:: RE: MIHASHI
What we have here would just be another analysis kind of article. Specifically, an analysis on everyone's opinion on our beloved main character, MIHASHI! Somehow, while watching Ookiku Furikabutte, I keep getting the feeling that everyone just ADORES Mihashi, so I decided to look deeper into it. HERE GOES NOTHING!
ABE!
I was ABOUT to write something like "I think we all know Abe's opinion on Mihashi by now" and move on to the next character, but then I started thinking. Abe's opinion on Mihashi seems rather complicated, and it's changed a lot over the series, so why not write a few words about it? The moment they first met, Abe seemed friendly enough with Mihashi. A few minutes later, after Mihashi broke down and told the team about his angsty past of refusing to leave the mound, Abe declared loudly and clearly that he liked Mihashi as a pitcher for the whole wide world to hear. As he started working with Mihashi, his opinion on him changed - Abe did not like Mihashi's personality, but decided to just ignore it. As long as he could order Mihashi around, it's not like they had to be FRIENDS or anything. Right?
WRONG!!! Even though Abe was all like "GRR YOU PITCHERS ARE ALL SCUMBAGS!" for quite a while, he soon warmed up to Mihashi. Mihashi earned Abe's respect when Abe discovered just how hard Mihashi had been working on this whole pitching thing. Abe started to form some kind of freakish obsession with him, and would do anything in his power to help him - not just because he wanted a swell pitcher on his team, but because he genuinely wanted to help Mihashi achieve his hopes and dreams. How sweet!
To this day, Abe and Mihashi have quite a bit of a rocky relationship. Abe cares about Mihashi deep down, but he's extremely impatient and doesn't really know how to deal with Mihashi's Mihashiish behavior, and ends up going ballistic quite a bit. In return, Mihashi fears, admires and respects Abe a lot.
OKI!
I'm going by the Nishiura back number order here, which is why Oki comes before characters like Tajima and Hanai. Just FYI. ANYWAY, as usual, I don't really know what to say about Oki. I don't think the size of his nose affects how he views Mihashi. Uh... there was this one time where Sakaeguchi (Mizutani in the comic) was all like "Gee wiz, I sure do love Tajima and Mihashi and all, but their antics can be so TIRING!" and Oki was all like "I AGREE!" So I guess that's pretty much Oki's opinion on Mihashi right there.
I don't think Mihashi has ever directly expressed his opinion on Oki and his nose, but we all know what his opinion is on other people pitching for the team! Oki is one of the backup pitchers, so Mihashi will do anything in his power to keep him from pitching.
SAKAEGUCHI!
As I JUST mentioned, Mizutani was replaced by Sakaeguchi in the cartoon to be the character to say... what I just mentioned. STILL, Sakaeguchi seems to really like Mihashi! He's always the first to defend Mihashi from vicious Abes, and to make sure Mihashi is okay when he goes bonkers. Then again, I don't know what's going on inside Sakaeguchi's head. For all I know, he could secretly hate Mihashi and simply acts the way he does because of his amazing sense of duty or because he hates Abe even more. Then again-again, NO, what am I SAYING! Sakaeguchi is the nicest person in Oofuriland, and it's obvious that he adores Mihashi and would gladly risk his life for him since he's so dang nice. He has the amazing ability to speak dweeb, meaning that he can understand what Mihashi means even when he's too shaken up to speak properly.
In return, Mihashi thinks Sakaeguchi is a GOOD PERSON!! He's only expressed his opinion on him... once, which is kind of surprising considering how much Sakaeguchi supports Mihashi. Then again, it's not REALLY surprising since Mihashi is only really concerned about himself. He never really seems to notice that Sakaeguchi always backs him up.
TAJIMA!
Mihashi and Tajima share a very heartwarming relationship - Tajima is probably the only person (possibly along with Sakaeguchi and Kano) who genuinely loves Mihashi without secretly wishing to pummel him. Like Sakaeguchi, Tajima has the amazing ability to speak dweeb, but unlike Sakaeguchi, Tajima is extremely loud and does what he can to cheer Mihashi up via his OWN unlimited happiness. The two of them are in the same class, so they automatically hang around each other a lot, and Mihashi does not seem to be as terrified of Tajima as he is of other people. They also share a connection of sucking at school! All in all, they seem to understand each other remarkably well. They're so different, yet so alike! How poetic!
SUYAMA!
I can't remember Suyama interacting specifically with Mihashi or telling the world his opinion on him, so I'll just say that Suyama ADORES Mihashi and leave it at that.
MIZUTANI!
The whole 'Renren' thing gives Mizutani a tremendous amount of good chucks! Other than that, see what I wrote about the replacement thing for Oki and Sakaeguchi.
IZUMI!
Izumi is in the same dorky class as Mihashi, as well as Tajima and Hamada, so by now, he's naturally used to Mihashi's weird behavior. I think Izumi is pretty indifferent, really. I mean, they're friends and all, but their opinions on each other is nothing I'll be able to write a long essay about.
HANAI!
Hanai told the viewers through the magic of inner dialogue that if he had been on Mihashi's team back in middle school, he'd have joined the bullying side, which REALLY surprised me - Hanai seems like such a... behaved person. Middle schoolers will be middle schoolers, I guess. In the same episode, Hanai also informed us that he'd probably go ballistic on Mihashi if Abe didn't do it FOR him, so I guess Hanai isn't as behaved as I thought! OH HANAI YOU SO SILLY. In the end though... Hanai and Mihashi get along okay. Hanai doesn't seem all that attached to Mihashi, but he's very responsible and supports him all he can. Mihashi... seems to respect Hanai? In the DS game, he even went as far as calling him a GOOD PERSON!
