Gurazeni – 07

It’s quite interesting to watch Watanabe Ayumu’s two baseball series (more or less) back-to-back.  Undeniably both are about the love of baseball, as baseball manga almost have to be.  But they could hardly be more different in the angle from which they approach it.  It’s been said (including by me) that pro baseball is a kid’s game played by grown men, but there are some deep and profound differences between a game and a sport.

Gurazeni could almost be looked at as a mini-Giant Killing for the way it comprehensively examines a pro sport, but Gurazeni is less concerned about the peripheral aspects on more focused on the psychology of the players themselves.  We’ve seen many different slices of that pie, guys at different stages in their careers – and this time around it’s Tohko-san, a 32 year-old catcher and career minor leaguer.  Bonda-san notes that in NPB teams typically carry three catchers – in MLB it’s almost always only two – and the life of the “4th” is a tough one.  He’s on the shuttle between the minors and the big club, filling in as needed – and in this case, making the equivalent of about $50K a year.  That’s not bad money, but when your career is this short, it’s not any kind of safety net either.

The irony of Tohko’s former high school backup, Kitamura-san, making twice his salary as a reporter is duly noted by Bonda.  Kitamura is also kind of a douche, as he aggressively tries to get his former teammate to retire so he can join his father’s pharma company as a sales rep.  It’s awkward for Bonda when he walks in on this conversation, but I was kind of hoping he’d intervene – as a fellow player he should take Tohko’s side here, even if Tohko is at a point in his career where the future looks pretty bleak.  Tohko’s clock in life may be ticking, but his baseball clock is running even later – he should chase his impossible dream for as long as he’s allowed to.

I like a lot of the little details here, like the way Watanabe shows us Tohko framing pitches and the peculiar “rules” surrounding stealing bases late in blowouts.  Ultimately I think Tohko’s shining moment – hitting for the cycle, calling a shutout and throwing out a base stealer – is an aberration rather than a renaissance.  But for a guy like him, it’s still magic – and proof that as long as the spirit is willing and the body is able, one should never give up on the dream no matter how unreachable it might seem.

Gegege no Kitarou (2018) – 08

This was a relatively low-key episode of Gegege no Kitarou as compared to the last few, but that didn’t make it any less of a winner.  The production values with this series continue to be superb – fluid animation, minute background detail, really clever direction.  And of course this week featured the return to prominence of Mana-chan and Neko Musume, both of whom have been relatively quiet for a while.

The youkai of the week this time is really two – there’s Kagami-jiji, the old lech who lives in his mirror world and peeps at girls (and is an original Mizuki creation).  And then there’s the Gasha-Dokuro, a very prominent youkai in Shinto mythology (and Mizuki mythology) and one of its most terrifying (even if traditionally, it doesn’t shoot laser beams from its eye socket).  When a couple of boys from Mana’s class knock over a gravestone during a field trip to an isolated village, they awaken an unwanted guest – and it holds a grudge against those it deems responsible for desecrating its grave.

It’s clear pretty early-on that Kagami-jiji is basically a good guy here, even if he’s too bashful to defend himself and Mana is too terrified to tell the difference.  Still, the interplay between Kagami and the denizens of the Forest (especially the older generation) is excellent.  It’s also pretty funny that he tells both Mana and Catchick that he reminds them of his first love, but that’s Kagami-jiji.  He’s a scoundrel in that way, but basically a decent old fellow who’d much rather protect the innocent than hurt them (which he’d never do).

Also of note – I’m pretty sure I saw Shiro hanging around Gegege Forest – if it wasn’t, it was another Sunekosuri who sure looked like him.  After the bleak ending to Episode 06, it would be nice to think his appearance here was planned all along – I’d like to think Kitarou felt for Shiro and took him home so he’d have some company in the world.