I discovered a pleasant little sports anime, Gurazeni: Money Pitch. I had high hopes for it, but after watching the first 4 eps, it is accurately described as a pleasant, laid-back, slice of life sports anime detailing the life of a pro baseball player. Why I had high hopes for it was because it was more 'realistic' in the sense that noone in the show has superhuman talent, tragic backstories, hot-blooded determination, or anything special about them that isn't present in ordinary Pro Baseball. What was interesting was that the main character's purpose in life is to make enough money during his professional career before he is eventually forced to retire so he can live comfortably off his earnings, the only problem being that he's just average as fuck. Actually, perhaps worse than average, because as far as mentality goes, he's second-rate. His motivation is something very petty, and he defines his self-worth in relation to his peers by his salary, which badly limits his performance, making him choke easily and be all-around unreliable; so in short, he's a loser that's peaked at 26 almost as a matter of fact.
The show came off to me as so initially likable, but the more I think about it, the crummier it seems. As our main character's obsession with money isn't unrealistic, but he's not destitute by any means, and he doesn't have a family to support, any debts to pay, nothing he really wants to buy, he just wants the extremely modest goal of being able to retire with money in the bank to live off of. Which is... not exactly something that makes you root for him, especially when it seems he doesn't pursue this goal with any real vigor or determination. Excepting only the first episode where he actually seems really pathologically determined by greed, which I initially found very likable because that made him seem like a guy that is average, but he can rise above his mediocrity through through the power of being so money hungry that he'll try hard and take risks to get what he wants, even if what he wants is lame as fuck. Subsequent episodes though revealed the chill, slice of life nature of the show, where I thought that show was going to be something more dramatic in the vein of One Outs, and our main character's money hungriness was forgotten about in favor of perusing the idle, average lives he and his teammates live.
And I was totally willing at first to overlook the subpar animation of the show, with the basic bitch character design and frequent usage of very non-charming CGI. Actually, the most interesting character is present in the ED, which is just a woman sitting on a hill as cute music plays to the credits. This woman is not present in the show itself, is unnamed, has no lines whatsoever, yet still is the most likable character in the show through virtue of a great deal of body language that gives the impression of her being an adorable, carefree soul.
I might stick with this show, if only because it's a very watchable show, but it's obviously unambitious in a way that makes you feel it's spoiling its own potential; and if there's anything that makes me resent something, it's the feeling of wasted opportunity.
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3082512 times)