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REVIEW: Tamayomi: The Baseball Girls Episodes 1-12 Streaming


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DerekL1963
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Joined: 14 Jan 2015
Posts: 1112
Location: Puget Sound
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 3:35 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Tamayomi is death by mediocrity, a perfect combination of writing too cowardly to aim for anything more than agreeable and direction devoid of any voice. It is less than the sum of its parts, completely forgettable in every way.


I dropped it three or four episodes in for basically this reason... It didn't seem to be going anywhere, and the only "hook" it had was Yomi's "super" pitch. So, nothing in the review comes as a surprise.
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asneakysnake



Joined: 13 Sep 2019
Posts: 28
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:09 pm Reply with quote
After the initial disappointment of how much QUALITY there was I actually found the mediocrity endearing. Watching it weekly with others made it a lot more enjoyable too since there were plenty of goofy shots and lines. Sticking with it and getting to see sporty spice spoiler[finally hit a home run and claim her woman] was 100% worth it to me at least.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:14 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
as the pitcher stares the batter down from first base.

This series had a lot of problems, but I don't think they ever did anything quite that egregious in the gameplay, did they? Smile

Anyway, I agree with the reviewer's assessment. The most fun I had with this series was watching the umpires change with every pitch in the disaster of Episode 4, when Funimation didn't receive the final masters in time.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:59 pm Reply with quote
I think that I remember writing that I barely remembered anything despite just watching it.
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 604
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 1:44 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Quote:
as the pitcher stares the batter down from first base.

This series had a lot of problems, but I don't think they ever did anything quite that egregious in the gameplay, did they? Smile


Well... I said I don't know anything about sports, didn't I?
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ProlificSky



Joined: 26 Jun 2007
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:40 am Reply with quote
If you guys are looking for a good baseball anime featuring female players, might I suggest Major 2nd? The first season gets you acquainted with the male protagonist, but from the second, currently airing season, he joins a school with a predominantly female team. They play well and it's really well animated (it was a bit of shock compared to the first season).

Also, I know it's probably going to get brought up, but I don't think you need to have watched the first Major series (2004-2012), which happens to be a favorite of mine, to enjoy Major 2nd.
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Seagloom



Joined: 04 Nov 2017
Posts: 276
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:55 am Reply with quote
^^ Agreed. While Major 2nd is not a perfect replacement for anyone seeking an all-girl sports anime, and has a few small issues, I easily find it a more satisfying watch than Tamayomi.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5407
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:46 am Reply with quote
Tamayomi has crappy visuals, but I actually liked the characters and writing. The baseball stuff is also very accurate and engaging.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:55 am Reply with quote
I like Tamayomi. No world beater in terms of anything but character body designs; It was nice to see a show of girls playing baseball where they actually look like they could play baseball for longer than a few minutes. It was also refreshing to see a show with a decent reason why someone starts playing a sport in high school when they wanted to do it their entire life. I felt that the show also did a good job of showing how a person could improve right in the middle of a game... though why did it take so long for someone to point out that spoiler[Yomi's fastball and breaking ball traveling at the same speed was kind of odd?]

"Can I throw my special pitch?" Yomi a huge girl but she's just such a lovable goof who's just happy to be there on the mound throwing the way she wants. After her, the rest of the cast just needs to be there to fill out the roster for a harmless 9 innings/12 episodes.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 4:55 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Moreover, baseball is as much in the arms as the thighs, and they have no upper body muscle to speak of. I'm not asking for bodybuilders on par with Dorohedoro's Noi - just a bit of definition to show their strength.


Seems to me like we watched two different series. I normally do not watch sports anime, the closest thing I remember is Moshidora and that had as much sports as Sleepy Princess has damsels in distress. TBT the only reason I watched the whole series was because the girls had some truly muscular figures (whether it was on purpose, a mistake or some kind of revenge is anyone's guess). There was no muscle definition (which in a series with a shoestring budget is to be expected), but they had this huge backs and full arms (besides the larger than life legs). In the history of anime I do not recall even one series with cute girls (Noi is already a woman) with huge bodies (body parts do not count, so lily bouquet: assault does not count since above the waist they are your average anime girl).

As a side note, I think the personalities ringed true, they were not exciting (like say, the girls in Keijo) but they were the kind of girls you would expect to meet in real life, I also do not remember their names, but at the very least they have recognizable faces, no one face syndrome *coff*Touch*coff*

I checked the original manga and the girls were drawn differently, very wiry. Yeah, we could see some muscle definition in some panels, but imo they did not looked powerful like in the anime adaption.
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TheArsonAut



Joined: 17 Aug 2016
Posts: 29
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 5:08 pm Reply with quote
A baseball love story would've been great, which is what the cover was alluding to. So it wasn't a yuri baseball love story after all?

