What Wikipedia says: What If the Manageress of a High School Baseball Team read Drucker's "Management"? Moshidora is a 2009 Japanese business novel by Natsumi Iwasaki. It follows high school girl Minami Kawashima who manages her school's baseball team using Peter Drucker'sManagement: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices to rally her dispirited teammates. The novel has been adapted into a 10-episode anime television series by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK and produced by Production I.G.
KoanMan says: This series was a surprise. The initial intro discussing Peter Drucker and his business management manifesto unsurprisingly titled "Management" and it's application to business does not engender a whole lot of excitement for the upcoming show. But don't let the business thing fool you. This is a great watch.
The story flows nicely and never feels rushed, though may be a little slow for some at first, but was just fine for this TPO. There are some uncharacteristically cheesy surprised expressions, though these did not disturb the storyline and did not interfere with the viewing experience other than to provide mild chuckles each time. The characters develop remarkably well, resulting in significant emotional investment on the part of the viewer.
Moshidora centres on Minami Kawashima, the temporary manager of the high-school baseball team (that's where the "Management" comes in) standing in for her ill friend Yuki Miyata. The understated strength of their relationship is beautiful.
The other characters flesh out the storyline and each has their role to play, without ever feeling forced or uncomfortable and the still image montages are very well done and add to the story where dialogue is not required. The intro does become repetitive as the whole spiel is given at the start of every single episode... Luckily, the magic of computers allows one to skip that bit from episode two onwards - you really only need to see/hear it once. This one flaw aside, there is little to fault, although action junkies will be disappointed - this is no Terminator movie. That said, it is an interesting exposé of the human responses to good management.
How About the Music?: The music was OK, and after the first episode it simply becomes part of the background, going largely un-noticed. This might sound bland, but is actually a compliment, as the music seems to fit very well with the story at any given time. If it was out of place, it would have been more obvious.
So How Does it End? (Spoiler Free): Well, as a western gaijin completely immersed throughout one's childhood in TV from the USA, there are some aspects that are predictable, and others aspects that are absolutely not in the "American playbook". (Note: do not read the full Wiki page on Moshidora if you don't want the end spoiled)
Overall Grade: This is a well crafted, short and sweet series. It gets an A grading. Thoroughly recommended.
Addendum (by TTPO): You will have to forgive Koanman for making the odd misjudgement, after all it is his first full review.
I agree overall that Moshidora is a really good anime and brought something new to the table - business management - and integrated it pretty well into an enjoyable (if well worn and straightforward) storyline. I do enjoy learning something unexpected from a show - Spice and Wolf and medieval economics would be a good example of this, and at the time of writing Maoyuu Maou Yuusha looks to be going down a similar road with respect to macroeconomics.
I also agree (and mark accordingly by TTPO standards) that this is was nicely paced and at the time of broadcast I enjoyed the novel 5-episodes a week for 2 weeks format. It was like a slightly slow marathoning. Having said that, I could have coped with a bit more management but there was not really space for this in the 10 episode format.
Where Koanman went dreadfully wrong is the music. The OP (Yume Note by Azusa) is just a brilliant song which I would listen to many time again (and have). And here is a classical guitar version for good measure. The ED (Daisuki da yo by momo) did not grab me so much. But forwarding past Azusa is a crime.
Not quite 'A' material in my books (that would be Madoka Magica) because of the slightly basic plot but still very good, full of heart (with rampant tearjerking but I love that stuff), management and brevity. B+. And since it's my blog that what it gets tagged as. Though Mrs tTPO scored both this and Madoka Magicka as A's, even though she thought the latter was better. Go figure.
Addendum 2 (by TTPO): Just watched the last episode again. I was wrong. A-. Ah well.
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