by An unconventional hero, the name is Bamba Barbaric!
Isn’t it the most impactful and easy-to-remember name in the history of Japanese sports animation? “Samurai Giants” (Original: Kajiwara Ikki, Drawing: Koo Inoue), serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump”, was a baseball manga in which the main character, Bamba Ban, rampages in the professional baseball world. From October 1973 to September 1974, a TV anime series was aired on Nippon Television, and the ruggedness of Bamba Barbaric made a strong impression on the children at that time.
Bamba Barbari was born as the son of a Tosa fisherman and was proud of his extraordinary physical ability because he helped with fishing from an early age. Although he professes to say, “I don’t like the dignified one,” Tetsuharu Kawakami is expected to join the giant army because he is expected to have a fastball. A wild samurai-like personality showed in high school baseball.
The giant at that time was a regular corps with Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh. Still, there was also a dilemma that regular players were fixed and young players could not emerge. In such a giant army, Bamba savage creates a surprise magic ball one after another, causing a big whirlwind. As the name implies, he was an unconventional hero. They were introducing the heroic story of Bamba barbarian.
A heroine that looks just like Fujiko Mine
Like the Giants who won the Japan Series for nine consecutive years, the TV anime “Samurai Giants” had such a large number of staff. The character design and animation director is Yasuo Otsuka, who worked on the legendary TV anime “Lupin III” (NTV). Hayao Miyazaki’s name is also credited to the original picture of the first episode. The scene where the barbarian confronts the whale in the first episode is reminiscent of the first episode of “Future Boy Conan” (NHK General TV). In addition, the heroine, Rika Minami, who longs for barbarity, is a female master character that looks just like Fujiko Mine.
Surprisingly, Hayao Miyazaki was involved in the sports animation based on Kajiwara Kazuki. Still, Miyazaki was the first to appear on the counterprogram “Heidi, Girl of the Alps” (Fuji TV series), which began broadcasting in January of the following year. It will move. Mr Otsuka also seems to have left the animation director from the middle. If the Miyazaki & Otsuka duo remained until the second half of the “Samurai Giants” series, the barbarian might have become an even more wild character.
They were directed by Tadao Nagahama, known for the original spoken anime “Star of the Giants” (NTV). Yoshiyuki Tomino (Yoshiyuki Tomino) also participated in the storyboard. Later, Yoshiyuki Tomino made “Mobile Suit Gundam” (TV Asahi) a big hit, considering breaking the common sense of robot animation.
It was Ichiro Mizuki, also known as “Aniki,” who sang the theme song “Samurai Giants” and the ending song “Samurai Banba Barbari”. Many fans will be humming the passage “He is sick of the frogs” in “Samurai Bamba Barbarian”.
Unlike the troubled Hiyoma, he was cheerful and cheerful.
At the time of the broadcast, the children were fascinated by the many novel magic balls that Bamba Barbarians unleashed. A “high jump magic ball” jumps vertically about 1.5 meters from the mound and throws it from a high angle. Furthermore, the improved version of “Shrimp Throw High Jump Magic Ball”. At the moment when the savage throws the magic ball, the ground becomes a different world like “area expansion”.
It is a “giant slalom magic ball” that spins and throws like a top. Jun Miura, a famous illustrator, saw Hideo Nomo’s tornado throwing method, which was active in the major leagues, and thought, “Oh, it’s a giant slalom magic ball.”
Furthermore, the barbarian trains in karate and develops an “alternate magic ball” that squeezes and throws a hardball with bare hands. Hyuma Hoshi (CV: Toru Furuya) of “Star of the Giants” took considerable time to recover when a rival hit him. However, even if Bamba Barbarian (CV: Kei Tomiyama) is hit by a magic ball, he immediately finds a hint of a new magic ball and revives. The charm of the savagery was that he had a cheerful and cheerful personality without worrying about it like a flying horse.
In addition to playing against unique rivals such as the beautiful character Meigetsu Hikaru, episodes of the authentic story touch of Nagashima and Katsuya Nomura, who was the director and fourth batter of Nankai Hawks at that time, were also included. In the meantime, it was all 46 episodes.
By the way, the assistant of Mr Koo Inoue, who drew the original manga, was Mr Masami Kurumada, who made a big break in the boxing manga “Ring ni Kakero”. I feel that the various magic balls created by the savagery have a considerable influence on the finishing blow of the main characters of “Ring ni Kakero”.
Although he died shockingly in the original story.
I can’t forget the final episode. The actual “Samurai Giants” had a shocking ending in which a barbarian who threw too many alter ego magic balls died on the mound.
The TV anime version that aired two weeks before the final episode of the original has a different ending. The last opponent of the savagery is Rosie Jacks, modelled after the big league batter, Reggie Jackson. Rosie can easily counter the many magic balls thrown by the brutality. He is genuinely the double crown of the Major League Baseball. He is a savage who has been forced to rest, but he comes up with a new magic ball at the very end.
It was a brutal challenge to a big game with the “Miracle Magic Ball” that combined all the magic balls up to that point. Rosie’s bat cuts through the air in a ball of the whole body with a passion for brutal baseball. What I imagined in his head is fascinated by the courage of barbarism that can be immediately utilized in actual battles. He was a bright and unconventional hero until the end.
Japanese professional baseball will start soon. Which team and which player will play an active role this year? I want to expect the appearance of a terrible character like Bamba Barbarian.
