4

I'm curious as to why Cross Game is named so. The "cross" appears in the anime in various forms:

  1. Before the beginning of each episode, when the Tsukishima family advises the viewer to watch the anime in a well-lit room and from a distance, in the form of a cross between clover leaves:

        enter image description here

  2. In the opening song's video, again in the form of a cross between clover leaves:

        enter image description here

  3. In the advertisement interval of the episodes, much more prominently:

        enter image description here

However, does it have special significance in relation to the plot/story of the anime?

Community
  • 1
Ashishgup
  • 9,729
  • 7
  • 43
  • 82
  • see also: [Why is the title Punchline?](http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/20909/why-is-the-title-punchline) – ton.yeung Apr 03 '16 at 23:02

2 Answers2

4

I know jack-all about Cross Game, but I can tell you that the Japanese title (クロスゲーム kurosu geemu) is baseball lingo for "a close game" in the sense of "a game in which both teams are closely matched". Obviously, this sense of kurosu geemu is borrowed from English "close game".

When altered to fit Japanese phonotactic constraints, both "close" /kloʊs/ and "cross" /kɹɔs/ end up as クロス kurosu. So, I guess, for whatever reason, Adachi seems to have chosen to make the English/romanized title "Cross Game".

senshin
  • 35,088
  • 25
  • 142
  • 247
0

It could also be symbolic, because the clover leaves look like four hearts split by a cross, so they could be symbolizing the love between the characters and the cross the division and also the connection between them. Most likely that wasn't the intention when made, but it's an interesting and fitting idea.

123
  • 1