Big Windup!

Big Windup!
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Ren Mihashi
おおきく振りかぶって
(Ōkiku Furikabutte)
GenreSports[1]
Manga
Written byAsa Higuchi
Published byKodansha
ImprintAfternoon KC
MagazineMonthly Afternoon
DemographicSeinen
Original runSeptember 25, 2003 – present
Volumes36 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Directed byTsutomu Mizushima
Produced by
  • Ryō Ōyama
  • Tomonori Ochikoshi
  • Gō Tanaka
  • Masayuki Hariu
  • Kozue Kaneniwa
  • Hiroo Maruyama
Written byYōsuke Kuroda
Music byShirō Hamaguchi
StudioA-1 Pictures
Licensed by
Original networkJNN (MBS, TBS)
English network
Original run April 12, 2007 June 24, 2010
Episodes38 + 2 OVAs (List of episodes)

Big Windup! (Japanese: おおきく振りかぶって, Hepburn: Ōkiku Furikabutte), often shortened to just Ōfuri (おお振り), is a Japanese baseball-themed manga series written and illustrated by Asa Higuchi. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon since September 2003, with its chapters collected in 36 tankōbon volumes as of December 2022.

It was adapted into an anime television series, directed by Tsutomu Mizushima and animated by A-1 Pictures, which aired for 25 episodes on TBS from April to September 2007. A 13-episode second season was broadcast from April to June 2010. In North America, the first season was licensed by Funimation, while the second season was licensed by Right Stuf.

By August 2023, the manga had over 18 million copies in circulation. It won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for best creative work in 2006 and the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga in 2007. The anime series has been overall well received by critics, who have praised its story and characters, and particularly its focus on strategy and teamwork. The series, however, has received somewhat mixed response due to its pacing.

  1. ^ Kimlinger, Carl (June 2, 2009). "Big Windup! Episodes 1-7 Streaming - Review". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.