Moshidora – The Review

So it turns out putting all my eggs in Moshidora’s basket wasn’t the smartest of things to do and I kind of lost interest in the rest of the season because of it. That being said Moshidora was probably the show which was most affected by the disaster in Japan being delayed by near on a month and then having its 10 episode run squashed into 2 weeks. Still I doubt that had it been aired weekly would it have improved it.

So here is my final thoughts on the series which didn’t turn out to be winner but was still rather enjoyable and at 10 episodes is worth a run if only for the last 3 episodes.

For those who haven’t followed Moshidora, it’s a sporting anime with a twist. Minami Kawashima is a school girl who takes up a management position on her high school’s baseball team in place of her friend who is in hospital. She buys a book on sports managment to help her but accidently gets a book for business management (Drucker‘s Management). Owing to her thick-headedness or just plain laziness she decides to make do and use Drucker’s book as a guide. Thats the premise of the show; a girls manages a baseball team using the principles of Druckers management textbook.

The first half of the series chronicles how Minami puts together her management team and motivates the rest of the team utilising Drucker’s Management. You can read about them in my earlier posts here and here. The show only really comes into its own in the last 3 eps. We only get our first REAL baseball game when they reach the semi-finals in episode 8 and then the show turns on its head.

But before we get there let me just say that the first 6 eps aren’t bad they just seem wasted. I mentioned in my earlier posts that 10 eps was way too short for the show but back then I imagined a different path for the show to follow, in hindsight, 10 eps was fine but they could have sqeezed more actual “sport” action into say 12 eps.

Be warned, here be spoilers! When Minami see’s that miscall from Miyata at the end of episode 8 even I was thinking oh she just wanted to know how the game went and that all would be well. Oh how wrong I was. The turning point of the show is when when Minami breaks done after the news of Miyata’s passing and yes its kak sad, manly tears were shed.

From this point on the tone of the entire show changed and for those of us who actually paid attention in the preceding eps we’re rewarded as Production I.G. found a way to link every happening in the final two episodes to events earlier in the show. Just goes to show that with all good management is just good planning and preperation and it always pays off.

The final match was extremely exciting, it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. They kept everything real, the good players played well and the crap players buckled under the pressure, there was none of that the-last-person-you-expected-to-save-the-day saving the day malarky and that made me happy. They day was won on teamwork and strategy, just like baseball should be.

In Closing; Moshidora is a slow burner but once the fuse eventualy runs its course it explodes into show full of emotion and passion, a rewarding watch for those who are willing to go the short distance.