Moshidora review

Moshidora(もしドラ). もし高校野球の女子マネージャーがドラッカーの『マネジメント』を読んだら “What if a high school baseball team’s girl manager reads Drucker’s “Management?” Such a long title.

An interesting anime, but the show went very slowly. Yes, a typical NHK show. A simple plot: A high school girl who becomes a baseball club manager grabs a book by Peter Drucker. But it’s a capitalism book, and she applies Drucker’s theories to the baseball team, and finally the baseball team wins the ticket to Koshien (the nationals). Koshien is every high school baseball kid’s dream in Japan. So, it’s a very simply story, and the outcome is obvious. And there is no romance involved, nothing to get ecstatic about. Usually high school baseball involves romance. And that has defined seishun (青春 “youth”) for a long time.

A lot of school girls go crazy over high school baseball players since the Taisho era (1912-1926), when Koshien started. And of course the baseball animes put spurs to that phenomenon. Oh yeah, since the time of Supokon (sports-konjō “sports guts”) genre like Kyojin No Hoshi. Totally macho anime. The symbol of Supokon was of course Dai-Līgu-Bōru-Yōsei-Gipusu (大リーグボール養成ギプス “Major League Ball Training Gips”).

Yet, Touch totally destroyed the Supokon archetype, and put an end to the Supokon era, the turning point from a sweaty wild man to a refreshing deodorant prince.

Touch = skinship, essence of romanticality!

Recently, Hankachi Oji (handkerchief prince) swooned the entire nation. Not only school girls, but also obasan (old ladies) went crazy over him. Ahh, I remember in my Japanese school years, these baseball alpha males were getting all the love confessions from all kinds of girls while I was left with weeping and gnashing of the teeth. Not only baseball dudes but athletic dudes in general monopolized all the girls’ attention. I envied them. But I wasn’t fit to play very competitive, harsh sports.

Yes, a combative, dog-eats-dog capitalism system is made for athletes. Sports competitions are barometers for that, i.e., modern Swayamvara. That’s why girls prejudge men with that standard. Only machoman can win the current capitalist game. It’s not designed for soshokukei (the meek). So the only alternative we the Otaku have is 2-D, just like heaven is for the meek according to Jesus of Nazareth. So, change the system?

I mean just switching the system is not going to work. That totally misses the point. Because before arguing the system, labor itself is inherently not for us. Even in socialism, you still need to put up with labor, though you may not work at gulags. Socialism is no utopia. E. F. Schumacher says, “to work is to make a sacrifice of one’s leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice.” Labor is punishment, absurdity indeed. Both capitalism and socialism are products of 3-D that require us to sacrifice our freedom. Yes, our precious school time. The word “school” comes from scole, which means “leisure, free time” in Greek. Schumacher even writes the ideal would be “to have income without employment.” Paradise Lost is School Lost. Thus, we want to regain school years, especially 17 years old!

Yes, while Minami read Drucker’s book, a totally 3-D book, I read Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacher! It’s a bible for Eco Prince, instead of Handkerchief Prince!

So, instead, I want NHK to produce the anime called Moshishuma(もしシュマ) or, もし高校帰宅部の女子マネージャーがシューマッハの『スモール・イズ・ビューティフル』を読んだら”What if a high school kitakubu’s girl manager reads Schumacher’s “Small Is Beautiful”?

It’s about time for the Eco Prince to get a “touch,” I mean a kiss from a girl….

Author: Monsieur LaMoe

A refugee from Japan. Live in NAFTA. Get hooked on Moe. Moe is opium? Twitter: @MonsieurLamoe

4 thoughts on “Moshidora review

  1. So this was how Moshidora was like. Soon is going to be Cross Game MMF which is next week.. and that’s a sports manga.

    1. Yes, it was about a girl who read a capitalism book applying capitalist theories to the baseball team. Right, the same author for Touch. What’s MMF?

      1. mmf is manga movable feast. This is a blog collective project. that is like a book club. So the next book to be discussed is a sports manga. ^_^

      2. I see, got it. Cool! Didn’t know there’s a internet community for that!

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