What’s it about? In highschool, Kaname Kei and Kiyomine Haruka have been a fearsome battery that defeated numerous hitters. Their dominance on the baseball diamond was so absolute that lots of those that encountered them stop baseball altogether. The one factor that ended was when a blow to the top gave Kei amnesia, and he forgets every little thing he knew about catching. Now the 2 begin at a nondescript public highschool with no aggressive baseball staff…
If I had a nickel for each anime MAPPA made a couple of promising highschool athlete who begins highschool with amnesia, I would have two nickels. That is not a lot, however it’s bizarre that it occurred twice.
Oblivion Battery and the amnesiac catcher relies on a manga that began in 2018 and predates 2021 To remain, which is about an amnesiac water polo participant, aged about three. I have never seemed To remain, so that is the top of the comparisons I’ll make. And as summer season approaches, I’ve seen precisely zero MAPPA anime about highschool athletes with amnesia.
Certain, it appears good. This is applicable to all first episodes of MAPPA. The character animation is superb and nice care has been taken in using gentle and shadow. (My present fixation on unhealthy animation is unhealthy lighting. When you begin noticing it, you may by no means cease, and most anime have terribly carried out lighting.) However the character designs have a unusually off high quality. The proportions are unusual – their heads are too small, or perhaps their faces? It appears to range from reduce to chop. Or perhaps it is within the frizziness of their hair. I do not know, and I do not care sufficient to attempt to discover out.
The most important drawback, except for MAPPA’s horrible labor practices, is Kaname Kei, our poor, lumpy catcher. He is annoying. Unbelievable even. I’ve endured and even loved many Genki sports activities anime protagonists, and I’ve by no means needed to strangle one the way in which I prefer to think about Kei. The boy whines each time he’s requested to make the slightest effort and is OBSESSED with nipples. The very first thing he says when he meets the POV character Yamada Tarou is “Nipple hair!” And when Yamada would not reply, he repeats it. After which a 3rd time.
Not even Miyano Mamoru could make this nitwit charming.
…And I do not actually have a lot else to say. Every other feeling Oblivion Battery might have constructed up in me is totally blocked by my antipathy for its utter ninny of a protagonist. No jokes about catching and throwing or a gap by Mrs. Inexperienced Apple (who did a wonderful job). Firepower opening “Inferno”) might save this for me.
