Princess Nine
Encyclopedia
Princess Nine, or , is a 26-episode Japan
ese anime
broadcast in Japan in 1998. The television series was produced by Phoenix Entertainment in Japan
, released by ADV Films in North America
, aired from April 8 to October 14, 1998 on NHK
, ran for 26 episodes, and six volumes of the series were released on VHS
and DVD
. The show is listed at Animeondvd.com as a recommended series.
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 win, 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.
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:
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. In 2005, his sentence was revoked and his name was fully rehabilitated.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
broadcast in Japan in 1998. The television series was produced by Phoenix Entertainment in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, released by ADV Films in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, aired from April 8 to October 14, 1998 on NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
, ran for 26 episodes, and six volumes of the series were released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. The show is listed at Animeondvd.com as a recommended series.
The story concerns the trials of nine girls at the Kisaragi School for Girls who form a baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team for the purpose of playing on equal footing with boys' teams at the most prestigious high school tournament
High school baseball in Japan
In Japan, high school baseball generally refers to the two annual baseball tournaments played by high schools nationwide culminating at a final showdown at Hanshin Kōshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Japan...
in Japan, The National High School Baseball Championship
National High School Baseball Championship
The National High School Baseball Championship of Japan, commonly known as "Summer Kōshien" , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament...
. Their aim to qualify for, and ultimately to win, the final rounds of the tournament which is held each year at the Koshien Stadium
Koshien Stadium
is a baseball park located near Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the national high school baseball tournaments, and opened on April 1, 1924. It was the largest stadium in Asia at the time it was completed, with a capacity of 55,000.The name Kōshien comes...
. They are led by ace pitcher, Ryo Hayakawa, a daughter of a former rising pitching star in Japan.
The team (in batting order)
- , 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 in as the leadoff batter on the team.
- , first base: Hikaru is the energetic first baseman and switch hitterSwitch hitterIn baseball, a switch-hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed.-Baseball:Usually, right-handed batters hit better against left-handed pitchers and vice-versa. Most curveballs break away from batters hitting from the same side as the opposing pitcher. Such pitches are often...
who was a former softballSoftballSoftball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
star recruited to the team. She is originally from Osaka (Kansai) region, this explains her accent. She was the MVP of Junior High School Softball Competition in Kansai. - , 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 as a daughter of a fisherman, and has developed an extremely powerful swing, dubbed `Wave Motion Swing` from her years of fishingFishingFishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
. Her batting is so strong that she occasionally hits out of the park home runs. She is originally from TosaTosa, Kochiis a city in Kōchi, Japan. It is located on the southern coast of the island of Shikoku.As of October 31, 2007, the city has an estimated population of 29,782 and the density of 325 persons per km²...
, a small city on the ShikokuShikokuis the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...
island. - , third baseThird Baseis a 1978 Japanese film directed by Yōichi Higashi.-External links:...
: Izumi is the daughter of the school's chairperson, Keiko Himuro, and was a star tennisTennisTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player. However, she cast aside her talent in tennis to become Ryo's rival in baseball. Often caustic and difficult, her only goals pertain to her success. Alongside with Koharu, Izumi is one of the two strongest batters of the team, forming the primary offensive weapons of Kisaragi Girls' Baseball Team. - , left field: Yuki is highly mysterious and quiet, possibly not even of this world. Never without her "alienExtraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
" 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. - , shortstopShortstopShortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball fielding position between second and third base. Shortstop is often regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball, because there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters, and most hitters have a tendency to pull the...
: Kanako is an excellent baseball player and is the daughter of the school's principal who is against the baseball team in the first half. During this, Kanako has to disguise herself as , a pseudonymPseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
which is an anagramAnagramAn anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
of her name, 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 wants 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. - , 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, which explains her tanned skin. 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.
- , catcherCatcherCatcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
: Plucked from the judoJudois a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
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. - , pitcherPitcherIn baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
and captain of the Kisaragi Girls High Baseball Team: Inheriting her father's pitching arm, Ryo has an innate pitching ability. She is left-handed player just like her father. She originally planned not to go to high school because she wanted to help support her mother at the family's OdenOdenOden is a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth. Ingredients vary according to region and between each household...
shop, but she is recruited to the Kisaragi Girls' High School to be the foundation of the new baseball team. Before playing for Kisaragi, she often played as relief pitcherRelief pitcherA relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, fatigue, ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as being substituted by a pinch hitter...
for a local sandlot baseball team, the 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:
- : Team manager and part-time cheerleaderOendanAn , literally "cheering squad" or "cheering section", is a Japanese sports rallying team similar in purpose to a cheerleading squad in the United States, but relies more on making a lot of noise with taiko drums, blowing horns and other items, waving flags and banners, and yelling through plastic...
, Nene is a constant bundle of energy, but knows little of the sport of baseball (learning all she knows from sports mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
). 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. - : 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.
Other characters
- 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" ("TofuTofuis a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
girl" in the English dub) as it is his favorite part of oden. : Ryo's mother, the late Hidehiko's wife 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 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 stated 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. : Ryo's late father and Shino's late husband. 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. Ryo later rediscovered the Lightning Ball with the hints from coach Kido, and she uses it as her ultimate weapon in her baseball games. : Ryo's best friend since kindergarten, and a total genius in high school. He has a crush on Ryo, but can't express it.
Note on story source material
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 the infamous Black Mist ScandalThe Black Mist Scandal (Japanese baseball)
In Japan, the refers to a series of game fixing scandals in the professional leagues between 1969 and 1971. The fallout from these scandals resulted in several star players receiving long suspensions, salary cuts, or being banned from professional play entirely; the resulting abandonment of...
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. In 2005, his sentence was revoked and his name was fully rehabilitated.
Episode list
| No. | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
See also
These are titles with a similar theme of baseball.- CaptainCaptain (manga)is a baseball manga series by Akio Chiba which ran in Monthly Shōnen Jump from 1972 to 1979. This series ran concurrently with another Chiba manga series Play Ball, which ran in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1973 to 1978...
- H2H2 (manga)is a Japanese manga written by Mitsuru Adachi portraying high school baseball. It has been made into an 41-episode anime series and an 11-episode television drama series, H2: Kimi to Ita Hibi, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi.-Plot:...
- Hiatari Ryōkō!Hiatari Ryoko!is a high-school romance manga by Mitsuru Adachi. It was published by Shogakukan in 1980–1981 in the magazine Shōjo Comic and collected in five tankōbon volumes. It was later adapted into a live-action television drama series, an anime television series, and an anime film sequel to the television...
- NineNine (manga)is a baseball manga series by Mitsuru Adachi. It was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Sunday Zōkan from the October 1978 through May 1979 issues. The series was adapted into three television anime movies and a live-action television drama...
- Play Ball
- TouchTouch (manga)is a Japanese high school baseball manga by Mitsuru Adachi. It was originally serialized in the weekly manga magazine Shōnen Sunday from 1981–1986...