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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 is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...
's '' shōjo'' magazine ''
Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...
'' from January 1973 to February 1980. Later, Shueisha collected the chapters and published them in 18 ''
tankōbon A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...
'' volumes. The manga was adapted into an
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
television series in 1973 by
Tokyo Movie , formerly known as the is a Japanese animation studio owned by Sega Corporation. TMS is one of the oldest and most renowned animation studios in Japan, known for its numerous anime franchises such as ''Detective Conan'', ''Lupin the Third'' ...
which was originally broadcast on
Mainichi Broadcasting System JOOY-DTV (channel 4), branded as or (formerly known as from 1959 to 2011), is a Japanese television station serving as the Kansai region key station of the Japan News Network, owned-and-operated by a subsidiary of MBS Media Holdings with ...
(MBS) between 1973 and 1974. ''Aim for the Ace!'' also spawned another anime television and an anime film between 1978 and 1979, two
original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...
s (OVA) between 1988 and 1990, a live-action
Japanese television drama , also called or J-drama, are television programs that are a staple of Television in Japan, Japanese television and are broadcast daily. Format All major Television networks, TV networks in Japan produce a variety of Drama (genre), drama serie ...
in 2004, and many types of ''Aim for the Ace!''-related merchandise. The franchise is also known by its international title ''Aim for the Best!'' 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 is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...
in the Japanese magazine ''
Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...
'' 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 A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...
'' (collected volume) was released by Shueisha on September 20, 1973, and the eighteenth and 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 is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...
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 is a Japanese publisher. It was established in 1886, under the name . In 1999, it was acquired by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, and its name was subsequently changed to Chūōkōron-shinsha. Profile The company publishes a wide variety of mater ...
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 collectible stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy. The company publishes comic books in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary ...
and published under its Planet Manga line.


Anime adaptations


Television series

The first
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
television series based on ''Aim for the Ace!'' was produced by
Tokyo Movie , formerly known as the is a Japanese animation studio owned by Sega Corporation. TMS is one of the oldest and most renowned animation studios in Japan, known for its numerous anime franchises such as ''Detective Conan'', ''Lupin the Third'' ...
and animated by A-Production. It was originally broadcast between October 5, 1973, and March 29, 1974, by
Mainichi Broadcasting System JOOY-DTV (channel 4), branded as or (formerly known as from 1959 to 2011), is a Japanese television station serving as the Kansai region key station of the Japan News Network, owned-and-operated by a subsidiary of MBS Media Holdings with ...
(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 (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...
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 company, 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 ...
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 Avex Inc. ( kabushiki gaisha , commonly known as Avex and stylized as 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 ...
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 C ...
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 entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...
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, a ...
, and produced by Yutaka Fujioka. In addition to the original incidental music newly composed for the movie version, many insert songs and BGM are recycled from the second series, which was also scored by Makaino. It was produced at Tokyo Movie and was released by Toho in Japanese theaters on September 8, 1979. It was published in 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 Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
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 special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...
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 VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
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. 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 Departm ...
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. Wh ...
. 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 published by Tokuma Shoten since July 1978. Notable works serialized in the magazine include Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli a ...
'' 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 , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...
'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 for other sports anime, it has set many of the conventions of '' yuri''. 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-au ...
.
Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; , Hepburn: ) was a Japanese anime studio famous for original productions such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', '' Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise'', '' Gunbuster'', '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue ...
's
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
OVA ''
Gunbuster ''Gunbuster'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese original video animation (OVA) series produced by Bandai Visual, Victor Entertainment, and Gainax and released from October 1988 to July 1989. It was the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, b ...
'' 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 is a Japanese director and writer, best known for '' Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex''. Career After working as a background artist for productions such as '' Akira'' and ''Kiki's Delivery Service'', Kamiyama joined Production I.G, co ...
, 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, entertainer, and motivational speaker. A former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, Matsuoka won one singles title during his career, in Seoul in 1992. In the same year, he reached ...
, considered "the first successful Japanese
ennis Ennis ( , meaning 'island' or 'river meadow') 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 Cou ...
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 ot ...
, 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 or ...
, 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 also known as ''Lady Oscar'' and ''La Rose de Versailles'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Riyoko Ikeda. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Margaret'' from 1972 to 1973, while a revival ...
'' 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 developer, video game and software developer founded in October 1983 by Kazuyuki Fukushima. The company had several video game divisions including: Wolf Team, Laser Soft, Renovation Game (Japanese publishing division), ...
adapted the series into a
Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...
video game, which they published on December 22, 1993. Tristar published two video game adaptations for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
and
Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
; 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 Gambling in Japan, Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of l ...
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 or J-drama, are television programs that are a staple of Television in Japan, Japanese television and are broadcast daily. Format All major Television networks, TV networks in Japan produce a variety of Drama (genre), drama serie ...
series was announced. It was broadcast by Japanese network
TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...
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 Ueto is a Japanese actress, singer and television personality. In 1997, Ueto participated in the seventh Japan Bishōjo Contest, where she won the special jury prize. Soon thereafter, Ueto joined the talent agency Oscar Promotion and began taking s ...
who 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 1980 comics endings 1978 anime television series debuts 1979 Japanese television series endings 1979 anime films 1979 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 Television original programming Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Shōjo manga Tennis in anime and manga TMS Entertainment TV Asahi original programming Works about women's sports