Chūta Ban

**Chūta Ban** (伴宙太, Chuuta Ban) is a character from the Kyojin no Hoshi series. He is a friend of the main character, Hyūma Hoshi. He throws right-handed, hits right-handed, and plays catcher.

## Chūta Ban

* M
* M-Full
* M-Giants

## Relationships

### Affiliation

Hyūma Hoshi - FriendIttetsu Hoshi - Coach

Akiko Hoshi- Love Interest

## Baseball Info & Player Records

### Baseball Team(s)

Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ) - FormerChunichi Dragons (中日ドラゴンズ)

## Misc.

### Voice actor

Jōji Yanami (八奈見 乗児)

**SPOILERS***WARNING! This article contains spoilers!*(*Yuke! Yuke! Hyūma!*)

## Profile

### Background

Chūta Ban is the son of Daizō Ban. He has become Hyūma Hoshi's best friend ever since the two of them formed a battery at Seiun High School.

He was originally the champion of the high school judo world and boasted having victories of three individual championships and three team championships. He was formerly known as the weak Seiun baseball team's "Demon Cheerleader - 鬼の応援団長" and has repeatedly clashed against newest member of the club, Hyūma Hoshi. However, when he was in the position to recieve Hyūma's pitch (in a preplanned senario by Ittetsu Hoshi), he suddenly awakens his own concioussness as a "love wife - 恋女房."

After Hyūma dropped out of Seiun, the two of them took the Giants' newcomer joining test and Ban declared to Hyūma that "I will follow you anywhere - どこまでもついていく."

Although his ability as a catcher is not very good and his batting is rough, he is also a valuable source of points for "Poor Uchi Seiun - 貧打青雲" because he occasionally hits a super-sized home run by making use of his athletic ability that he developed in judo.

He has a personality that is like a picture of a free-spirited and honest path, and he is as fragile as Hyūma Hoshi. His only problem is his father, Daizō (President of Ban Automotive Industry), who interferes with baseball out of his own childish desires.

Since his position in the story has changed significantly, the way he is called by Hyūma Hoshi has also greatly changed, such as him being called "(Ban) senpai - (伴）先輩 ", "cheering group leader - 応援団長", and "Ban." Because of Mitsuru Hanagata, Ban is also called "ヘボ" and later on "Ban gōketsu - 伴豪傑."

#### Origin - First appearance

He is the son of Daizō Ban, who is president of Ban Automobile Industry, one of the leading automobile manufacturers in Japan. At Seiun High School, Chūta often behaved arrogantly with the power of his father, who is also a major sponsor of the school. Before meeting Hyūma Hoshi, while leading the judo club as the club's captain, he was also the head of the cheerleading squad and bullied the members of the baseball club in a way that could be described as bullying. However, the bullying was at a level that was common practice in real-life athletic club activities at the time of the TV broadcast. He sometimes invites the members of the baseball club to his house for dinner, but the menu is a stamina-filled-dish in the style of Chūta Ban: garlic and mamushi soup with bread crawling with kuryu worms (in the anime version, the second item is bee larva), which the club members hated (after he transferred to the baseball club, Daizō took the initiative to serve a more lavish meal.)

#### Meeting with Hyūma Hoshi - Partner Period

He encountered Hyūma Hoshi on the day of the high school entrance exam. After Hyūma becomes depressed due to recieving humiliating comments about his family environment directly from Daizō Ban (one of Seiun High School's examiners and president of the school's PTA), Chūta Ban boasts about his father's power to him. Hyūma then responds with, "Why does a man who can win a national championship in judo only able to wield his father's glory?" In the end, he was also called an "airhead." Up untill this point in time, Chūta Ban had only been surrounded by people who were afraid of his father's prestige and flattered him, so when he was criticized face-to-face for the first time, Hyūma Hoshi's presence was strongly engrained into his mind. Chūta decides to tell his father, who has a strong rivalry with Hanagata Motors, that he has a fastball pitcher named Hyūma who can compete with Hanagata's son, Mitsuru Hanagata, and asks him to enroll Hyūma in the school.

After enrolling Hyūma into Seiun, Chūta uses his father's power to participate in the baseball team's practice sessions while wearing judo uniforms. He reigns over the club, half ignoring the presence of the baseball club's captain, and tries to thoroughly bully Hyūma to make up for his grudge over the entrance exam. However, even when the other members of the club collapsed due to fatigue after attempting to do 50 laps around the basball diamond, murderous knocks, and etc. Hyūma Hoshi remained undaunted. Chūta Ban decides to join in on the practice and attempted to rabbit jump around the baseball diamond with him, but Hyūma still didn't collapse on the field. Instead, he was asked by Hyūma to go around the bases one more time, and although he was on the verge of exhaustion, he did so with determination, and for the first time, Ban recognized Hyūma's guts. Afterwards, they both collapsed on the ground and held hands for a brief moment in time, as they both smiled in silence. When the other members of the baseball team talked about him behind his back, he got so angry and called Hyūma's fastball a lame pitch. Chūta then becomes determined to catch it. As an amateur, Ban was unable to catch Hyūma's fastball, but after being hit repeatedly and becoming completely covered in bruises, he was finally able to catch it, which inspired him. Later that day, he went directly to the Hoshi family's house and asked Hyūma to be his battery partner. Ittetsu Hoshi had already calculated that this would happen.

He then forcibly transfers to the baseball club, where he and Hyūma would practice together as a battery, and his arrogant personality gradually changes into a more sportsmanlike one. In the anime, the judo club members plot against Hyūma in an attempt to rebuild the judo club, which has been weakened by Ban's transfer to the baseball team. However, Ban declares that he will never leave the baseball club under any circumstances, and he repents. Also, their rival, who lost to Ban in the finals of the previous year's national Judo tournament, lures Ban into a match by playing a dark game against a member of Seiun's baseball team during a training camp. He refuses to play with Ban, who thinks baseball is just for fun, but when he is unable to catch Hyūma's fastball, he understands the severity of the game. In the original story, there is no mention of the Judo Club after Ban's transfer.

He often hit long balls at Koshien and was selected for the All-Japan High School Team's tour of Hawaii, but scouts for professional teams were divided in their evaluation of him. After the blood-stained ball incident, 11 teams, not including the Giants, came to see Hyūma, but only three teams came to him, and the contract was reduced to half the price.

After graduating from Seiun High School, he took the test to join the Giants together with Hyūma Hoshi, and although he was selected as substitue, he joined the team together with Hyūma. At first, the only one who could catch the "magic ball" was Ban, who accompanied him in training. Chūta and Hyūma were often on the bench together when the Dai League Ball was in trouble or when Mori was injured.

When manager Tetsuharu Kawakami sentenced Hoshi to a second-team assignment following Kaneda and Miyata at the Miyazaki camp in February 1969, he did not call out Ban's name. Later, however, Ban accompanied Hoshi to the second team's red-and-white game in Miyakonojo. Since Ban was positioned as a collaborator of Hoshi's Dai League Ball, he was in the first team, so even in his fall to the second team after Ozuma hit No. 1 and his return to the first team after the development of the disappearing magic ball, Ban shared his fate with Hoshi, going back and forth between the first and second teams. In addition, his first appearance in a game for the first team while with the Giants was when he was replaced after regular catcher Masahiko Mori left the game injured when he interfered with Ozma's hit in the game in which he threw the second Dai League Ball for the first time, and after that there were many occasions when Mori received the ball from Hoshi, and he rarely had the opportunity to play.

#### Drafted to the Chunichi Dragons

After being an ally of Hyūma for such a long time, a turning point came in the off-season from the beginning of 1969 to the spring of 1970. After Ozuma's departure, Ittetsu, who was considering the next "enemy of Hyūma" at the time, noticed Ban's potential qualities. At Ittetsu's strong wish, he proposes an exchange trade with the Giants for a pitcher from the Chunichi Dragons, who is expected to win at least five games. (The pitcher to be traded is an original player named Keiichi Kuramatsu in the anime, while his name is unknown in the original story.)

At first, the Giants side had no intention of transfering Ban, who knew the secret of Dai League Ball No. 2, but based on the results of Mitsuru Hanagata and Hōsaku Samon's challenges, they decided that No. 2 had already lost its invincibility. Due to the lack of pitching depth in the Giants' lineup at the time, they agreed to trade him to Chunichi.

