Produced by: TBS

Main Cast Members: Sato Ryuta, Ichihara Hayato, Koide Keisuke, Shirota Yuu, Nakao Akiyoshi etc.

The Story:

Koichi Kawato is the new Japanese Literature teacher at the ill-famed Futakotamagawa high school, whose baseball club is composed of thugs and bullies who have been suspended for a year from all school competitions, for causing a brawl during an official match. The newly appointed teacher finds that the club members left are only interested in women, smoking and doing nothing until, under Kawato's guidance, they discover their dream of going to the Koshien high school baseball tournament. However, the road to Koshien is far from easy as many obstacles await them.

My Thoughts:

Based on a top-rated manga by Morita Masanori, this is definitely not your feel good baseball dorama. And you are forgiven if you automatically think of Gokusen the moment you laid your eyes on the cover of the DVD set, cause the story is similar to the latter (of course with a little difference in the teacher's gender and that they're gearing to go to Koshien). Although the story is nothing new, same old great-new-teacher-aspiring-his-students-one-at-a-time kind of drama (although I was surprise that Kawato-sensei is actually 28 in real life, the same age as some of the actors playing his students) and can be quite draggy at time, it is no way as predictable as I first thought it would be. The fact that the mangaka is focusing more on how the characters can learn from their mistakes instead of giving them a predictable win in the baseball games really speaks to me. My fave character throughout watching the dorama is none other than Hiratsuka Taira (played by Kiritani Kenta). It's really hilarious how is eventually fall for Yagi Toko (the team's manager & Aniya's childhood friend) just because she had the guts to slap him.

My Ratings: * * * 1/2