The Good, The Bad, and the Cutesy: Pro Yakyu Logos

To be a fan of professional Japanese baseball, one soon learns to accept a higher degree of cuteness on the diamond than which the average North American male is typically accustomed. While one might not ever get used to the idea of a hulking slugger receiving a bouquet of flowers and waving a plush toy to adoring fans after hitting a home run, the chance to maintain a connection with a “home away from home” team trumps such concessions by the teams to “kawaii” culture.

That said, a tour through the logos of all the teams shows that one group hews to tradition, another is lost in its own world, while the last takes a decidedly different approach when it comes to projecting their brands domestically. So, from my purely biased perspective, here is how they stack up.

The Good

Hanshin Tigers: A logo that reflects the pride and tradition of one of the league’s flagship franchises. Looks like a patch a biker gang would be proud to wear.

Saitama Seibu Lions: A lion’s claw gripping a baseball. How cool is that? After years in those dayglo blue uniforms with the neon trim, this would have to qualify as one of the best rebrandings since the Houston Astros lost their orange striped uniforms.

Yokohama DeNa BayStars: Makes maximum use of the star in their name. Too bad the team rarely plays up to it.

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters: Nothing special, but not embarrassing either. Not sure how necessary it is to make the baseball so prominent.

ORIX Buffaloes: I still miss those old Kintestu Buffaloes hats with daimyo helmets on them, but this logo rightly buries the baseball behind the team name.

The Bad

Yomiuri Giants: Never mind the Y-shaped antennae emerging through this guy’s cap. Why is he wagging a finger in chastisement? What’s the message? “How dare you even think of beating the mighty Giants!”? As the most successful franchise from the biggest city in Japan, the Giants comfortably occupy the “arrogant Yankees” role, but this logo is just a bit much. At least the Yankees hide their bat under a classy top hat. This one is just so annoying, it makes beating the Giants feel even sweeter than usual, like breaking the finger off and sticking it...wait, am I going too far? Yes, yes I am. I’ll stop now.

The Cutesy

Hiroshima Toyo Carp: This is the logo which evokes the age old philosophical question, which came first, the Konami Power Pro Baseball characters or the Hiroshima Carp logo? It also happens to be the best of the cute by far. What soulless fan could find fault with an image of a boy with big league dreams as the embodiment of a team?

Tokyo Yakult Swallows: It’s hard to fault the Swallows' logo. The swallow looks more like a tough Heckle and Jeckle magpie than anything else. As long as the Baltimore Orioles stick with their cartoon bird, no MLB fan can mock this one.

Chunichi Dragons: With its little blue alien dragon, this logo seems to be the only one inspired by anime.  It could be worse.

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles: The only team to squeeze a male and female into their logo. Score one for gender equality.

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks: I’m sorry, but whenever I look at this one, I think of a chicken for a rebranded KFC restaurant that lost its franchise. Considering that the Hawks’ latest uniforms neatly evoke a samurai crest with the yellow bands on the sleeve, the contrast couldn’t be more striking.

Chiba Lotte Marines: Whereas the Hawks make a tough bird look goofy, the Marines deserve credit for making a shoreline scavenger look cool. Well, maybe not cool, but at least spunky. To top it off, he has three other members in his mascot family to appeal to the widest demographic possible.

So, for those of you keeping score at home, the Cutesy win 6 to 5 to 1. Need I say more?