First Impressions / Kami-sama no Memo-chou

「あの夏の二十一球」 (Ano Natsu no Nijyuichi Kyuu)
“That Summer of 21 Pitches”

While some people may have been quick to judge Kami-Sama, I believe that it’s still a really interesting show that has its own merits. Shifting gears back to everyday life living amongst NEETs and Yakuza, I think this was a nice change of pace. Who would have thought a simple baseball game could become so invigorating?

It never fails to surprise me how useful Alice’s skill of gathering and utilizing information really is. I suppose that statistics can help to an extent in baseball, but I can only imagine what kind of information was sitting in that huge stack of papers she gave to Narumi. At the same time, Narumi’s natural ability to process that information and make something useful out of it is pretty amazing in itself.

The baseball game itself was nothing to call home about, but I loved how tense it got. Neither team was winning by a ridiculous amount and the suspense kept growing as the game raced on. The icing on the cake had to be when Alice made her stand — even though she was originally the coach of a baseball team that coaches from the comfort of a car in her pajamas with all of her favorite stuffed animals surrounding her; I remember sitting there dumbfounded when I saw her not only leap into the air but steal two bases.

Sort of off topic, I was under the assumption that a strike was a strike and you’re out after the third one. But I guess it doesn’t matter if the ball doesn’t make it to the catcher’s glove? (someone can enlighten me if they’d like to)

As underhanded as it may have been, I wouldn’t mind watching Alice step out of character every now and then. But if watching our NEET detective wasn’t enough, Narumi’s infinite fouls leading to a winning homerun hit was an amazing way to close the game. Either ways, this non-mystery episode has really got me pumped for next week’s arc. With Ayaka finally getting thrust back into the fray, I’m hoping that this mystery involving her brother manages to blow my socks off.

 

Preview

35 Comments

      1. Advertised as a mystery series, Kami-sama no Memo-chou doesn’t hold up that well. A series that should have focused more on atmosphere and story went into developing a rather bland male lead as he slowly becomes everyone’s bro.

        At least with Gosick, Victorique explained her reasoning, even if the hints were too subtle/specific for the audience to catch. With Kamimemo, Alice is just pulling out hypotheses out of her ass based off charts and numbers, which just happen to be correct. She doesn’t truly go over her own reasoning either. It’s just accepted.

        Had it been advertised as another genre with a mystery aspect to tie it together, then the series would at least be average.

        Soiyeruda
        Reply

      2. @Soiyeruda

        How is that any different than how Victorique handles her cases? It’s basely the same thing where the detective look for the most subtle clues and holds out till the last moment before telling everybody at once for dramatic effect, and she just so happens to be right and nobody questions it.

        Talk about double standards…>.>

        Chaos2Frozen
        Reply

      3. You serious? Victorique is even more guilty of ass pulling.

        Alice isn’t perfect in her investigations you know. As Alice even said, Narumi provides a different perspective than Alice can, because she is too technical (or something along those words). Despite what people say about Narumi he has proven instrumental on cases. The first episode is a prime example when she calls upon all her resources to track Shoko, Narumi provides a simple solution: “Why not just ask the girl?”. The information that Narumi acquires pretty much breaks the case.

        Its pretty much a subtle dynamic. Alice’s investigation is much more plausible because its based on a modern age information network and even then its not perfect as it usually requires input from others usually Narumi’s more human approach to things.

        fragb85
        Reply

      5. My vote is for Victorique, she just did an epic detective works that changed that face of all Europe, and yes the magnitude and the scale of the burden she carried is far heavier than that of Alice, just saying.

        As for KamiMemo, I’m still waiting for the arc that will blow my mind. I mean in Gosick, most of the arc there I always felt WTF!? How did she pull that off? Or my mind was blown kind of feeling. KamiMemo doesn’t have that yet (at least for me). The best arc of KamiMemo was the first in my opinion.

        What I do like about KamiMemo though is the animation, very high quality.

        Ghostalker
        Reply

    2. Oh please, almost all of Gosick’s episodes were weak. It’s hardly memorable.

      At least in Kami-sama Memo-chou, we are spared from seeing another DUMB & annoying male lead. Also, In Gosick, there are hardly any hints on how they solve the case. We’re just left with Victorique explaining the unexplainable, which usually comes out out from no where.

      Alec
      Reply

      1. I agree, Narumi showed plenty of growth over the episodes we have seen so far. With our other protagonist we only saw a sudden growth near the end, and even then, I’m not sure if he grew that much on the intellect front (some would even say that I’m giving him too much credit already :p).

        x
        Reply

  3. Baseball is perfect for Alice, she would feel at home with the sheer amount of statistics needed for baseball. Especially when she started playing that baseball MMO.

    And Narumi once again saves the day. Anyone still want to say that Narumi is a useless wuss?

    fragb85
    Reply

    1. The anime really nerfed Narumi, unfortunately. But in general he’s the type of main character I personally like. He’s not gutless like your typical harem/comedy lead. But at the same time he’s not stupidly running into trouble for no reason like your shonen action leads. He’s also fairly believable as a person who’s not some super-genius. Yet he gets stuff done.

      baubo
      Reply

  4. Well here’s the thing with the third strike on alice’s bat. It is originally called a strike yea so that means she out, but if the ball happens to drop or isn’t caught correctly no matter what the ball is presumed a live ball. So knowing that alice takes the chance ran to 1st then after they realized it she stole 2nd base.

    then im pretty sure everyone knows about narumi’s strategy on his last at bat.

    Rayyy
    Reply

      3. Just a quick correction here. On the third strike the catcher has to catch the ball cleanly and the play is dead. You mentioned the pitcher which doesn’t really matter. If the catcher drops it, or in the case shown here, if it hits the dirt first then the play is live (Even though it hit the dirt it was a strike because she swung the bat). The catcher can tag the runner (happens most of the time), or can throw to first like a normal play.

        ocswing
        Reply

      4. oc swing with a wonderful explanation.

        I’m thinkin’ WHY DID YOU SWING THAT WAS CLEARLY A BA-.. running? OH! XD ahahahah crazy loli. Stealin’ second before the pitcher knew what had happened. Not the best way to enamor yourself with an ex-ace yakuza. ^^;.

        kumakaori
        Reply

      1. Actually I was thinking what is she doing here? I thought she need to run away with her father? In fact, she suppose to be one-off character right? Somehow seeing Meo here upset the flow of the story. Oh well, at least we are going to the best arc ever(Ayaka)

        lkaze
        Reply

  7. Clever. I liked this episode – it’s believable, too with Alice.
    Cool strategy about fouling to strike out. A fun watch.

    This series has had a bumpy start, but looks like it’ll have a
    pretty good end.

    mac65
    Reply

  8. This was a really fun episode. I never expected Alice to play baseball XD. Narumi is starting to learn how to solve things on his own. Next episode looks like the beginning of a serious arc.

    x
    Reply

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