Japanese light novel series and its adaptations
 is a Japanese light novel series written by Atsushi Kagurazaka and illustrated by Sadaji Koike. Tokuma Shoten published four novels from April 2007 to June 2010. It has been adapted into a drama CD, a manga series serialized in "Monthly Comic Ryū", and an anime television series animated by J.C.Staff aired between July and September 2009. The anime had been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks and Section23 Films released the complete collection on November 16, 2010.
Story.
In 1925, after being told by a baseball player that women should become housewives instead of going to school, two 14-year-old Japanese high school girls named Koume and Akiko decide to start a baseball team in order to prove him wrong. During this time, when even running was considered too vulgar for women, baseball is known as "what the boys do" and they face many difficulties when having to find enough members, to get permission from their parents and also when learning about the sport itself.
The first book in the series opens in Taishō 14 (1925), introducing Koume, who is the 14-year-old daughter of a yōshoku restaurant owner, and a student at a local girls' academy. One day, Koume's friend, Akiko, asks her to join in an all-girl baseball team and have a match against a boys team. While the first volume can be read as a stand-alone work, the second volume develops the storyline further.
The second book is set in the summer of Taishō 14. Koume, Akiko, Manoe and the rest of the nine members of the Baseball Girls continue to face off against numerous all-boy teams, and have trouble dealing with the fast balls thrown by the boys. To combat the anxiety they experience, playing against more experienced teams, they decide to abandon their traditional baseball uniforms in favor of a kimono-style uniform. The girls also partition off the batter's box so that other teams cannot see what they are doing.
Apart from baseball, the series also deals with certain cultural changes that are not seen quite so often in anime. For example, the popular "sailor" school uniforms, now a staple of real-world Japanese schools, as well as school-based anime and manga, are only just being introduced into Japanese society during the Taishō period in which this work is based.
Characters.
Main characters.
The main characters are the members of the girls' baseball team "Ouka-kai". Most of the girls are from class 1–2 and the team's coach is their homeroom teacher.
Media.
Anime.
An anime television series adaptation animated by J.C.Staff was announced in August 2008 and aired for 12 episodes on TBS from July 2 to September 24, 2009, replacing "K-On!" in its timeslot. It was written and directed by Takashi Ikehata with character designs by Kanetoshi Kamimoto, who is known for his design work for Tomy toys. The anime was licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks and the complete collection was released on November 16, 2010.
Audio CD, 72 minutes, 7 tracks, Frontier Works, FCCN-0032, 21 December 2007.
Manga.
A manga series by Shimpei Itoh was published in "Monthly Comic Ryū" from July 19, 2008, to February 19, 2011 and collected into five volumes.
221 pages, April 17, 2007, , Tokuma Shoten
202 pages, August 20, 2008, , Tokuma Shoten
212 pages, July 2009, , Tokuma Shoten
 224 pages, June 17, 2010, , Tokuma Shoten
References.
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