Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ballmastrz: Rubicon’ on Adult Swim, An Anime Reboot of a Hyperviolent Sports Series

Ballmastrz: 9009 began as a wacky sports series that followed “The Game,” a sport that kept humanity from killing each other off completely in a nuclear apocalyptic event. After two seasons, however, it’s evolved into something much different. Ballmastrz: Rubicon is a revamp, a reboot even, of the show that takes things beyond the playing field of Earth and into the cosmos for a new ride that creators hope will inspire folks to jump aboard. While the previous episodes were bound to the ground, this one takes flight for an anime-like adventure that recalls more of classic mecha series than the sports series that inspired the original episodes, and it’s all to fantastic effect as Rubicon blows the entire Ballmastrz series out of the water.

BALLMASTRZ: RUBICON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see Earth being attacked on Opening Game Day with a quick recap of what happened at the end of the previous season. Cosmic Super Fortress Gold Diamond, the ship Crayzar (Christy Karacas) revealed at the end of the previous season, is gearing up for a fight against a new threat: a purple face appearing in the middle of the sky.

The Gist: Ballmastrz: 9009 was a wild ride that introduced “The Game,” a post-apocalyptic sport meant to keep a nuclear event from happening after one nearly wiped out all of humanity: the “Rad Wars”. From the mind of Christy Karacas (Superjail), it framed a perfectly weird dystopian future punctuated by plenty of adult jokes, violence, dark humor, and anime-centric stylistic choices.

Starring Natasha Lyonne as Gaz Digzy, a star athlete in The Game, Ballmastrz introduced the hapless team that wanted to take her on: the Leptons. With frontman Ace Ambling (Jessica DiCicco) and his robotic ball Babyball (Dana Snyder) as well as the rest of the team, the Leptons go from being the most terrible group in The Game to having Gaz join them to slowly improve — and fight off other teams as they made their way to competency.

At the end of the second season, the hapless Leptons, the worst team in The Game, are given the grand trophy, having won big with Gaz returning to her family business and living in the lap of luxury. Around that time, the city found itself attacked by aliens, with Crayzar revealing that the Game wasn’t just to keep the peace, but a way to train warriors who would be able to defend the earth. When Gaz’s father is killed by the invaders, she rejoins the Leptons when the city is actually revealed to be a massive ship. Crayzar takes to space with the Leptons and other teams from the Game.

Ballmastrz: Rubicon picks up where the previous season left off, with Crayzar and the Leptons forced to fight off

Ace Ambling, now clad in a Mega Man-like outfit, is the de facto team lead a la mecha anime, but he’s no match for the robotic purple-like minions of Crayzar’s brother Tyetanus the Conqueror (Timothy “Speed” Levitch). He, along with his subordinate Hell Bastard, captures Crayzar and the rest of the team. As punishment for working with instead of against Earth, Crayzar’s powers are taken away by Tyetanus.

Tyetanus takes Crayzar to their father, the King of Saytar, Demon Saytar (Joshua Henry). He calls his brother a traitor who didn’t finish his mission, which found him assigned to obtain the Cosmo Diary, which holds the secrets of the Universe. Though the Saytar had no need of it for years, with the debut of the “ruinous beasts” the Necro Mammoth, the Cosmo Diary is wanted more than ever.

The Leptons and Crayzar must figure out a way to get Crayzar’s power back and stop Tyetanus while also dealing with the introduction of a new space threat.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? You’ll no doubt be reminded of early mecha anime as well as series like G-Force or Voltron, and that’s mostly due to the classic anime designs the entire show has received for this version of the show.

Our Take: Ballmastrz: 9009 was a serviceable comedy that had great ideas and fun animation that felt like an extension of Superjail. But it never did scratch the itch I had for more of Karacas’s prior show. That’s why Rubicon feels like such a necessary and fun departure. It doffs the chains that kept it mired in its sports anime-styled seasons and has the freedom now to head out into space and become something totally different.

The animation looks fantastic, and the story is perfectly suited to space exploration with Crayzar at the helm and the characters everyone has gotten to know by now working to save humanity instead of wasting time playing The Game. This miniature special felt like a bigger budget anime movie, one that you might have found on a movie rental shelf in the ‘90s, and a smaller part of some larger bit of lore that will unfurl itself in the future.

Rubicon feels like what Ballmastrz was originally supposed to be, and now that it’s changed over into its new form, it feels like the beginning of a brand new series, and I’m hoping that the rest of the season ends up airing, because Adult Swim is in dire need of something to diversify the content it has right now, which largely feels too safe and tired to be entertaining.

Sex and Skin: None to speak of in this episode, but that’s largely because the art style and direction has changed tremendously, doing an about-face and going classic mecha anime.

Parting Shot: ​​Tyetanus tries to fire an energy beam directly at Gold Diamond to destroy it, but before he can do so, he’s devoured entirely by one of the Necro Mammoths mentioned earlier in the show. This inspires the Leptons to head out into space to wipe out the Necro Mammoths and keep Earth safe.

Sleeper Star: Dave Willis is hardly a sleeper star, but he brings some fun poetry to Leto, whose lines at the end of the special portend a special adventure on its way. He may seem dim-witted, but he’s got some interesting ideas to share, even if we don’t get to hear from him too often.

Most Pilot-y Line: Ace, always an optimist, believes in Crayzar despite the fact that the Leptons and humanity had been lied to prior to finding out about the whole space thing. His words end up being true: “Trust in Crayzar, Babyball! He always has a plan!”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Ballmastrz: Rubicon is an absolutely fantastic way both to reboot the series and pay homage to classic anime that came before it. It’s a great way to get new fans on board and extend the series’ potential life as a lengthy narrative. And who doesn’t love retro animation?

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.