Major (manga)

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major
Original title MAJOR
Major (anime) logo.png
Logo of the anime
genre Sports, comedy, shons
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Takuya Mitsuda
publishing company Shogakukan
magazine Shōnen Sunday
First publication 1994 - 2010
expenditure 78
Anime television series
title major
Original title メ ジ ャ ー
transcription Mejā
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
Year (s) 2004-2010
Studio Studio Hibari (seasons 1–3), SynergySP (seasons 4–6)
length 24 minutes
Episodes 154 in 6 seasons
Director Ken'ichi Kasai (seasons 1-6), Riki Fukushima (co-director, seasons 4-6)
music Noriyuki Asakura (seasons 1–3), Kōtarō Nakagawa (seasons 4–6)
First broadcast November 13, 2004 - September 25, 2010 on NHK
synchronization
Manga
title Major 2nd
country JapanJapan Japan
author Takuya Mitsuda
publishing company Shogakukan
magazine Shōnen Sunday
First publication March 11, 2015 - ...
expenditure 14th

Major (spelled in capital letters ) is a manga series by Takuya Mitsuda , which was also implemented as an anime series. The sports manga, which comprises a total of over 10,000 pages, is aimed at boys of elementary to middle school age, so it can be assigned to the Shōnen genre.

action

Gorō Honda is the son of a professional baseball player. Although he is only six years old, he dreams of a future as a professional baseball player in order to follow in his successful father's footsteps. After his mother dies, he only has contact with his father and his preschool teacher Momoko Hoshino, who takes special care of Gorō. Because there are no playmates his age in preschool and no child lives in the neighborhood who loves baseball as much as he does, the boy has no one to play baseball with. The local “Little League” team also only accepts children from the age of nine. Eventually Gorō meets Toshiya Satō, a boy from the neighborhood who is just as fascinated by this sport as he is himself. So he teaches him the rules and trains with him diligently. An intimate relationship also develops between Goro's father Shigeharu and Momoko, who is being integrated more and more into the life of the Hondas. But before the two are happy, Shigeharu dies in a sports accident.

After he and his family had to move because his father was temporarily playing for a different team, he returned to his hometown as a high school student. Playing baseball as a pitcher is hardly an option, however, as Gorō broke his right shoulder in a game three years ago and has not been able to throw his right arm since then. Gorō is actually a right-handed pitcher, but changes his throwing hand due to the injury. He eventually plays for Kaido High School, known for its prestigious baseball team.

Gorō is getting better and better, and after turning his back on the Kaido school, he is now looking for a new school to become even more successful with their baseball team. Due to various personal reasons and in particular Egashira's interference, all schools with a baseball club reject his application.

Eventually Gorō Shigeno travels to the United States to play in the major league and become a professional. But the language barrier and his ignorance of American laws and customs initially become a problem. However, he approaches the selection tests of the American teams with confidence and shows how good he really is as a pitcher. After various detours and setbacks, he gets a contract for a minor team and thus masters the first step towards the major league.

After a while he returns to Japan. He was able to establish himself in American baseball and now new challenges await in Japan. His big goal of becoming successful in the major league is still pending.

Ultimately, Goro managed to get into the Major League and he gave everything to lead his team, the "Indiana Hornets", to the top of the table. He quickly realized, however, that the Major League is still a whole step above the World Cup. And the defeat of his national team against that of the USA does not leave him as unscathed as it initially appeared.

Publications

Major appeared in Japan in the manga magazine Shōnen Sunday from issue 33/1994 to 32/2010. The Shogakukan publishing house also brought out the individual chapters in a total of 78 collective volumes ( Tankōbon ).

Most recently, the volumes sold more than 160,000 copies each.

Since March 11, 2015, a sequel has been published in Shōnen Sunday under the title Major 2nd . The first chapter was published in the 15/2015 edition. The individual chapters have so far been summarized in 14 anthologies.

Anime

The manga was implemented as an anime television series in six seasons from 2004 to 2010 , with production changing from season 4.

