Summer 2009 Anime Impressions – Taishou Yakyuu Musume

Samurais make good baseball players.

The first time I became aware of the existence of this show was from a trailer I saw back during the winter season. Something about the show instantly made me want to watch it and as a result I was disappointed when I found out that I’d have to wait till the summer season to see it. A strong spring season made the wait more tolerable but I didn’t forget about Taishou Yakyuu Musume.

Rating: episode 1 – 10.5/12Strong A
Rating: episode 2 – 10/12A
Rating: episode 3 – 10.5/12Strong A
Anticipation Level: 3.5/5 –Medium

The year is 1925. In America, the Roaring 20’s was running at full tilt and this sense of newness wasn’t confined to just America. In Japan, it took the form of society’s push to Westernized the nation and it was touching all facets of life. Western style restaurants where changing what people ate, new clothes where supplanting the old, and new architecture was changing how the cities looked. In all this change, it’s to be expected that new ideas where taking hold and this is where our story starts.

A head-strong girl by the name of Akiko is incensed (as she should be) when she’s essentially told that the woman’s place is in kitchen and schooling means nothing to her. It happens that this guy plays on his school’s baseball team and she decides that she’s going to show him by fielding a team of girls and beating them at their game. The problem (among others) is that she doesn’t how to play baseball and that she needs to convince enough people to field a team.

If this sounds like it could be one of those slice-of-school-life mixed with a bit of comedy series, you’d be right. Broadly, it’s reminiscent of shows like Manabi Straight and K-ON! but that’s hardily a bad thing; when done right these types of shows will relax and lift my spirits which is nothing to sneeze at. The question then is: does Taishou Yakyuu Musume get it right?

After three episodes, I can answer; yes it does.

Let me start with the weakest part of the show – the characters. Three episodes in and our cast includes all nine members of the girls baseball team, a couple of the guys on the team that needs to be beat, a teacher, principal, and assorted other characters. In effect, at this point there’s been a bunch of characters introduced without a huge amount of time spent on developing any one character. I like what I see so far in the way of the characters with the foreign female teacher being my favorite but more time (and J.C. Staff doing a good job with character development) needs to occur before I really start to like the characters.

The story of the show is by no means original but that doesn’t mean it will be a poor one. Just last season we saw how well J.C. Staff could weave well used character types and storylines into something that was excellent to watch. (Referring to Hatsukoi Limited, of course.) However, I love a good underdog story and probably because I grew up with 4 sisters that are all very smart and talented, I want to see that guy forced to admit that his comment and way of thinking is wrong. Also, it appears that much of the show will be focused on the actual story – a definite plus. One of my critiques of K-ON! was that the hold band angle of the show seemed superfluous which made it hard for to actually care about what was going on in the show. It could have been trimmed out and the resulting series could have just been about the normal lives of this group of friends and it probably would have worked better.

Two things that I’m really digging about the show is the time period and J.C. Staff’s animation. Much like how Natsu no Arashi felt different because the show was partially set in Japan during WW2 and used characters from then, using the 1920’s as a setting for Taishou Yakyuu Musume gives the show a unique feel and adds interest for those that enjoy watching how different societies and time periods influence people. As for the animation, I’ve raved on several occasions about J.C. Staff’s animation and this show continues to show their prowess; I love this look and it fits the overall feel of the show perfectly.

So, in conclusion, Taishou Yakyuu Musume joins the quickly growing pool of excellent anime shows of the season and helps provide a good balance when watching shows like Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and Phantom.