Princess Nine Vol. 1: First Inning Review

Originally published on otakureview.net

The Intro

I like anime, I like baseball, I like girls. This happens to be an anime about girls playing baseball so it's only natural that this title found a way to gravitate itself towards me and work it's way into my DVD player. Another brilliant release by ADV (can my regular readers tell who my favorite anime company is??) this title brings together many of my favorite things and plot lines together in one wonderful title that I wish that I had found sooner.


The Story

Hayakawa Ryo is a girl with an arm that American major league pitchers could only dream of. Born with the ability to throw incredible fast balls, this 15 year old (why is 15 such a default age for girls in anime??) is on her way to graduating jr. high school and leaving school for good so that she can help her sweet single mother in her Oden shop but it seems that fate has a different plan indeed and in this case, fate is named Chairman Himuro Keiko who happens to be not only the president of a multi billion dollar corporation but also the head of the Board of Trustees at Kisaragi Women's Senior High School.

As the series opens, we learn that this incredibly successful business woman has added a new dream to her list of incredible accomplishments. She wants to form a girl's baseball team at her high school to compete against the men's teams and win the national championship at Koshien within three years time. Absolutely determined, she gives scholarships to those girls that fit the needs of her team.

Well, as one might imagine, finding nine skilled female baseball players in a country where baseball is a completely male dominated sport isn't as easy as one might expect but determined she presses on and one by one, members are added coming from all over the country to play on this team.

Five players are added to the team in this first five episode disc. The first player to be added is our star pitcher Ryo Hayakawa. Next up would be Yoshimoto Hikaru and the very quiet Azuma Yuki. Followed by the former young track and field star, Morimura Seira and one more incredible batter from up north.

The Good and the Bad

I have to admit that I was very excited to get the first volume of this anime. It's been something that I've been intrested in seeing for a very long time and so once I put it into my player I watched from beginning to end and was not disapointed in the least. This anime has very few flaws in it and the ones that it does currently show are forgivable since they still have five more volumes to go.

My main criteria are all met for this series. The story is absolutely wonderful... there's something about girls fighting against the odds and trying to prove themselves that just gets to me in a good way. I don't know, maybe I'm just a sucker for females who aren't afraid to prove themselves. The animation is also wonderful. Not a single part of this was animated in a way that I didn't enjoy. Especially the baseball specific scenes, you really got a good feel for things and the animation really kept you wrapped up in each and every moment.

The next two criteria that I always check for are characters and music. The characters in this anime are wonderful so far. I don't have any problems with not liking a single one of them. While the cast is still small (only 5 members of the team are actually added in this volume) you really do get a feel a slight feel for each characters quirks and personalities. The only problem is that even with this, the characters still feel a little under developed to me and the storyline moves just a bit too slowly. But as I said earlier, this is only the first volume so I am completely unconcerned with this as I'm sure the pace will pick up as soon as more characters are added and the real storyline really begins.

The music is another big plus with this series as both the opening and ending themes are wonderfully done with soft pop melodies. The tunes and lyrics are definitely worth listening to a few times.

Most of the time I never get to mention DVD extras for anime reviews and while this is one is barely different there is one thing that I do enjoy that they stuck in. For the intermission breaks of each episode we are treated to a short animation of two characters from the team and their personal stats (position, ht, wt, throwing arm, batting arm, batting order position, hobbies, etc, etc) but they go by so quickly so ADV has taken the liberty of adding in those stat sheets as an extra for you to view at your leisure. Oh and for those of you doing the math, yes there are two stat sheets for each episode and since there are five episodes to this disc, we end up with 10 sheets. Nine players and one manager which I'm anxiously looking forward to seeing in the second disc.

Overall

As you might expect, as a sports anime one can pretty much guess where this series is going to go and what is going to happen in each disc as they get closer and closer to their goal of a national championship but with this series it's different since it's not the sports that is the most important part so much as the relationships that are being formed between the players.

If you enjoy sports and anime, you owe it to yourself to pick up this series and give it a spin. I know that I certainly didn't regret it and am already anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next volume. If you do not like sports however, I suggest you pick this series up anyway and just give it a try. There is almost no sports jargon thrown about so you won't be confused by lack of knowledge. If more reality based anime is your speed, check it out. There are much worse ways to spend your afternoon than watching this wonderful series.