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''Aim for the Ace!'', known in Japan as , is a manga series written and illustrated by Sumika Yamamoto. The series tells the story of Hiromi Oka, a high school student who wants to become a professional tennis player as she struggles against mental weakness, anxiety and thwarted love. It was originally serialized in
Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The fol ...
's '' shōjo'' magazine ''
Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...
'' from January 1973 to February 1980. Later, Shueisha collected the chapters and published them in 18 ''
tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...
'' volumes. The manga was adapted into an
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series in 1973 by
Tokyo Movie , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as ''Lupin the Third'', ...
which was originally broadcast on
Mainichi Broadcasting System , or MBS, is a radio and television broadcasting company headquartered in Osaka, Japan, affiliated with Japan Radio Network (JRN), National Radio Network (NRN), Japan News Network (JNN) and TBS Network, serving in the Kansai region. It i ...
(MBS) between 1973 and 1974. ''Aim for the Ace!'' also spawned another anime television and an anime film in the 1970s, two
original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...
s (OVA) in the 1980s, a live-action
Japanese television drama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thrill ...
in 2004, and many types of ''Aim for the Ace!''-related merchandise. The series is one of the best-selling ''shōjo'' manga series of all time, having sold approximately 15 million copies in Japan.
It has been also popular among anime viewers, and become a hit in Japan, even among its non-target audience. It is considered a classic by anime and manga critics and has been influential in the anime industry.


Plot

The story is about , a high school girl who struggles to become good at tennis. While attending , Hiromi begins playing tennis after becoming fascinated by , an older girl who is the best player on the team and is nicknamed owing to her grace on the tennis court. The team gets a new coach, , who sees potential in Hiromi and trains her to become a great tennis player. Hiromi struggles to overcome her mental weakness. Later, she falls in love with another tennis player, , but coach Munakata tells her not to get too involved and that she should forget him and work on her tennis skills. Hiromi often loses confidence in her playing abilities, but with the support of her coach and her friends she overcomes her anxiety. By training herself to become a better player, Hiromi grows into a mentally stronger person. Her enthusiasm, her love of tennis and the support from people around her helps her to become one of the best players in the world.


Publication

''Aim for the Ace!'' was written and illustrated by Sumika Yamamoto; its first chapter was published by
Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The fol ...
in the Japanese magazine ''
Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...
'' in January 1973. Its serialization finished in 1975, but because of demand from readers, partly brought about by the phenomenal success of the anime in reruns, its publication restarted from 1978 to February 1980. Its first ''
tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...
'' (collected volume) was released by Shueisha on September 20, 1973, and the eighteenth and the last one was released on June 30, 1980. Shueisha reprinted the series from December 31, 1978, to August 25, 1981. A five-volume
light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...
was published by Shueisha under its Cobalt imprint from August 1983 and October 1984. The original manga was republished in '' bunkoban'' format twice; Chuokoron-Shinsha released it from October 18, 1994, to April 18, 1995, in fourteen volumes, and Shueisha released it between June 18, 2002, and October 18, 2002, in ten volumes. The series has been localized in Italy by
Panini Comics Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, which also produces collectable stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy. The company publishes comic books in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Hunga ...
and published under its Planet Manga line.


Anime adaptations


Television series

The first
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series based on ''Aim for the Ace!'' was produced by
Tokyo Movie , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as ''Lupin the Third'', ...
. It was originally broadcast between October 5, 1973, and March 29, 1974, by
Mainichi Broadcasting System , or MBS, is a radio and television broadcasting company headquartered in Osaka, Japan, affiliated with Japan Radio Network (JRN), National Radio Network (NRN), Japan News Network (JNN) and TBS Network, serving in the Kansai region. It i ...
(MBS). Osamu Dezaki served as the general director of all 26 episodes. It was dubbed into French, Spanish and Italian. Due to its initial poor ratings in Japan, the series was cancelled with half the original intended number of episodes. However, a few years later with high ratings in reruns of the series, a remake was announced. The second anime series was also produced by Tokyo Movie and was directed by Minoru Okazaki. Titled , it was broadcast by
Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed ...
from October 14, 1978, to March 31, 1979. The episodes of the first series were released in two DVD box set by
Bandai Visual was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and f ...
on May 25, 2001, and August 25, 2001. Bandai Visual re-released the series between January 28, 2005, and February 24, 2005, in six DVD compilations. On January 20, 2012,
Avex is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J-pop talents like Ayumi Hamasaki and internet sensation PikoTaro. It has also shifted into other b ...
published a four-disc DVD box set containing the entire series. In France, Manga Distribution released the complete series into a DVD box set in 2006. Two DVD box sets containing all 25 episodes of the second series were released by Bandai Visual on March 25, 2002, and June 25, 2002.
Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK ...
published the entire series in a single DVD box set; first on May 23, 2007, and again on January 21, 2009.


