H2 (manga)

H2 (Japanese: エイチ・ツー, Hepburn: Eichi Tsū) 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

During middle school, Hiro Kunimi (pitcher), Hideo Tachibana (third baseman and 4th batter), and Atsushi Noda (catcher) were teammates on the baseball team. Thanks to their exploits, their school achieved an unbeaten record on their way to consecutive national championships.

However, after an injury, a doctor told Hiro that if he continued pitching, his elbow would shatter in three months. Likewise, Noda was diagnosed with a career-ending waist injury by the same doctor, ending their dreams of Kōshien. Hiro chose to go to Senkawa High School, which lacked a baseball team. On the other hand, Hideo went to Meiwa Daiichi High School, one of the top-ranked high schools in the country, along with Hikari Amamiya, his girlfriend (and Hiro's childhood friend).

Hiro decided to join the soccer team, and Noda joined the swim team. After it was revealed that the doctor who "diagnosed" Hiro (and Noda) was a quack, Hiro and Noda return to playing baseball. Their first hurdle was to persuade their headmaster, who hated baseball. Haruka Koga, the manager of the baseball fans club, assisted them in their endeavors.

Through a family friend, Haruka managed to persuade the headmaster to allow the baseball club to be created if they managed to beat another team. The team chosen was surprisingly Meiwa Daiichi, Hideo's team. Although Senkawa ultimately lost the game (because one of the members of Meiwa Daiichi was the umpire and lied to make Meiwa Daiichi win), the headmaster allowed the club to be formedâ€"also letting his son, Yanagi, return to baseball.

The headmaster also employed Fujio Koga, Haruka's brother, as the team's coach. Their first game as an official team was against Eikyo High School in a friendly match. Eikyo, a team with the famed pitcher Hirota, beat Senkawa easily.

In the second year, the new baseball club gains three notable members: Sagawa, Shima, and Ohtake. Sagawa was an old friend of Hideo's, while the latter two were relatives of Hirota. Although initially planted by Hirota in order to destroy Senkawa from within, they soon grow used to the friendly atmosphere of Senkawa. In the final game before the Koshien, Senkawa managed to defeat Eikyo.

Senkawa were set to meet up with Meiwa Daiichi after two opponents in the Koshien tournament. It would have been a fight between rivals, Hiro and Hideo, except that Senkawa lost in the second round to Mitatako. The loss was due to Hiro not being willing to injure the opposing pitcher and the opposing pitcher taking advantage of that injury while Hiro is pitching. Meiwa Daiichi went on to win the Summer Tournament. While this happens the love triangle between Hideo, Hiro, and Hikari becomes evident and the two baseball players start growing apart. Even though Hiro has feelings for Haruka, he declares his intention to win Hikari's heart.

In their third year of high school, Hiro and Senkawa wins the Spring Koshien Tournament. In the Summer Tournament, Senkawa matches up against Meiwa Daiichi in the semi finals in a game which will determine one of the finalists but also if either Hiro or Hideo wins Hikari's heart. It is stated that Hikari would feel sympathy for the loser of the duel between the best friends and that Hideo will win if he earns at least one hit out of three at-bats.

In the last inning with Senkawa leading the score, 2 to 0, Hideo hitless throughout the game hits a ball into the stands, but curves foul because of a brief gust of wind in the stadium. As he notices the wind dying down after that foul ball, Hiro thinks to himself, "You have to make me win, don't you?", because he knows that Hikari will probably end up with the loser of the game, who needs her more. Hideo doubts Hiro's intention to throw a fastball briefly predicting a slider from Hiro, striking out, which ends the game. As Senkawa celebrates their victory over the former Summer Champions, tears fall from Hiro's eyes as he finally lets go of his feelings for Hikari.

Hideo's loss to Hiro made him realize that he needs Hikari more than anyone else, while Hikari tells him that she never had the right to choose between Hideo and Hiro, implying she loved Hideo more even though she was not aware of it before and that the time to make a choice had passed long ago. The morning after their victory celebration, Hiro implies his intention to play baseball as a professional and Haruka declares her decision to accompany him on his way "I will be the stewardess", to which Hiro replies "Yes, probably", meaning he will probably marry her; this is a reference to an earlier chapter where Haruka said she wanted to become a stewardess so she could be with her future husband who would be a baseball player. Senkawa goes on to play the finals of the Koshien and the manga ends.

Characters

Hiro Kunimi (国見æ¯"å'‚, Kunimi Hiro)

Voiced by: Shinnosuke Furumoto

Live action actor: Takayuki Yamada

The protagonist, Hiro initially escaped to Senkawa in order to forget baseball. After his elbow was properly diagnosed, he strove to strengthen the newly created Senkawa baseball team as its star pitcher. Although he's blessed with a huge amount of talent since childhood, he's also hard-working and passionate about the sport. This combination results in one of the most monstruous pitchers ever created in the world of fiction. He's a fearsome batter(the third batter of Senkawa's line-up for most of the series) and a first-class fielder. Kunimi also displays inhuman amounts of stamina and focus(during his first Koshien game in the manga, Hideo states that "He could pitch 18 innings and even then get a no-hitter"). Although he throws a great fastball(152km/h by the end of the series, possibly greater - it hit 157km/h in the drama), he has less control over his forkballs. However, since his failed forkballs turn out to be fastballs, it leads to a degree of unpredictability in his pitches. He has also developed a high-speed slider that may only be caught by a professional level catcher.Hiro was responsible for introducing Hikari to Hideo. He has belated romantic feelings for his childhood friend, Hikari Amamiya, and starts to also develop feelings for Senkawa's manager, Koga Haruka.