When he was notified of the trade, Ban was quite shocked. He decided to retire from the company because he felt he could not betray his ally, Hyūma Hoshi, but when he happened to meet Akiko, she gave him a pep talk and he agreed to the transfer.

Ban's ferocious hitting in high school was revived under the tutelage of Ittetsu Hoshi after he was drafted to Chunichi. During his two-year stint with the Giants, Hyūma tried to train Ban's hitting after the trade talks came up, but it was already too late.

At first, Ban seemed to think that continuing to support Hyūma was his sincerity for his older sister, Akiko, but Akiko, contrary to Ban's intentions, followed the words of the French poet Jean Cocteau, "In youth." Don't buy safe stocks." In addition, at the time of the first work, he said, "I forgot the name," and in "New Star of the Giants", the name of Jean Cocteau was added in the recollection of this scene.

Ban could not understand Akiko's duality. Just before the transfer, Akiko called him "Big boy," and after striking out in his first at-bat, Ittetsu Hoshi called him "Father's boy." The anime emphasizes a scene in which Ittetsu and Akiko criticize Ban together as father and son.

#### As Hyūma Hoshi's "last rival"

At Chunichi, he took over the number 8 of main gunner Shinichi Eto (who returned to active duty with Lotte), who was temporarily treated as voluntarily retired.

He undergoes intense training from Ittetsu in order to defeat Hyūma's Dai League Balls No. 2 and No. 3. At first, he is defiant toward Ittetsu and is unable to let go of his friendship for Hyūma, but he soon realizes Ittetsu's true intentions. Thereafter, he continued to faithfully and honestly play the role of Hyūma's "last rival" to appear. As a byproduct of this, his batting record also improved, and he emerged as a strong scoring threat for Chunichi, and is depicted as a trump card in many places as a substitute. In the anime, he is depicted participating in the defense as a catcher.

Before long, Hyūma devises a forbidden magic ball, the "Dai League Ball No. 3," and Ban also confronts it under the guidance of Ittetsu. Then, the final game of the pennant between the Giants and the Chunichi baseball team was held, and the two teams faced off for the last time. In this match, Ittetsu Hoshi instructed Chūta Ban to perform a handstand and swing for a long time, so that he was in a state of weakness where he could hardly put any strength into his arms, and he hit the No. 3 to the middle of the right-center field. (The ball was sent from the outfield to first base via second base, so it was a long way from right center. In the anime, the ball flies to left center and is relayed by Doi, the second baseman with the number 6 on his back. However, as a result of losing the ability to run, Chūta Ban was unable to run to first base, resulting in a close play and the game being over.)

The confrontation between Chūta Ban and Hyūma Hoshi was, in the subtitle of the book, "Wailing Block Sign of Lamentation" (Dai league ball No. 2, pitcher flying in for a double), "Father and Son's Persistence" (No. 3, strikeout) following "Radish Cutting Strategy," "Hyūma's Secret" to "Perfect Game in sight" and "Two outs in the 9th, Final Showdown! (No. 3, one out), resulting in three hits, no walks, and one strikeout. The result was a complete game victory for Hyūma, but this was not due to Chūta Ban, but to the Giants' winning strategy and Ittetsu Hoshi's losing strategy.

Against Hyūma's magic ball, contrary to usual, the real strong hitters were helpless and Ban, who was supposed to be developing, had the advantage. In the first game against Hyūma, the commentator Masaichi Kaneda was surprised that he would substitute the substitute (Ban) as a pinch hitter in place of the great hitter Morimichi Takagi, and in the second game another commentator was wondering if he needed to substitute a batter as good as Kimata, but the result was still a throw-in fly ball and strikeout.

At one point, he increased his success rate of substitute hits to over 60%, including a home run against the Carp, and the announcer said that Kimata would be on his guard next season, but that next season, Ban had left the baseball world. The anime also depicted his development as a catcher during his time in Chunichi, and his skills are demonstrated when he retires and helps Hioma, whom he reunites with, to return to the game.

