Princess Nine

Title:Princess Nine
Princess 9
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: HIKAMI Kyoko
KAWASUMI Ayako
KOYASU Takehito
R1 License - Right Stuf Intl
Ryo Hayakawa had made her choice to not attend High School to help her single mother run the family Oden restaurant. But her miraculous efforts as a pitcher for a community sandlot team, has come to the attention of someone special. Ryo is offered a full scholarship to the prestigious and elite Kisaragi Girls' High School, but with a condition that she agree to pitch for an all girls high school baseball team. And so Ryo gets involved in a scheme to upset the baseball status quo, to allow an all girls baseball team to attend the Koshien High School play off game

26 episodes (dubbed). Boxed release by ADV (rated age 13+)
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 7 6 7 6 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:788#1552]
(Rent-/ Watch+)

This one proved quite the mixed bag throughout its run for me. Princess Nine is a sports drama about a baseball team of girls trying to overcome adversity and prejudice to be acknowledged as equals to the boys when they try to get involved in the national tournament to take part in competition at Koshien Stadium. Much of the series focuses around the team coming together and dealing with a number of obstacles that halt their efforts at competing in the Koshien tournament such as the school principal, tensions between some of the teammates and scandal. The series does give focus to the personalities and backgrounds of each of the girls, many of whom fulfill a specific character type yet are likeable for the most part. The first half is actually rather solid in its developments with the girls teaming up, training and learning to be a cohesive team despite their differing personalities and dealing with those trying to thwart their formation.

While having a likeable cast though, Princess Nine does have some pretty significant issues. The series apparently dug into shoujo anime cliches in setting up its plot, the biggest hurting the series being its melodrama and romantic predicaments for its second half. Princess Nine has a big habit of greatly exaggerating on a number of the dilemmas faced by the characters throughout the title's run, which tend to get rather overbearing at points. The romantic developments on the love triangle that are focused on in the second half prove to be the biggest setback to the use of melodrama in this series as it has no major relevance to the main plot on the girl's baseball team and is rather bland due to the exaggerated dramatics that the series pulls with the whole thing, which even lead them to affect the girls at points during their baseball games and take away from that aspect to the plot. Also, the Koshien tournament's depiction in the anime is rather underwhelming with only one or two episodes devoted per game on ir and much of the romantic melodrama dominating the storyline by that point.

In terms of presentation, Princess Nine sports standard quality visuals with reasonable detail and subdued color tones on character designs and scenery. The animation has its rough moments with character designs usually getting off-model and reused animated frames coming from a number of baseball scenes. The soundtrack consists of dramatic and upbeat tracks that do their part at trying to enhance the melodrama of the series, but are rather forgettable and don't match up to the epic scale they attempt to portray.

While the girls among the team are a likeable bunch and get some solid developments, Princess Nine's melodrama and romantic developments get way too much emphasis as the series presses on, eventually getting to a point where they are more prominent than the struggles of the girls being recognized as well as the boys' teams. While having its solid moments, I don't think I'm hopping back to this series anytime soon.

Last updated Thursday, August 15 2013. Created Thursday, August 15 2013.
Rent 6 6 6 6 7 Kaitou Juliet [series:788#137]
I liked this series better than the technical marks reflect. Although the storyline is pretty standard for a sports anime, it's the characters who really make it worth watching. I particularly liked Izumi, the main character's rival in both sports and romance. The story kept me guessing as to who would end up with whom. The ending was very satisfying, and I'm only sorry that there isn't a second season to follow the adventures of this team further.
Bottom line: I don't know if I'd want to watch it more than once, but it's worth seeking out for that one time.

Last updated Monday, January 31 2005. Created Monday, January 31 2005.
Rent Jan-Chan [series:788#967]
I have watched the series once. It is rated PG13, with a bit corse start with some adult drinking, and some girl gang brawling, but it does settle down into an fun story about a girl's baseball team.
I will offer a more complete review later.

Last updated Sunday, May 16 2004. Created Sunday, May 16 2004.

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