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The first thing you will notice about this anime is how high-quality the production is. The storyboarding and animation is extremely fluid and seamless, making this an absolute visual delight. The soundtrack is beautiful and I feel like both the OP and ED are no-skips (the OP is performed by Centimillimental who also sang the iconic Given OP, which is one of my personal favorite anime openings of all time).

The story and characters seem to be standard sports anime fare so far, but it still feels quite refreshing to watch. The characters' interactions with each other are hilarious and guaranteed to make you smile more ... than once in every single episode. The all-star VA cast is brilliant and brings so much life to the show.

I'm honestly very impressed by Bakuten so far, not only does it look really good but it's also really wholesome. I hope the direction and production quality stays the same throughout (*cough* Haikyuu S4 part 2 outsourced episodes *cough*), and I'm really looking forward for the rest of the episodes to air!

[placeholder review; will be updated when the anime finishes airing]

So I noticed that a few reviewers on here mentioned that if you like other baseball anime like Ace of Diamond then you won't like Battery in the slightest, but I beg to differ. Daiya is one of my top favorite anime of all time, but I really enjoyed watching Battery as well; in fact I enjoyed it enough to the point of wanting to sit down and write an actual review about it (which I don't do much because I'm extremely lazy) since I feel like the overall low score for this anime is pretty unjustified.

First things first, if you're going into this ... expecting this to be anything like Ace of Diamond or Major or even One Outs you're going to be bitterly disappointed. More than being a sports anime, Battery is, first and foremost, a slice of life/drama anime. You want to watch fast paced baseball matches? Don't watch Battery. You want to watch dramatic character development brought about by teams pitted against one another? Don't watch Battery. The only thing Battery really offers is slow-paced, character-driven drama with subtle blink-and-you-miss commentary on certain issues, and contrary to the majority of the reviews on here, I, for one, actually liked it, and thought it was pretty well made. Yes, it is possible to like Daiya AND Battery, unlike what most people on here seem to think, really.

Story: 7/10
First and foremost, Battery is NOT a competitive, hype-inducing sports anime where the main focus is on the sport being played with the protagonists serving as tools to carry the story forward. Battery is the exact opposite of that, with the focus being on the protagonist(s) who also happen to play baseball. The story mostly revolves around Takumi, the main character, and his interactions with the deuteragonist Gou, along with his family and other people at their school. Anyone who is familiar with and enjoys the laidback, slow pace that almost all slice of life anime offer will find themselves right at home while watching this.

A lot of the reviews on here mention that the story doesn't really go anywhere and yes, I partly agree with it in that the plot is not a 'plot' per se; it is more of a showcase on how a group of people in a certain environment interact with each other and with the things happening to and around them. That definitely doesn't mean that it's dull or boring or 'empty'; if you're someone who enjoys watching how inter-personal relationships develop, and how they're affected by even the tiniest of things happening around them then I promise you you will like this anime. Now what I personally feel has contributed to the low score of Battery (and many such other similar underrated anime) is that the majority of the anime-watching community looks for instant gratification and involvement and if they find something that doesn't provide them with that then they're not very willing to give it a chance (I personally have been acquainted with people like this).

The bottomline is this - I will not say that the story of Battery is spectacular or amazing or anything similar but it is good, it is solid, and it deserves a watch.


Art: 8/10
The art is nothing to write home about, it is very similar to most anime that aired 4-5 years back. It's quite pleasant to look at, but that's all there is to it. I do want to talk about the art for the OP and ED though, which is beautifully done, especially the colouring - it brings about an ethereal feeling to it which I really liked.


Sound: 9/10
Again, the soundtrack is also nothing spectacular or anything that stands out and makes you take notice, instead it blends in quite seamlessly with the story. The OP and ED both fit the theme of the show very well, and the songs along with the very pretty visuals made me not want to skip them even once.


