MAPPA’s ‘Oblivion Battery’ Provides us with an Unexpected ‘Dragon Ball’ Easter Egg
In case you’re not fully familiar with it, Oblivion Battery is a baseball sports manga by Eko Mikawa, which has been published since 2018 and currently consists of 17 collected volumes as of the time of writing. On October 11, 2020, a 20-minute ONA episode was released before the manga was properly adapted into an anime series which premiered on April 10, 2024. The anime is produced by MAPPA and the third episode, which aired recently, provided us with a very special Easter Egg that many fans will love, but which is also a heartbreaking tribute to a manga and anime legend.
The third episode of the series, “So What?”, premiered on April 24, 2024, and fans have noticed a very interesting Easter Egg dedicated to the late Akira Toriyama, as one of the characters undergoes a Goku-style transformation, which is MAPPA’s wonderful tribute to the Dragon Ball franchise.
The transformation was shown in the background, but the reference is clear and we have the video for you here, so you can check it out for yourselves:
As you can see, we have Goku in Oblivion Battery and we can only thank MAPPA for this wonderful reference, which is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking because it shows just how much of an influence Akira Toriyama has on the world of manga and anime.
As for the series itself, Oblivion Battery is directed by Masato Nakazono (Chainsaw Man chief episode director), with Tsuyoshi Iida serving as assistant director, Michiko Yokote (Tsurune, Call of the Night) as series screenwriter, Hitomi Hasegawa (Dance Dance Danseur) as character designer, and Tomoki Kikuya and Hiroko Yamasaki as music composers. As for the main roles, they are:
- Toshiki Masuda as Haruka Kiyomine
- Mamoru Miyano as Kei Kaname
- Yohei Azakami as Aoi Todo
- Nobunaga Shimazaki as Shunpei Chihaya
- Yuuki Kaji as Taro Yamada
- Yoshitaka Yamaya as Kazuki Tsuchiya
- Takeo Ootsuka as Eichiro Kokuto
- Mark Ishii as Hironobu Makita
- Kengo Kawanishi as Shuto Kirishima
As we have said, the series is based on a baseball sports manga, and the official synopsis reveals that the series is focused on Haruka Kiyomine — who is a completely “perfect” pitcher who has made a name for himself in middle school — and Kei Kaname, who himself was once a formidable player with amazing skills, but has now regressed to a novice due to memory loss. The two of them will collaborate and become friends as the series explores the sports background of their friendship.
This is all that we have for you at this moment, but be sure to keep following us for more news and updates, as we are going to bring you all the latest, as usual.
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