Taisho Baseball Girls is a story about girls playing baseball. Not just "playing baseball," playing hardball with the boys - and forcing them to take them seriously because they can play the game.This a great anime that makes me smile for any number of reasons. I smiled with admiration at the effort they put in to training in a sport they've come to live and love. I smiled gently when Koume thought she was going to be a movie star, I smiled with nostalgia when they had a pillow fight and I smiled like a wolf when Akiko pitched a mean sinker.
I've spoken to a lot of folks recently about the Nanoha franchise and most of us feel that it's a fantastic series wrapped in a layer of pandering. The Nanoha series is, in a nutshell, about a bunch of girls working *really* hard to become the very best at what they do, not holding anything back and indeed becoming some of the best in the world. In Taisho Baseball Girls, the girls will not be among the best, but they still are shown working extremely hard to get to where they are - and for that, and the lack of pandering - this series is one of the best anime I'm currently (re)watching. It has my one real fetish - women training until they collapse and getting better as they do.
Yes, this series had Yuri in it, but good heavens, if you're watching this series for the Yuri, you have *completely* missed the point.
Let's cut to the chase - if the title of the final episode, "Covered in Dust and Sweat" doesn't make your heart pound a little harder, this is just not the anime for you. But if it does - if your chest swells with pride when you watch them play their hearts out - then you and I can be friends.
Ratings:
Art - 8
Story - 10
Characters - 10
Yuri - 5
Loser FanBoy - 0, because the very nature of being a LFB would make them unlikely to watch, understand or appreciate this series, or if they did, they'd only care about the Yuri.
Overall - 10
Please, makers of anime, take the lesson here - lose the pandering and just give us a story about girls fighting to become stronger with all their might. Please. It would be the greatest anime ever.
Once again it is my genuine pleasure to thank Okazu Superhero Amanda M for her sponsorship of today's review!