DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyBallpark de Tsukamaete!

REVIEWS

• 

  patkarunungan

  70/100
  This is a great slice-of-life featuring the fans and staff of the Chiba MotorSuns Stadium.

  crossposted from MAL

  Catch Me at the Ballpark!, also known as The Catcher in the Ballpark!, is a lovely slice-of-life anime. I wasn't initially keen on watching it, but I could not ignore how so many anime watchers were praising it on Reddit so I dove in.

  My unfamiliarity with the term 'ballpark' led me to think that it's just a small, neighbourhood park where kids play baseball. In reality, 'ballpark' is a North American term for what I'd usually call a baseball stadium.

  If you read the synopsis, you will be left with the impression that this is perhaps another potential romance between the salaryman Murata Koutarou and Ruriko grounded in baseball. Whilst Murata and Ruriko are the key characters since the story is anchored on them, the anime is not exclusively about them. It's about fans of the Chiba Motorsuns and in general the community that this team fosters. (The Chiba Motorsuns are a stand-in for their real-world counterpart the Chiba Lotte Marines.)

  There are some baseball terms thrown in, but it's not necessary to know them in order to enjoy this anime. It's not a sports anime where the character arcs focus on each individual player. It focuses firstly on fans whom we might casually dismiss as NPCs. These fans can be security guards, the food seller, the mascot, etc. It leaves you with heartfelt impressions.

  Segments only last from 5–10 minutes. With its great characterisation, the storytelling is amazing. You don't need to know these characters over the long haul to get to know them and be left with a nice impression of each fan or staff.

  I had problems in some anime where, rather than a full episode of a single action, it's actually divided into segments. Such anime tend to have 4-koma manga as source material. But this is not a problem in this anime.

  It can be comparable to Bartender (2006), but the emotions you are left with are lighter and feel good.

  Ruriko and the rest of the beer vendors are attractive. They are drawn with a pretty face and a sexy figure. Even though Ruriko teases Murata, it doesn't seem to be cheap, sexualised fanservice. The same could be said of the rest of the beer vendors.

  There is some CGI that might be glaring, but by and large, they are easy to overlook. Animating the baseball matches, while fairly acceptable, is secondary to the story. It goes without saying that this is great for fans of slice-of-life anime but may not be what fans of sports anime are looking for.

  The OP and ED are quite catchy.

  In closing, this is a great, heartwarming slice-of-life anime. If you want something different to the typical sports anime, Catch Me at the Ballpark! is a perfect fit.

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• 

  Patriots015

  68/100
  Another teasing anime!! Wait nevermind.

  This anime is incredible yet plain. Going into this anime, I had little to no interest in Baseball. However, I seemed to enjoy this more and more as I watched. In essence, Catch Me at the Ballpark is a really entertaining slice of life show. Following Ruriko, a beer vendor at Motorsuns Ballpark.

  Why I love it

  Catch Me at the Ballpark! does a great job blending its comedy into the plot of each episode. The jokes never seem distracting and sometimes even help the plot. While there aren’t too many characters, they still fill out the cast with a diverse number of tropes that all fit around the Ballpark theme. Though admittedly If I hadn’t slowly developed a few inside jokes between my friends, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the comedy as much. I got lucky with none of the reoccurring gags being something I didn’t like.

  Why I hate it

  What bothers me the most about this anime is the way it portrays itself in it's marketing. It tries to sell you into this Idea that it’s a new entry into the “teasing genre” which it does seem like for a while. But the focus is more on this episodic showcase of different happenings in the ballpark. In no way is this romance between Ruriko and the Salaryman Murata the actual selling point of the story.

  Noteworthy Characters

  Ruriko: As the main character, her cute yet childish behavior is incredibly entertaining. The perfect vehicle to move the story along, having the ability to interact with both Motorsuns employees and Fans watching the game. Her tendency to spot Murata and immediately try to talk to him and tease Is a bit distracting, but it isn’t a dealbreaker for her character.

  Dennis Young: The unfortunate main victim of my own personal inside jokes surrounding this series. As a foreigner type character, he is pretty good. Dennis was basically the focus of my attention whenever an episode had him in it. The main gag that he has in this anime is that he spots Ruriko once and develops a small crush, causing him to get distracted in many scenarios sometimes messing up the team’s chance to win innings. The foreigner voice acting was pretty alright whenever him or Brian (the other foreigner) spoke.

  The OP & ED

  Both of these greatly compliment this anime and it's baseball theme. You typically see anime with weirdly generic or unrelated openings but both the OP and the ED fit well within the baseball theme. The ending is a bit flashy but I warmed up to it after a while.

  ---

  This about wraps up what I wanted to talk about with this series. I’m not that great of a reviewer but I just thought it would be nice to start putting my voice out there on my thoughts for some anime that I watch.

  Continue on AniList

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