Okiku Furikabutte
Encyclopedia
, often shortened to just , is a baseball
manga
series by Asa Higuchi
, serialized in the monthly seinen
Afternoon
magazine since 2003. It has been adapted into a TV anime
series, animated by A-1 Pictures
, which premiered in Japan
on TBS
. It received its international television premiere on Animax
's English language
networks in Asia, Animax Asia
.
The manga series won the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for best creative work in 2006. In 2007, it won the Kodansha Manga Award
for general manga. Currently, the manga is on a 1 year hiatus, and will resume on the November 2011 issue of Afternoon (magazine),
, follows the story of Ren Mihashi. Mihashi was the previous ace pitcher
in his middle school's baseball team, but it seems that he only got the position because his grandfather was the owner of the school. His teammates (especially the team's catcher
) hated him, and they always lost their games. Mihashi is thoroughly convinced that he is a lousy baseball pitcher and he graduates through middle school with extremely low self-esteem. But the truth is that he is really a hardworking and skillfull pitcher, and the main reason why his team always lost the games is the bad cooperation, because his teammates never talked about the game with him, and they didn't even try to come out a plan or strategy to fignt against with their rivals. He then transfers to Nishiura high school with plans of quitting baseball though he still loves baseball deeply, because he does not believe he is good enough to succeed at baseball. However, he is dragged into Nishiura's baseball team by their coach while watching the team training outside the field. Assisted by his new teammates (and especially the catcher, Takaya Abe), he grows in stature, confidence and skill, helping his team excel with his own abilities.
, Asa Higuchi became familiar with baseball by reading the manga Dokaben
. When she was in high school, the story of a local baseball team wound up inspiring her to come up with the idea for her own baseball manga. In the original version, Mihashi never spoke and characters like Momoe, Kanou and Haruna didn't exist yet. Following that, she collected data on high school baseball for over 10 years in order to create the manga, and she worked with the school she had attended, Urawanishi High School, in the year prior to the serialization. In fact, Urawanishi seems to have been the design for the school that the Nishiura boys attend. The two names are similar as well.
Five months prior to the serialization of Ōkiku Furikabutte in Afternoon, Higuchi published a one shot in the magazine titled "The Basic of Basics". The story was centered around the characters of the Musashino Dai Ichi school, who would show up in the series itself.
from April 2007. It also aired during the same month across several of TBS's affiliated TV networks, including MBS
, BS-i and CBC
. One month later, the series also aired on the Japanese Animax
. The series was also subsequently aired in English
across Animax's English language networks
in Southeast Asia
and South Asia
. A second season has been announced in the 13th volume of the manga. The first episode aired on April 2, 2010.
The series made its North American television debut on March 14th, 2011 on the Funimation Channel
.
2nd opening theme
3rd opening theme
Ending theme
2nd ending theme
3rd ending theme
for general manga, and the 11th volume of the manga was the best selling manga volume in its week of release, and sold over 400,000 copies in its first three weeks of release.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
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...
series by Asa Higuchi
Asa Higuchi
is a female Japanese manga artist, born in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture . She graduated from Saitama Prefecture's prestigious Urawanishi High School and Hosei University's department of psychology, with a major in sports psychology...
, serialized in the monthly seinen
Seinen
is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters...
Afternoon
Afternoon (magazine)
is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It is a monthly anthology, and each issue typically has around thirty ongoing stories by various authors and runs about 800 pages...
magazine since 2003. It has been adapted into a TV 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, animated by A-1 Pictures
A-1 Pictures
is a Japanese animation studio, a subsidiary of Sony's anime production firm Aniplex.-History:The studio was established by Sony's animation production division, Aniplex, on May 9, 2005, to animate its anime series and productions. In 2006, it co-produced the original production Zenmai Zamurai,...
, which premiered in 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...
on TBS
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
. It received its international television premiere on Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
's English language
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...
networks in Asia, Animax Asia
Animax Asia
Animax Asia is the Japanese anime TV network Animaxs English language feeds in Southeast Asia and South Asia, as well as its feeds across other regions of mainland Asia, including Hong Kong and Taiwan...
.
The manga series won the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for best creative work in 2006. In 2007, it won the Kodansha Manga Award
Kodansha Manga Award
is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in four categories: children's, shōnen, shōjo, and general. The awards began in 1977, initially with categories for shōnen and shōjo. The first award for the...
for general manga. Currently, the manga is on a 1 year hiatus, and will resume on the November 2011 issue of Afternoon (magazine),
Story
The series, set in SaitamaSaitama, Saitama
' is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture in Japan, situated in the south-east of the prefecture. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance...
, follows the story of Ren Mihashi. Mihashi was the previous ace pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
in his middle school's baseball team, but it seems that he only got the position because his grandfather was the owner of the school. His teammates (especially the team's catcher
Catcher
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
) hated him, and they always lost their games. Mihashi is thoroughly convinced that he is a lousy baseball pitcher and he graduates through middle school with extremely low self-esteem. But the truth is that he is really a hardworking and skillfull pitcher, and the main reason why his team always lost the games is the bad cooperation, because his teammates never talked about the game with him, and they didn't even try to come out a plan or strategy to fignt against with their rivals. He then transfers to Nishiura high school with plans of quitting baseball though he still loves baseball deeply, because he does not believe he is good enough to succeed at baseball. However, he is dragged into Nishiura's baseball team by their coach while watching the team training outside the field. Assisted by his new teammates (and especially the catcher, Takaya Abe), he grows in stature, confidence and skill, helping his team excel with his own abilities.
Development
While growing up in SaitamaSaitama, Saitama
' is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture in Japan, situated in the south-east of the prefecture. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance...
