‘Ballmastrz 9009’ Is Peak Adult Swim Insanity

Few networks could get away with launching a series called Ballmastrz 9009. But Adult Swim‘s latest animated series is a fast-paced, ambitious show that seems to take pleasure in brutally mocking the very tropes that inspired it. And under that snark is a surprisingly endearing show about the cost of fame, and what it means to win.

Created and directed by Christy Karacas, the creator behind Adult Swim’s warped Superjail!, Ballmastrz 9009 takes place in a future where all sports and wars have been replaced by “The Game” — a sort of Max Max-version of basketball. There are only two rules to this futuristic sport: use the ball to kill, and use the ball to score.

Though the rules are notably easier, the competition portion of the game feels like one big knowing wink to both anime’s long history of fighting-based shows and every underdog sports story ever. Much like the Dark Tournament portion of Yu Yu Hakushu, parts of Dragon Ball Z, and even Pokemon, Ballmastrz 9009 is entirely dependent on the competition at the center of this story. The series even introduces new and crazy characters in the same rapid-fire way tournament-based anime has operated in the past. Here’s a deadly little girl with a lollipop staff. Now here’s a mummy with special bandage attacks. None of these characters particularly matter or are even named, as Ballmastrz 9009 cynically acknowledges. All that matters is that they look cool and give its heroes something interesting to fight.

The series combines this homage with another trope, thanks to this world’s most tragic team, the Leptons. The Leptons are classic underdogs. They’re from nowhere, know nothing about the sport they’re being forced to play, and are painfully bad at being a team. Karacas uses this team’s constant failures as a shorthand for why we should care about them. They’re this world’s Mighty Ducks or the Tune Squad from Space Jam. They’re the losers of this universe, and they desperately need a ringer.

It’s through that ringer that Ballmastrz 9009 transforms from a constantly winking mockery of well-worn sports tropes into a smirking story that can score on its own. Gaz Digzy (Natasha Lyonne) is the adult version of the failed hero we’ve seen a million times before, so of course she’s the one who’s recruited to train the worst team in the league. Through this character, Karacas’ vulgarity as a creator and Adult Swim’s “anything goes” status shine. The series never shies away from showing how her ego and boredom with the sport she dominates has ruined her life. She should be The Game’s undisputed champion, but as Ace, the orphan who looks up to her (Jessica DiCicco), puts it, Gaz is “a potty-mouthed, drink-drinking, cuss-word sayer” who has put on more than a couple pounds. Simply put, Gaz is a nearly-unfiltered mess.

Gaz is one of the most immediately interesting protagonists Adult Swim has aired in recent years, and for all of the show’s beautifully frantic animation and impossible characters, she feels real. With her drinking habits, love of drugs, and weight gain, Gaz stands as the show’s symbol of lost potential. Can she regain what she once lost, or will this subculture she used to rule move on without her?

There are a lot of sports stories dedicated to depicting the rise of the underdog team, but few give equal time to the fallen hero who’s forced to fix them. That’s what Ballmastrz 9009 does so well — it examines a past champion at the same time as it’s raising up its future hero (that would be Ace). Only time will tell who will become The Game’s ultimate champion, but in the meantime this poppy, death-focused show defined by manic scribbled lines makes for a great journey.

Stream Ballmastrz 9009 on Adult Swim