Forum - View topicBattery the Animation (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Battery the Animation (TV) Genres: tournament Themes: baseball Plot Summary: Takumi Harada moves to a mountain town in Okayama prefecture during the spring break before he enters middle school due to his father's job transfer. Takumi is a pitcher, and after the moves he loses faith in his own talent, when suddenly his classmate Kō Nagakura appears in front of him. Kō has a strong desire to form a "battery" (a combination of a pitcher and catcher) with Takumi. ---------------------------------- This has a pretty solid staff and is another one of Noitamina's shows. The plot summary also seems something I'm quite interested in with baseball. (as I've also enjoyed watching Diamond no Ace recently). |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 1:
That was good, the episode felt so natural and had a decent amount of realism to it. I also really like what they did with the OP song to combine the watercolors and artwork style. There's the theme of baseball although it's more casual rather than competitive play. Of the main characters, I like Takumi so far and his chemistry with Gou is quite something. Looking to more, good start for the season. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
Kind of surprising that the main character is 12, so young. Also, he reminds way too much of Yuu from Charlotte, to the point it is actually a bit distracting. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Episode 2
He fell in a shallow pond. Why in the world would he need an iv?! And implications of traumatic memory loss of the incident?? I know anime Japanese are like Gremlins and bad things happen when they get wet, but c'mon. 
Anyway, Takumi sure has plenty of room for growth. Go just seems to have obstacles (helicopter mom, grouchy, know-it-all pitcher) to overcome, but he's great. It's kinda funny how everyone keeps telling Takumi to talk someone out of baseball, like it's his job to discourage everyone who's interested. It's really weird to me how anime stories so often use weak constitution as a reason for people to not do anything. If they have some specific reason, like heart valve prolapse or something that actively prevents them from exercising, that's one thing, but there's this constant dramatic drumbeat that if you're sickly you should never try to exert yourself to get stronger. It's a theme that runs counter to the never-give-up messages anime is always sending. Someone needs to tell them about Teddy Roosevelt. 
Maybe Seiha will prove to be the counter to this trope. At least his name is auspicious (I know, wrong kanji).
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Well Takumi is dealing with a lot of shit. He has passion for the game and wants to improve, but also wants it to be fun. In the mean time he has parents telling him to discourage others from playing, trying to make him the bad guy, and it just makes him feel horrible being forced into that role. He decides that maybe he can do half of the job by being it to Seiha, but despite what he did Seiha still believed on him. His mother tells him off at the end of the episode for what he put her through, when he only ended up in that situation because of the pressures she is putting him through.
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 2
Another wonderful episode. To me, Harada is a complex character. He has a reserved personality with a bit of ego but also seems to be kind at heart especially to those who he cares about. I think he really takes baseball too seriously though he needs to drop his attitude if he wants to make a good impression at school. Really hope Seiha can get into some team in the future as he has potential. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 3
There really seems to be a statement being made about authority figures. It would look like to be along the lines of them reacting out against what they see as disrespectful acts, not because they have some great intentions of improving them, but because they have their own complexes being seen as respectable and appreciated. On some levels it makes him look like he is not willing to listen or follow, but on others it makes the authority figures look petty, that they bar him from doing something he likes and is good at just because he did not use the proper words or cut his hair. There is contradictions in the lessons that he is taught. That he has to polish his ability, but keeps getting told that he has to wait until he is fully grown. And also that he should enjoy the game to play, but it is serious business, so he has to take it seriously but enjoy it. He tries to find this middle ground by say taking his training seriously, even taking a ball to school, but wanting to keep his hair at a length that he is comfortable with. But the authority figure chooses to perceive him taking a ball to school and "training himself" as a reckless or childish act, as is keeping hair long, irrespective of the convictions he show. The truth is that acts against him over his uniform, not carrying a ball on him, and cutting his hair, are all really to break him, the reasoning is to make him more cooperative, but the real reason is to make him uniform and controllable, and it is not by "perfect authority" but people with their own baggage. There might be a fine line between doing something with good intentions and doing something your own more selfish reasons. |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 3
