【ROOKIES】Super popular baseball manga series by Masanori Morita!!!

2022-04-15

What is ROOKIES about?

ROOKIES is a baseball manga series written and illustrated by Masanori Morita. It was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from February 1998 to August 2003, with a total of 24 volumes. The series was ranked as the 9th top-selling manga in Japan in 2008, with 2,765,163 copies sold.
The manga was adapted into a live-action TV drama, written by Yoshihiro Izumi and directed by Yuichiro Hirakawa. The series was produced by Tsuru Masaaki. ROOKIES live-action adaptation were broadcasted on TBS from April to July 2008 and ran for 11 episodes.
Its theme song “Kiseki” by Greeeen was so popular that it ranked at the no. 1 position on Billboard Japan Hot 100 Singles Yearly Chart of 2008. The DVD release was also ranked at the top for having the most copies sold in 2008. In the same year, it won 5 out of 9 awards at the 58th Television Drama Academy Awards for best drama, best actor, best supporting actor, best theme song and a special award. ROOKIES was highly commended as one of the best TV drama series at the 2008 Asian Television Awards.
The finale of the TV series was in the form of a live-action film titled “Rookies: Graduation”, premiered on May 31, 2009. The film was produced by Toho and directed by Yuichiro Hirakawa. Upon its release, the film topped the Japanese box office chart, earning the equivalent of 12,703,775 USD over the weekend of May 30–31.
Official trailer for “Rookies: Graduation” (2009)
Rookies

Welcome to Paradise!

The story of ROOKIES started off with Koichi Kawato – a newly hired teacher at the infamous Futakotamagawa high school. It was his first day but Kawato was already late because he couldn’t put on his tie properly.
On his way to school, Kawato spotted a group of delinquent students threatening another student. He tried to intervene but the delinquents kicked him, thus made Kawato trip over and spill the teacher’s books inside his bag. Realizing that they were messing with a teacher, the delinquents quickly ran away.
At the school’s entrance ceremony, Kawato gave a formal introduction as Class 1-B’s new modern Japanese literature teacher, replacing the last teacher who quitted school. Some of the delinquents recognized Kawato from the incident earlier, whereas Kawato was too nervous and messed up his speech.
Back at the principal’s office, Vice Principal Ikebe gave Kawato a lecture for being late on his first day and didn’t even wear a tie. However, Principal Murayama seemed to be more accepting of Kawato. He said that he already knew about Kawato’s reason for resigning at his last school and that this school would need more people like him, as a teacher who didn’t fear his students.
Principal Murayama also told Kawato about the incident involving the school’s baseball team. The team was composed of mostly thugs and bullies who have been suspended for a year from all school competitions, for causing a brawl during an official match. Most of the senior members have already quit and the one left were first year students, who were only interested in women, smoking and causing troubles. Some of them were students of Class 1-B.
The band of delinquents from earlier were in fact members of the baseball club that the principal mentioned. They were going back to their usual hangout spot at the baseball club’s room and talk to their leader – Keiichi Aniya.
They told him about the new teacher Kawato and Aniya asked them if he was the same famous Kawato from the Kandagawa high school incident. It appeared that in Kawato’s last school, he was fired for beating a student to within an inch of his life just two months ago.
Then, Kawato and Vice Principal Ikebe saw the student that Kawato helped that morning. His name was Kobayashi and he was a second year student. Kobayashi was also on the baseball club but was going to quit. Hearing that from the vice principal, Kawato tried to talk to Kobayashi but he refused.
Back at the baseball club’s room, Aniya told his followers that this new teacher would end up quitting in the end. They could just enjoy their care-free school life as usual, in this place they called “paradise”.
Going past the room, Kawato spotted a student on the look-out and scolded him for not being in class. Noticing that this was the baseball club’s room, Vice Principal Ikebe immediately ran away. However, Kawato decided to stepped inside.
He heard about Kobayashi’s message of challenge that he left for the last members of baseball club before going home. He wanted them to come down by the river at 8PM to fight. Aniya simply laughed at that challenge and said he would not go. He said that the senior members were a bunch of losers for trying to pin the blame on them, for not making it to the Koushien (Annual baseball tournaments played by Japanese high schools nationwide, leading to final showdown at the famous Hanshin Koushien Stadium in Nishinomiya).
Hearing Aniya mocked Kobayashi and his friends’ dream, Kawato got angry but he held it back. He said that small-minded men could not understand the ambitions of great men, and that Aniya should not mock people for having dreams.
That night, Kawato came down to the river and saw Kobayashi waiting there, his hands holding a baseball bat. Kawato tried to convince Kobayashi to drop the fight and focus on getting the baseball team back on its feet instead. Kobayashi was doubtful of the teachers and refused Kawato’s offer to help.
Kawato told Kobayashi that he could tried hitting him to see if fighting could really solve his problems. However, when Kobayashi swinged his bat, Kawato threw a powerful kick and kicked the bat into the river. During their fight, Kawato accidently punched Kobayashi so strong that he fell to the ground.
Kawato instantly regretted his actions as he vowed never to lay hands on a student again. Moments later, Kobayashi woke up and he seemed find. He accepted Kawato’s sincere offer to help, and told Kawato his dream of wanting to reach Koushien but he couldn’t do that anymore since his throwing hand was injured from last year’s incident.
Looking at his student’s crying face, Kawato was determined to help and told Kobayashi that he would protect Kobayashi’s beloved baseball team......
Rookies

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