Cross Game

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

This is a hit work by Adachi-sensei in the 2000s.
The anime ran for 50 episodes between 2009 and 2010, and was visualized up to the end of the original story.
The story focuses on the main character, Kou Kitamura, and his childhood friends, the four Tsukishima sisters.

While Tatsuya and Hiiro had the fastest pitching speed of around 150km, Ko’s was 158km (although it is not stated, it is possible that he had a speed of 160km), which shows the passage of time.
Also, the environment surrounding anime has changed, and unlike Touch and H2, which were broadcasted in the golden age, this work was broadcasted in the midnight slot, but it was well received and gained new fans.

MIX

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

This is the latest work by Adachi and a hit of the 2010s.
It is a sequel that picks up about 30 years after Touch, and focuses on the revival of Meisei with a battery of brothers-in-law, Touma Tachibana and Soichirou, who have entered Meisei Academy.
The June 2012 issue of Gesan, which included the first episode, sold out and was reprinted in the following month’s Gesan and Sunday, an unusual situation.

The anime will air in 2019.
As it was still in serialization, it was a total of 24 episodes, but it was beautifully put together.

Gurazeni

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

An anime adaptation of a manga that has been serialized in Weekly Morning since 2010.
The anime aired in two split seasons in 2018.

It is a work about “money” in professional baseball, which has not been a subject of much interest, and it is a parade of graphic stories.
While there are many baseball anime that deal with high school baseball, this is a valuable work that depicts the serious side of professional baseball.

ONE OUTS

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

A baseball anime that aired from 2008 to 2009.
It is based on a manga work serialized in Business Jump by Shinobu Kaiya of LIAR GAME fame.

It’s also an oddity, and is billed as the antithesis of all baseball manga.
The protagonist, Toa Tokuchi, is a man who is as close to a con man as you can get.
The story focuses on the psychological warfare in which he uses his superior insight to get a large sum of money through a “one-noughts contract,” an annual salary contract based on a full-rate system.

It is the opposite of a sporty story.

If Dora

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

Based on the novel “Moshi Koukou Yakyuu no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no ‘Management’ o Yondara” (If a Female High School Baseball Manager Reads Drucker’s ‘Management’), which has sold 2.7 million copies.
In response to the mega-hit, it was made into an anime by NHK in 2011.

The content is the same as the original title.
As a baseball anime, it has not received high praise in terms of both drawing and content.
However, it is definitely an ambitious work that depicts baseball in a different approach from existing works, and if you are interested in that, it is worth watching.

Captain

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

This is an anime adaptation of a manga series by Akio Chiba that was serialized in the 1970s in the monthly Shonen Jump magazine.
The anime was aired in 1980 and 1983.

Up until the early 1970s, most baseball anime were derivative of battle anime, where the characters used magic balls to play with their opponents.
This work, however, is a coming-of-age story with life-sized characters who are directly devoted to baseball, and it succeeded in presenting a new way of baseball animation.
For this reason, it is counted as one of the legends of baseball anime.

It is also known as the anime that Ichiro liked to watch.

Play Ball

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

The manga was serialized at about the same time as a spin-off of Captain, and was animated in 2005-2006, 27 years after the series ended.
Captain was a relay story that focused on the baseball team of Sumiya Daini Junior High School, and when the generation changed, a new captain would be chosen as the main character, but this Play Ball is a story about the first captain, Takao Taniguchi, after his graduation.

Director Satoshi Dezaki, who directed the Captain anime, is also the general director of this film.
Since it is targeted at the old generation, it recreated the anime style of the past, but as expected, some expressions that were not considered problematic in the generous era have been corrected.

Dokaben

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

This is the masterpiece of Shinji Mizushima, who announced his retirement at the age of 81, and a blockbuster work that spans 205 volumes in total.
It is a baseball manga hall of fame that lasted for 46 years, but only the first series was made into an anime.
It was aired from 1976 to 1979.

It is a realistic baseball anime that aired before Captain.
The average viewership rating of 16.5% and the highest viewership rating of 24.3% are high enough, but again, because it was broadcast so long ago, it is rarely talked about compared to the manga.

 Samurai Giants

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

A baseball anime that aired from 1973 to 1974.
It is based on a manga that was serialized in the weekly Shonen Jump magazine in the 1970s, and was written by Kajiwara Ikki, the creator of “Ashita no Joe” and “Tiger Mask.

At the time, baseball was all about the Giants, and since this work was made around the time of the V9, it was made under an exclusive contract with the Giants and featured real players such as ON under their real names.
In those days, baseball anime usually had “appropriate rules,” “unrealistic magic balls,” and “overly extreme direction,” and this work is a symbol of that.

Star of the Giant

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

It is a milestone in baseball anime, recording the highest viewer rating of 36.7%, the highest in the history of baseball anime.
It is also the masterpiece and career work of the original writer, Kajiwara Ikki.

The story is about Hoshi Hyuma, whose talent blossomed due to the extraordinary gifted education of his father, Hoshi Itetsu, a former member of the Giants, and how he takes on many rivals, including Mitsuru Hanagata, by using several kinds of magic balls called “big league balls.
It is also a hall of fame for sports anime, which gave birth to the “sporen” genre.
However, in recent years, more attention has been paid to the disappointing episode where no one came to Yuma’s Christmas party than to the baseball scene or the magic ball.

Summary

The trendy genres are gradually changing with the times: the magic ball line, the realistic line, the romantic comedy line, and the same-sex-only youth line.
I’d like to see what kind of baseball anime will become mainstream in the future!