English Dub Season Review: TAMAYOMI: The Baseball Girls Season One

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Yomi Takeda and Tamaki Yamazaki were childhood friends who loved playing baseball together. The two of them were destined to be a star battery… until they split up. In junior high, Yomi kept pitching, but eventually decided to give up the sport at her new school because no pitcher could handle her magical curve ball.

But luckily for her, her childhood friend Tamaki happens to attend the same school — and she’s eager to resume their connection. The two of them start to work together in order to fulfill their promise to play baseball as a team. As they start to go forward, they encounter challenges in the form of stubborn teammates and tough rivals, but in the end, their love of the sport makes it all worthwhile.

Our Take:

TAMAYOMI: The Baseball Girls was originally released almost a year ago. It first premiered way back in the spring of 2020. Despite people starting to be stuck at home then, the show didn’t really catch on — and there’s a good reason for that. The series may be full of girls who work hard in order to win games, but the show itself is kind of a major loser.

Making a successful sports anime isn’t rocket science, but it does require a certain kind of skill to pull off competently. There’s got to be a balance between thrilling sports sequences, detailed monologues about the rules, and slice of life scenes to get to know the players better as people off the field. Where TAMAYOMI goes wrong for me is in this balance. It just doesn’t do a good job of presenting the main characters as fully formed human beings outside off the game, which makes it really hard to care about their ups and downs.

Sure, they really love the sport, try their absolute hardest to succeed, and have to overcome obstacles. But those things happen in every sports show. It takes some special sauce to produce a sports show that’s enjoyable to people who aren’t completely obsessed with the sport in question — and TAMAYOMI just doesn’t have what it takes. Yomi goes on the stereotypical sports heroine journey, hitting people in the head when she first resumes pitching but then moving on to become a master. Tama is there to support her along the way, but I never felt emotionally connected to their relationship.

The production quality follows in the same footsteps as the writing, unfortunately. Even in the first episode, troubles are evident, with bland backgrounds and wonky faces. Well crafted animation can salvage a series with a weak story, but that’s not the case here. The English dub is serviceable, but most of the girls get generic voices trying to sound like high-pitched high schoolers. The one I did enjoy was Kristen McGuire’s performance as Tama.

After 12 innings, I think I can safely recommend avoiding TAMAYOMI at pretty much all costs. There are just better shows out there. If you’re looking for a baseball series with a little slice of life vibe, just watch Major 2nd. If you’re into slice of life with some baseball vibes, watch Taisho Baseball Girls. Because TAMAYOMI really doesn’t have much going for it. In fact, I’d probably give it three strikes.