31 August 2004: Princess Nine follow-up
With the baseball season winding down, I suppose I should follow up on my earlier Princess Nine report. It turns out that Ryo is actually a pretty shitty pitcher. She is strictly a thrower. We need a second season where she learns to change speeds and mix in a breaking ball every once in a while.
Ryo
That said, I was pleased to find that all of these girls are pretty talented. This is not a show where girls just happen to be able to compete with boys on their level. Each of these girls (well, for the most part), were all-stars on some level in their own right before forming the all-girls baseball team.
Seira
Princess Nine is only half about baseball, anyway. Much of the story involves drama that affects the characters in some way. There's a love triangle, and questions about divided loyalty, and it's pretty entertaining overall.
Yuki
The baseball elements are pretty accurate—better than I had expected, anyway. There are some implausible elements (for example, Ryo is the only pitcher on the team—there are only nine of them, you know—so every game is a complete game, and she doesn't get a lot of rest), and there are some miscues that indicate the translators are not baseball savvy, but I didn't find anything too objectionable. It's not as if this is a documentary. And like I said, almost all of these girls are tremendously talented athletes, so it's not a case where Grrl Power and gritty determination serve to overcome evil boys, or any such nonsense. They also planted the shitty player in right field.
Koharu
I was somewhat amused that Kawasumi Ayako's character has the fewest lines, given her popularity as a voice actress. Casting her for the part of Yuki makes sense later on, as you learn more about her character; her emotional struggles may have been less convincing from a less talented voice actress.
Yuki
I do find it somewhat odd that Princess Nine had Mwu's voice actor from Gundam SEED playing the same Aryan character he always does. He really sounds too old to be playing a 15-year-old kid.
