Nine Dragons' Ball Parade: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes
Added 2022-03-11 23:01:01 +0000 UTC
Manga Details
AKA Kowloons' Ball Parade (Koo-lowns)
“the nine dragons”/”Kowloon” are both nicknames for the high school they will be going to a little bit later. Per Tucker’s research
Author:
Mikiyasu Kamada - writer
All he did
Ashibi Fukui - artist
Slime and Dragons
Sukeban Deka
Author’s other works:
Run dates:
Chapters/Volumes: 3/20
About the Manga
Plot
Tamado Azukida (Tam-a-o Ah-zoo-key-dah) wants to be on the best high school baseball team ever, Hakuo Gakujin (Ha-koo-oh Gah-ko-een).
Azu is a weak nerdy kid but a genius at baseball strategy, so he has devoted himself to being a catcher. Unfortunately, Hakuo is an anti-nerd team so Azu is rejected, but while there he meets a super talented pitcher named Tao Ryudo (Tao Re-you-doe). Ryudo was accepted but he turned down the invitation; instead of wanting to work with Azu to put together a team that can defeat them.
They are approached by a girl sneaking around Kojima-style in a cardboard box. Her name is Karin Kurotaki (Cahr-een Ko-ro-tak-ee) and she’s the daughter of the headmaster at Kokoryuzan (ko-ko-re-yu-zan) high school, which used to have an incredible baseball team 30 years ago but got shut down when they started losing.
Karin’s dream is to revive the team to its former glory, becoming the obligatory girl manager that David predicted when she recruits Ryudo and Azu.
To do this they decide to go after great players that no one wants.
First, they get Yoshitaka Tsurugi (Yoo-she-taka Tsu-roo-gee), an incredible and well-known batter who had quit to help his dad run their toy store but his dad tells him to stop being an idiot and go play baseball. Next, they get Rinnojo Tsubaki (Ren-oh-joe Sue-baki), a very talented shortstop who sucks at playing team sports and constantly gets ejected from games.
After that, the Kokoryuzan group acquires a guy named Shuhei Kido (Sho-hey Kee-doh) who’s pretty forgettable and doesn’t do much. They’re also joined really quickly by a dumb strong guy named Taiga Toramoto (Taiga Tor-a-mo-to) and his friend, a scared fast guy named Iyo Horaguchi (Ee-yo Hore-a-gach-ee)
They’re approached on the field by Shiro Shiratori (She-ro Shi-ra-tor-ee), the son of Hakuo’s headmaster and a crazy good pitcher. No one, including Tsurugi, can hit his pitches and he leaves laughing about how he demoralized them. He never shows up again.
A few months pass and they pick up some randos to fill out the required number of players to compete in the big tournament. Their first match is an easy surprise victory as they shut the other team out 8-0. Then the next match is against a baseball team that’s basically just one guy who’s really really crazy good. They win and the manga’s over. They don’t even play Hakuo, damn.
Characters
Tamado Azukida
All about fitness
Likes to record data
Wants to be a catcher
Timid
Tao Ryudo
Takes it easy
Very fit
Pitcher
Raised in an orphanage
Dream of making an amazing baseball team
Karin Kurotaki
Very odd
Likes to touch people
Hides in boxes
Supports baseball
Solid snake
Yoshitaka Tsurugi
OCD
Batter
Works at a toy store
Wholesome helping his dad
Rinnojo Tsubaki
Shortstop
Problematic behavior
Egomanic
Shuhei Kido
Mr. average
Just is kidna like ok sure
Taiga Toramoto
Wants recognition of his skills
Left handed
Hot headed
Iyo Horaguchi
Afraid of hazing
Second baseman
SHiro Shiratori
Pitcher
Prob bad guy?
Why it failed
The second chapter is really boring it’s just the same topic being discussed over and over
I get them trying to make the MC a realist but he really seems like a damper on things
This series moves soooo slowly
Drops the stats part which is really what made it interesting in the pilot
You def needed to know Japanese baseball to get a lot of the references
It just takes forever to get interesting and then it ends
What it did well
The art is very clean, an anime adaption could just use these character designs
I think a series about sports statistics is actually fun
Really good use of graytones
Tryouts is a nice way of learning names without it being artificial
Glad it has baseball the first game
Actually makes the catcher seem interesting
I feel the message of individualism still mattering in a team is unusual given Japan
I really like the visual metaphor
Nice wholesome low stakes series
Has one good joke
Where it could have gone
Make this an educational series about statistics
Maybe have everyone be neuro atypical and show how it’s fine
Hard stop 1 chapter per recruit, make it work this is just too slow
Have the school already have some players which maybe arn’t as good but can show talent
Have more character-driven focus, needed some non baseball things that aren’t based on recruiting
Show more about management, like the element with Rinnojo was really cool showing how you can motivate people differently
Misc Thoughts
How big is this school they needed such an extensive tryout?
Something is weird about the eyes the characters never look like they’re making eyecontact
Why is it a super-a rank instead of s-rank like everything else
Final Verdict
Six Word summary
Fan submissions:
T-Wolf: This manga flubbed after first base
Vespairr: Needed more than just one Cleanup
NKSCF: Acquire friends without playing enough baseball
Scott: Mangaka didn't make the major leagues
Genericman: Take me out of the ballgame
T Root: Too many balls, not enough strikes
Xylon: WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO-
Albie: It puts the "meh" in Sabermetrics
The Duke of Dumbass: Two bases short of a run
KirbymonDoscolas: They were really dragon their feet