is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese shōnen

Shonen

The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...

 sports manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written by Nobuhiro Sakata and illustrated by Daichi Banjou

Daichi Banjou

, known under the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. He is a graduate of Seinan Gakuin University. After graduating, he worked as an assistant to Takashi Shiina. In 1991 he won the 21st Shogakukan New Artist Award for "Feron 11" as well as an honorable mention for the "Fujiko Fujio Award"...

. The story has been adapted into an anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series that first aired on April 3, 2004 in Japan.

Plot

Dan Doh!! focuses on a fifth grader named Tadamichi Aoba also nicknamed Dandoh. Dandoh and his two friends are their baseball team's best players, but after an incident with their school principal, they are introduced to the world of golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

. Dandoh and his friends are taught by a former professional golfer named Shinjō Mikiyasu, who believes that they can surpass even him. As Dandoh begins to play in tournaments, his friendly spirit, determination, and hard working and competitive attitude brings the best in the players around him and earns him many friends.

Characters

Tadamichi Aoba, also called Dandoh by his friends, was originally a talented baseball player with the ability to hit long-distance home runs. He is introduced to golf by his school's principal. Dandoh quits baseball and decides to play golf instead partly after hearing he could win 30 million yen in a tournament. He believes if he wins the money, his mother would come back after she left him, his older sister, and his father because of money problems.

Yuka Sunada is Dandoh's friend who follows him to play golf. She constantly worries about Dandoh, but also gets excited after his accomplishments. Yuka's swinging pivot is firm, which allows her to keep her form when under pressure and even when being harassed during her first tournament game. She have a calm and kind personality. Yuka shows talent in golf like Aoba whom she hold strong feelings for.

Kōhei Ooike is Dandoh's friend who follows him to play golf. He also played baseball and could hit further than Dandoh. Along with his strength to hit the ball far, Kōhei excels in putting.

Shinjō Mikiyasu was a Japanese pro golfer who won the Arizona Phoenix Open over Greg Norman

Greg Norman

Gregory John Norman AO is an Australian professional golfer and entrepreneur who spent 331 weeks as the world's Number 1 ranked golfer in the 1980s and 1990s...

 a year and seven months prior to the beginning of the story. His career came to an end after a car accident, which left him unable to swing a golf club. He envies Dandoh because he has good friends that back him up, thus agrees to teach Dandoh, Yuka, and Kōhei after they show him their determination and patience.

Anime

Dan Doh!! was licensed for North American distribution by Bandai Entertainment, which they announced at Anime Expo

Anime Expo

Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation . With rare exceptions, the convention is traditionally held on the July 4th weekend and lasts for four days...

 2004 when they wanted to establish a strong presence in the sports genre. English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 dubs

Dub localization

Dub localization, also often simply referred to as localization, which is a form of a voice-over. It is the practice of voice-over translation altering a foreign language film, art film or television series by voice actors to further adapt the material for a "local" audience.Dub localization is a...

 was done in conjunction with Odex Pte Ltd.

Odex

Odex Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-based company that licenses and releases anime for local and regional Southeast Asian consumption. It was registered in 1998 to license, import and release overseas drama and animation into Singapore. It began distribution in 2000...

, a Singapore-based anime licensor company.

Theme songs

Opening theme

"Going On" by Bullet 77

Ending themes

"Wild Flower ~ Hana ni Arashi no Tatoe ari ~ " (WILD FLOWER ~花に嵐の喩えあり~) by Bullet 77

"Believe In Love" by Bullet 77

External links

Official Dan Doh!! anime site at TV Tokyo