Film

A 24-minute animated short film titled that was derived from television series was distributed theatrically by
Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...
in Japan on December 20, 1973. With the popularity of ''Shin Ace o Nerae!'', the studio decided to produce an anime film adaptation. The film was directed by Osamu Dezaki, written by Keisuke Fujikawa, music by
Kōji Makaino is a Japanese pop music composer, arranger, and musician. He is the elder brother of composer Shunichi Makaino. Biography Makaino was born in the city of Toyohashi, in Aichi Prefecture. His father Noboru was a music-lover and amateur composer ...
, and produced by Yutaka Fujioka. It was produced at Tokyo Movie and was released by Toho in Japanese theaters on September 8, 1979. It was published on DVD format by Bandai Visual on November 25, 2001, and on March 27, 2005. In April 2008, Banda Visual announced they planned to release the film on
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
format; it was released on September 26, 2008, and re-released on July 22, 2016.


Original video animations

To serve as sequels to the anime series and to conclude the manga story, two
original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...
s (OVA) were produced. The first OVA, , which consists of thirteen episodes, was produced by Tokyo Movie and directed by Noboru Furuse, with "Total Supervisor" credit given to Osamu Dezaki, who also storyboarded four episodes. It was released by Bandai Visual between July 25, 1988, and October 25, 1988, on six VHS videocassettes, and as a DVD compilation on May 23, 2005. It was also released in France by Manga Distribution in 2008. The first OVA was followed by , which consists of 12 episodes directed by Osamu Dezaki. It was originally released by Bandai Visual into six VHS videos from October 23, 1989, to April 24, 1990, and a DVD box set was released on September 26, 2003.


Audio

Both the opening theme song, "Ace o Nerae!", and the ending theme song, , from the original anime series were performed by
Kumiko Ōsugi is a J-pop artist from Tokyo. In 1964 she recorded a song with Nippon Crown, Crown Records using the pseudonym . The first song to be released under her real name was , the opening theme for the ''Attack No. 1'' anime. She went on to perform them ...
. VIP performs and , the opening and ending theme from ''Shin Ace o Nerae!''. The film only used an opening theme, by Shōnen Tanteidan.
Hiroko Moriguchi (born June 13, 1968 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan), better known by her stage name is a female Japanese singer and tarento. Moriguchi is affiliated with the talent agency NoReason Inc., where she also serves as Second Production Depa ...
sang ''Ace o Nerae! 2''s theme, , as well as "Never Say Goodbye", ''Final Stage''s theme. On January 9, 1993, King Records released a CD containing the soundtracks from both anime television series, the anime film, and the first OVA. The soundtrack of the first television series was released on March 6, 1996, by
EMI Music Japan , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. When ...
. Soundtrack Laboratory under its Soundtrack Pub label published an ''Ace o Nerae!: Original Soundtrack'' on March 7, 2013. Subsequently, it published the official soundtrack for ''Shin Ace o Nerae!'' on two CDs on July 31, 2013, and December 25, 2013.


