Gurazeni

Gurazeni
Cover of the first manga volume
グラゼニ
Genre	Sports (Baseball)
Manga
Written by	Yūji Moritaka
Illustrated by	Keiji Adachi
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Weekly Morning
Original run	December 9, 2010 – August 25, 2014
Volumes	17
Manga
Gurazeni: Tokyo Dome-hen
Written by	Yūji Moritaka
Illustrated by	Keiji Adachi
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Weekly Morning
Original run	September 25, 2014 – March 1, 2018
Volumes	14
Manga
Gurazeni: Pa League-hen
Written by	Yūji Moritaka
Illustrated by	Keiji Adachi
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Weekly Morning
Original run	March 29, 2018 – present
Anime television series
Directed by	Ayumu Watanabe
Written by	Hideo Takayashiki
Music by	Akifumi Tada
Studio	Studio Deen
Original network	SkyPer!
Original run	April 6, 2018 – present
Episodes	14

Gurazeni (グラゼニ) or Money pitch, is a Japanese baseball manga series written by Yūji Moritaka and illustrated by Keiji Adachi. It ended in January 2015. An anime adaptation by Studio Deen premiered in April 2018. A second season has been announced and premiered on October 5, 2018.

The anime is about the unforgiving money-and-statistics-centric world of professional baseball, in a similar concept to Moneyball, but through the eyes of players: A relief pitcher and left-handed specialist, Bonda Natsunosuke, and Tokunaga, a retired pitcher turned color commentator. The fictional teams in the series are based on real teams in the NPB, particularly the Central League.^[1]

Characters

Natsunosuke Bonda (凡田夏之介, Bonda Natsunosuke)

Voiced by: Fukushi Ochiai^[2]

26, 8-year pro from Yamanshi, was Mr. Irrelevant in his draft class that started on a lowly 15 million yen (US$137,000) signing bonus, which equates to an average family man's 3-year salary. Left-handed short middle relief pitcher and Left-handed specialist for Jingu Spiders. Earns 16 million yen (US$146,000) per year, which is above average for his role due to games played per season, yet it is well below average for players his age. Likes reading baseball almanacs and player. Obsessed with being the highest-paid player in the league, but his obsession can lead to his inconsistent performances, he can easily dispatch upstarts and top earners, but losing out to players in the middle that earns the same or more than him. This is also why he has never started, nor became a closer, but has been used when the game is tied at the 9th innings before. He also wants to improve his game, so he can guarantee to earn 10 million yen post-retirement as a pitching coach. His life slowly started to turn when he got his first start at home against Carnavits, but he got a no-decision. His ERA at 4 days before the one-fifth mark was 3.38, above the ideal of 2.99 at worst. He cannot concede runs for 3 of 4 innings. In the final game of that fifth, he relieved for Segawa the closer, who was injured after giving up a home run, and Bonda made 3 shutout innings with 9 strikeouts to earn a win in extra innings.

At the start of season 2 in the anime, he is called to start in an away game Nagoya in short notice due to Akira's fever, but broke his right wrist trying to perform a double-tag-out by himself, sidelining him for 4 months, which was his first major injury in his career. When he returns, there is 30 games left until playoffs, and the team is on a 3-way tie for 1st place in the division.

Tanabe (田辺)

Voiced by: Issei Futamata^[3]

Manager of Jingu Spiders. Very trusting of Bonda.

Sakota (迫田)

Voiced by: Kenji Nomura^[3]

Bullpen coach, known for her stoic expressions. He is well aware of Bonda's worst tendencies. Bonda does well against people earning the top and bottom 10% of players, but never against anyone between 18 million-50 million yen, especially with seemingly low batting averages (<.300).

Yuki (ユキちゃん, Yuki-chan)

Voiced by: Mao Ichimichi^[3]

Japanese canteen waitress, very optimistic and bubbly and popular among men. From Osaka, a huge fan of Osaka Tempters, while she hated Natsuosuke in the game, she had no recollection of him as a player when he was a customer. Her opinion of him changed when she attended a fan meeting session in the playoffs.

Yasuda (安田)

Voiced by: Masuo Amada

Bonda's scout. He advised Bonda to never spend any money on his signing bonus, and use it as insurance for injuries or if he was released.

Akira Shibuya (渋谷 章, Shibuya Akira)

Voiced by: Takanori Hoshino^[3]

Spider's no.2 starting pitcher. 26, from the same draft class and area as Bonda, but earns 36 million yen, has 21 wins in 7 years as a pro. Bonda's best friend, despite the fact that Akira is higher up on the depth chart and earns twice as much. In the currest season of baseball, however, he had 3 complete games, with only 1.00 ERA, but lost all 3 games 1-0, until he went only 6 innings, and Bonda closed the game. In his 4th game, the closer blew the save, but he earned the win after a walkodff homer got the team to win 5-4. Akira had a no decision.

Tokunaga (徳永)

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa^[3]

35, An upstart superstar since high school, a 10-year starter for Spider, but with less than 50 wins due to his splurging lifestyle despite only topping 30 million yen per year (US$274,000) once, and only earned 18 million in his final year. Retired for 3 years, now a color commentator due to his connections with director of Otowa radio. Comes from the same town as Bonda. As a commentator, however, he offers nothing of substance, rather than just using sound effects, which causes ratings to plummet when he is hosting. However, when Bonda earned his hist ever start, Toku used his inside knowledge to talk the best game of his fledging career. He was then able to use Bonda's love of statistics against him and Yukio to spur them on so they can hit statistical milestones, and earn bigger contracts.

Hideo Matsumoto

Voiced by himself. The only factual character in the anime, a baseball announcer for Otowa Radio Station.

Yukio Ohno (大野 雪雄, Oono Yukio)

Voiced by: Yūsuke Shirai

Left-handed Left outfielder from Yamanshi, dealing with a batting slump despite wearing no.3 this season, a number for best hitter after breaking out in the final third of last season, where he earned the starting job despite below-average defense. With a .260 average, and only 2 HR in the first fifth of the current season, he is on the roster bubble, until he hit 4 in 4 games, including a walk-off homer, which coincides with Bonda's first earned win. Earns 20 million. Was the first batter to hit Bonda for a home run in high school.

Segawa (瀬川)

Voiced by: Yūki Hayashi

Right handed closer for the Spiders. has robbed a win from Shibuya, but injured himself after blowing a save a month later. After he recovered, he blown one more save and cost Akiba of another win, so he is sent to the minors. Tominaga, a right-handed reliever, replaces him. But on his debut, he doesn't pitch, as he is switched for Bonda, who secures that win by picking off a runner on 2nd base.

Anime

An anime television series started airing in April 2018 on SKY PerfecTV!'s SkyPer! channel.^[4][2] It is directed by Ayumu Watanabe and written by Hideo Takayashiki, with animation produced by Studio Deen, character designs by Kenichi Ohnuki and music by Akifumi Tada. The anime's theme song is Merigo feat. SKY-HI by Cypress Ueno to Robert Yoshino.^[5] The closing song is Shadow Monster performed by Asako Toki.^[6] The anime shows two episodes each week, with each episode lasting about 15 minutes (including advertisements), a homage to double-headers in baseball. Well known actor and film director 'Beat' Takeshi appeared as a guest star in the final episode of the first season.^[7] A second season is set to air in October 5, 2018.^[8][9]

Reception

It was number two on the 2012 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey.^[10] It was also nominated for the 5th Manga Taishō^[11] and it won the 37th Kodansha Manga Award for Best General Manga.^[12]

References

External links

• Gurazeni (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Gurazeni (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia