Tribe Nine

What does it mean to be in a team? It is somewhat of a tightly knit group of peculiar people working towards a singular goal. In the context of Sports, teams are essential, and nearly everything depends on them. It is less about one particular person and more about the combined effort of peers who overcame their differences to reach something higher. Perhaps this is why we love Team Sports anime so much! Whether we engage in them in real life or not, there is a unique thrill that only they can deliver.

Tribe Nine is a 12-episode TV anime series that aired from the 10th of January until the 28th of March 28, in Winter 2022. It was produced by Lantis, Docomo Anime Store, JR East Marketing & Communications, Bandai Namco Arts, and Akatsuki, licensed by Funimation, and brought to life by Studio LIDENFILMS.

The central staff behind it included Aoki Yuu as Director, Kodaka Kazutaka as the Original Creator, Miyavi on Theme Song Performance and Theme Song Lyrics, and Takada Masafumi on Music. It features the genres of Action, Sci-Fi, and Sports alongside the Team Sports theme. It received an R - 17+ for its violence, and profanity is best suited for more mature audiences.

The Tribe Nine Anime is part of the popular Japanese multimedia franchise of the same name, collaborated by Too Kyo Games, Akatsuki Inc., and LIDENFILMS. Thus, the source material lies with Mixed media. It was even released on Blu-ray in a special limited version on the 27th of April 2022.

The youth spread all around Neo-Tokyo had become fed up with their society, forming tribes closer to their authentic selves to find their place in their hectic world. Of course, this practice presented its own platter of problems, the best example being group loyalty issues. These clashes amidst them started growing more and more fierce over time and would often end in violence.

As an alluring countermeasure, the government chose to implement the fateful XB Law, a rule declaring that all tribe conflicts are to be resolved via Extreme Baseball. Apart from traditional Baseball norms, the players would be able to use extendable bats and unique equipment tailor-made for pitchers, bringing about more futuristic and higher-level gameplay. Complete with modified rules, reduced restrictions, and bizarre applications of technology, this sport is too good for the youngsters to ignore.

The story turns to the spineless Haru Shirokane, who was getting bullied by some other youth. He gets saved by a very unexpected pair: co-leads Shun Kamiya and Taiga.

As fate would have it, Shun happened to be a star Extreme Baseball player and the leader of the Minato Tribe; the team ranked at the very top in Minato City. On the other hand, Taiga aimed to defeat Shun someday to become the best in the highly competitive sport.

Afterward, a chain of highly spontaneous events allowed Shun to stumble across their true potential, causing Taiga and Haru to get roped into the famed Minato Tribe.

As if on cue, the various tribes across Minato City then faced a new threat led by the mysterious Oujirou Otori. Now it is up to the Minato Tribe to overcome the clutches of evil, and it looks like the power of their two new rookies is an absolute necessity for the cause!

Since this series is about Extreme baseball, it's only normal to attempt to explain how the base game works in addition to all the added perks, but they never actually bother to do so.

Viewers would randomly see the characters scoring points for touching first base, not changing sides after a team accumulates four outs, suddenly start to respect conventional Baseball rules another time, and not know who is on most of the time. Whether the viewer knows about baseball, it is so blatantly apparent that something is off and is devoid of even the basics, which is extremely bad for a sports anime. Still, hey, the story itself is not terrible.

It will keep viewers moderately entertained, is very consistent, and lacks parts that are either extremely good or bad. There are no massive tonal shifts, unbelievable moments, or jaw-dropping twists and turns throughout the story, nor are there giant sore thumbs sticking out.

The plot is very predictable, and more often than not, characters would start acting stupid or illogical for no good reason. This Anime was created to promote a high-end game by a popular group and is essentially a marketing campaign. As such, this series will only serve to boost the game and really doesn't have any tremendous redeeming qualities.

While the Story is consistent, the Characters are incredibly inconsistent. They tend to suddenly become more competent or stupider whenever the plot needs them to be. A character could literally be dying, with blazing death flags around him, but the others chose not to do anything about it…

Some of the characters have their own arcs, which work to a certain extent. But sadly, most of them don’t have anything going for them and are too inconsistent with their personalities and ideas. This is not to say all of them are terrible and unfitting for the series because this part relies mainly on how the viewer sees it. As long as the plot finds it accommodating, a character can choose to die and is allowed to do so for convenience.

On the surface, Tribe Nine has done an excellent job in the visual department; but then again, not so much. Most of the character designs are obvious redesigns and have an uncanny resemblance to prior characters, but that is actually okay for this kind of series. If anything, it adds some familiarity and nostalgia, so plus points! Standing on their own, they make up the best department of this Anime; colorful, vivid, memorable and have a few welcome pop culture references.

If anything, the character art is probably the only saving grace for the visuals. The lost points lie in the Animation, which is primarily two-dimensional. Some ambitiously animated scenes don’t have gapping faults, but even those appear pretty uneven and jagged. On another note, cyberpunk environments like these have such great potential for unique backgrounds and sceneries, but they missed the mark on that too.

The Sounds and Music are more or less terrible. The sound design is so bad that it destroys the watching experience. It's hard to believe their godly Composer spawned a failure. Whose idea was it to play the music at the same volume as the vocals?

A character could be having a hugely emotional moment, but all that’s audible would be the unruly OST. Viewers would need a lot of getting used to ear tuning to make this department digestible. This is one of the few episodes where the Dub is better if one wishes actually to hear what's going on.

The Voice Actors are industry giants, but listening to their beloved voices within the battlefield of this Anime’s audio is painful. It's just plain disrespectful to the VAs for the series to mess up something so basic while also distracting viewers from everything spoken. The Opening theme is "Strike It Out" by MIYAVI, and the Ending theme is "Infocus" by Void_Chords feat. LIO, both of which are also mediocre.

It's a wonder how an Anime with such fantastic talent behind its helm could be such a letdown. Overall, Tribe Nine is very average, and the only reason it’ll ever score points is over its legacy. Due to the most basic of faults, the show messes up so many departments, making it a disgrace to all the staff behind it.

This series is in no way “good,” but it can be considered “fun” from a few standpoints. If you're looking for a fun show, there are thousands of other better contenders. If you're interested in the game, watching this is okay. If not, it isn’t worth your time, and it is better to watch something else instead. Not recommended, but it's not terrible either.