Reception and legacy

The manga was a hit, having sold approximately 15 million copies, which makes it one of the best-selling ''shōjo'' manga series of all time. Although the television series initially received low ratings, reruns were more positively received by fans, as well as the second series. The anime is considered a hit on Japanese television and though aimed toward schoolgirls it was popular among people of both sexes, and was also popular in Europe. In 2001, the anime magazine ''
Animage is a Japanese anime and entertainment magazine which Tokuma Shoten began publishing in July 1978. Hayao Miyazaki's internationally renowned manga, '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'', was serialized in ''Animage'' from 1982 through 1994. ...
'' ranked the 1979 anime television as the twenty-second of the Top 100 anime productions of all time. In 2005, TV Asahi conducted a "Top 100" online web poll and nationwide survey asking viewers for the best anime television series; ''Aim for the Ace!'' was placed fourteenth in the online poll and thirty-fourth in the survey. Responsible for a tennis boom among high school students in the 1970s, the series was still popular as of 2015 appearing in several online web polls of most influential sports anime. On
TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...
's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150.000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, ''Aim for the Ace!'' ranked 44th. Considered a classic, the series has been influential in Japan both in fiction and in real life. In addition to being a landmark in the sports genre and an inspiration of another sports anime, it has set many of the conventions of ''
yuri Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. * Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Ja ...
''. Its story has been imitated by other anime to the point that it became a cliché; it established the tradition of "the klutzy wallflower with hidden potential, the rich bitch who wants all the attention, and a handsome Coach with a tragic fate" in the words of anime critic
Jonathan Clements Jonathan Michael Clements (born 9 July 1971) is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for ''Neo'' magazine. He is also the co-auth ...
.
Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; ja, 株式会社ガイナックス, Hepburn: ) is a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', '' Royal Space Force'', '' Gunbuster'', '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue Wa ...
's
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
OVA ''
Gunbuster ''Gunbuster'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese OVA anime series produced by Bandai, Victor, and Gainax and released from 1988 to 1989. It was the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, best known as the creator and director of ''Neon Genes ...
'' incorporated the set-up and the style of ''Aim for the Ace!'', acting as parody to the series. Anime series '' Oh! Super Milk-chan''s opening theme also included parodies of the anime. Anime director Kenji Kamiyama, most known for the '' Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex'' series, cited the series among the 15 best anime of all time.
Shuzo Matsuoka is a retired Japanese professional tennis player, sports commentator, and entertainer. A former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, Matsuoka won one singles title during his career, in Seoul in 1992. In the same year, he reached a career-high ranking ...
, considered "the first successful Japanese
ennis Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...
player", was influenced to play because of the esteem he had on the series. Justin Sevakis, writing for
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ...
, and Erica Friedman, founder of
Yuricon Yuricon was an anime convention geared toward fans of yuri anime and manga. The first Yuricon event was held in 2003 in Newark, New Jersey with about 200 attending, although Yuricon has existed as an online entity since 2000. The event was org ...
, consider the series a "true" ''shōjo''. Friedman wrote, "As a representative of early shoujoai, ''Ace wo Nerae'' is a spectacular example, but expect a fair dollop of cheesy-ness, as the character designs, music, art, etc are all over 30 years old. The op art graphics and laughable opening theme are delightfully retro now. The most important thing is that the characters are genuinely likeable and their motivations fathomable." Sevakis praised the story as having "purity", as "There are no manufactured obstacles to overcome." He also declared, "Despite being Western-looking and ostensibly about universally accessible sport of tennis, it's a fascinating look at Japanese personal motivation, interaction and decorum," playing "like a catalog of Japan's most interesting cultural quirks." Art-wise it was compared to '' Dear Brother'' and '' The Rose of Versailles'' by Anime News Network's Lynzee Loveridge, who said it "reinforces a lot of the dangerous work ethic that permeates sports series, like battling through a serious injury or abandoning emotional 'dalliances' like romance."


Video game adaptations

Several games based on ''Aim for the Ace!'' have been released in Japan.
Nippon Telenet was a Japanese video game and software developer founded in October 1983 by Kazuyuki Fukushima. The company had several video game divisions including: Wolf Team, Laser Soft, Reno, Renovation Products, Riot, Commseed, and Telenet Jr. Telenet Ja ...
adapted the series into a
Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...
video game, which they published on December 22, 1993. Tristar published two video game adaptations for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
and
Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lap ...
; the first was released on November 30, 2002, and the second on December 3, 2004. In 2009, Olympia distributed an ''Ace o Nerae!''-themed
pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...
machine under its Gold Olympia brand. Ace Denken released a different machine in 2011.


Television drama

In November 2003, the production of a
Japanese television drama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thrill ...
series was announced. It was broadcast by Japanese network
TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...
in nine episodes between January 15, 2004, and March 11, 2004. It was directed by Hidetomo Matsuda, Shunji Muguruma and Yoshinori Kobayashi, produced by Motohiro Matsumoto and Shizuo Sekiguchi, and the screenwriters were Akiyo Takikawa, Naoya Takayama and Hiroko Kanasugi. Shuzo Matsuoka, a former Japanese professional tennis player, served the supervisor of the tennis scenes. The music was composed by Norihito Sumitomo; the series homonymous opening theme song is sung by Hiromi and the closing theme was " Ai no Tame ni." by Aya Uetowho also starred in the leading role. On July 23, 2004, Geneon Universal released the series on DVD; it was available as five individual volumes or as a DVD box set. Its soundtrack was published by Nippon Columbia on September 22, 2004. Serving as a sequel to the series, a special episode was aired on September 23, 2004, and then was released on DVD on December 22 by Geneon Universal. Out of the nine episodes, three were featured on the top ten list of the most-watched dramas in the week. The second one appeared in the eighth place with a 15.3 percent television viewership rating, the eighth episode reached the tenth place with 14.8 percent, and the last occupied the ninth spot with 14.2 percent.


See also

*


Citations


Sources

*


External links


Official Shueisha ''Aim for the Ace!'' manga website
* {{TMS Entertainment OVAs 1973 anime television series debuts 1974 Japanese television series endings 1973 manga 1978 anime television series debuts 1979 Japanese television series endings 1979 anime films 1988 anime OVAs 1989 anime OVAs 2004 Japanese television series debuts 2004 Japanese television series endings Anime series based on manga Bandai Visual Japanese television dramas based on manga Mainichi Broadcasting System original programming Manga adapted into television series Nippon TV original programming Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Shōjo manga Tennis in anime and manga TMS Entertainment TV Asahi original programming Works about women's sports