Character: 8/10
Considering that Battery focuses the most on characterization, it goes without saying that the characters are what makes this show what it is. This is exactly why most of the reviews on here portraying the main character as one-dimensional and 'annoying' really surprised me because honestly if that is how the protagonist comes off as a person to you then I am sorry to say but you are not very good at understanding the nuances of human behaviour. Takumi, the main character that Battery gives at least 80% of its focus to (if not more), is anything BUT one-dimensional. He cares more about baseball than anything else, and is self-assured in the way that anyone who knows they're good is. His attitude towards most of the people around him stem from his stand-offish personality and while some of his behavior might be questionable, if you look closely you can actually see why he does what he does, there's a reason behind every single one of his actions/behaviors, and that is what made this show so interesting to me. A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that he is unnecessarily arrogant and cocky, but I beg to differ. There is a HUGE difference between being indifferent and being arrogant, and for every single time someone tries to tell me that something Takumi does is arrogant I will point out to them exactly how it's NOT arrogant, as well as the reasoning behind exactly why he does what he does. Then again, does that mean he is a stellar character who never makes any wrong decisions? Of course not, he's still a kid who does indeed make some questionable choices but that's the thing, you can see why he's making those choices - they're not just placed there to drive the story along, if you look close enough and try to get into his head (which will admittedly be easier for some people than others) you will see that everything he does is very much justified. And this is exactly why his character is anything but shallow/one-dimensional.

The deuteragonist, Gou, on the other hand - with a pleasing, amicable personality - is the exact opposite of Takumi. He breaks down Takumi's mile high walls and gets in and forms a battery with Takumi. Of course, their relationship isn't all smooth and perfect but it wouldn't be too wrong to say that Gou's tenacity and perseverance makes him one of the few people that Takumi somewhat seems to actually like and respect. The relationship between Takumi and Gou is one of the most interesting parts of the show; they get along like a house on fire at times while they're trying to avoid the other to the best of their abilities at times while even actually ending up fighting at times. There's a lot of shifts in their relationship from trust to mistrust to back to trust again, which is where most of the drama in the show comes from.

Another character I really liked was that of Mizugaki Shunji (who happens to be voiced by Kimuryo who I absolutely love and is one of my top favourite seiyuus of all time). Shunji's character is the most complex among the entire cast of Battery, and it's so hard to get a read on him because he switches up so fast it'll end up giving you whiplash. His personality is incredibly convoluted, and his relationship with Shuugo (his classmate/childhood friend) is very tricky as well, and quite a bit of the drama - especially in the last few episodes - is provided to us courtesy of these two.

The other supporting characters all have roles of their own to play (some of which you'll like, some you most definitely won't), but one such character I liked (and that's saying something coming from me because I don't generally like kids at all) was Takumi's younger brother Seiha. Most scenes with him feel like a breath of fresh air, and in more ways that one Seiha seems almost as mature as Takumi himself, if not more, at times.

Battery - with its cast of complicated characters with a plethora of psychological nuances - shines the most when it comes to its characterization, and if you fail to see that then you're better off watching some fast-paced competitive baseball anime; Battery is not for you.


Enjoyment: 9/10
I personally felt that Battery was very well done, very realistically presented, and if you like dramas where the focus is more on subtlety and tiny psychological nuances rather than outlandish, bombastic actions with instant gratification, then you're pretty much guaranteed to like Battery as much as I did.


Overall: 8/10
Battery attempts to tell a very realistic story with very real (and thus somewhat flawed) characters, and is, at its heart, more a character drama with baseball as a backdrop than a baseball tournament anime. Thus it goes without saying that it is not for everyone. It is not another run-of-the-mill sports/shounen/action anime so if that is what you're looking for please do not watch Battery and then proceed to complain about how much you disliked it. It is a slow, character-driven drama with a very atmospheric setting that lends to the idyllic, laidback vibe that this anime exudes. There isn't much by way of character development and you don't even get an ending spoon-fed to you, but that, I feel, adds to the realism of the show. It's not always about the end, it's the journey that really matters. Even if we don't find out exactly what the future has in store for Takumi and Gou, it's enough that we were able to be a part of their significant - albeit small - journey, in this arc of their lives that we were able to witness. I don't think I need to mention just HOW realistic this is because not everything in life has a fixed ending, just a story that ends abruptly, and that's all there is to it.

So I'm gonna reiterate. This isn't Ace of Diamond. There's no competitive matches and no team-building and practically no elements of your average sports anime. What it is is a pretty realistic, character-focused, slow, slice of life/drama show that happens to have baseball as its backdrop. If that kind of thing draws you, if you like watching human relationships develop in tandem with and in reaction to things that have happened to/are happening with and around them, then Battery is for you; go ahead and give it a watch.

It's years too late for this so I won't be sitting down to write an in-depth review but there are a few things that I do want to talk about regarding this anime so I'll do it here.

The story starts off really well but somewhere along the line it loses its punch. This, I feel, in my very personal opinion, is completely due to the addition of the main female character who manages to derail the entire plot. Lisa, as a character, is extremely useless, and I feel like the only reason she was written was to introduce subplots to carry the story along ... (which somehow contraindicated its purpose and ended up detracting from the story people had tuned in to watch). There was not one scene where she was featured and she didn't fuck things up. I've seen some reviewers say that her character is pretty realistic as that is how most of us caught in the middle of something so much bigger than us would behave but I beg to differ. There is no realism in her endless stupidity and constant barrage of fuck-ups.

Towards the beginning of the anime Twelve is pretty wary of Lisa and even goes to tell her that he'll kill her if she makes one wrong move. That part felt very real to me because she was someone they barely knew, and I was hoping to see some character development for Lisa which would then go on to give actual reason for the protagonists to drop their guard around her. But somehow, over the course of the next few episodes, all she managed to do was go on to be one of the most useless characters I have ever seen in any anime, and also single-handedly managed to cripple Twelve's entire character to the point where I felt like I was watching a different Twelve from the one who had been introduced to us in the first episode. So the bottom line is that the story would have meandered a lot less and would have held its gravitas if Lisa's character didn't exist, and I really wish I could have seen that version of Zankyou no Terror that wasn't ruined by her character.

Five was another character who kept being bogged down by a one-dimensional personality that allowed no room for any sort of growth whatsoever. Shibazaki was one of the few characters I liked, but again, his character could also have been fleshed out a bit more, giving the audience a chance to actually connect with him; I know I would have liked that chance.

Nine was my favorite character in the show and I honestly kept feeling bad for him from around the middle onwards; he kept having to deal with a very useless girl who just couldn't stop messing up, then his closest (and only) friend practically abandoned him over said girl, pretty much throwing away years of friendship as well as the common goal that the duo had originally set out to establish. Despite being saddled with these plot contrivances he still stood out and held his own amongst a sea of badly written characters.

The one thing that I will endlessly praise about this show is it's soundtrack. It has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in any anime, and blends seamlessly into the overall tone of the anime, while also somehow managing to stand out without being too overwhelming.

Overall, Zankyou no Terror is not a 'bad' anime, per se, but it could have been so, so much better. In my personal opinion, it's worth a one-time watch (if you're prepared to keep constantly feeling rather annoyed over contrived plot points and bad decisions taken by badly written characters), but that's about it.

I had been looking for an anime like this for a very long time, something with a wonderfully soothing and calming vibe, so I was very glad when I stumbled upon this gem of an anime. If you're someone like me who's also looking for a quick pick-me-up that's not plot intensive but nevertheless has the capability of making you feel the most relaxed you've been in quite some time, look no further.

Orenchi no Furo Jijou is a slice of life comedy with episodes that span for only 4 minutes each, featuring the life of a boy who has a merman living in his bathtub ... (quirky, right?)

Story: 9/10
In all fairness, this is NOT a plot-based anime so there is no plot progression and definitely no plot twist. Each episode features the main characters (and their friends, who're introduced in subsequent episodes) going about their daily life and facing small, mundane day-to-day issues. It is very common to come across overused tropes in slice of life shows, so I was pleasantly surprised at the absence of any boring, cliched tropes. Then again I guess it is pretty hard to use the generic slice of life tropes in an anime with a story as unusual as this one.

Art: 8/10
Keeping true to the manga, the art of the anime adapts the same dual style, seamlessly switching between its normal realistic style and its cute chibi style. For an anime that has a bathroom as the main backdrop, the color palette is pretty warm, which goes a long way in adding to that idyllic, soothing vibe the anime gives off. The chibi forms of the characters, especially the merman Wakasa, are incredibly cute and I kept wanting to see more of the chibi style than the actual normal style, which is a first for me (lol)

Sound: 8/10
Considering this is an anime with episodes that span only 4 minutes, it would be tough to establish a recurring musical theme/background score. The OP is very dramatic and intense, and feels a little misplaced in a slice of life anime, but I have to say that I actually grew quite fond of it by the 4th or 5th episode and didn't feel like skipping it. The voice acting was very consistent, with each seiyuu's voice perfectly fitting the character they played. I personally loved Wakasa's VA the most, it was the PERFECT casting.

Character: 10/10
The main reason why this show shines, and why I loved it as much as I did, is because of the characters and the characterization. Due to the brevity of the episodes you don't really get any deep background story for the characters or some kind of astonishing character development but somehow none of that matters because you still get attached to them anyway. I don't think words can express how LIKABLE the characters are. All the characters - starting from the VERY lovable and cheerful merman Wakasa to the somewhat quiet but very thoughtful guy Tatsumi whose bathtub Wakasa lives in, to Wakasa's buddies who show up in some episodes - each and every character is very distinct and very original and very funny. Wakasa and Tatsumi have a dynamic that's very refreshing and somewhat reminiscent of The Odd Couple. They're the perfect foil to each other, and the hilariously funny situations resulting from their attempts to learn to live in harmony together is what makes the show what it is. The only character that I somewhat disliked is the MC's sister, who fits into quite a few of the annoying little sister tropes, and is also pretty annoying herself. Thankfully though we only get to see her for 2 episodes, and she's so forgettable you won't even think of her for the rest of the episodes which she doesn't show up in.

Enjoyment: 10/10
With slice of life anime, more often than not, there's a huge chance of the jokes falling flat or failing to hit the mark, but Orenchi no Furo Jijou has none of those issues. Not once does it feel like a joke is put there for the sole purpose of trying to draw out a laugh from you. All the humor in the show is completely organic, and it flows so well it actually feels like there's zero effort to try and get the audience to laugh, but you end up laughing anyway.

Overall: 9/10
Orenchi no Furo Jijou is a very light-hearted, feel-good show that by the end of its 13th episode will, no doubt, leave you feeling a lot calmer and a lot de-stressed than when you started watching it. I kept wishing the episodes were longer, just so I could have kept feeling happy for a little while longer. 13 episodes didn't feel like enough, and I sincerely hope they decide to make a second season someday.
So if you're looking for a quick, light-hearted show to cheer you up when you're down and/or to unwind after a long day, look no further than Orenchi no Furo Jijou.

Oh and if you're wondering if it's BL/shounen ai-ish, then all I have to say is that this does have BL-ish undertones, but that's only if you squint :)

I don't usually write reviews but I have to make an exception for this one. It's been a long time since I've watched an anime that has such a soothing, aesthetic vibe to it; the last one was probably Tsurune. As far as slice of life goes, it really doesn't get more true to the genre than this.

The art and animation is as soothing and calming as the music - the ED is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard lately, and I haven't skipped either the OP or the ED even once. The voice acting is perfectly done, but then I wouldn't ... really expect anything less of seiyuus like Uchida Yuuma and Sakurai Takahiro. The story is the highlight of the anime, according to me, and I was really intrigued by Richard's past till the unraveling and final reveal. Seigi's character is easier to understand though, and he is kind of like the perfect foil to Richard's personality.

Another thing that I can't help mentioning is how the topic of sexuality is treated - it is approached with the kind of normalcy that you don't really see much in anime. There is no internalized/externalized homophobia, no one freaks out when the topic is brought up; it is refreshing to see this kind of treatment for a topic that is always either brushed off to the side and never brought up or dealt with very badly.

This anime is one of the most wholesome shows I've watched in a very long time. If you're into slice of life with a side of mystery and drama, then this anime is for you.