Big Windup!
, often shortened to just , is a Japanese baseball-themed manga series written and illustrated by Asa Higuchi, serialized in Kodansha's monthly "seinen" manga magazine "Monthly Afternoon" since September 2003. It has been adapted into an anime television series, directed by Tsutomu Mizushima and animated by A-1 Pictures, which ran for 25 episodes in Japan on TBS from April to September 2007. A 13-episode second season was broadcast from April to June 2010. In North America, the first season was licensed by Funimation, while the second season was licensed by Right Stuf. The manga series won the  prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for best creative work in 2006. In 2007, it won the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga. Story. The series, set in Saitama Prefecture, follows the story of Ren Mihashi. Mihashi was the previous ace pitcher in his middle school's baseball team, but it seems that he only got the position because his grandfather was the owner of the school. His teammates (especially the team's catcher, Hatake) hated him, and they always lost their games. Mihashi is thoroughly convinced that he is a lousy baseball pitcher, and feels guilty because he believes that  he is responsible for all the losses. Mihashi graduates through middle school with extremely low self-esteem. But in truth Mihashi is really a hardworking and skillful pitcher, and the main reason why his team always lost all the games is because of bad cooperation, because his teammates never talked about the game with him, and they did not try to come up with a plan or strategy to fight against their rivals. Mihashi then transfers to Nishiura High School with plans of quitting baseball because he thinks he is not good enough to succeed at it, though he still  loves the game deeply. However, he is dragged into Nishiura's baseball team by their coach, Momoe, while watching the team training outside the field. Assisted by his new teammates (and especially the catcher, Takaya Abe), he grows in stature, confidence and skill, helping his team excel with his own abilities. Several opposing teams are introduced in "Big Windup!". Mihoshi Academy's team is a prominent subject, as Mihashi had left them after his three years as ace pitcher. Along with the battery Kanou and Hatake, the team has Hiroyuki Oda, a cleanup hitter who speaks in a Kansai dialect  in Japanese, and the American equivalent southern accent in English. Musashino First is the team where Haruna resides as ace pitcher. Originally lazy and laid-back, the team is later stirred into action by Haruna's desire to end the team's mediocrity. Along with Haruna, the team includes Naoto Kaguyama, the starting pitcher, Ohkawa, the team captain, and Kyouhei Akimaru, a kind back-up pitcher for Haruna. Suzune Miyashita is the team's manager who is dating Ohkawa. Tosei High School was the previous year's Koshien winner, who underestimated the skill of Nishiura. Junta Takase is the Tosei 's ace pitcher, who uses sinkers and forkballs to strike out batters, while Kazuki Kawai is the team captain. Development. While growing up in Saitama, Asa Higuchi became familiar with baseball by reading the manga "Dokaben". When she was in high school, the story of a local baseball team wound up inspiring her to come up with the idea for her own baseball manga. In the original version, Mihashi never spoke and characters like Momoe, Kanou and Haruna did not exist yet. Following that, she collected data on high school baseball for over 10 years in order to create the  manga, and she worked with the school she had attended, Urawanishi High School, in the year prior to the serialization. In fact, Urawanishi seems to have been the design for the school that the Nishiura boys attend. The two names are similar as well. Five months prior to the serialization of "Ōkiku Furikabutte" in "Afternoon", Higuchi published a one shot in the magazine titled "The Basic of Basics". The story was centered around the characters of the Musashino Dai Ichi school, who would show up in the series itself. Media. Manga. "Big Windup!" is written and illustrated by Asa Higuchi . It began in Kodansha's "Monthly Afternoon" in September 2003. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual "tankōbon" volumes. The first volume was released on March 20, 2004. As of December 23, 2020, thirty-four volumes have been released. Anime. An anime television series adaptation was produced by Aniplex, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Kodansha, Movic, Mainichi Broadcasting System, and A-1 Pictures. It was directed by Tsutomu Mizushima, with Yōsuke Kuroda handling series composition, Takahiko Yoshida designing the characters and Shirō Hamaguchi composing the music. It ran for 25 episodes and was broadcast in Japan on TBS from April 12 to  September 28, 2007. It was followed by a second season, titled , which ran for 13 episodes from April 1 to June 24, 2010. The series was licensed in North America by Funimation in 2008. Lance Heiskell, marketing director of Funimation, announced in January 2010 that the company had no plans to release the second season of the anime adaptation. The series made its North American television debut on March 14, 2011 on the Funimation Channel. The second season has been licensed by Right Stuf Inc. Other merchandise. A video game adaptation of the series was released on the Nintendo DS  by MMV. It was released December 13, 2007. Its subtitle is . It also came with a collectible screen-cleaner which looks like Ren's shirt (it has number 1 on the back). Merchandise of "Big Windup!" includes action figures, key chains, plush dolls, and branded stationery. Reception. In 2007, "Big Windup!" won the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga. "Big Windup!" was the 41st best selling manga in 2011, with over 1.09 million copies sold. "Nikkei Entertainment" magazine published a list of top 50 manga creators by sales since January 2010, in its September 2011 issue; Asa Higuchi, the author  of "Big Windup!" was ranked 30th, with over 2,24 million copies sold.