Moshidora 01: A Tale of Two Girls. And some stuff about managing baseball.

Peter Drucker, a leading figure in business management and often referred to as its very father. His book Management has been called the Bible of contemporary businessmen.

This is the story of a high school girl who takes an ordinary baseball team to the summer nationals with Management in hand.

Actually, that's two high school girls. That's twice the appeal.

Not being interested in business, management, or business management, the only reason why I wanted to cover this series was the seiyuus.

Okay, so the idea of using a management tome to govern a baseball team is interesting. But not as interesting as Yuri undertones in the relationship between two high school girls.

Straw hats: accessory of choice for wandering samurai and frail high school girls.

This is Miyata Yuki, manager of the Hodokubo Public High School Baseball Team. 16 years old, she’s been in and out of hospital all her life, but refuses to let her condition stop her from doing the things she loves.

This is Hanazawa Kana’s first time voicing an Ojou/Yamato Nadeshiko character (at least, the first I’ve seen). A beautiful soft-spoken polite frail yet determined young lady. The first uppercut to the nutbladder.

Putting the sexy back in boring generic serafuku.

And this is Kawashima Minami. Also 16 years of age and a second-year student of Hodokubo Public High School, she’s been a close friend to Yuki since childhood. She rashly decides to help Yuki take the baseball team to the Nationals.

Voiced by Hikasa Youko. I cannot restrain myself. Hikasa Youko – finally playing a joushikousei who is more brash, more outgoing, yet is as cute as Mio. I knew I put her on my Top 10 Joushikousei list for a reason. The second uppercut to the nutbladder.

Those souless eyes. Let's just hope it was intentional.

There is a third girl: Houjou Ayano. I’m not quite sure what’s her story at the moment. But I’m speculating (wildly) that she’s on the team because of one of the guys. And then said guy will fall for Minami/Yuki and Ayano will start knifing people.

Voiced by Nakaya Sayaka. This is her first ever seiyuu role, but she’s relatively well-known from being a member of girl group AKB48.

Fun fact: Girl group AKB48 hold the Guinness World Record for The Pop Group With The Greatest Number of Members, with 56 members as of April 9th, 2011. They are divided into teams. Holy shit, I could totally imagine an anime crossover between AKB48 and Highschool Of The Dead. They’d be like Navy SEAL teams. Just, they’re not actually Navy SEALs but idols.

lolwut

Why didn’t cute girls pull this stuff on me when I was in high school?

Obvious answer – because I wasn’t on the baseball team. Oh woe.

OP: Yume Note

Sung by azusa, who also did the Amagami SS OPs. This is another win for Moshidora right there.

ED: Daisuki Dayo

This one’s performed by momo. It’s… pretty bland. I think. I doubt I’ll be sitting through the ED for future episodes.

Final Impressions:
I don’t actually know what to expect from Moshidora so far. I can’t decide whether to take it as a form of entertainment, or whether I can actually pick up tips on the art of managing people.

But so far, I love Minami, I like Yuki, and I’m expecting disturbingly wondrous things from Ayano. I might even replace my current Ayase-tan gravatar with Ayano’s soulless eyes.

I just hope that Production I.G decides on a focus soon. Right now it’s struggling to balance the time spent on management theory and high school banter, and as a result both the pacing and dialogue suffer.

Fortunately, Moshidora’s overall premise makes the grade (unlike a certain other Financial anime that I’m covering) and barring serious plot derailment -such as Ayano stabbing people, which I’m actually wishing for out of personal amusement – it looks like it’ll turn out to be genuinely enjoyable.

Loli flashbacks. Nutbladder uppercut No. 3.