This review is based on the version released to American television with an English-language soundtrack under the title "Seventh Inning Stretch.
To the modern eye, this postwar Japanese cartoon is a transitional piece, from the Japanese-mythos story to the modern anime style. The linkage to the older style can be detected in the teams being the rabbits versus the foxes, with the sympathetic character being a fox -- indeed, except for that bit of fantasy, this could have been a live action short. In addition, while the backgrounding and character design are elaborate, the characters move in a simpler style, based around the joints of the characters' bodies, as they had been in the thirties.
The movement towards anime is indicated by the large, round eyes of the characters and the straighforward handling of the story. To an American, used to a gag-based style of cartoon storytelling, it would have been weird. Indeed, when anime started showing up regularly on American TV in the form of such shows as "Astroboy" and "Speed Racer", it was those matters that lent a piquancy to them.
To the modern eye, this postwar Japanese cartoon is a transitional piece, from the Japanese-mythos story to the modern anime style. The linkage to the older style can be detected in the teams being the rabbits versus the foxes, with the sympathetic character being a fox -- indeed, except for that bit of fantasy, this could have been a live action short. In addition, while the backgrounding and character design are elaborate, the characters move in a simpler style, based around the joints of the characters' bodies, as they had been in the thirties.
The movement towards anime is indicated by the large, round eyes of the characters and the straighforward handling of the story. To an American, used to a gag-based style of cartoon storytelling, it would have been weird. Indeed, when anime started showing up regularly on American TV in the form of such shows as "Astroboy" and "Speed Racer", it was those matters that lent a piquancy to them.