Battery

Kitsune942 Apr 26, 2017

6

I had a very difficult time assigning a rating to this show, because I feel like a lot of the subtext went over my head. I started watching it because it looked like an interesting combination of sports anime and slice of life genres. And in a way it was... there are sports... but there is more focus on character development and maturation than on said sports. However, a lot of things are left unsaid (which is perhaps part of why I found the anime so interesting but simultaneously so frustrating). I haven't been able to find an analysis of Battery by someone who actually knows what they're doing, but I wish there were something I could read to explain to me all that I missed. Without going into spoilers, I am fairly certain that a large portion of this show is a commentary on LGBT+ struggles during adolescence (as well as adolescence in general). I wouldn't tag this as BL or shounen-ai by any means, but it isn't "baiting" either. It can be subtle, and you could feasibly miss it. That being said, there are very strong implications that certain characters are grappling with these issues as they try to figure out how to interact with peers and navigate society. These characters are also in their early teens (with the "main" characters being 13 or 14), which is something that I had to keep reminding myself of as I watched. They aren't good at expressing themselves and honestly often times are incredibly immature, but to me that was part of the point! At that age, despite anime portrayals of junior high students who seem to be functioning at young adult level, we shouldn't expect them to have themselves figured out yet. Overall, I thought this was an interesting and entertaining anime. I thought the animation and sound were decent, and the story and characters were lacking in some ways but had a lot of depth in others. If not for the subtext, however, a lot of the characters would seem flat and underdeveloped. A lot is said in silence in this show. It frustrated me that I didn't understand parts of it, it frustrated me that characters sometimes behaved inexplicably or immaturely, but in the end I felt that those emotions were part of the purpose of this storyline. This is all my opinion of course, but I do think it is worth the watch if you have the patience and perspective. If you are not interested in the context of baseball, adolescence, or LGBT+ issues, though, then you may not enjoy it nearly as much.

cryingcowmann Apr 7, 2023

7

Hmm, This show was a lot of things- I can say that I don't think I fully understood everything that was happening and the subplot of the show, because it seemed much deeper than I was understanding. But the show was super enjoyable nonetheless.  Story: 8/10 I really liked the story- it was more focused on character development and the story outside of the sport, which I personally prefer. It used baseball as more of an accessory to the story rather than the meat of it, again I prefer this but I can understand those who don't. There were a few point in the story that confused me, such as a few characters got violent and attacked some other characters, even though I didn't really understand why. I am not sure if there were some undertones that flew over my head, or maybe the conversations didn't translate to english that well, but either way a few parts in the story felt forced because of that.  Another thing that bugged me about the story a little was what I call the "forgiveness trope" which is where something happens between to character, groups, or whatever, and in the next episode it's like it never happened? It doesn't happen to extremely in this show, but like (super vague and minor spoilers) when the two main characters fight- Takumi and Go- they say some mean things, and barge away from each other, nothing gets solved, or anything like that, they just stay disasified with each other. But the next time practice happens, they are fine again- or well mostly fine, if you squint there is some tension, and the Battery does preform a little bad at some parts, but overall they're fine, and give them a two second scene of laughing or something and the tension and problems are completely gone. Personally, I think that can be realistic in some situations, but I wanted to boil in that tension, I wanted to sit with their fight for a few episodes, and I wanted them to have a long- true make up. All things aside- the story was actually really good. They did a lot of great things with it, sure they could've handled a few things better, but I am just nit picky. Animation: 7/10 The intro and outro are gorgeous, but all the other animation is fine. There isn't anything SUPER remarkable about the animation, but it's consistent and nice to look at :) Sound: 7/10 Uhhhh- it was fine, nothing that leaped out at me- but also nothing that took me out of the moment. Characters: 7/10 The characters are the main driving point of the story- which I love. The only problem I had with them is some of them are a little floppy, like the mc's younger brother doesn't quite feel his age- and Go sometimes does things that I don't think he usually would- but otherwise they more or less stuck with their values, and didn't feel like they were just there to fill spaces in the plot, or worse, to be plot devices. Overall: 7/10 I actually really enjoyed this show (I enjoy most shows as long as there is no fan service) I wish there were some ladies in it, but you can only ask for so much from Sports anime :0 WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?? Short answer, depends. Long answer, if you like sports anime with a "darker" twist, or a sports anime that focuses on the characters and story rather than the plot, Yes. But it's not a show you HAVE to watch, it's a good watch, but you won't die without it. However, if you watch sports anime for the sport, or like wholesome silly stuff, or like everything to be spelt out to you on the first watch thro, no I don't think you'd like this show.

YuiYui Sep 6, 2017

5

Warning this Review May Contain Spoilers –Oh dear, what a train wreck this turned out to be. So the NoitamaA time slot has brought us a sports show about baseball whilst also taking in some darker issues surrounding rivalries and the main protagonist who is just completely unpleasant to anyone he even interacts with, which then leads to melodramatic issues and creating a problem where eventually the whole team ends up being unlikeable. To me, this show tried its best to be things such as Haikyuu or Free by adding all the over the top drama around a specific sport but crashed into something that was extremely boring and was nowhere near realistic. STORYI have mentioned already how they have used drama that just comes across as forced and not realistic at all. This drama doesn’t add much to the story, but it’s not like there is much of a story to give. It was all over the place and then after a while was just boring, I felt that they needed to put more effort into the characters they are creating in order to make the story interesting enough to watch – which it wasn’t. ANIMATIONThis is the only reason I gave this show a higher score, the animation is decent…I mean there isn’t much to it but at least it doesn’t reflect on how bad the story actually is and gives this show something to hold onto. The issue is that it is very basic, along with a pretty basic scenario that is all you need. SOUNDEh, it was alright. Again nothing much to say in this section either, it was passable and I don’t actually have much to complain about. Like the opening was alright, the ending was alright and the voice-acting fitted at least to the annoying characters that there was, but still just leaves me feeling kind of meh. But I feel like my overall opinion on the show has effected how the animation and sound impacted me, so slightly bias. CHARACTERSOkay, now, this here is where we get to the big rant. So I think I can safely say that the majority of characters in this show are just plain unlikeable and don’t add much to the melodramatic arcs that could have been easily avoided if they weren’t so idiotic to one another. I feel like it gives something different to have an extremely moody main character compared to the hyperactive characters you see all too often in sports shows, but when that protagonist ends up bringing the whole team down into a pit of boringness it’s just bad. There may have been a couple of characters that were quirky enough to add something to the show at least but this isn’t enough to push the bar up to make me enjoy the show. And that is why I have given this show such a low score, and I think quite a few people on this site have already stated a load of these things already. With that, this ends another one of my reviews…goodbye.-AngelBeatsYui-Ps: This Review is for the Monthly Marathon August/September 2017