XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
     	3 movies that cover most of the the manga story but go no further.   
   About 90 minutes each only available by download of fan-subtitled .avi   
   files.   
   	I will say that I don't care for the majority of the character designs   
   which closely follow the manga.  Adachi's character design has improved   
   a great deal since then but still it is easy to see the relationship of   
   his later art to his early work. The character designs   
   work better in the manga than on film. But the story of tragedy and   
   triumph with a dash of romance is able to tug at my nearly 76 year old   
   heartstrings in a way that is comparable to Maison Ikkoku and the   
   Kimagure Orange Road first movie.   
   	This is against the background of the highly competitive Japanese High   
   School baseball tournaments leading up to a World Series   
   HS equivalent at Koushien.  There are no heroes but baseball heroes even   
   the losers.  The games leading up to the trip to Koushien are vividly   
   portrayed.  I was impressed by the depiction of so many spectators   
   moving and cheering together.  The cheerleaders of Meisei are male and   
   female and of most of the other teams mostly male.   
   	The central characters are two brothers, Kazuya (Katchan) and Tatsuya   
   (Tatchan) and the next door neighbor Minami.  All are the same age, all   
   in HS and all having great athletic ability.  Kazuya is the only one   
   exploiting his athletic ability at the beginning. The other   
   brother acts like a hentai, annoying by his onlooking the girls of   
   nearly every athletic club.  Tatsuya is a older brother stepping out of   
   the way of Kazuya so that he can fully realize his dreams.  There has   
   also been a promise made to Minami of a trip to Koushien, which will be   
   kept but not by the brother who made it.   
   	Unlike many modern anime and manga the parents of both the main   
   families are fully visible and the Uesugis, parents of the boys, are   
   very much in love.  There was an early tragedy and Minami has only her   
   father but the Uesugi parents and Asakura-sab are very close, and she is   
   alway welcome to access the Uesugi mother.   
   	This is a story of the triumph of an underdog i.e. Meisei HS which has   
   never sent a team all the way to Koushien.   
      
   	The manga covers the last year of Junior High as well and again   
   can be found online either for reading at the site or downloading for   
   reading via a decent image viewing program.  Frankly I cannot think of a   
   better way to spend time than watching the anime and/or reading the manga.   
      
   	bliss   
      
   	   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)