A sleeper hit of the next season?
Summary:
- Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan.
- Despite that, most western otaku don’t actually care about baseball anime — but MAPPA’s Boukyaku Battery might change that.
- The trailer is a significant upgrade in visuals from the previously released special.
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan. If you’ve been watching anime for a while, you’ve probably seen baseball episodes in anime that aren’t otherwise about sports. Jun Maeda is famous for this — he’s the author of Angel Beats! and Clannad, but even outside of those, the sport is very often mentioned in anime.
Older fans probably remember the baseball episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu), and even anime where the sport can’t be played realistically sometimes manage to put it in — Dorohedoro is one such example.
Baseball anime aren’t that popular outside of Japan
However, actual anime about baseball are just as common. They’re not nearly as mainstream, though — definitely not as popular as sports anime like Haikyuu!! or Blue Lock. Major, Ace of Diamond (Diamond no Ace) and One Outs are somewhat known about. More experienced otaku are also aware of works by Mitsuru Adachi, such as Touch and Cross game.
In many countries that aren’t Japan or the US, the sport isn’t very popular — and the rules are very confusing. As such, anime about it doesn’t get that much traction, usually. It’s also a lot less dynamic and harder to portray than sports like volleyball or soccer. However, fans of the sport believe the newest MAPPA series, Boukyaku Battery, might change this.
The new PV gives fans hope
The manga already got an adaptation by studio MAPPA in 2020. However, it was in the form of a 20-minute special that hardly had any time to tell a proper story. The amnesia plot of the series reminds fans of another MAPPA anime, Re-Main — but the latter is an anime original series.
The new trailer shows some pretty impressive animation, which makes fans very confident about the anime. While the manga is published in Shounen Jump+ — an online spin-off of the Weekly Shounen Jump magazine — it doesn’t have much of a following. That said, this definitely might change if the anime looks as good as the trailer.
However, there are still concerns about the series. The previously released special actually didn’t look that impressive, especially for a MAPPA production. The great animation we see in the trailer might actually be made specifically for said trailer — only time can tell.
The anime is airing on April 10, so we will see its actual quality very soon. It is very possible for the series to be a sleeper hit of the Spring 2024 season.