Ro's Recz

As a sports fan, I am always looking for sports-related TV shows to watch. The Japanese show “Baseball Brainiacs” (Yowakutemo Katemasu), translates to something along the lines of even if we are weak, we can still win. Baseball Brainiacs was a perfect TV show for me because it combined baseball, Japanese language, Arashi (it stars one of Arashi’s group members, Ninomiya), and comedy all into one show.

Baseball Brainiacs is about a high school baseball team; the high school is very well known for its academic prowess, but not as much for its athletics. At the beginning of the show, the team does not even have enough players to play an actual game, and they have to recruit more players to join. Everyone on the team except for one player has no experience playing, and they are absolutely terrible. To make the situation even more difficult, the team can only practice for a limited amount of time per week compared to other teams in their region.

The baseball team has so many factors working against them, but the players do have determination and passion for learning the game. Baseball Brainiacs is about how the team uses unorthodox training methods and techniques to try to outthink their opponents, rather than outplay them. There are so many funny scenes throughout Baseball Brainiacs as a result of the players trying these new techniques.

Even though it is a Japanese show, Baseball Brainiacs follows a traditional sports move path. It is similar to American movies such as Rudy and Facing the Giants, in which a scrappy underdog is able to persevere and beat better teams.