Genre Historical, slice of life, sports (baseball)
Story
In 1925, after being told by a baseball player, that women should become housewives instead of going to school, two 14-year-old Japanese high school girls named Koume and Akiko decide to start a baseball team in order to prove him wrong. During this time, when even running was considered too vulgar for women, baseball is known as "what the boys do" and they face many difficulties when having to find enough members, to get permission from their parents and also when learning about the sport itself.
The first book in the series begins in Taishō 14 (1925) with Koume (小梅), the 14-year-old daughter of a Western-style restaurant owner, who commutes back and forth to an girl's academy. One day her friend Akiko asks Koume to join her in an all-girl baseball team and have a match with a boys team. While the first volume can be read as a stand-alone work, the second volume does continue the story.
The second book in the series, Taishō Baseball Girls: Covered in Dust and Dirt (大正野球娘。―土と埃にまみれます Taishō Yakyū Musume. Tsuchi to Hokori ni Mamiremasu), is set in the summer of Taishō 14. Koume, Akiko, Manoe and the rest of the nine members of the Baseball Girls continue to face off against numerous all boy teams, and have trouble facing the fast balls thrown by them. To combat the anxiety they experience due to the difficulties of playing against more experienced teams, they decide to abandon the traditional baseball uniform in favor of a kimono style uniform and partition off the batters box so the other team can't see what they are doing.
Apart from baseball the series also shows a different side of Japan rarely seen in anime. For example, the popular sailor school uniforms are introduced as western style clothes during the Taisho period.
Main Characters
- Koume Suzukawa (鈴川 小梅) Voiced by: Mikako Takahashi (Drama CD) / Kanae Ito (anime)
- Akiko Ogasawara (小笠原 子) Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto (Drama CD) / Mai Nakahara (anime)
- Yuki Souya (宗谷 雪) Voiced by: Asami Imai (Drama CD) / Mamiko Noto (anime)
- Tamaki Ishigaki (石垣 環) Voiced by: Masumi Asano (Drama CD) / Ryou Hirohashi (anime)
- Tomoe Tsukubae (月映 巴) Voiced by: Aya Endo (Drama CD) / Yuko Kaida (anime)
- Shizuka Tsukubae (月映 静) Voiced by: Hiromi Konno (Drama CD) / Eri Kitamura (anime)
- Noe Kawashima (川島 乃枝) Voiced by: Kaoru Mizuhara (Drama CD) / Kana Ueda (anime)
- Kyouko Sakurami (桜見 鏡子) Voiced by: Yui Makino
- Kochou Kikusaka (菊坂 胡蝶) Voiced by: Saori Goto
- Anna Curtland (アンナ・カートランド) Voiced by: Chiaki Takahashi (Drama CD) / Satomi Arai (anime)
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