"Battlefield Baseball" returns to its roots with a new Flash-animated DVD

by Chris MaGee

I am a big, big fan of Yudai Yamaguchi's live-action adaptation of Gatarō Man's manga "Battlefield Baseball". It would easily land in my top ten favorite comedies of all time and Tak Sakaguchi's hilarious, ass-kicking performance as Jubeh, the high school student with a killer fast ball (literally), is a big reason for the film's success. I'm not that familiar with the original manga though, or with Gatarō Man's work. That's going to change, at least for Japanese fans and folks here with region-free DVD players.

Anime News Network is reporting that "Jigoku Kōshien (Hell Stadium)", as it's know in Japan, has been turned into a Flash-animated film to be released on DVD in Japan on February 13th. If you head over to Gatarō Man's official site you can catch a trailer for the DVD, and for those like me who have yet to be exposed to the weirdness of the original manga check out this YouTube video. Man, Robert Crumb has nothing on Gatarō Man...