Star of the Giants
巨人の星 (Kyojin no Hoshi)
Genre	Sports
Manga
Author	Ikki Kajiwara
Illustrator	Noboru Kawasaki
Publisher	Kodansha
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Magazine
Original run	1966 – 1966
Volumes	19
TV anime
Director	Tadao Nagahama(director) Daikichiro Kusube(animation director)
Studio	TMS Entertainment
Network	Nippon Television, Animax
Other networks: TMC
Original run	March 30, 1968 – September 18, 1971
Episodes	182
TV anime
Shin Kyoujin no Hoshi
Studio	TMS Entertainment
Network	Nippon Television
Other networks: TMC
Original run	1977-10-01 – 1978-09-30
Episodes	52
TV anime
Shin Kyoujin no Hoshi II
Studio	TMS Entertainment
Network	Nippon Television
Other networks: TMC
Original run	1979-04-14 – 1979-09-29
Episodes	23
Movie adaptations
A list of movie adaptations
Anime and Manga Portal

Star of the Giants (巨人の星, Kyojin no Hoshi^?) is a sports manga written by Ikki Kajiwara and drawn by Noboru Kawasaki. It was adapted as the first sports anime television series^{[citation needed]}broadcast in Japan, in 1968. It later spawned 2 anime sequels and different anime movies.

The manga appeared in Weekly Shōnen Magazine about the actual baseball team Yomiuri Giants using fictional characters. It was launched by the "Yomiuri Group" which at the time owned not only the actual baseball team, but the TV network Nippon Television, the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, as well as Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation.^{[citation needed]}

The show targeted young audiences expanding the imagination of what is physically possible by dramatizing pitches and wind-up sequences. While staying true to being a sports anime, the contents are not simulated like real baseball. It was closer to fantasy surreal anime, though that was the norm within manga publications at the time.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Story

The story is about Hyuma Hoshi, a promising young baseball pitcher who dreams of becoming a top star like his father Ittetsu Hoshi in the professional Japanese league. His father was once a 3rd baseman until he was injured in World War II and was forced to retire. The boy would join the ever popular Giants team, and soon he realized the difficulty of managing the high expectations. From the grueling training to battling the rival Mitsuru Hanagata on the Hanshin Tigers, he would have to take out his best pitching magic to step up to the challenge.

[edit] Characters

• Hoshi Hyuuma: Tohru Furuya
• Hoshi Ittetsu: Seizō Katō
• Akiko: Fuyumi Shiraishi
• Ban Chuuta: Jōji Yanami
• Hanagata Mitsuru: Makio Inoue
• Kawakami Tetsuharu: Tadashi Nakamura
• Masaichi Kaneda: Teiji Ōmiya
• Kyōko: Reiko Mutō

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] Anime

[edit] Staff

• Original creator: Ikki Kajiwara, Noboru Kawasaki
• Director: Tadao Nagahama, Yoshio Kabashima, Tadaaki Tamazaki, Mamoru Sasaki
• Script: Masaki Tsuji, Seiji Matsuoka, Tooru Sawaki, Ryohei Ito, Toru Sawaki, Yoshiaki Yoshida
• Music: Takeo Watanabe
• Art director: Isamu Kageyama
• Animation director: Daikichirou Kusube
• Editing: Kazuo Inoue

[edit] DVD

Beginning in 2001, the series was re-released on DVD format.

[edit] Movies

The first Star of the Giants movie was debuted in 1969 as part of the vacation anime festival on large screen theatres in color. The draw was that most people had black and white TVs at the time. The Star of Giants vs Mighty Atoms TV special reached the U.S and was renamed to Astro Boy vs the Giants^[1].

[edit] Video games

Kyojin no Hoshi (The Anime Super Remix) was released for the PlayStation 2 by Capcom on June 20, 2002. There were also a number of other games on the same platform.

[edit] Impact

• Professional baseball player Ichiro Suzuki used Star of Giants as a reference to his gruesome childhood baseball training.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Star of Giants Official anime site by Tokyo Movie Shinsha. (Japanese)