So, after reading that Taishou Yakyuu Musume (which, by the way, I had not heard about prior to this point) is getting an anime adaptation, I became instantly overwhelmed with completely, utterly baseless and unjustified hype for it. Let me break it down for you:
Taishou (大正): Historical fiction! My history major blood is a-boil with the thought of a fictionalized peek into the origins of baseball on the Japanese islands, since the series takes place in 1925.
Yakyuu (野球): Baseball! I am still not a terribly huge sports fan of any kind, but baseball has always held a special kind of charm with me. Probably because I played it (badly) as a child. I’m good at hitting actual baseballs, still, kind of, but WiiSports Baseball totally screws with my head. The only kind of anime that could get me any more excited would be bowling anime. I’m not even sure that exists. It needs to.
Musume (娘): Girls! This one should be self-explanatory, although I’m hoping more for something more like Princess Nine than some kind of weird anime version of A League of Their Own. I’d be happy with Ookiku Furikabutte except with girls, though.
Speaking of musume, the designs are pretty cute, which both pleases and worries me. The series could go either way, given what little we know about it in the West (and even the Japanese web doesn’t seem to have a great deal of information upon casual investigation), but from reading the two positive reviews of the series on amazon.co.jp, I’m fairly certain it will be at least a decent, if not downright amazing, non-excessively-pandering look at the rise of baseball in Japan. Besides, Japan’s starting to pull away from series that pander and don’t really do much of anything else–even Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, the obligatory panderfest of the season (aside from the new Zero no Tsukaima), is trying. Failing, but trying! I think they’ve finally hit the point where they’ve realized they need some weight behind the cute girls to actually get an audience these days.
At any rate, this news excited me far more than the announcement of a second FMA TV series did. Even though I didn’t (and still don’t) know much about the title at all.
And, hey, this kind of totally baseless anticipation worked for me with Toshokan Sensou, so why shouldn’t it work for Taishou Yakyuu Musume? Worst comes to worst, I can just go visit Mudville.
Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! 