Star of the Giants is the first sports anime series televised in Japan in 1968. It was adapted from the classic 1966 manga series of the same name and later spawned different movies. It is also referred to as "Kyojin no Hoshi", "Hoshi of the Giants".
The story is about Hyuma Hoshi, the promising young baseball pitcher who dreams of becoming a top star like his father Ittetsu Hoshi in the professional Japanese league. His father was once a 3rd baseman until he was injuried in World War II and was forced to retire. The boy would join the ever popular Giants team, and soon he realized the difficulty of managing the high expectations. From the grueling training to battling the rival Mitsuru Hanagata on the Hanshin Tigers, he would have to take out his best pitching magic to step up to the challenge.
The manga appeared in Weekly Shonen Magazine about the actual baseball team Yomiuri Giants using fictional characters. It was launched by the "Yomiuri Group" which at the time owned not only the actual baseball team, but the TV network Nippon Television, the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun as well as Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation. The show targeted young audiences expanding the imagination of what is physically possible by dramatizing pitches and wind-up sequences. While staying true to being a sports anime, the contents are not simulated like real baseball. It was closer to fantasy surreal anime, though that was the norm within manga publications at the time.
The first Star of Giants movie was debuted in 1969 as part of the vacation anime festival on large screen theatres in color. The draw is the most people had black and white TVs at the time. The Star of Giants vs Mighty Atoms TV special reached the U.S and was renamed to "Astro Boy vs the Giants".
"Kyojin no Hoshi (The Anime Super Remix)" was released for the Playstation 2 by Capcom on June 20, 2002. There were also a number of other games on the same platform.
The story is about Hyuma Hoshi, the promising young baseball pitcher who dreams of becoming a top star like his father Ittetsu Hoshi in the professional Japanese league. His father was once a 3rd baseman until he was injuried in World War II and was forced to retire. The boy would join the ever popular Giants team, and soon he realized the difficulty of managing the high expectations. From the grueling training to battling the rival Mitsuru Hanagata on the Hanshin Tigers, he would have to take out his best pitching magic to step up to the challenge.
The manga appeared in Weekly Shonen Magazine about the actual baseball team Yomiuri Giants using fictional characters. It was launched by the "Yomiuri Group" which at the time owned not only the actual baseball team, but the TV network Nippon Television, the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun as well as Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation. The show targeted young audiences expanding the imagination of what is physically possible by dramatizing pitches and wind-up sequences. While staying true to being a sports anime, the contents are not simulated like real baseball. It was closer to fantasy surreal anime, though that was the norm within manga publications at the time.
The first Star of Giants movie was debuted in 1969 as part of the vacation anime festival on large screen theatres in color. The draw is the most people had black and white TVs at the time. The Star of Giants vs Mighty Atoms TV special reached the U.S and was renamed to "Astro Boy vs the Giants".
"Kyojin no Hoshi (The Anime Super Remix)" was released for the Playstation 2 by Capcom on June 20, 2002. There were also a number of other games on the same platform.