Contains Volume 1 spoilers and small spoilers for the overall plot Dsiclaimer: I rate manga here based on how they compare to each other 50 is pretty okay 60 is above average etc. Dont let my score make you think One Outs was a bad manga its in fact pretty good. A lot of mainstream sports manga Haikyuu Ace of Diamond Eyeshield 21 etc are heavily focused on the protagonist growing as a player and have a lot of attention paid to the team dynamic. Sure sometimes one pops up thats focused on a single person getting better at or loving the sport such as The Climber or decides to flip the script on team dynamics like Blue Lock. One Outs on the other hand fully lives up to its subtitle Nobody wins but I From the mangaka who later created Liar Game One Outs tells the story of the Lycaons the weakest professional baseball team in the league. On a search for a pitcher after theirs was injured members of the team come across a crowd playing One Outs a form of gambling baseball that has only a pitcher and a batter. The teams ace Kojima then loses to a rather average fastball from a pitcher named Tokuchi who hasnt lost a single game of One Outs in 499 games. Managing to win a rematch Kojima recruits Tokuchi onto the Lycaons. The Lycaons owner refuses to pay him a normal salary instead creating the One Outs contract where for every out Tokuchi pitches he receives 5 million yen but every run he loses will cost him 50 million. Tokuchi is an extremely good trickster comparable to Hiruma from Eyeshield 21. The first part of the manga is a parade of him scheming to strike out batters and get as much money from the One Outs contract as possible while also defeating the owners schemes to put Tokuchi in enough debt from the contract to kick him off the team. Though none of the schemes are especially deep theyre still interesting and thats enough to make the first part fun. The only real issue with the story in the first part is that its sometimes slow. Otherwise its just a lot of fun watching Tokuchi scheme his way to victory. The second part of the manga features a revised One Outs contract and starts to look at the team rather than just Tokuchi and the owners schemes. Personally I think that this is the weakest part. A few characters other than Tokuchi and the owner start to be focused on but they are nowhere near as interesting as Tokuchi. Otherwise its more of the same Tokuchi scheming his way into a pile of money. Its still interesting its just not as good as the first part and nowhere near as good as the final stretch. The final stretch of the manga is a lot closer to a typical team sports manga but thankfully Tokuchi is once again the focus except this time hes trying to both earn money and pull the team together into a strong team. Though the schemes from the first two parts of the manga are still there theres a lot more focus on the team growing stronger. The ending is in my opinion the best way the series could have ended which is also a large plus. Overall the story throughout the manga is pretty interesting though its less of a sports manga and more in line with a gambling series. Tokuchis schemes are interesting and the series still manages to mix in elements of baseball that are more in line with a normal sports series plus the owners schemes and Tokuchi thwarting them is a lot of fun. The only issues I have with it are the sometimes slow pace and that most of the characters get next to no development until the very end which means that theyre nowhere near as interesting as Tokuchi. Artwise well the art is passable and does well enough for the reader to tell whats going on. Its not what Id call good though. There are spots where the anatomy looks really off such as in the first few chapters a woman with a neck thats as wide around as her head the art isnt very detailed and the paneling is uncreative. The mangaka is definitely far more talented at writing a good story than at drawing but it doesnt detract much from the story in One Outs. Its not difficult to tell whats going on due to the art or anything its just not very appealing and since this manga started in the 90s its pretty much expected. As far as characters go well pretty much all of them aside from Tokuchi the owner of the Lycaons and Kojima are only touched upon. Most of the Lycaons is comprised of forgettable characters and the opposing teams bar one have essentially 12 members of any interest. The characters are largely used to showcase Tokuchi which Im okay with because Tokuchi is a very good character. Hes exactly what youd want from a main character in this kind of manga scheming blunt and a bit of a jerk. Likeable? Not really. Interesting? Definitely. There are parts where I wish other characters would get more focus but a lot of them do get a few chapters to shine and overall the cast is okay. Theyre just eclipsed by Tokuchi. Ultimately One Outs is a good manga thats held back only by its singleminded focus. The lack of focus on anything but Tokuchi and the owner in the first stretch of the manga makes it feel slower than it is and somewhat repetitive and the majority of characters just dont have enough panel time to be interesting. It also never manages to go from just good to amazing even though its consistently interesting. These flaws keep it from being truly great but dont take any of what Ive said as an insult to the manga I liked it a lot and its still a great manga thats more than worth the read
72 /100
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