Princess Nine
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| Princess Nine | |
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| プリンセスナイン如月女子高野球部 (Princess Nine Kisaragi Joshi Kou Yakyuu-Bu) |
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| Genre | |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Tomomi Mochizuki |
| Studio | Phoenix Entertainment |
| Network | NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai) |
| Original run | 8 April 1998 – 14 October 1998 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
Princess Nine (full name, Princess Nine Kisaragi Joshi Kou Yakyuu-Bu) is a 26-episode Japanese anime broadcast in Japan in 1998. The television series was produced by ADV Films in North America, aired from April 8-October 14, 1998, ran for 26 episodes, and 6 volumes of videos were released on VHS and DVD.
The story concerns the trials of nine girls at the Kisaragi School for Girls who form a baseball team for the purpose of playing on equal footing with boys' teams at the most prestigious high school tournament in Japan, The National High School Baseball Championship. Their aim to qualify for, and ultimately to champion, the final rounds of the tournament which is held each year at the Koshien Stadium. They are led by ace pitcher, Ryo Hayakawa, a daughter of a former rising pitching star in Japan.
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[edit] Characters
[edit] The Team (in Batting Order)
- Seira Morimura, second base - A former school dropout, the red-haired thug had to be tricked by Coach Kido into joining the team. She was a star athlete in track and field, and established records for both the 100-m sprint dash and javelin throw. Consequently, she fits right in as the leadoff batter on the team.
- Hikaru Yoshimoto, first base - Hikaru is the energetic first baseman and switch hitter who was a former softball star recruited to the team. She is originally from Osaka (Kanto) region, this explains her accent. She was the MVP of Junior High School Softball Competition in Kanto.
- Koharu Hotta, center field - The only members of the team with actual baseball experience, Koharu played for a boys' team before being found out as a girl. She grew up on the sea and has developed an extremely powerful swing, dubbed `Wave Motion Swing` from her years of fishing. She is originally from Tosa, a small city on the Shikoku island.
- Izumi Himuro, third base - Izumi is the daughter of the school's president, Keiko Himuro, and was a star tennis player. However, she cast aside her talent in tennis to become Ryo's rival in baseball. A caustic and difficult, her only goals pertain to her success.
- Yuki Azuma, left field - Yuki is highly mysterious and quiet, possibly not even of this world. Never without her " alien" companion, Fifi, whom she keeps with her at all times, Yuki is nevertheless is a superb fielder who is always in the right place at the right time. Like Hikaru, she was also MVP of Junior High School Softball Competition in Kansai.
- Kanako Mita, shortstop - An excellent baseball player, but the daughter of the school's principal who is vehemently opposed to the baseball team, Kanako has to disguise herself to be able to play for the team. She has a kind of geeky attitude, and she wants to be a doctor. But she also likes baseball, and want to play baseball during her high school years. Kanako was also previously a softball star in junior high, and Hikaru recognizes her from their previous encounters in softball games.
- Yoko Takashiki, right field - Recruited to fill a hole in the lineup, Yoko has very little athletic ability. Yoko is mostly interested in concentrating on a modeling career, but was looking to use the up-and-coming baseball team as a way to stand out from others. She is originally from Okinawa, the southernmost prefecture in Japan. She left her hometown, claiming to get rid of dozens of boys who wanted to be her boyfriend, and set her heart to a career in modeling.
- Mao Daidoji, catcher - Plucked from the judo team, the imposing but incredibly-bashful Mao is the only person who can catch Ryo's pitches. An excellent team member when she can overcome her personal shyness.
- Ryo Hayakawa, pitcher - Inheriting her father's pitching arm, Ryo has an innate pitching ability. She is left-handed player just like her father. Originally planning not to go to high school because she wanted to help support her mother at the family's Oden shop. But later she is recruited to the Kisaragi Girls' High School to be the foundation of the new baseball team. Before playing for Kisaragi, she often plays as relief pitcher for a local sandlot baseball team, Wildcats.
All of the team members are excellent athletes and in great physical shape, and this explain why the team becomes such a strong one despite their physical differences. In addition the nine players, there are two more members
- Nene Mori - Team manager and part-time cheerleader, Nene is a constant bundle of energy, but knows little of the sport of baseball (learning all she knows from sports manga). A perpetual ditz, Nene is constantly interested in any hobby or ability she can discover. She also sometimes act as a replacement coach, if Coach Kido is absent or late due to hangovers.
- Shinsaku Kido - He is a moderately-lecherous drunkard who becomes the coach of Kisaragi Girls High Baseball team. He has connections to both Keiko Himuro and Hidehiko Hayakawa from when they were all younger. In fact, he was Hidehiko's catcher when they were in high school. Despite his very unconvincing and laidback appearance, he is actually quite observant person, a master strategist and has superior insights and judgements in baseball games.
[edit] Other characters
- Hiroki Takasugi - A star baseball player at the Kisaragi Boys' High School and son of a wealthy family, he was being groomed as a potential boyfriend and possibly fiancé of Izumi. However, Hiroki has an attraction to the spunky Ryo - he calls her "Ganmo-chan" (" Tofu girl" in the English dub) as it is his favorite part of Oden.
- Shino Hayakawa - Ryo's mother and owner/operator of an Oden shop. Her husband died several years ago and Shino and Ryo run the shop themselves now. Shino is highly supportive of Ryo's dreams to play baseball.
- Keiko Himuro - Keiko is the cold and seemingly aloof President of the school and mother to Izumi. Solid in her ambitions, she forgoes seemingly everything to accomplish her plans. Her motivation behind the creation of the girls' baseball team is to see the pitching ability Ryo inherited from her father on the mound at Koshien Stadium.
- Hidehiko Hayakawa - Ryo's late father. A left-handed, rising star pitcher in baseball many years ago, but he was banned from playing baseball for life because of a scandal he was caught up in (but had nothing to do with). He won the National High School Baseball Championship at Koshien a long time ago, and during his short stint as pro baseball player, he won the Japan Series with Towa Jaguars three times in a row before he was banned from baseball. He is famous for inventing and throwing the legendary Lightning Ball, an extremely powerful pitch which has struck out a lot of professional baseball players.
- Seishiro Natsume - Ryo's best friend since kindergarten. He has a crush on Ryo, but can't express it.
[edit] Trivia
- The story and character of Hidehiko Hayakawa is based on real baseball player Masaaki Ikenaga of the Nishitetsu Lions. Like Hidehiko, Ikenaga was a stellar, rising ace pitcher, he won at Koshien and entered pro baseball after finishing high school. He was sentenced guilty in a game-fixing scandal in 1970 (he was only 24 at the time), together with other five players, and banned from professional baseball for life. Many of his fans believed that he was innocent. About thirty years later however, his sentence was revoked and his name was fully rehabilitated.