Hyūma Hoshi, who inspired Ban to start playing baseball, retired as a left-handed pitcher in three years and disappeared for five years. Chūta Ban would then devote himself to his company's work. Ban's father seems to dislike baseball, and when he reunited with Hyūma Hoshi and leaned towards baseball again, he conflicted with his father. In addition, Ban was seen to be envious of Hanagata, who returned to active duty after that, but unlike him, he did not return as a baseball player.

#### Afterwards (after "Shin Kyojin no Hoshi")

In "Shin Kyojin no Hoshi," he retired from active duty. He had become the managing director of Ban Heavy Industries, which had changed its name from Ban Jidosha Kogyo.

Knowing of Hyūma Hoshi's intention to return to the professional baseball world, he devoted himself to him behind the scenes. His appearance was filled with joy at having fully restored his friendship with Hyūma. He was the catcher for the company's baseball team, and the scene in which he catches Hyūma's no-contact fastball shows the great catcher he was in the past. As described below, his career as a Giants alumnus is not mentioned in "The New Giants Star," and he is referred to only as a "Chunichi alumnus" and "former Chunichi.

When Romeo Nanjō was invited to Japan for "Shin Kyojin no Hoshi II," he attended the press conference held when Romeo arrived in Japan, and he also appealed himself as a baseball player.

When Hyūma began training for the first Dai League Ball Right in late 1977 with the help of Ittetsu, Ban was initially opposed, but soon cooperated, and at the beginning of 1978 he participated in training in Hawaii.

He fell in love with Keiko Takanoha, a performer on a TV program sponsored by Ban Heavy Industries, and dreamed of getting married, but he was in love with Tobiuma and ended with a one-sided love.

In the final episode of the original "Shin Kyojin no Hoshi," Ban and Ittetsu rushed to the scene where Hyūma, who had won the game at Yokohama Stadium but had been hit by a mirage magic ball by Samon, was looking out at the sea at night, and Ban consoled him by saying, "Let the warrior rest for a while."

In the Left Arm version, the regulars were almost all present at the church scene in the last episode, including Hyūma, Ittetsu, Akiko, Hanagata, Ban, Samon, and even Ranch, whereas in the last episode of the original "Shin Kyojin no Hoshi" (after the second half of the Oyo game), only Samon had a rival, and Romeo from Hanshin, Hanagata from Yakult, and even his sister, Akiko did not appear.

## Quotes

> 「おれはこれだけのアザと引き換えにおまえの豪速球をやっと一球だけ捕球できた。あの時のうれしさ････星！このとおりだ。おれを捕手とし新しい目標を、生き甲斐を与えてくれっ！たのむ！この伴宙太一生のたのみじゃ！」("*In exchange for this many bruises, I was finally able to catch one of your fastballs. I was happy at that time... Hoshi! This is it. Make me a catcher and give me a new goal and a reason to live! I beg! This is the only wish of Chūta Ban!*")
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> 「おまえのたまは軽い！めっぽう速いが軽いっ。投手の球質を軽い球重い球というが、おまえのはその軽いほうなんだ！」("*Your ball is light! It's super fast, but it's light. They call a pitcher's pitches either light or heavy, but yours is the lighter one!*")
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> 「〝たわむれに母を背負いてそのあまり軽さに泣きて三歩歩まず〟石川啄木の歌じゃないが友を背負いてそのあまり…軽さに泣きてだ。し、しかしおれは歩むっ。星とともにおぶりおぶさり限りなく…星に第二の奇跡を成し遂げさせる日まで」("*I carried my mother on my back and cried because she was so light that I couldn't take three steps." It's not Takuboku Ishikawa's song, but I cried carrying a friend on my back and I cried at his lightness. But I walk. I will carry myself with Hoshi forever...until the day I make the Hoshi accomplish the second miracle.*")
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> 「うっ！あ…あの星の目！！甲子園の死闘を戦い抜いた時の目だ！巨人の入団テストに挑んだ日の目だ！大リーグボールに開眼したあの目だ！とうとうおおっついに…不死鳥はよみがえり羽ばたいたっ」("*Ugh! Ah... ah Hoshi's eyes!! It's the eyes when I fought through the deadly battle of Koshien! It's the eyes of the day when I challenged the Giant's enrollment test!! It's those eyes that opened my own eyes to the Dai League Ball! Finally, oh, finally... the phoenix has revived and flapped its wings*.")
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> 「さ…さあ行こうぜ星よ…わ訳がわからんし大地が真っ二つに裂けたような気持ちじゃが、とにかくこういう時だけ…ううっ、こういう時だけおまえの役に立てる男がやって来たぞっ」("*Come on, let's go, Hoshi... I don't know why. It feels like the earth has been torn in half. Anyway, only at times like this... ugh, A man who can help you only at times like this has come.*")
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> 「鬼の目に涙…じゃったか！星コーチ今この場で伴宙太とことんあなたに惚れたわい。これでこそ人間、これでこそ男。男心に男が惚れて野球一代火にも水にも飛び込めるわいっ！」("*Tears in the demon's eyes... right! Coach Hoshi, right here and now, Chūta Ban, I've fallen in love with you. This is human, this is what a man is. A man's love for a man's heart makes him ready to jump into the fire and water of baseball!*")
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> 「うう…さすがプロの一流投手ともなると違いますなあ。この伴宙太を一発でぶっ倒すとは…こちらも燃えてきましたわい…さあ続けましょうや、ふふふふ…星よ！このどてっ腹の痛みが軽はずみにおまえと絶交したりしたおれの償いだ！」("*Ugh... As expected of a first-class professional pitcher, it's different. To beat Chūta Ban with one shot... I'm burning up too... Let's continue, fufufufu... Hoshi-yo! This pain in my stomach is my compensation for having cut off ties with you so casually!*")
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## Trivia

