30 August 2009: The fundamentals in Taisho Yakyuu Musume are surprisingly good
Akiko's pitching needs a lot of work.
When I started Taisho Yakyuu Musume, I expected charismatic characters and engaging subplots about friendships and schoolgirl life in the '20s buffered by light comedy and occasional drama. However, I wasn't expecting accurate baseball in any case—nothing better than Princess Nine, at least. But to tell you the truth, the baseball elements in Taisho Yakyuu Musume ring truer than those in Cross Game.
Maybe Tomoe will invent night games.
This is not to say that there aren't a lot of anachronisms in Taisho Yakyuu Musume. That's sort of a given. For one thing, I suspect Japanese high school baseball (if it even existed at the time) would still be in the dead ball era in 1925. After all, the dead ball era had only ended in American's major leagues around 1919.
Kochou legs one out.
Aside from that, the actual games and practices depicted in Taisho Yakyuu Musume are fairly realistic. For one thing, a junk ball rookie pitcher who can barely lob strikes over the plate can certainly expect to get positively hammered during her first outing. Furthermore, the importance of cooperation and trust within a battery is also accurately described, perhaps even more so here than in Major. It's also nice to see outfielders using two hands when shagging routine fly balls. Likewise, I'm glad to see the speedy leadoff batter learning how to hit left-handed in order to get a step or two closer to first base. (If these are true 90-foot base paths, though, she's already fast as fuck.)
This actually had fewer homosexual overtones than the
corresponding segment between Goro and Toshi in Major.
Additionally, the charismatic characters and engaging subplots about friendships and schoolgirl life in the '20s buffered by light comedy and occasional drama are also there and up to the standards I expect from J.C. Staff. Combine all that with nicely executed baseball elements and it's no wonder Taisho Yakyuu Musume is the best new show airing during the Summer 2009 season.