Interesting episode, we got Takumi debuting at school and although I think he has decent pitching skills, he really needs to get a better attitude. The way he talks to his coach has a lot of ego. And in a way, Takumi thinks that he'll still get to play his way because the coach wants to win. Well yeah, with the way he talks to his friends and family, not many people will like him that way. Gou and Takumi has one of the most complex relationships so far imo this series. I want to see how much further that develops. In the meantime, I'm also curious about that vice captain on the team. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Episode 4
Go really is a saint. Next week: just how angry is glasses kid? |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 4:
I'd really like to see more of the coach's past at this point. He appears to me as an intriguing character and likes to take control, a trait that imo is important because the coach is initially overall responsible for the team; beyond the captain even. Meanwhile, the episode continuously portray Takumi as a tough worker, someone that puts baseball above almost everything else regardless of the consequences. I do like how he and Go are on better terms now though after that big fall out last time. Also, the vice captain seems to really dislike Takumi more and more. Wonder what he's thinking... The segment between the grandpa and coach is also interesting . Good episode overall, this show continuously impresses me. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Episode 5
Wow, someone needs to smack that principal upside the head. That sort of response gives one vindictive individual way to much power. I realize he's acting within standard Japanese sports norms, especially in baseball, where someone with a bad haircut can disqualify a whole team, but it's still an incredibly stupid way to go about maintaining discipline. |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 5:
Oh wow, shit got real. I think this time, the other guys took it a bit far against Takumi when tormenting him. And hell, I think they even want to cut his hair themselves (since the coach previously wanted him to..) Glad to see Go and Takumi's relationship improve even more. Good episode again. At least the police didn't get involved or that could of turned worse. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Episode 8
Well, their coach had a point - hard to claim "just a pick-up game on our own time" when you're wearing your team uniform. That aside, I have to say, I didn't understand anything else that happened, why any of them acted as they did, or what their feelings on the matter were. I'm usually all about show-don't-tell, but when all your characters are silent brick walls, that doesn't really work. Even the pitcher was getting frustrated by Shun's cryptic remarks. What was Go doing wrong? Did he stop giving him signs? Was he giving bad signs? He seemed to be catching all the pitches, so was that only because princess backed off? Since we never saw any of these pitches or any interaction between the battery at all, only the outcome of the pitches, and Shun wasn't inclined to explain whatever he was seeing, how were we supposed to figure out what their problem is? |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I thought it was pretty easy to see, pretty simply, Go was not good enough. If you were paying attention to the start of the match you would have realised that that Go kept dropping the ball, it was like several pitches and not once he was able to catch it properly. But then Go started being able to catch them and the other team was able to hit them. The clear answer was that Takumi was throwing slower, and the reason was that Takumi was afraid of say hurting Go because he could not keep up. I saw comments of last episode from someone saying that Takumi just needed to trust Go, but that really was not the problem, because Go could not keep up, and the hit to Go's ego (one comment of him not being able to catch) was making him perform worse and in effect making Takumi do even poorer. Shun was trying to hint to the scholarship guy that the problem was the catcher, but without out right saying it, probably because it would be a bit tactless. The scholarship guy having the position he did, could not reason that a skilled pitcher would drop their ability because of the catcher. And it looked like Shun also has a complex of feeling inferior that probably made him keep it a bit vague, and why he kept teasing over the "princess" thing and got so angry over some younger players not treating him like a senpai. Really the show as a secondary piece is filled with these sort of people within the Japanese social structure that places so much importance on age superiority, from the coach and other adults seeking respect, to older players having to feel that younger players are bellow them. But that seems like a fitting topic in how the structure in sport teams in notorious for treating younger members like slaves while the elder member get to do the actual activities. I guess another aspect is what is happening 2 supposed peers, who are following the general Japanese idea of friends, but that they really are not peers when it comes to the game. Yet the game is kind of the basis of their relationship. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 10
Looks like Gou was caught out as a hypocrite, that he tried to stand that only he could be catcher for Takumi, but that he could be catcher for any pitcher. He was kind of walking over Takumi determination of his skill, and that Takumi was showing his friendship in his own way. |
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