v7c34 Review (See below for older review)

After reading over 700 chapters in less than a week, I'm still excited for more. Most of what I said in my earlier review (see below) still holds true. It's a good sports novel (even if it's a fanfic) that focuses on exciting baseball games with a well-written cast of characters. The writer focuses on the games, but they manage to flesh out the characters through the games. They also write an OP/"genius" regressor in an exciting way (since some OP MCs just... more>> get... boring.). The start is a bit slow, but it gets more and more exciting.

You don't need to know the original to read it. If the original focused on an underdog MC (who was overshadowed/beaten by his rival for most of the story QAQ), then the fanfic focuses on the strong MC leading his team to victory. That said, the team isn't weak. It's a "return of the king" story. They're strong players so they don't get completely overshadowed by the regressed OP (and get their own highlights+character development). Baseball is a team sport, and the MC just fixed the strong team's weakness and let them soar. I also appreciate how the games are exciting (despite the MC's OP performance) and well-balanced. It's not always a one-sided beating, and even those are written well. The pacing is also pretty good since the writer understands that the less important games/innings should receive less attention. Don't get me wrong, it's still a long novel with many games, so I would read it if you like sports manga/novels/anime and appreciate that.

If you read the original and were disappointed by the ending/Eijun not being dominant enough throughout the story, this should satisfy that itch. Also, I feel like none of the original characters were outright disrespected (maybe Kuramochi initially, but he gets some really good highlights later), and the opposing teams also received enough respect.

v3c1 Review

Will update this after I catch up to the currently translated chapters. Wanted to review considering no one else had despite the translator pumping out 700+ chapters. Translations are excellent; please support the translator (at least click on the little red heart at the bottom/top of chapters!).

This is quite underrated, but that makes sense since it's a fanfic on NU lmao. Still, you don't need to have read the original manga/watched the anime to understand almost everything (reminder you can google character names for what they look like; Tanpa is Tanba btw). Honestly, a basic understanding of baseball would probably be more helpful (but also not necessary since the writer explains pretty well). I read the manga like... a decade ago (meaning I basically only remembered like the names/faces of 6 characters lmao) and dropped it because the MC didn't get the amount of attention I wanted him to get. He gets the spotlight here more (it's still pretty balanced tho), and I like that.

Eijun (the MC) isn't ridiculously OP despite his regression. Baseball is a sport that relies on skill and physicality, so he's still limited by the second. For example, his pitches aren't as fast as two other pitchers around his age (Canonically and in here) despite his increased skill. Basically, the regression made him more mature and boosted his existing skills (and batting). His skills have been basically boosted to be around the top of players his age in canon (his skills in canon were... kinda meh early on XD). He still has flaws and weaknesses as an athlete, but baseball is a team sport. I would say that his OPness is fairly realistic. He has some knowledge of the future, but that's not really useful for baseball games (especially since his memory was average and the games are from many years ago).

The writer characterizes the characters quite well. There are like 20 people going to the major championships, and about 10+ will be memorable because they're well-written supporting characters. Even if you haven't read the original, they're written and differentiated well enough. Also, the hazing seems a bit strong at the start, but it's not actually overboard (mostly jealousy lmao) and the MC doesn't mind much.

The games are good! I feel like writing/planning a baseball tournament isn't easy, and the author does it pretty well. There are exciting and unpredictable moments. The hype is real, and many characters get the spotlight at different times. Even though Eijun is regressed, it doesn't feel like he'll overwhelmingly smash everything. More like, give Seidou (the team) a strong chance at winning. As for how realistic it is, I don't know because I'm not well-versed in baseball. I've only seen one person in the comments section point out how the running speed/throwing to base speed was a bit inaccurate in one game (EX: bro shouldn't/should have made it to base based on reality), but overall I feel like everything is plausible at least.

The novel is a CN fanfiction, but I can't see many of the flaws CN fanfics w/ OP MCs usually have. If someone showed me this, I wouldn't have been able to tell (other than one or two Chinese-style idioms). It's quite well-written overall. I would compare its quality to an original sports webnovel. The novel's pacing is pretty good. Not the fastest, but I never felt bored. Try it out if you like long sports novels/mangas. <<less