[Kaoru Chujo]

I was a bit disappointed in ep3, but not because it didn't do what it set out to do, which was to illustrate how management ideas can be effective even in an area distant from a real company. I thought it did that brilliantly, and I thought the characters were beginning to be fleshed out and to grow.

What I was disappointed in was the anime as anime. Perhaps specifically the storyboarding and direction of this episode. Things just seemed clunky to me. The standard shot in the standard place, held for just a little too long. And the animation -- the way the characters move, especially the ballplayers -- has always seemed too stiff to me.

As for Deconstructor's feeling that this is all unrealistic, the unusual situation is part of why this book sold, but I don't think it is really all that far-fetched. Management techniques may seem abstruse and even ridiculous -- I thought so when I was first being introduced to them -- but they do work and they are fascinating when you start to work with them. I've often wished I was more willing to apply them in my own life, not just at work.

Of course very few high school girls read Drucker, but I'm sure a few do. And in baseball, if more ex-players studied management when they started to manage ball teams, they would definitely have more success. Maybe not as miraculous as the success in this anime will be, but it is often a small distance from the bottom to the top, if you can mobilize the talents people have but do not use well.