TAMAYOMI: The Baseball Girls is something I chose to watch simply because I’m a fan of the sport. The name “TAMAYOMI” is a combination of what I believe to be the two main characters; a baseball “battery”, a duo between the pitcher and catcher, Yomi Takeda and Tamaki Yamazaki. I believe this series will be focusing upon them mainly, hence the name of the anime.
Something I was surprised about when the 1st episode started was the band playing “Neraiuchi” by Linda Yamamoto, which is also the theme song of Miyuki Kazuya from Diamond no Ace. It’s immediately recognizable and got my attention from the jump. Considering how popular Diamond no Ace is, I’m wondering if this was a choice purposefully done to pay homage or whether the tune is simply a popular band song over in Japan.
The biggest takeaway I got from this opening episode was the fact that Yomi appears to be set on giving up baseball, mainly because her aspirations and 3-years of work in Middle School never paid off. Being someone serious about your craft while everyone else is doing it “for fun” means having to nerf your ability to fit in. Considering I play fighting games and have had to “sandbag” multiple times in order to continue fighting friends within my immediate circle, I understand how frustrating it is in order to have to downgrade your skills simply to be included. Not to mention sometimes they simply ignore your actual skill and can make you feel bad about your abilities.
Yomi not being able to throw her signature breaking ball she perfected meant that her ability to strikeout batters was nullified; not to mention she also felt like her long days of work bore no fruit. Tamaki going to a school which took things seriously and pushed her, the opposite of Yomi, meant she was a good enough catcher to successfully catch the “Magic Ball”.
Baseball enthusiast and twin sisters, Yoshino and Ibuki, are the core of why this series will be taking place. After Tamaki and Yomi reunion from not seeing each other for years, they discover that the other never stopped their pursuit in baseball. A brief chat eventually leads to a game of catch, with each pledging to the other that they’ll carry forth as a battery (with the aid of managers Yoshino and Ibuki).
From the first episode, I was quite surprised by the difference in Middle Schools our main girls attended. Yomi didn’t have any backing from her catcher, but seemed to find it within her other teammates. Working earnestly day-in and out to perfect her Curveball, yet was unable to use it since the team’s catcher couldn’t manage to handle it. Tamaki had a very supportive team that worked hard, doing things seriously which greatly improved her skills and raised her up to a level she probably couldn’t have reached on her own. This series of events lead to Yomi being able to throw a nasty curveball while Tamaki has the ability to catch it.
Something else I want to point out is the aesthetics. From the front, the faces within this series often seem smushed, elongated, and weird looking. However, this doesn’t seem to occur when in 3/4ths view or from the side. Also, what’s different about this series regarding women is that all of the girls seem to have thick, muscular, thighs. While you often have series that favor girls having thick thighs, they often look more-or-less sexual and less muscular or fit; these fit athletes and is a change I really didn’t see coming. Though, having those combined with what feels like K-On style faces sometimes throws me off, but I’ll get used to it.
Overall, being a fan of baseball, I’m wondering how things will go. Considering the baseball team was currently on hiatus at the girl’s High School, I’m wondering whether-or-not they have genuine baseball players available or if they will have to recruit newbies to a team and train hard with aspirations of making it past their first few games. Whatever it is, it was nice to see Yomi’s hard work pay off and for her not to abandon something she loved simply because her talent had to be disregarded to appease someone who didn’t see the beauty in trying hard. Lessons are already learned in the first episode. Well done.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...
Leave a Reply!