The first three seasons were animated by Studio Hibari and directed by Ken'ichi Kasai. The character design comes from Masaru (also read as Katsu) Ōshiro in the first season and from Ken'ichi Ōnuki and Kōichi Usami in the second and third seasons.

With the fourth season, which was broadcast from 2008, the studio switched to SynergySP , whereby the (overall) direction remained with Ken'ichi Kasai who was supported by Riki Fukushima as co-director. In addition, there were "baseball directors" as technical consultants: Shigetoshi Hasegawa in the fourth season , Akinori Ōtsuka in the fifth season and Takashi Saitō in the sixth season - all of them former " Nippon Professional Baseball " - and " Major League Baseball " players. The character design comes from Ken'ichi Ōnuki.

The series was broadcast from November 13, 2004 to September 25, 2010 by the Japanese television station NHK . The anime was also broadcast in the Philippines .

On December 13, 2008 came a movie in Japan with the title Gekijōban Major: Yūjō no Winning Shot ( 劇場版 MAJOR メ ジ ャ ー 友情 の一 球（ウ ィ ニ ン グ シ ョ ッ ト）, ~ Winingu Shotto ). This was animated by Studio Xebec .

After completing the series, two original video animations from SynergySP followed. Major: Message ( メ ジ ャ ー メ ッ セ ー ジ , Mejā: Messēji ) was published on December 17, 2010 as a supplement to the limited version of the last manga volume . Major World Series Hen: Yume no Shunkan e ( メ ジ ャ ー ワ ー ル ド シ リ ー ズ 編 夢 の 瞬間 へ , Mejā Wārudo Shirīzu Hen: Yume no Shunkan e ) consists of two parts, the first on December 16, 2011 and the second on January 18 Appeared in 2012.

synchronization

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū )
Toshiya Satō Masakazu Morita
Goro Honda Motoko Kumai
Goro Shigeno Showtaro Morikubo
Yamane Hideki Ogihara
Momoko-sensei Junko Noda

music

The series' music was composed by Noriyuki Asakura for the first three seasons and by Kōtarō Nakagawa for the last three seasons. The following songs were used for the opening credits:

  • Season 1: Kokoroe ( 心 絵 ) from Road of Major
  • Season 2: Saraba Aoki Omokage (さ ら ば 碧 き 面 影) from Road of Major
  • Season 3: Play the Game from Road of Major
  • Season 4: Rise by Kōhei Ōtomo
  • Season 5: Hey! Hey Alright by Scha Dara Parr + Kaela Kimura
  • Season 6: Kokoroe ( 心 絵 ) from Triplane

The credits were given the following titles:

  • Season 1:
  • Season 2:
    • Wonderland by May
    • Shoboi Kao Sunna yo Baby ( し ょ ぼ い 顔 す ん な よ ベ イ ベ ー ) from The Loose Dogs
  • Season 3:
    • Strike Party !!! by BeForU
    • Yoru ni Nareba ( 夜 に な れ ば ) from The Loose Dogs
  • Season 4:
    • One Day from The Loose Dogs
    • Ame Nochi Niji-iro ( 雨 の ち 虹 色 ) by Goro Shigeno x The Loose Dogs feat. Maki Ohguro
  • Season 5:
    • Stay with me by Hitomi Shimatani
    • Jibun Color ( ジ ブ ン カ ラ ー , Jibun Karā ) by Yū Nakamura
    • Kokoroe ( 心 絵 ) from Road of Major
  • Season 6:
    • Twilight Star ( ト ワ イ ラ イ ト ス タ ー , Towairaito Sutā ) by Megamasso
    • Zutto Mae kara ( ず っ と 前 か ら ) from French Kiss
    • Kokoroe ( 心 絵 ) from Road of Major

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Japanese Comic Ranking, December 20-26. Anime News Network , December 29, 2010, accessed July 22, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Baseball Manga Major's Sequel Centers on Goro's Son. Anime News Network, March 4, 2015, accessed July 22, 2016 .