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Play Ball
	Manga volume 1 cover
プレイボール; (Purei Bōru)
Genre	Sports
Manga
Written by	Akio Chiba
Published by	Shueisha
Imprint	Jump Comics
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	1973 – 1978
Volumes	22
Anime television series
Directed by	Satoshi Dezaki
Produced by	Yutoku Abe; Hiroyuki Ooizumi; Takashi Mizukami; Hiroyasu Isshiki;
Music by	Kaoru Wada
Studio	Eiken (production); Magic Bus (animation);
Original network	Animax
Original run	July 4, 2005 – March 27, 2006
Episodes	26
Manga
Play Ball 2
Written by	Yūji Moritaka
Published by	Shueisha
Magazine	Grand Jump
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	April 5, 2017 – May 6, 2021
Volumes	12

Play Ball (Japanese: プレイボール, Hepburn: Purei Bōru) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akio Chiba. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1973 to 1978, with its chapters collected in twenty-two tankōbon volumes.

The manga was adapted into a two-season anime television series co-produced by Eiken and Magic Bus, which aired on several Japanese television stations as well as the anime satellite television network Animax from July to September 2005 (1st season) and from January to March 2006 (2nd season).

The series was released concurrently with Chiba's other major work, Captain, the other series for which he won the 22nd Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1977.^[4]

Plot

After fracturing a finger in a junior high school game, Takao Taniguchi is unable to play baseball. After entering Sumitani High School, he is constantly watching the baseball club even though he is unable to play. He catches the eye of the captain of the soccer club, and while he still has lingering hopes of joining the baseball club, he decides to join the soccer club. While he's a complete beginner, Taniguchi developed a strong spirit of hard work while in junior high school and his new teammates begin to see his potential. While he focuses all of his energy on soccer, he is unable to forget his youthful zeal for baseball and he begins umpiring baseball games in secret.

After someone leaks his secret to the captain of the soccer team, the captain becomes angry at him and Taniguchi decides that soccer is not really for him. At the recommendation of the captain, he resigns from the soccer club and joins the baseball club. The Sumitani baseball club would lose their big game every year due to the inexperience of the club members. After Taniguchi joined, however, the club begins to change for the better.

Characters

Takao Taniguchi: Voiced by: Kenichirō Maeda; Pitcher (right-handed) and third baseman. He injured his finger in an accident when he was in junior high, and causing him to give up pitching because he thought it was too hard to pitch with a finger which caused him to be unable to pitch straight. However, through a great deal of effort and hard work, Taniguchi was able to overcome this and master the forkball (in the anime, his right index finger is crooked). After that, he had surgery to fix the injury to his finger (the anime has the order of events a bit different than in the manga).
Tadakoro: Voiced by: Yutaka Kōno; Plays catcher. Was the captain of the baseball club when Taniguchi joined.
Yutaka Kurabayashi: Voiced by: Satoshi Hino; Plays catcher after Tadakoro. Usually bats third.
Nakayama: Voiced by: Yoshitaka Kuremoto; Plays pitcher (left-handed) and third baseman. One year older than Taniguchi, and wears glasses.
Ōta: Voiced by: Shinsuke Fukui; Plays shortstop, and can run 100 m in 12 seconds. One year older than Taniguchi.
Yamaguchi: Voiced by: Norihiko Nanda; One year older than Taniguchi. Known for having a huge mole.
Yamamoto: Voiced by: Takashi Senda; One year older than Taniguchi. Plays right fielder, first baseman, and is a right-handed relief pitcher. Has an overbite.
Marui: Voiced by: Yū Asano; One year younger than Taniguchi. Plays second baseman.
Yokoi: Voiced by: Kōichi Shibasaki; Same age as Taniguchi. Plays second baseman, switches to shortstop in the second year, and third baseman in the third year.
Handa: Voiced by: Kyōhei Tanaka; Same age as Taniguchi. Plays right fielder.
Tomuro: Voiced by: Akira Kubota; Same age as Taniguchi. Plays left fielder.
Suzuki: Voiced by: Ōki Sugiyama; Same age as Taniguchi. Plays right fielder. Joined the baseball club at the same time as Handa.
Matsugawa: Voiced by: Kenji Iwama; One year younger than Taniguchi. Plays third baseman.
Shimada: Voiced by: Ryūta Anzai; One year younger than Taniguchi. Plays center fielder.
Katō: Voiced by: Naoto Seki; One year younger than Taniguchi. Left-handed.