Mifune Dolphins that you are rooting for, not just Goro. The aging coach who experiences physical pain trying to get his team together, Sawamura who winds up being a friend in the end for good ol Goro, and maybe most importantly of all Momoko Hoshino, Goro's school teacher turned mother who shows him the motherly love he never got to experience due to his real mother's death.

This is an anime about baseball that conveys so much more, teaching unforgettable life lessons to both the characters inside and the viewers outside, this series really gets you looking forward to what Goro will achieve next.

And that is only season 1, there are still 5 more seasons of Goro's journey to follow so I highly recommend continuing on if you want to experience Goro's journey to adulthood for yourself.