Little Toy Robot

I watched the first five episodes of Princess Nine over the weekend. I wasn’t even going to admit that publicly, but perhaps my heart has opened up a little as I’ve grown older, because I enjoyed it very much. Even though it’s a bit girly.

The series, recommended to me, kinda, by Tangognat, is summed up in an Amazon.com review:

When he died 10 years ago, Ryo Hayakawa’s father left more than the restaurant Ryo’s mother runs: his daughter inherited his talent for baseball, including a jet-propelled fastball. Determined to overcome sexist opposition and make a girls’ team the national champion, Ms. Himuro, the head of prestigious Kisaragi High, gives Ryo a scholarship. Then complications arise: snobbish tennis ace Izumi dislikes Ryo; handsome baseball star Hiroki is smitten with her; drunken coach Kido has to find enough top players. Hiroki’s attraction is understandable as Ryo’s a very likable character. She’s not a klutz or a whiner, as many anime heroines are; she’s proud of her abilities but surprised at where they take her.

The first episodes deal with building the team: tracking down and discovering new talent and bringing new players into the fold. All the girls have unique personalities, so it’s interesting to watch them interact and try to play together.

But the best thing of all is that their baseball skills are like superpowers. One girl even has a swing that’s called the “Wave Motion Swing” that’s linked mystically to the ocean! A few times, I caught myself thinking that wielding a baseball bat is like a surrogate for wielding a sword, and that is cool and fun to watch.

[I do find it strange, however, is that on the ADV site, the baseball cards for the players display their names in a vaguely Hebrew-like font.]

It’s not a series I would buy, because it doesn’t have robots in it, but I’ve added the rest of the DVDs to my Netflix queue.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2004 at 10:05 am and is filed under baseball, movies & tv.