This is a review of Princess Nine, a sport-based anime title. No virgins has been deflowered in the making of this anime.
Story:-
Just like ANN description says, the owner of a prestigious female-only high school creates a custom-made female baseball team to compete in the high-school baseball tournament with the aim of reaching the nationals. Mainly revolves on how the team was formed and how they get into the competition proper, with some compulsory romance thrown in.
Generally, I always have a sweet spot for sport-based titles where the protagonist (and his or her teammates if it a team sport) works hard as they try to win the competition. The sight of the hero working hard to achive their dreams has never failed to bore me. Plus, with endings that never guarantees that the hero will stand victorious at the end of the series is the reason why I rate Japanese sport anime titles highly.
This is also the same with this anime. The story is excellent, and the only drawback of this anime is that the sport featured in this anime is baseball, a sport that only the Americans and the Japanese likes. But even if I don’t like baseball, I still enjoy this anime immensely.
Character Design:-
Okay… the school director who creates the baseball team also has some dodgy hairstyle that belongs to an alternate dimension where magic thrives instead of mathematics or physics. But apart from that, the character design in this anime is okay really, with diverse designs for each team members of the squad.
Voice acting:-
It has Akiko Yajima voicing one of the team members (not the protagonist), and I really likes how she does it. And that’s enough for me to declare that the voice acting here is really good, and I mean it!
Music:-
Music is where the anime falls flat. Forgettable OP/ED themes and uninspiring OST. A good OST will make this anime so much better.
Animation/Direction:-
Just like the music, the anime failed in the directing’s part. Holes at the fence that wasn’t there before, and most notably, even when the star tennis player volleyed her ball out of the tennis court, her sparring partners applauds her as if her volley has gone in. I think at first that they are just sucking her up, but after such scenes is repeated a few times, I just realized that the director just f**ked-up. The animation meanwhile is just average. Not really smooth for my liking.
Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Would score higher if not for screwed directing and uninspiring OST. If not for the story, this anime would probably just get a 5.
Best Quote In This Anime:-
That creepy hairstyle I mentioned above.