NISHIHIRO!
Nishihiro is always there to support Mihashi, and Mihashi called Nishihiro a GOOD PERSON in the DS game! Even though it wasn't really shown on the show, I'll just make an ass out of 'u' and me and assume that Nishihiro, Tajima and Mihashi have had lots of fun bonding times together in their little study group and are now the best of friends.
HAMADA!
Hamada and Mihashi were chums when they were little, so Mihashi has probably adored Hamada for at least a decade. Baby Hamada even gave Baby Mihashi his old baseball glove so he could join in on the baseballing! Lamely nicknamed 'Hama-chan,' Hamada was without a doubt little kiddy Mihashi's favorite neighbor. Unfortunately, Mihashi had to move when he was still very young, so he never saw Hamada again... until high school, where they ended up being in the same class, what are the odds? Mihashi didn't recognize Hamada immediately, but when he did, he was SO HAPPY.
...I'm babbling about Mihashi's opinion on Hamada here, aren't I? This article is supposed to be about everyone else's opinions on MIHASHI, so let's have a look at Hamada's views. Hamada likes Mihashi, the two of them get along great, and Hamada does what he can to keep Mihashi's spirits up!
KANO!
Mihashi and Kano go way back. Not only were both of them honorary members of the Ridiculous Oversized Scarf Club, but they've probably known each other for as long as they can remember - the Kanos are the neighbors of Mihashi's relatives, so Renren got to chum with Shu-chan whenever they came for a visit! So naturally, they were very close, and were probably happy to join the same baseball team in middle school... until it was revealed that both of them wanted to pitch, and the whole ridiculous Mihoshi-vs-Mihashi thing started. I'm guessing Kano and Mihashi started referring to each other by their last names sometime in middle school. Kano was probably the only person on Mihoshi who was nice to Mihashi, though.
So, high school time! Specifically, let's focus on a certain Nishiura-Mihoshi practice match. This is where we, the audience, got to witness Kano's bizarre obsessive rival nature! Even though he wants to be friends with Mihashi, he wanted to beat him in pitching even if it was the last thing he were to do.
All in all, Kano and Mihashi are chums and have high opinions on each other, and would probably have the most heartwarming relationship in Oofuriland if it wasn't for Kano's ridiculous RIVAL SPIRIT! They started calling each other by their first names again after the practice match. Whenever we, the viewers, get to see Kano, it's ALWAYS in some kind of Mihashi-related situation, so I kind of get the impression that Kano has a bit of a one-track mind.
HATAKE!
This goes for the rest of Mihashi's middle school teammates as well (except Kano, obviously), really, but let's focus on Hatake here since he appears to be the leader of the angry mob. Obviously, Hatake hates Mihashi's guts! At least until the end of episode seven, but let's ignore that for a little while. I'm a fan of both Mihashi and Hatake and I understand where both of them are coming from when it comes to their little... argument, but that's kind of beside the point. Hatake's immense dislike of Mihashi roots back to their middle school days, where Mihashi insisted on being the pitcher. Hatake, being the catcher and hopelessly obsessed with the OTHER pitcher we known as Kano, was therefore forced into a catcher-pitcher relationship he didn't want to be in! Kind of like an arranged marriage, only an arranged BATTERY. So naturally, Hatake had an extremely hard time working with Mihashi.
So let's have a look at the present. During Nishiura's practice match against the Mihoshi first-years, Kano had a little outburst where he FINALLY, after like three years, made his teammates realize that Mihashi isn't all that bad. When Nishiura beat Mihoshi, Hatake and company even wanted Mihashi to rejoin their team! How bizarre is that?! I really wonder how the dysfunctional battery would work again after that.
Mihashi is absolutely terrified of Hatake and his Merry Mihoshi Men, but he doesn't hate any of them - in fact, he puts himself down and agrees that the disastrousness of the middle school years was indeed his own fault. Even when Mihoshi apologized, Mihashi said that he was the one to blame.
RURI!
Ruri seems a lot like the typical 'teenage sister rolling her eyes at her stupid immature kid brother' kind of character, even though she's actually Mihashi's COUSIN, and a couple of months younger at that. The two of them do indeed have a very sibling-like relationship, except that Mihashi is way too dweeby to fight back. In the end though, like all family members, they love each other deep down. Aww!
HARUNA!
Haruna thinks Mihashi is a funny little dweeb, and that's about it, really. I'm under the impression that if he got the chance, Haruna would gladly become friends with Mihashi just because he finds him so dang amusing and because it'd be a perfect opportunity to metaphorically stick his tongue out at Takaya! Then again, that's just speculation on my part. That one time they met, Haruna was awfully nice to Mihashi even though he was obviously laughing at him on the inside. Haruna is so silly! Mihashi, on the other hand, is Haruna's biggest fan EVER. Not only has he called him a GOOD PERSON more than once, but he thinks his pitching skills are amazing! He's like Fanboy for Freakazoid, only less persistent.
JUNTA!
Dude, Mihashi gives Junta like, the best chucks EVER!! Junta appears to be the first person in Oofuriland to pay attention to Mihashi's ridiculous facial expressions, strangely enough. He seems to think of Mihashi as a funny little guy, although in return, Mihashi doesn't really seem to notice Junta's existence. It's kind of weird, isn't it? Since Mihashi usually pays attention to pitchers, I mean. Maybe it's because Junta was being a goof throughout the entire Nishiura-Tosei match.
EVERYONE ELSE!
Everyone else who hasn't been mentioned seems to think of Mihashi as a strange dweeb with some serious skills. It's highly likely that they all secretly love him since it's in the nature of Ookiku Furikabutte characters to do just that.