What do you think?
Rate this book
バッテリー #5
バッテリー Ⅴ
Harada Takumi is a very promising 13-year old middle school pitcher. When he moves to a new town with his father, he meets a good catcher named Nagakura Gō in a local youth baseball team. Takumi, Gō, and their teammates go through hard training and many tumultuous events together and grow up through their friendship and conflicts with others around them.
251 pages, Paperback Bunko
First published January 1, 2003
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 11, 2026
This is the low point of the series for me because every pair of characters are having the same conversation at least three times. I complained about this in my review of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; it's my one pet peeve.
One of the common internet questions about this series is "Is it BL?" (BL="boys love," the Japanese term for MM romance. "Yaoi" is the pre-2010 term). Though I didn't see much BL element in volume 1, the overtones have gotten stronger over the course of the series. The way Mizugaki talks about Takumi is definitely baiting BL fans: calling Takumi "princess" お姫さん, "I just wanna eat him [Takumi] up" 「食っちゃいたい」, "I wanna have a good time with the princess too" 「俺も姫さんと気持ちいいことしてえなあ」, "There's nothing I love more than a pretty face crying" 「美人の泣き顔ほど好きなものないんや」. (I took from these examples from three different scenes; you see what I mean when I say the same pair of characters having the same conversation?)
I'm actually okay with Mizugaki talking like this given the role of his character. Mizugaki is not on Takumi's team; he's a third year about to graduate from the local rival team. Sexualizing/feminizing Takumi is this fifteen year old's way of expressing his dominance over a young, talented pitcher that could threaten his school team's future prospects in local competitions. Homosexualization is how he messes around with other people he doesn't care for. He jokes that he and Kaionji are having a "good time" and that Kadowaki is in love with Takumi. The only time he doesn't insert homoeroticism is between himself and Kadowaki because he has strong, complicated feelings for his childhood friend, namely jealousy towards Kadowaki's talent as a baseball player. He goes to parties to hook up with girls, but it's ambiguous if he swings both ways. Do I think it's weird that a fifteen year old---an age group notorious for being homophobic---talks like this around his peers? Yes. However, given that he includes himself in his homosexual jokes, I don't think it's necessarily homophobic.
One of the common internet questions about this series is "Is it BL?" (BL="boys love," the Japanese term for MM romance. "Yaoi" is the pre-2010 term). Though I didn't see much BL element in volume 1, the overtones have gotten stronger over the course of the series. The way Mizugaki talks about Takumi is definitely baiting BL fans: calling Takumi "princess" お姫さん, "I just wanna eat him [Takumi] up" 「食っちゃいたい」, "I wanna have a good time with the princess too" 「俺も姫さんと気持ちいいことしてえなあ」, "There's nothing I love more than a pretty face crying" 「美人の泣き顔ほど好きなものないんや」. (I took from these examples from three different scenes; you see what I mean when I say the same pair of characters having the same conversation?)
I'm actually okay with Mizugaki talking like this given the role of his character. Mizugaki is not on Takumi's team; he's a third year about to graduate from the local rival team. Sexualizing/feminizing Takumi is this fifteen year old's way of expressing his dominance over a young, talented pitcher that could threaten his school team's future prospects in local competitions. Homosexualization is how he messes around with other people he doesn't care for. He jokes that he and Kaionji are having a "good time" and that Kadowaki is in love with Takumi. The only time he doesn't insert homoeroticism is between himself and Kadowaki because he has strong, complicated feelings for his childhood friend, namely jealousy towards Kadowaki's talent as a baseball player. He goes to parties to hook up with girls, but it's ambiguous if he swings both ways. Do I think it's weird that a fifteen year old---an age group notorious for being homophobic---talks like this around his peers? Yes. However, given that he includes himself in his homosexual jokes, I don't think it's necessarily homophobic.
Displaying 1 of 1 review