Princess Nine Volume 1: First Inning - Animesou

• Media Source:Animesou
• Reviewed By:fourfour44
• Review Date:10/23/01
• Read the original review click here

'Princess Nine'
written by: fourfour44

Synopsis
Nine girls. Nine dreams. The goal is to go all the way to Koshien and win the national tournament for Japanese High School Baseball, a typical dream for many high school athletes. The twist to this story is that this is the first high school girls baseball team, whose goal is not to create a league of their own, but to play on a level playing field with the male dominated sport of baseball. Finding enough players to fill out the team, then striving for acceptance into the league, and finally competing for the first time in the tournament, the freshman year of these girls is filled with many struggles and first experiences.

Review
From ADV films comes what many would call a 'sleeper hit.' Not only is the sports genre of animation not very popular in the US (probably mainly due to no one wanting to even take a chance and release any of them here), but this is not just a sports show, but a sports show featuring a team of females. Hopefully the small amount of success, and massive positive feedback this series is getting will convince ADV (or other companies) to license more sports genre shows.

Princess Nine is one incredible show, and a very big surprise to many. Not only tackling the subject of high school sports, but the entry of girls into playing these sports as well. The series is masterfully written, from the very introduction of Hayakawa Ryo, a young girl graduating from Junior High, with no plans of attending High School (which is not required in Japan, compulsory education ends with 9th grade, the 3rd year of Junior High), instead she plans on helping her mother with her Oden Bar.

All that changes, however, when Ryo is spotted during her recreational activities, where she is the relief pitcher for the neighborhood baseball team (where the other team members hang out at the Oden Bar most of the time). After school, Ryo races to the field to finish off the games. One day she is scouted by Himuro Keiko, the head of the school board at the local prestigious Kisaragi Girls High School, the sister school to the Kisaragi High School (an all boy school with a very good baseball team). Keiko?s goal is to establish a girls baseball team at the high school and have them win the tournament at Koshien within 3 years.
She offers Ryo a scholarship to the high school and after a bit of deliberation, she accepts and the building of the Kisaragi Nine begins. The early episodes deal with scouting new players, generally girls with problems that need a bit of convincing from Ryo. But eventually the team is formed (complete with their manager, the airhead Nene).

There is quite a bit more to the story, a love triangle (or more precisely a quadrangle) develops between the star baseball player, Hiroki, and the eventual 4th batter of the girls team, Himuro Izumi (yes, the daughter of the chairman), who gave up being a star tennis player to be on the baseball team. The triangle expands to Ryo?s childhood friend as well as a very heavy Kansai accented 1st base player Hikaru.

After the team is finally formed, the story takes a few more directions, as well as finding out more about Ryo?s father, who was a Professional Baseball player, and a good friend of the teams coach. The next arcs follow the girls gaining acceptance into the tournament as well as their training and character development needed, creating a very solid team all sharing the same goal.

While a bit predictable, there are a few surprises along the line and like with most sports animation, the fun is in the journey and the characters, and this series has great characters, as well as great development. The ending is a bit of a surprise as well, but really the only way they could have believably ended such a story.

The Pros:
Excellent characters, great story, a specially low priced release from ADV.

The Cons:
It ends, with no real promise of a second season. A bit predictable at times, but also a good deal of suprises.

Genre: Sports, Shoujo, Drama

Language: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0 (re-recorded Japanese DD5.1 track not available in R1)

Extras: Not too many here, but in the series itself the eyecatches all act as player profiles, which are overlayed in the show itself, but included uncut in the extras, along with the information. Also included are the R2 covers for the DVD and VHS releases, as well as profiles of the Japanese seiyuu and English VAs. Also included are the obligatory clean OP and ED, as well as karaoke versions. So overall not a whole lot, but they do round out the release.

Package: Simple but gets it's point through.

Likes: Great characters, great scenes of baseball games

Dislikes: Not much of a possibility of a second season to be made

Animation ?8- Typical for TV animation, detailed when needed, less so when detail isn?t as important.

Sound ?8- Typical TV stereo sound, uses left and right channels in the appropriate ways.

Story ?9- Excellent characters, not original all the time, but there are a few suprises, the story is the main focus.

Recommend ?9- Highly recommended, an excellent series, even if you aren?t much of a baseball fan, there is more than the sports to make the appeal of the show.

The Breakdown
Alpha adds - Princess Nine is about a group of female baseball players who wants to be given an equal chance and compete in the boys' league. The story is very deep and plus the price is a steal. ^_^

Rating: 8.5
Scores are based on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = crap 10 = excellent)

Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2001 (Archive on Friday, November 23, 2001)