News

Viz Confirms Streams of Cross Game Baseball Anime in May

The North American anime distributor Viz Media has confirmed with ANN that it will be streaming the Cross Game baseball anime on its VizAnime.com website later this month. Viz had revealed its plans via an ad at the bottom of the Shojo Beat email newsletter that announced the streams of another anime, Vampire Knight, on Friday. Viz will announce more details about the streaming of Cross Game later this week.

Viz had already confirmed in March that it will release Mitsuru Adachi's original Cross Game manga starting this October. Director Osamu Sekita and the Synergy SP anime studio adapted the story into 50 episodes that aired in Japan from April of 2009 to March of 2010. (The manga itself ended in February.)

The story revolves around Koh Kitamura, a grade-school boy whose family runs the Kitamura Sports store. He gets to know the four daughters of the family who runs the nearby Tsukishima Batting Center, thanks to the store's business and his own batting practice at the center. Aside from playful bantering between Koh and the Tsukishima daughters, all is peaceful in their lives until a tragedy strikes their world. Four years later, Koh continues his baseball training, despite not playing a single game since the tragedy. The manga follows Koh's gradual full return to the sport he loves, and his coming-of-age surrounded by the Tsukishima daughters and others.

Adachi is best known for his sports manga, particular his baseball titles Touch and H2. Like Cross Game, these earlier titles were adapted into anime as well.

Thanks to kel aka gandy for the news tip.