* He had been in love with Akiko, Hyūma's older sister, since high school, but his love ended fruitlessly when Akiko married Mitsuru Hanagata. In "Shin Kyojin no Hoshi," he is still single, but he has a good relationship with Hanagata and his wife, often having dinner with them.
* A judo club graduate, he has a sturdy, massive physique and a bold and open personality, and is called "伴豪傑" or simply "豪傑" by Hanagata.
* As for his weight, in 1968, shortly after joining the Giants, when he and Hoshi took turns carrying each other up and down the hill during a voluntary training session just before camp, he declared himself to be "over 90 kilograms." In "Shin Kyojin no Hoshi," Hyūma, who returned to the Giants as a right-handed pitcher around 1976, described Ban as a "dinosaur weighing over 100 kilograms."
* Despite his large stature, he is an athlete who impressed Ittetsu, and marked a good time of 11.9 seconds in the 100-meter run at the Giants' entrance test. In his work analyzing data from baseball manga, Kikou Toyofuku also wrote about the close play that Ban displayed in a semi-sick state in his last at-bat (just barely out in the anime), saying, "It should be seen as an out even with Ban's agile legs."
* He has a good memory, and at Koshien, he annoyed Hyūma by correctly reciting the names of his younger sisters and brothers "Chiyo, Jirō , Masahiro, Michi, and Saburō" that Hōsaku Samon had mumbled (remembering their tragic backgrounds as told by Makiba Haruhiko just before the game, Hyūma's vision was blurred with tears and he was unable to pitch accurately). After joining the Giants, when he taught Ittetsu the advice for Hyūma that Ittetsu asked him to give over the phone, he correctly remembered the names of all the Giants' pitchers, including "Kiyoshi Matsuda," "Sawamura, Stalhin, Fujimoto, and Bessho," as well as "Stan Musial," an "unsung great hitter" of the big leagues.
* As a baseball catcher, he has strong shoulders, but he has almost no mental ability, such as pitcher lead, and the ability to act as a fan.Baseball Teams:
* Highschool years: Seiun Highschool (青雲高校)
* Professional era: Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ), Chunichi Dragons (中日ドラゴンズ)

#### Appears in:

* Kyojin no Hoshi (Manga)
* Kyojin no Hoshi
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Chizome no Kesshousen
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Ike Ike Hyuuma
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Dai League Ball
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Shukumei no Taiketsu
* Kyojin no Hoshi (1982)
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi (Manga)
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi (Movie)
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi Ⅱ

## External Links

* https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/伴宙太
* http://www.whv.jp/title/kyojin/chara/004.html