Crying or Very sad
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DarkAudit



Joined: 17 Oct 2020
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:15 pm Reply with quote
Not knowing anything about baseball is bad enough. Getting the entire backstory wrong is unforgivable. Yomi and Tamaki separated in grade school. The catcher who couldn't catch in middle school was someone else entirely. The two main characters didn't meet again until high school.

They revisited that reunion and the return of THAT pitch often. How could you have missed all that?
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Dark Mac



Joined: 17 May 2008
Posts: 309
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:46 pm Reply with quote
A B- for animation? That seems incredibly generous.

TheArsonAut: There are hints of yuri from time to time, but it doesn't really go anywhere. They would definitely date if the author had the courage to make a lesbian couple.
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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1291
PostPosted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 2:33 pm Reply with quote
DarkAudit wrote:
Not knowing anything about baseball is bad enough. Getting the entire backstory wrong is unforgivable. Yomi and Tamaki separated in grade school. The catcher who couldn't catch in middle school was someone else entirely. The two main characters didn't meet again until high school.

They revisited that reunion and the return of THAT pitch often. How could you have missed all that?

Exactly! I disagree with a lot of things about the review, but I can't even fathom allowing a review to be posted with factual errors about the storyline. This is SLOPPY, SLOPPY work, ANN! If you are going to pan a series, at least watch it with enough diligence to actually understand the basics of the story. If you didn't understand the ACTUAL basis of the TWO MAIN CHARACTERS' backstories, I can't really give any weight to this review at all.

To make it worse, the reviewer seems to think that the four main characters are "Tamaki, Yomi, Ibuki, and Yoshino" when it's fairly clear to me that it should be stated as "Tamaki, Yomi, Yoshino, and Nozomi". Nozomi gets as much, if not more, character development than Ibuki and spoiler[the one actual romantic relationship that develops during the course of the 12 episodes is the relationship between Nozomi and Yoshino, leading to an actual confession and the home run that Nozomi 'dedicates' to her girl by pointing to her while she rounds the bases. (I mean. it's apparent inevitability of the battery ending up as more than best friends in the long run, but there's nothing that really happens other than inuendo and their mutual possessiveness that shows that and it doesn't really develop, it's just always there.)
]

I personally enjoyed the series. I think it could have benefitted from both more episodes and a larger budget, but in the era of seasonal anime, we don't get that very often. What we did get was character designs that were brilliant! I don't think I have ever seen an anime where the women playing sports looked like the girls who played sports back when I was in college. Attractive, but ... stocky is the best term for it. Muscular... built... etc... Not thin and idol like. Kinda like real women!

And the baseball was excellent. The fact that it seemed, at the begining, that Yomi's "special pitch" was going to be some sort of magic pitch, it was nothing of the sort. It was, plain and simple, spoiler[a knucke-curve.] One of the harder to throw and control pitches in baseball, and also one of the hardest to hit for hitters and CATCH for catchers, when it is thrown right. If it misses, it hangs over the plate and... BOOM!

It also seems that there is no appreciation anymore for SUBTLE character development. Is there a reason that characters need to be outrageous or bigger than life to have their stories be heartfelt and meaningful? I found ALL of the character introductions of the girls on the team interesting, though many could have used more time. But the main 4 plus the twin and the two upper classmen were all very well rounded. I even enjoyed the tidbits about the teacher-coach. I'm sure the manga is better than the anime, since the anime was so limited due to episode count, but I can still appreciate the anime for what it was and the story it tells for what it is: a realistic slice-of-life story about realistic characters who beat the odds and outperform expectations... and are cute AF while doing it.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 3:03 pm Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
TheArsonAut: There are hints of yuri from time to time, but it doesn't really go anywhere. They would definitely date if the author had the courage to make a lesbian couple.


Huh? It seemed to me that many of the yuri couples were dating, but all that stuff was off-camera since this is sports themed series (we didn't got to see Goku & Chichi going on dates or doing ecchi stuff, since they are in a shonen fights series, where anything else must orbit around said fights).

I mean, in episode one we get the main character sniffing her lover interest, telling her out loud at every bodies hearing range she smells so good while hugging her and she is only moderately annoyed? They are not only a defacto couple, but the only question is at what base they are at and Hu is the catcher? No, she is on first base! Anime hyper
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