Ballpark de Tsukamaete! – 03

As I expected this show doesn’t have much of a following in English. I’d kind if planned to go to view-only mode this week, but after that episode I felt I had to chime in given the amount of personal connections.

The first thing that needs to be said is that guy is right, the pizza is tiny here. I’m from Chicago and know of what I speak, like Dennis Young. Not only did Chicago pizza get a shoutout (I honestly don’t remember that happening in anime), the guy played for the Cubs too. I would also note that “blending in” is indeed a huge factor in how Japanese fans judge foreign players (of which each team is restricted to 4 on the active roster, per NPB rules). Do they embrace Japanese baseball culture, or sulk? While the most beloved import of them all, Hanshin’s Randy Bass, put up great numbers here he became so popular mainly for wholeheartedly embracing the country.

Dennis gets smitten by Ruriko – who does kind of look Western. So much so that he spaces out for most of a game staring at her, but eventually decides to stay another season because of her. That leads directly to a chapter about the Motor-Suns mascot, Sun-Shiro. Sun-Shiro is – hilariously – a sanshirou, Japanese giant salamander (seeing a real one is a bucket list item for me). There’s a great exchange with Dennis where the latter calls him fat, and the mascot replies that he’s just a little chubby from too much pizza. S-S, by the way, only communicates in writing – and he writes English quite well. He also acts as a sort of life and hitting coach to MotorSuns staff and players in need of support (including Koujima-san and Ruriko).

The last chapter finally gives up some Ruriko-Murata interaction, though it’s almost entirely of the teasing variety and not quite as amusing as the rest of the episode. Still, the two of them do sort of have an interesting chemistry and I’m curious to see where (if) it leads. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be doing further posts on Ballpark de Tsukamaete (I suspect it might be in the poll) but I’ll definitely be watching.

Uchuujin MuuMuu – 02

These shows fit rather neatly together, as part of Spring 2025’s all-ignored team. Uchuujin MuuMuu even more so, but again, I find it to be a pretty enjoyable watch. This series is a weird one for sure. It’s self-evidently cheap, sort of awkward in its pacing. But it has a certain something going on. It’s clever, and cheeky. Those are qualities I find pretty appealing in an anime, all else being equal.

This time around MuuMuu’s victim is the vacuum cleaner. And of course this is proof that he’s indeed an alien, for as we know vacuums are the arch-nemesis of cats. Sakurako lusts over a cyclone type and MuuMuu senses there may be something useful to his people (turns out he is a boy, apparently) in that concept. But all she has to explain to him is the paper bag type, which she does based on the manual. It’s certainly odd to get home appliance lessons in every episode, but as a relentlessly curious person I do sort of get a rise out of that.

MuuMuu also confides in Sakurako that if he’s not able to bring his species back from the technological dark ages in a year, they’ll invade the Earth. And even setting aside the whole cat thing (which is terrifying) the notion of a species robbed of knowledge of how their tech works but not the tech (including weapons) itself is a pretty ominous one. Eventually the pair of them wind up tracking down the “Human Regenerative Society” on campus, where they fix and reassemble old appliances. They also note that Sakurako’s were taken apart perfectly, as if by magic, with none of the components damaged. And it’s worth noting that Akihito has also joined the club – and that his kitty is an alien too…

These individual elements – the cat observations, Sakurako’s social anxiety, the geekery over engineering – all appeal to me. What they add up to I’m not exactly sure yet, which is why Me and the Alien MuMu seems more like a watch-only or poll candidate that a certain keeper. But as with Ballpark de Tsukamaete, I’m definitely enjoying it.