Curiosity Binge – Major 2nd

Have you ever started a show, realized it wasn’t that great but continually watched it anyway because you were curious about the plot ending? I recently did this with Major 2nd but it’s a new show that was released last season and continuing this season. In other words, there isn’t an end yet.

Why did I even pick up this show? Knowing I had plenty of other shows to catch up on or finish. Why did I start something brand new? I had no idea it wasn’t finished at the time, what I saw was there were 13 episodes so I might have assumed it was done. My brain might’ve clicked on it because I was itching for a new sports anime to watch since Megalobox was over and I’m still waiting for the new season of Haikyuu!!. I don’t think the answers ever really add up because curiosity is human nature and you can’t really control that.

What is this show actually? I had no knowledge of this show prior to watching it and upon a quick search, Major 2nd is exactly what it says it is during the show. It’s a second generation of the first Major series. Following along the bloodline and everything, it’s been almost 15 years since the first Major. From what I can tell, the story starts at about the same age with the main character playing little league baseball. Having aspirations to make it to the big leagues like his father before him. I have watched Ace of the Diamond before so I thought hey why not since I enjoyed that one. That was clearly a mistake on my part, never assume one anime is going to live up to another “similar” anime. In this case, I think it should at least live up to its predecessor racking up 6 seasons accumlating an average score of 8.4 across them.

So on top of it being baseball, a sport I don’t particularly have an interest in, it’s in a middle school grade setting and I just hate this setting because bratty kids that “don’t know any better” are the worst. I think what made me dislike this show, even more, was the main character himself, Daigo. Ambitious, looked up to his father, and even loves baseball as much as he does. It’s just too bad, in typical brat fashion, he gets too pissed off about not having the talent that his father has in baseball and literally crumbles under the pressure of being his son. Then he just quits playing altogether for two years and sits on his ass playing video games acting emo and hateful all day. I guess you could say, he’s one of those characters that you just wish you could beat some sense into.

Now here’s the complicated part, why the fuck did I keep watching if I hated the main character so much? or rather the way he acted? Was I expecting him to change somehow with the help of his new friend? Maybe I wanted him to see him grow to be something greater than he thought he was. That’s a typical goal in sports anime, training and practicing to become better than anything or anyone. I think I needed to see for myself that the story was headed in the right direction after completely shutting down the initial and expected plotline. A part of me also thinks that if I had known and seen the original Major, I might’ve appreciated this a little more and maybe have a more positive outlook of things to come.

It’s so strange because other than the curiosity I have, nothing is keeping me nailed to this series. No one is spectacular, the OP is average, so is the animation, and the team itself is so-so. There’s literally no one/nothing to hang on to and say “this is the reason I stick around”. This anime just doesn’t scream at me like a normal sports anime would. The most fucked up part is that this anime is still releasing episodes every week until who knows when. So my curiosity has put me at least half way deep into an anime I don’t even like and I have no desire to continue watching. The binge is done and it’s probably going to sit in my queue until the series finishes. This is the feeling of regret and a great lesson has been learned. If you’re going to binge something, make sure it’s a completed series.