Ganbare, Kikka-zu!

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Ganbare, Kikka-zu! (Fight! Kickers)

がんばれ！キッカーズ (Ganbare, Kikka-zu!)
Genre	Sport, Soccer, Comedy, Drama, Shōnen
Manga: Ganbare, Kikka-zu!
Authored by	Noriaki Nagai
Publisher	Shonen Sunday
Serialized in	{{{serialized}}}
Original run	1985 – 1989
No. of volumes	20
TV anime : Ganbare, Kikka-zu!
Directed by	Akira Sugino
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Network	Family Gekijou RTL II Italia 1 La Cinq Telecinco
Original run	1986 – 1987
No. of episodes	21 (in Japan); 26 (in Europe)

Ganbare, Kikka-zu! (Fight, Kickers!) is a romantic soccer kid manga drawn by Noriaki Nagai. It was serialized in the Shonen Sunday magazine between 1985–1989, winning the publishers's Shogakukan Manga Award in 1987. The story is usually classified as Comedy, Drama, Shounen and Sports. Cover art can be seen here.

The manga was turned into an anime series by Studio Pierrot during 1986–1987. It ran 26 episodes and one 40 minute special, but only 21 episodes were aired in Japan. In 1990 the anime arrived to EMEA in its dubbed version and had some success in the Middle East, Spain (titled Supergol), France (But Pour Rudy) and especially in Germany (Kickers).

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story is about an enthusiastic kid soccer team at the Kitahara elementary school, who struggle without a competent striker, when little Kakeru Daichi's (大地翔 Daichi Kakeru) family moves in to the town. He immediately applies to join the team, keen to use his skills gained in the kid team of famous soccer club "The Falcons". With Kakeru the team becomes complete in every sense and he motivates the team to challenge the "Red Devils", a strong secondary school team whose goalkeeper Uesugi is considered undefeatable. They lose 10 to 1, but Kakeru's scoring a single goal is still a small miracle. Under the strong leadership of their own goalkeeper Masaru Hongo, Kickers then enter the kid championship and fight their way up through hard won victories. Meanwhile, Hongo falls in love with Ayumi Daichi (大地歩 Daichi Ayumi), Kakeru's cute, sporty sister. In turn the striker enamours Akuna Yukie, a fragile, angelic pianist girl, who happens to be Uesugi's much younger sister. These affairs lead to some embarrassingly funny situations as well as numerous complications with the team's devoted and jealous cheerleader trio.

For a short while, Kickers gain a professional trainer whose instructions help them win their way to the semi-finals, just to meet the Red Devils once again. After a dramatic match, that spans two 20 minute episodes, Uesugi fends off Kakeru's final freescore and so the Kickers are out! The devastated team is soon divided by the arrival of Harry, a famous junior talent, who has been fired from three big name teams already for subversive behaviour. He infiltrates and splits Kickers, but his rudeness and Hongo's strong leadership re-unite the team. Harry then seduces Ayumi and assembles a faux team out of the school's scum so he can defeat the Kickers almost alone. Although the naive Kakeru is no match for the older and much stronger Harry, the Kickers's teamwork spirit and Uesugi's support secures a victory in this dirty match and Harry is devastated. The anime series ends with a redeemed Harry reconciling with the Kickers, before leaving the town to play overseas.

1 Treatise
2 Trivia
3 Crew
4 Voice actors
5 External links

[edit] Treatise

The series is obviously aimed at a younger audience than e.g. Captain Tsubasa, yet it does a great job at the sports anime genre. Besides having a sound storyline, which is seldom sidelined, it has evident character development, romance and a fair balance between the lead and support figures. In addition, all the characters are carefully designed to be distinctive individuals so as to counterweight the series' team-valued theme. The pre-computer-generated imagery art in Kickers! does a pleasing job of depicting Japan's natural beauties, the hills and the sea and integrating them into the story. The episodes emphasize traditional japanese values of team spirit and utmost sacrifice for the collective good, but the lead couples' scenes are always given preference. The anime is easy to follow, even without dub or subtitles, somewhat resembling silent movies. The visuals largely lack strange or obscure references to Japanese culture and are surprisingly European in appearance. The occasional poor animation of Uesugi's character is a singular weakness of Kickers! artwork. The German version was praised for quality dubbing and its title music. The entire series is kid safe.

[edit] Trivia

When the trainer is shown leaving Japan, his ocean liner is named "Pierota (Pietaro)" in reference to the animation studio.

The Kakeru's family dog is named Maradona. The Argentinian soccer legend was indeed extremely popular all over the world at the time Kickers! was in the making.

The anime was doomed by bad timing when it went on air in Japan while the Captain Tsubasa soccer saga was still running. The more established sport anime series won, as the little kid characters in Kickers! could not appeal to an equally wide base audience, forcing its early termination (only 21 of the 26 episodes were shown in Japan).