is a Japanese

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

manga series written by

Ikki Kajiwara , known by the pen names and , was a Japanese author, manga writer, and film producer. He is known for the work about sports and martial arts, with images of heroic young men with the occasional fine details as he moves from one topic to anoth ...

and illustrated by

Noboru Kawasaki is a Japanese manga artist. He is most famous for illustrating the series ''Star of the Giants''. He won the 14th Shogakukan Manga Award in 1969 for ''Animal 1'' and '' Inakappe Taishō'' as well as the eighth Kodansha Children's Manga Award for ...

. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male hig ...

'' from 1966 to 1971. It is about the actual baseball team

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

using fictional characters. It was launched by the "

Yomiuri Group The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...

" which at the time owned not only the actual baseball team, but the TV network Nippon Television, the newspaper ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ...

'', as well as Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation. It was adapted into an

anime is hand-drawn and 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 Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series broadcast in Japan in 1968. It later spawned two anime sequels and different anime movies.

Story

The story is about Hyūma Hoshi, a promising young baseball pitcher who dreams of becoming a top star like his father Ittetsu Hoshi in the professional Japanese league. Ittetsu was once a 3rd baseman until he was injured in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and was forced to retire; now an impoverished and bitter widower, he's raised Hyūma and his older sister Akiko in a very severe environment. 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 in the

Hanshin Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railwa ...

, Hyūma would have to take out his best pitching magic to step up to the challenge.

Characters

*Hyūma Hoshi:

Tōru Furuya is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. As a child, he was a member of Gekidan Himawari, a children's acting troupe. He is currently employed by the talent management firm Aoni Production. Furuya is most known for the anime roles of Amu ...

*Ittetsu Hoshi:

Seizō Katō was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator who worked for Haikyo (Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society). Kato was born in Tokyo. He was noted for his role as Megatron and Galvatron from the 1st Transformers series until '' Transfo ...

*Akiko Hoshi:

Fuyumi Shiraishi was a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator. Career Fuyumi was previously affiliated with Aoni Production and after she left Aoni and joined Ken Production founded by the late Kenji Utsumi until the time of her death. Death Shiraishi di ...

*Ban Chūta:

Jōji Yanami was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator who was affiliated with Aoni Production. Some of his major voice roles included the '' Dragon Ball'' anime series, which he narrated and voiced Dr. Briefs, Kaiō-sama ( King Kai or North Kaio), a ...

*Mitsuru Hanagata:

Makio Inoue Makio may refer to: * Makio, grind used in Aggressive Inline Skating * ''MakiO'', the yearbook of Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, ...

* Kawakami Tetsuharu: Tadashi Nakamura *

Masaichi Kaneda was a Japanese professional baseball pitcher of Zainichi Korean origin, one of the best-known pitchers in Japanese baseball history, and is the only Japanese pitcher to have won 400 games. He was inducted in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in ...

Teiji Ōmiya was a Japanese actor, voice actor, and a member of the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society when he died. He attended Nihon University, but withdrew before completing his degree. He was known for playing the roles of kind old men in many ...

*Kyōko:

Reiko Mutō was a Japanese actress and voice actress from Tokyo, Japan. She is best known for playing the voice of Elizabeth Taylor in Japanese dubbed television and films, and playing main characters in ''Marvelous Melmo'' (as Melmo), ''Astro Boy'' as Ur ...

*Hosaku Samon:

Shingo Kanemoto was a Japanese actor and voice actor originally from Fukuoka Prefecture. On February 24, 1991, he died of intra-axial hematoma at the age of 58. After his death, his ongoing roles went to Takeshi Watabe. Filmography *'' Space Battleship Yamato ...

*Mina Hadaka: Yoshiko Matsuo

Media

Manga

Anime

Beginning in 2001, the series was re-released on DVD format. In June 2013, a five set Blu-ray release was released.

Films

The first ''Star of the Giants'' movie debuted on July 26, 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 the Giants vs. Mighty Atom'' TV special reached the United States and was renamed to ''Astro Boy vs. the Giants''.Clements, Jonathan. McCarthy Helen.

006 Alec Trevelyan (006) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1995 James Bond film '' GoldenEye'', the first film to feature actor Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Trevelyan is portrayed by actor Sean Bean. The likeness of Bean as Ale ...

(2006). ''The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition''. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. .

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.

Reception and legacy

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, ''Star of the Giants'' ranked #38. The anime series ranked #15 on TV Asahi's Top 100 Anime 2005 poll. Professional baseball player Ichiro Suzuki used ''Star of Giants'' as a reference to his grueling childhood baseball training. The anime was remade in India in 2012 as '' Suraj: The Rising Star'' where cricket was substituted for baseball. Episode 18 of ''

Kyatto Ninden Teyandee is a Japanese anime series produced by Tatsunoko Productions and Sotsu Agency. The series originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from February 1, 1990 to February 12, 1991, for a total of 54 episodes. Saban picked up the North American righ ...

'' (dubbed and released in North America as ''

Samurai Pizza Cats ''Samurai Pizza Cats'' is an American animated television adaptation of the anime series ''Kyatto Ninden Teyandee'' (''Cat Ninja Legend Teyandee''), produced by Tatsunoko Productions and Sotsu Agency. The series originally aired in Japan on T ...

'') includes a pitcher named Puma Pochi, voiced by

, as a direct parody of Hyūma Hoshi. In English, the character is renamed Fernando Curtainzuela.

References

External links

''Star of Giants''
Official anime site by Tokyo Movie Shinsha. * {{TMS Entertainment films 1966 manga 1968 anime television series debuts 1977 anime television series debuts 1979 anime television series debuts Baseball in anime and manga Ikki Kajiwara Kodansha manga Nippon TV original programming Shōnen manga TMS Entertainment Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation original programming Gekiga