Earlier this year, Ash Ketchum finally retired from his quarter-century campaign to become a Pokémon master. Greg Lobanov and friends surely couldn’t have known this was coming when they began work on their followup to 2020’s exquisite Chicory: A Colorful Tale – yet nonetheless, Beastieball opens by asking what might happen if his story had played out in realtime. Here, local hero Redd, anime hair squashed under the peak of a baseball cap and unruly stubble sprouting from his chin, is cast in the classic sports-movie role of the champ whose best days are behind him. It’s easy to imagine this guy watching videos of old battles from his sofa, a too-early-in-the-day beer warming in his hand.
Luckily, though, it’s not Redd whose story you pick up here, instead assembling your own character out of cartoon body parts. They’re a rookie coach who grew up in the shadow of their idol and eventually beyond it, picking up the mantle to represent the imperilled Rutile Town in the Beastieball big leagues. Flawed mentors and underdogs thrust into the spotlight in their stead are themes that run through Lobanov’s work – Chicory begins in similar fashion, and we can only assume that the story will stretch as far beyond ‘cute monster catcher’ as that game did beyond ‘cute dog with paintbrush’.
