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Things by Maeda Jun feature baseball. A lot.

Episode 1 of Clannad: After Story is a baseball episode, and there's a fair bit of baseball elsewhere in both seasons of Clannad. Episode 4 of Charlotte is a baseball episode. Episode 4 of Angel Beats! is a baseball episode, and the whole Hinata/Yui thing later in the show is also rife with baseball. Little Busters! is brimming with baseball. I'm told that Rewrite (the VN) also has baseball in it. Dunno about Air or Kanon, but I'd be surprised if they were devoid of baseball.

I know baseball is big in Japan, and I know that Maeda's work is formulaic to a degree (ever seen the Maeda Jun bingo board?), but this goes beyond that. Why does Maeda Jun put baseball in so many of his works? (I've heard that Key has some sort of sponsorship deal with a baseball team. Is this true? If so, that'd explain it.)

senshin
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  • The anime of Air and Kanon by KyoAni actually are baseball-free. The VNs may have contained baseball somewhere, but I suspect the baseball obsession started with Clannad. – Torisuda Oct 01 '15 at 06:08

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The two reasons I can come up with is that Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan, and therefore is a common troupe in anime and Maeda Jun just uses it a lot, in order to provide a filler and some comedy in a show.

The second reason is advertisement for Yokohama DeNA BayStars, where they collaborate on the baseball episodes, where some characters are based on or named after the DeNA team members. But, I can only be sure for that for Charlotte, not the other anime you have mentioned.

This entire anime is done in collaboration with DeNA Baystars, which is a baseball team in Yokohama, Japan. The characters are even named after the team members.

Astral Sea
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  • The advertising for a real team probably came up because Maeda was already known to include baseball in all his work. I would say it's a symptom, not a cause. – Torisuda Oct 01 '15 at 14:42
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Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan, especially HS Baseball or the "Koshien tourney" so it isn't that much of a surprise in some animes if Baseball is shown... Dunno bout this though but in Clannad, I think Jun Maeda still isn't that much into Baseball yet, the main character there plays or was a previous basketball player and the other blonde dude was a soccer player, I think. In season one, probably, there was a basketball tournament that took place in that first show which indicates that Jun Maeda was probably a basketball fan or watcher before but then shifted his focus to Baseball... After watching the Baseball episode in Clannad after story, I think that's the time Maeda's interest and passion for the game of Baseball blossomed... and that goes on and on now after seeing Angel Beats, Little Busters and now Charlotte having such well put Baseball scenes.

Ren
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