(Birthday: January 16 (was retconned by author from January 28 to fit plot purposes)[Volume 20, Chapter 190, P.3])

Hideo Tachibana (橘英雄, Tachibana Hideo)

Voiced by: Mitsuru Miyamoto

Live action actor: Koutaro Tanaka

Hiro's best friend and greatest rival in baseball, they were in the same baseball team in middle school. Hideo has been dating Hikari since middle school, and aims to enter the professional baseball leagues after he graduates from high school. Like Hiro, he's a natural-born genius when it comes to baseball, but that doesn't stop him from working very hard to become even better. A fantastic batter, he becomes the clean-up hitter for Meiwa Daiichi High as a first-year, quickly becoming a national star after that. There's a scene in the manga where Meiwa's coach states that "Letting Hideo face off against high-school pitchers with an aluminium bat in his hands is almost cheating". That only goes to show how skilled Hideo is as a batter.

(Birthday: November 6)

Hikari Amamiya (雨宮ひかり, Amamiya Hikari)

Voiced by: Keiko Imamura

Live action actor:Yui Ichikawa

Hiro's childhood friend and Hideo's girlfriend, Hikari dreams of becoming a journalist. She is a member of the archery club, but has once come in as a temporary manager for Meiwa Daiichi's baseball team during the Koshien by Hideo's request. Although she seems happy with Hideo, she seems to have feelings for Hiro as well.

(Birthday: August 16)

Haruka Koga (古賀春華, Koga Haruka)

Voiced by: Masami Suzuki

Live action actor: Satomi Ishihara

Daughter to the businessman whom Hiro's father works for, she was a high school baseball enthusiast. A hardworking baseball club manager, she played an instrumental role in creating and supporting Senkawa's baseball club. As time goes along, her feelings for Hiro grow more apparent. She dreams of being an air flight stewardess as well as a professional baseballer's wife.

(Birthday: March 3)

Atsushi Noda (野ç"°æ•¦, Noda Atsushi)

Voiced by: Kenjirō Tsuda

Live action actor:Akiyoshi Nakao

The catcher that makes up Senkawa's battery, Noda is the third person in the friendship of Hideo and Hiro. Fat and lazy, Hiro still acknowledges that Noda is a good catcher: able to make decisions about fielding and understanding the general condition of the team. Likes to joke around a lot and make bad puns, but it's actually a wise and clever person, becoming the captain of Senkawa's baseball team as a sophomore. Noda is Senkawa's clean-up hitter, and although his performance is inconsistent, he's a great batter with a good balance of strength and timing.

Ryūtaro Kine (木根竜太朗, Kine Ryūtarō)

Voiced by: Shinichi Takenaka

Live action actor: Yuuma Ishigaki

Used to play for the Hakusan Angels in primary school until Hideo replaced him. He turned to soccer instead, his athletic ability helping him. He tries to persuade Haruka to give up on her baseball ambitions, but later joins the baseball team in order to get closer with Haruka. Kine acts as leadoff batter and center fielder, and was also pitcher when he was in the Hakusan Angels. As a homage to Kakefu, he does left-handed baseball swings. As Haruka and Hiro's relationship gets better, he plots with Miho in order to split them up. Often used as comic relief by Adachi, he's also portrayed as a good player with a great baseball sense(and a lot of luck). Likes to brag, but also works pretty hard when motivated. Kine is also the best center fielder shown in the series.

Miho Osanai

One of the managers for Meiwa Daiichi, she joined in order to get closer to Hideo. However, she fails in this due to Hideo's loyalty to Hikari. She attempts to break them up, but continually fails. She later plots with Kine in order to break up Hideo and Hikari. Their plotting results in both Miho and Kine getting closer.

Miho does not appear in the anime.

Notable baseball teams

Senkawa

Coached by Fujio Koga, Haruka's brother, the Senkawa team was newly created. However, the presence of Hiro, Atsushi, Yanagi and Kine soon proved that Senkawa was a threat to be considered. In Hiro's second year of high school, 3 notable players joined Senkawa: the fast Osamu, the boxer Ootake, and the shortstop Sagawa Shuuji, a friend of Hideo. In Hiro's third and last highschool year, several well acknowledged first-year players joined Senkawa, but none were focused on explicitly.

Meiwa Daiichi

Hideo and Hikari's school, Hideo is the star player. Miho is one of the managers of the team, but Hikari sat as manager during the team's Koshien games although she was just a temporary manager. The coach is understanding, and gets along well with Hideo.

Eikyo

Eikyo's star pitcher, Hirota, is considered one of the best pitchers in the Koshien with his 142 km/h left-handed fastballs. With the backing of the calculative Coach Shiroyama, they were considered serious contenders for the Koshien. Hirota aimed to get to the pros. However, Shiroyama's calculative strategy kept their best catcher, Oogura on the bench.

Iba Shogyo

The star pitcher, Kohei Tsukigata, and the star hitter, Jin Shimizu, are both fans of Hiro and Hideo respectively. Tsukigata's pitches, and his curveball in particular, are extremely well controlled, and he had the potential to be considered a genius if he had started training early. They defeated Senkawa in the Koshien tournament as Hiro was willing to sacrifice his own leg in order to not hurt Tsukigata's hand.