is a

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

kid

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

by Noriaki Nagai. It was published by

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

in ''

CoroCoro Comic is a Japanese children's manga magazine published by Shogakukan. It was established in 1977 and several of its properties, like ''Doraemon'' and the ''Pokémon'' series of games, have gone on to be cultural phenomena in Japan. The name comes fr ...

'' magazine from 1985 to 1989 and collected into 20 volumes. The manga was turned 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 ...

series by

Studio Pierrot , previously known as until 2002, is a Japanese animation studio established in May 1979 by Yuji Nunokawa, previously an animator and director for Tatsunoko Production. Its headquarters are located in Mitaka, Tokyo. Pierrot is renowned for ...

in 1986–1988. It consists of 26 episodes and one OVA, but only 23 episodes aired in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

during the initial broadcast from October 1986 to March 1987, and the last three instead aired as a TV special in January 1988. In 1988 the anime arrived to

EMEA Europe, the Middle East and Africa, commonly known by its acronym EMEA among the North American business spheres, is a geographical region used by institutions, governments and global spheres of marketing, media and business when referring to t ...

in its dubbed version and had some success in the Middle East (''الهداف Al Haddaf''), Iran (''فوتبالیست‌ها''), South Korea (''내일은 축구왕''), Italy (''Palla al centro per Rudy''), Spain (''Supergol''), France (''But Pour Rudy''), Poland (''Piłkarze'') and especially in Germany and Austria (''Kickers''). In

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, the anime was aired on TV1 RTM in 1990s, Awesome TV in 2020. In

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, the anime was aired on

Indosiar PT Indosiar Visual Mandiri, commonly known as Indosiar, is an Indonesian over-the-air television broadcaster, established on 19 July 1991, with test broadcasts commencing on 18 December 1994, and officially launching on 11 January 1995. It ha ...

in 1995-1997, TPI in 2003, Bali TV in 2005.

Story

The story is about an enthusiastic kid soccer team at the Kitahara

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, who struggle without a competent striker, when little Kakeru Daichi's (大地翔 Daichi Kakeru) family moves into the town. He immediately applies to join the team, keen to use his skills gained in the kid team of famous soccer club "The Falcons". With Kakeru the team becomes complete in every sense and he motivates the team to challenge the "Red Devils", a strong secondary school team whose

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Uesugi is considered undefeatable. They lose 10 to 1, but Kakeru's scoring a single goal is still a small miracle. Under the strong leadership of their own goalkeeper Masaru Hongo, Kickers then enter the kid championship and fight their way up through hard won victories. Meanwhile, Hongo falls in love with Ayumi Daichi (大地歩 Daichi Ayumi), Kakeru's cute, sporty sister. In turn the striker enamours Akuna Yukie, a fragile, angelic pianist girl, who happens to be Uesugi's much younger sister. These affairs lead to some embarrassingly funny situations as well as numerous complications with the team's devoted and jealous

cheerleader Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...

trio. For a short while, Kickers gain a professional trainer whose instructions help them win their way to the

semi-final A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

s, just to meet the Red Devils once again. After a dramatic match, that spans two 20 minute episodes, Uesugi fends off Kakeru's final freescore and so the Kickers are out! The devastated team is soon divided by the arrival of Harry, a famous junior talent, who has been fired from three big name teams already for subversive behaviour. He infiltrates and splits Kickers, but his rudeness and Hongo's strong leadership re-unite the team. Harry then seduces Ayumi and assembles a faux team out of the school's scum so he can defeat the Kickers almost alone. Although the naive Kakeru is no match for the older and much stronger Harry, the Kickers's teamwork spirit and Uesugi's support secures a victory in this dirty match and Harry is devastated. The anime series ends with a redeemed Harry reconciling with the Kickers, before leaving the town to play overseas.

Crew

:Original story: Noriaki Nagai :Series Director: Akira Shigino :Series Composition: Sukehiro Tomita :Script: Hiroshi Kaneko, Isao Shizutani, Mitsuo Aimono, Sukehiro Tomita :Episode Director: Akira Shigino, Harumi Tamano, Kazu Yokota, Minoru Shinbayashi, Roku Iwata, Shigeru Morikawa :Storyboard: Akira Shigino, Harumi Tamano, Kazu Yokota, Makoto Moriwaki, Minoru Shinbayashi, Roku Iwata, Shigeru Morikawa, Takayuki Kaneko :Art Director: Satoshi Miura :Art design: Masahiro Sato :Character Design: Takeshi Ozaka :Animation Director: Takeshi Ozaka, Katsuichi Nakayama, Masami Shimoda, Mitsuo Shindo, Takafumi Hayashi :Composer: Jun Irie :Director of Photography: Hitoshi Kaneko :Editing: Masanori Sakamoto :Sound Director: Naoko Asari :Sound Effects: Kazutoshi Sato :Production manager: Reiko Fukakusa :Producer: Haruhiko Akamine (NTV), Kunitaka Okada (I&S), Takaichi Matsumoto (Pierrot) :Executive producer: Yuji Nunokawa

Voice actors

: Tomiko Suzuki - Kakeru Daichi : Yuko Kobayashi - Akuna Yukie : Ikue Ohtani - Kiyoshi Hara :

Kazue Ikura is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator who works for Aoni Production. She was previously affiliated with theater groups/production companies 劇舎燐, 俳協, Production Baobab and NABEYA. She is most known for the roles of Kao ...

- Masaru Hongō : Tarako - Taichi : Michie Tomizawa - Tetsuya : Urara Takano - Mamoru : Eiko Hisamura - Hikaru Uesugi :

Chieko Honda was a Japanese actress and voice actress. During her life, she was attached to Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society and Mix Max; she was attached to Aoni Production at the time of her death. On 18 February 2013, Honda died of multiple ...

- Ayumi Daichi

Episode list

References

External links

Studio Pierrot official site

* * {{Pierrot (company) 1985 manga 1986 anime television series debuts Association football in anime and manga CoroCoro Comic Nippon Television original programming Pierrot (company) Shōnen manga Shogakukan franchises Shogakukan manga Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga