At its broadest moments, Ballmastrz: 9009 inexplicably feels like some impossible mash-up between Escape From L.A.and Dragon Ball Super’s Tournament of Power. Ballmastrz initially feels like the slightly less polished show that Karacas would have made beforeSuperjail!, not after, but that’s not to say this is a normal show by any means. If anything it somehow has an even more elastic reality than Superjail! It puts dozens of different styles and genres into a blender together and then jumps into the bathtub with it. This show feels like a computer did a speedball and the finished product is a disorienting, glitched-out drug overdose.

One example of the sort of fresh insanity that Ballmastrz offers to its viewers is the “unlimited death” concept that it develops. In this version of the future there are advanced healing organisms that allow every character to get brutally murderized multiple times in each episode, yet still be able to shake hands and say “good game” at the end of a match. It’s an idea that doubles down on the ridiculous future science that this show pushes, but it’s a simple enough way to maximize the show’s carnage and make something that’s as intimidating and permanent as death turn into a punchline.

Another psychotic way in which Ballmastrz defines itself is with the heavy anime influences that it dresses itself up in. Characters will phase in and out of anime-like mannerisms and animations with zero warning. Even the titles of episodes choose to address themselves with the cumbersome, tongue twister-style names that anime series often use. Ballmastrz: 9009 honestly feels like an anime, which has been turned into an Adult Swim show, that they’ve then tried to turn back into an anime. The glorious works of Masaaki Yuasa feel like a major inspiration for the Adult Swim series, particularly his must-watch anime, Ping Pong.

This pilot soars through exposition at 100 miles per hour as if it’s a game ball that flies through the air. Basically there are two rules to Ballmasters: 1. Use the ball to kill; 2. Use the ball to score. Got it? Great, now you’re as up to date as everyone else in this world. Ballmastrz makes a point to explain what life was like pre-Ballmasters and before the “Rad Wars,” but it really doesn’t care if you retain any of the details. In fact, the intense, jittery narration hopes that you lose your bearings and don’t know what’s going on. This is a fast-paced, unpredictable universe and whether you’re a character in it or just a viewer it’s going to trample all over you. This is a show that constantly interrupts its narrative in order to hurl more facts and atmospheric details at the audience.

As punishment for her reckless behavior, Gaz finds herself saddled with the Leptons, who are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Ballmaster teams. Not only does the team have a questionable track record, but some of them also seem to have major disadvantages that get dressed up as avant-garde assets. One member of the team is without extremities and he traps his head in the sort of sensory deprivation casing that would make Jigsaw blush, all while he allows his elongated, disturbing “umbilicus” do the lion’s share of his work for him.