, Asa Higuchi became familiar with baseball by reading the manga Dokaben
Dokaben
is a baseball manga by Shinji Mizushima, serialized in Akita Shoten Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from April 24, 1972 to March 27, 1981. Chapters of the series published in 48 Tankōbon volumes by Akita Shoten. It was later made into an anime by the same name...
. When she was in high school, the story of a local baseball team wound up inspiring her to come up with the idea for her own baseball manga. In the original version, Mihashi never spoke and characters like Momoe, Kanou and Haruna didn't exist yet. Following that, she collected data on high school baseball for over 10 years in order to create the manga, and she worked with the school she had attended, Urawanishi High School, in the year prior to the serialization. In fact, Urawanishi seems to have been the design for the school that the Nishiura boys attend. The two names are similar as well.
Five months prior to the serialization of Ōkiku Furikabutte in Afternoon, Higuchi published a one shot in the magazine titled "The Basic of Basics". The story was centered around the characters of the Musashino Dai Ichi school, who would show up in the series itself.
Anime
The series is adapted into a TV anime series, animated by A-1 Pictures, which premiered in Japan on TBSTokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
from April 2007. It also aired during the same month across several of TBS's affiliated TV networks, including MBS
Mainichi Broadcasting System
is a broadcasting station in Osaka, Japan, affiliated with Japan Radio Network , National Radio Network , Japan News Network and TBS Network, serving in the Kansai region. MBS is also one of the major stockholders of Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc...
, BS-i and CBC
Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting
is a regional radio and television service serving Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Its radio service is affiliated with the Japan Radio Network and its television service affiliated with the Japan News Network and the TBS Network.-Radio:Frequency...
. One month later, the series also aired on the Japanese Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
. The series was also subsequently aired in 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...
across Animax's English language networks
Animax Asia
Animax Asia is the Japanese anime TV network Animaxs English language feeds in Southeast Asia and South Asia, as well as its feeds across other regions of mainland Asia, including Hong Kong and Taiwan...
in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
. A second season has been announced in the 13th volume of the manga. The first episode aired on April 2, 2010.
The series made its North American television debut on March 14th, 2011 on the Funimation Channel
FUNimation Channel
The FUNimation Channel is a 24-hour cable network which broadcasts anime series in the United States. OlympuSAT was chosen as the exclusive distributor of the network....
.
Staff
- Original Work: Asa Higuchi's Ōkiku Furikabutte (serialized in the monthly Afternoon magazine)
- Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
- Series Composition: Yōsuke Kuroda
- Character Design and Chief Animation Director: Takahiko Yoshida
- Action Animation Director: Jun'ichirō Taniguchi
- Accessories Design: Takuya Suzuki
- Art Director: Yukihiro Shibuya
- Color Design: Miyuki Satō
- Photography Director: Ei Rōhei
- Editing: Shigeru Nishiyama
- Sound Director: Hiromi Kikuda
- Mixer: Riyō Yamada (Sound Team)
- Sound Effects: Tomozaku Mitsui (Sound Box)
- Music: Shirō HamaguchiShiro Hamaguchiis a Japanese anime composer, arranger and orchestrator. He is best known for composing music to the anime franchises One Piece and Oh My Goddess! and arranging/orchestrating music in the Final Fantasy series...
, Akifumi Tada - Production: A-1 Pictures
Theme songs
Opening theme-
- Performance: Base Ball BearBase Ball BearBase Ball Bear is a Japanese rock band from Tokyo that formally began in 2002, although the members assembled in the autumn of 2001. The band, which was initially named Planet, was formed for a one-time performance at a high school culture festival, but decided to continue playing due to how well...
- Performance: Base Ball Bear
2nd opening theme
-
- Performance: Ikimono-gakariIkimono-gakariis a Japanese pop rock band that debuted in 1998. They record on Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Epic Records label.The band was formed in Kanagawa Prefecture in February 1999 by Hotaka Yamashita and Yoshiki Mizuno, and was later joined by lead vocalist Kiyoe Yoshioka in December the same year...
- Performance: Ikimono-gakari
3rd opening theme
-
- Performance: Galileo GalileiGalileo Galilei (band)is a Japanese rock band from Hokkaido, Japan signed to SME Records.-Members:, ** Vocals, guitar, song writer** Hokkaido, Wakkanai** His younger brother is the band's drummer Osaki Kazuki ** Guitar, Chorus...
- Performance: Galileo Galilei
Ending theme
-
- Performance: Kozue Takada
2nd ending theme
-
- Performance: SunSet SwishSunSet Swishis a three piece Japanese band. They are also known by their initials SSS. The band is part of Sony's SME Records label. Their first album, , was released on 15 November 2006. Their music have been used for a variety of anime series, namely: 2nd ending theme for the anime Ookiku Furikabutte is a...
- Performance: SunSet Swish
3rd ending theme
-
- Performance: CureaL
Reception
Big Windup! has achieved both critical and commercial success. In 2007, it won the Kodansha Manga AwardKodansha Manga Award
is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in four categories: children's, shōnen, shōjo, and general. The awards began in 1977, initially with categories for shōnen and shōjo. The first award for the...
for general manga, and the 11th volume of the manga was the best selling manga volume in its week of release, and sold over 400,000 copies in its first three weeks of release.
External links
- Big Windup! at Funimation EntertainmentFunimation EntertainmentFunimation is an American entertainment company. Originally founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, the company became a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005...
- Big Windup! Official website
- Big Windup! at TBSTokyo Broadcasting System, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
- Big Windup! at MBSMainichi Broadcasting Systemis a broadcasting station in Osaka, Japan, affiliated with Japan Radio Network , National Radio Network , Japan News Network and TBS Network, serving in the Kansai region. MBS is also one of the major stockholders of Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc...