Japanese Baseball and Anime
Panel Introduction ● Panelist introduction ● A brief overview of the panel
Brief History Dates back to the 1700’s First professional team created in the 1850’s Introduced to Japan in 1872 Nippon Professional Baseball League Sadaharu Oh 1959 – 1980 World Baseball Classic
Differences between United States and Japan ● Slight differences in the rules ● Inning limits ● Roster limitations on professional rosters ● Teams named after corporations instead of location ● Less frequent player movement on the professional teams ● Approach to the game
High School Baseball in Japan ● Rivals professional baseball in popularity ● Koshien draws almost a million spectators ● Reaching Koshien ● Notable players at Koshien
Part 2: Baseball Anime
Touch ● 1 season (101 episodes) ● Released 1985 – 1987 ● Not domestically available
Princess Nine ● 1 seasons (26 episodes) ● Released 1998 ● Licensed by Lucky Penny/Nozomi Entertainment ● Streaming episodes available on YouTube
Major ● 6 seasons (154 episodes), 3 OVA and 1 movie ● Released 2004 – 2011 ● Not domestically available ● Consistently ranked in top 10 for TV rankings in Japan
Ookiku Furikabutte/Big Windup ● 2 seasons (39 episodes) and 3 additional specials/OVAs ● Released 2007, 2010 ● Funimation.com streaming subbed/dubbed ● DVD available with S.A.V.E. ● Season 2 is not domestically available
One Outs ● 1 season (25 episodes) ● Released 2008 – 2009 ● Not domestically available
Cross Game ● 1 season (50 episodes) ● Released 2009 – 2010 ● Hulu, Anime Network streaming subbed ● No dub or DVD license at this time
Moshidora ● 1 season (10 episodes) ● Released 2011 ● Not domestically available
Diamond no Ace/Ace of the Diamond ● 1 season (52 episodes) ● Released 2013 – Present ● Crunchyroll streaming subbed ● No dub or DVD license at this time
Part 2: Wrap ● Ratings and awards in Japan ● Baseball anime review scores ● Sales and availability of sports anime in the US
Part 3: Baseball in Other Anime
Non-Baseball Anime ● Little Busters several episodes in seasons 1 and 2 ● Clannad After Story Episode 1 and episode 13 ● The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode 4 (original broadcast) ● Angel Beats episode 4 ● Silver Spoon S1 episode 11 and S2 episode
The odd baseball anime ● Summer Wars movie several scenes involve baseball ● FLCL episode 4 ● Samurai Champloo episode 23 ● Level E episode 11 ● Soul Eater Not episode 8 ● Yamishibai S2 episode 5 FLCL Samurai Champloo
Part 3: Wrap ● Some notable trends ● Filler episodes ● Side characters