バッテリーVI: 6

バッテリー #6

by Atsuko Asano

「おれはピッチャーです。だから、誰にも負けません」いよいよ、巧たち新田東中は、強豪・横手二中との再試合の日を迎えていた。試合を前に、両校それぞれの思いが揺れる。巧と豪を案じる海音寺、天才の門脇に対する感情をもてあます瑞垣、ひたすら巧を求める門脇。そして、巧と豪のバッテリーが選んだ道とは。いずれは……、だけどその時まで――巧、次の一球をここへ。大人気シリーズ、感動の完結巻！

260 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Japanese profile: あさのあつこ

Reviews

[owlette]

Honestly I'm relieved that don't have to read any more of this series to satisfy my completionism. Atsuko Asano admits she didn't intend for the series to continue beyond volume 2, and you can tell that she was practically dragging a corpse to the finish line from the repetitive dialogues and very limited baseball knowledge. (This is a baseball fiction wherein a much-hyped important game happens off screen between volumes 3 and 4.)

Asano keeps saying in the afterwords that she wrote this series with an immense love for the protagonist, Takumi, but I fear that the author coddled the character. When other people like his grandfather with much greater baseball experience challenge his world view, he becomes irritated, but that's it. Takumi remains a brilliant pitcher throughout the whole series. His internal struggles don't manifest externally or threaten his baseball career. Meanwhile, Go, his partner and catcher with saint-like patience, falls into a slump (albeit only briefly) because he can't keep up with Takumi's talent and Takumi is mostly un-phased by his partner's situation. Asano has written a thirteen year old who doesn't like being touched on his right shoulder, throws a fast ball for his age, and hates when anything---whether it be bullies, unreasonable school rules, or valid concerns from others---gets in his way of pitching. Asano wants him to remain an incorrigible child, but he doesn't make for a good protagonist of a 6-volume series. Consequently, the rest of the series never lived up to the height of the first book.