Here’s yet another sports series, and arguably the most sports-driven yet.  I’m not sure when the last season with this many sports anime airing was, but it has to be have been a few years at least.  It’s a pretty wide stylistic range, too – and I think it can be said that Gurazeni is a pretty unique show not only in this group, but altogether.  Some sports series appeal more to the general audience using sports as a canvas, but it’s hard to imagine anyone who isn’t a hard-core baseball fan even following what this series is on about – much less giving a damn about it.

I made note in my Hinamatsuri post that I always get a little suspicious when a director is supposedly helming two series in a season – in reference to that series’ director Oikawa Kei.  Somehow it had completely slipped past me that Watanabe Ayumu was directing Gurazeni as well as Major 2nd.  So, in effect, not only is he directing two series but it’s a baseball doubleheader to boot.  I can see what drew him to Gurazeni – there’s something about this premise that seems to synch with Watanabe’s sensibility.  But it’s going to be a show with a selective appeal, that’s for damn sure.

Series concerned with the business of a sport have certainly come along before – Giant Killing comes to mind – though I can’t think of another that so overtly concerned itself with the financial side of a pro sport from the perspective of a player.  The protagonist here is Bonda Natsunosuke (Ochiai Fukushi), a 26 year-old middle reliever making ¥18 million (about $160,ooo) per season.  He’s what American baseball otaku like to call a LOOGY (Lefty One-Out GuY), a journeyman whose principal job is to come in and get one left-handed batter out. They don’t make a ton of money (more so in MLB, but not a ton), but if they’re good at their job they can carve out a long if unglamorous career.  And that, as Bonda-san would tell you, is important.

It’s certainly true that baseball players have to make as much money as they can, because even if they’re good enough to stick at the top level, once they hit 30 their clock is really ticking.  And Japanese ballplayers don’t make as much as MLB players to begin with.  So seeing a guy like Natsunosuke-san, who’s a very likeable everyman protagonist, be so concerned with money is a refreshing change.  Those siren songs of post-retirement – color commentator, pitching coach – can’t be counted on, as they’re elusive prizes often reserved for ex-star players.  I have a very easy time believing that the picture Gurazeni paints – the workaday players being obsessed with contracts and quizzing each other about it in the bullpen – isn’t that much of a stretch from reality.

The other perspective this premiere touches on is that of Tokunaga-san (Namikawa Daisuke) an ex-player from Bonda’s home prefecture who was only slightly better, and ended up getting a commentary job through his connections.  I don’t know if it’s true that break-in radio color guys only get ¥3 million in Japan, but if so money has to be an even bigger worry for Toku-san.  And he’s one of the lucky ones – he got a job that kept him around the game.  For somebody like Natsunosuke-san, who started as a pro straight out of high school, the options post-baseball look pretty bleak.  It’s no wonder he’s so intent in finding “the money buried under the pitch“.

What I really appreciate, as a seriously obsessive stat-geek baseball fan, is how well Gurazeni knows the material.  Stuff like the pressure on guys just up from the minors, the difference between being able to go all-out as a reliever or pace yourself as a starter – that’s baseball.  I can’t possibly imagine it’s going to appeal to anyone outside the very core of baseball anime fans who love baseball as much as I do, but for those few of us a show like Gurazeni is kind of rare treat.  It’s also fascinating to get an insider look at the business side of NPB – how it’s similar to MLB, and how it differs above and beyond the vast gap in wealth.  Bring it on, I say – this is red meat for me, even is the season already has a full teishoku of sports anime.