Battery

[faded_lace]

“No matter what happens, I’ll always follow you. That’s my duty, so keep it in mind. Since the catcher is the pitcher’s wife.”

So I started watching Battery with yomimashou last night, and let me tell you, it is amazing. I have no words for how beautiful it is. It’s like the perfect shounen sports manga storyline, except without the really long sports scenes and with a pleasingly brisk pace (aka no dealing with overly drawn out communication problems or stubbornness). The two main characters— a child prodigy pitcher and the only catcher who can catch his ball— are pretty adorable, albeit the catcher being slightly annoying at the beginning, and people are continuously explaining that that catcher is the pitcher’s wife. The catcher himself says he’ll follow the pitcher no matter where he goes.

And the best part is that the pitcher is played by Nakayama Yuma, probably the cutest JE teen (junior? No one is really sure) since Jun was a little one. And seriously, guys, he's so cute. He just loves his band (NYC) so much, he responds in interview questions that the best thing that happened to him recently was getting to see his bandmates when he came to Tokyo from Osaka, and despite that NYC is practically brushed under the rug next to Hey! Say! JUMP a lot of the time, he's said how much he'd love to have a solo tour just with NYC. He loves Osaka too, it's so cute, and he's always talking about being conflicted about seeing his bandmates in Tokyo and his family in Osaka. He's just adorable, and I love him.

But yeah, seriously. Battery. Watch it. ♥

Comments

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

...hahaha I find it hilarious that you're watching this now, when I'm watching Asano Atsuko's OTHER awesome slashy series in No.6 :P

And my very first copy of a Japanese phonebook manga magazine--Asuka--was the first issue the Battery manga started in. Crazy coincidence~

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read that they were the same author XD; Awesome. I'm just a sucker for sports series... XD;;;

Wow, intense! XD; I didn't know there was a manga-- weren't they novels originally?

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

I know they were novels, but there's definitely a manga series about a pitcher and his catcher called "Battery", so very possibly it was made after the novels? No.6 was novels originally and is now being serialized as a manga, and I know that the Kyou Kara Maou series were novels originally before being made into an anime and then serialized as mangas, so it'd hardly be the first time :D

Aaaaand checking on animate, Asano Atsuko's listed as the author for the comic! Here~

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome! I knew No. 6 was a manga after being a novel, but I had no idea that Battery had been too~ You learn something new every day XD;

[britkit27.livejournal.com]

...is this based on that borderline-BL baseball anime/manga? This one. because that plot sounds super familiar... >>

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

Nope, every part of the franchise (manga, novel, and drama) were called "Battery," and the manga is here~ It's pretty clear that it's like Prince of Tennis-- intentionally a step gayer than your average shounen series, but not explicit. It's really quite good, and I would definitely recommend it, if you have the time. There's only 10 episodes and it goes down very easily. Plus, Yuma is the best.

[britkit27.livejournal.com]

Oh. Well, then there's two vaugely-BL manga/anime based around the questionable relationship between catcher and pitcher XD

And I am in the process of downloading the first episode. Mind, with my internet, that means it's probably going to be a while >>

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

That surprises me... not at all. XD;

Awesome. Let me know what you think... Yuma is such a sweetie pie. ♥

[britkit27.livejournal.com]

yeah...I suppose we should be surprised there aren't more.

:D will do.

[calligraphe.livejournal.com]

So I read your summary and immediately thought to myself, "Aha, Baseball metaphors: ur doin it literal."

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

Basically! Though I don't know if the pitcher is necessarily doing the pitching... XD;