News
Captain Baseball Manga Gets New Sequel Series
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Cozy Jōkura will launch a new sequel adaptation of Akio Chiba's Captain baseball manga in the May issue of Shueisha's Grand Jump Mucha magazine on April 24. The sequel, titled Captain 2, will focus on Shigekazu Kondō, who took over the captain role from Igarashi.
Jōkura's Play Ball 2 manga sequel to Chiba's Play Ball manga is also serializing in Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine. The fifth compiled book volume of Jōkura's series shipped in Japan on Tuesday.
Jōkura launched a spinoff of Captain in Grand Jump in April 2017. In addition, he has drawn a number of baseball manga, including Shō Ban, Stripe Blue, and Gurazeni. His follow-up to Gurazeni, titled Gurazeni: Tokyo Dome-hen, ended in March 2018, and he launched the Gurazeni: Pa League-hen (Pacific League Arc) series. The third compiled book volume of Gurazeni: Pa League-hen shipped in December.
Chiba — the younger brother of Tetsuya Chiba — launched the Captain manga in the February 1972 issue of Shueisha's Bessatsu Shonen Jump magazine (later titled Monthly Shonen Jump) and ended it in 1979. The story follows middle school student Takao Taniguchi, who transfers from a school famous for its baseball to a no-name school. There, he is chosen as the baseball club captain.
The series ran concurrently with Chiba's other baseball manga Play Ball, a sequel to Captain starring the same protagonist in his high school years after an injury forces him to temporarily give up baseball. Play Ball ran from 1973 to 1978 in Weekly Shonen Jump.
Captain was adapted into a television anime special in 1980, an anime film in 1981, and a television anime series in 1983. The also received a live-action film adaptation in August 2007. Play Ball was adapted into a television anime in 2005-2006.
Akio Chiba passed away in 1984.
Source: Comic Natalie
