This is an article not related to the Captain Tsubasa in-universe series but to other Takahashi's works.
Hungry Heart: Wild Striker (ハングリーハート WILD STRIKER or just known as "Hungry Heart" in the Western World) is the anime adaptation of Yoichi Takahashi's manga Hungry Heart. The series was a co-production between Nippon Animation, Animax and Fuji TV. Instead of strictly following the manga, both productions were co-developed at the same time, with the animation taking a more comedic approach.
The TV anime was originally broadcast in Japan from 2002-09-11 to 2003-09-10 in satellite television network Animax where it aired on Wednesdays in the 22:00-22:30 time-slot. It was also broadcast in Japanese television station Fuji TV from 2002-10-09 to 2004-02-09.
With Animax operating worldwide, the series was broadcast in several countries where the satellite television network operates in dubbed version for each country, so the series is well known in several countries from Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Besides the Animax version, in Hispanic America another dubbed version was produced and was used for local channels in the region. In Italy, where the series was called La squadra del cuore, it was broadcast in 2003 by Italia Teen Television, in 2008 by Italia 1 and in 2009 by Hiro. In France the series was published in four DVD-boxes in 2004 by French company Mabell.
Plot[]
Kyosuke is a rebellious and impulsive boy who is the brother of Seisuke Kano, a football prodigy who has just successfully started playing for A.C. Milan in Italy. Kyosuke can't stand that people look up to him just because he is the brother of a famous footballer. This eventually makes him "hate" football. Despite not being as technically skilled as his brother, Kyosuke has also great potential in the sport, especially as a forward, and a strong shooting power.
Kyosuke has a flashy orange hair in tune with his fiery character ready to ignite in rage at each minor accident. One such accident occurs when he is playing a guitar on the street and some thugs try to stop him, only for him to make them flee in fear. As the thugs are escaping, Kyousuke shoots a football ball towards them, which a little kid, Kenta, had dropped when the thugs fled. The powerful shot breaks a traffic light, which makes the thugs stop and creates a chaos. This forces Kyosuke to flee, dropping his school ID card which is collected by Miki Tsujiwaki, captain of the female football club of the Joyo Akanegaoka High School. Amazed by Kyosuke's abilities both she and Kazuto Mori, manager of the men's football club, look for Kyosuke. Kazuto asks him to join the team, which he refuses, while Miki asks him to become the coach of the newly formed women's team. Kyosuke also refuses Miki's request, but ends up accepting after she blackmails him to report him for the fuss caused before with his ID card.
Meanwhile, the girls of the team become aware of the fact that Kyosuke is the brother of the famous Seisuke, so they are willing to do anything to learn the teachings of their new coach. Not having any desire to be the women's coach, he just lies on the bench until Miki asks him to teach them something. He remembers what he learned as a small child with his brother and, with a hint of malice, makes the girls pick up stones and weeds from the pitch. Despite the difficulties the girls, particularly, Miki, do not give up and work to clean the football field. As this continues, most of the girls quit and only Miki and two others remain. Miki then notices that this activity had a purpose: to have a proper place to train where the ball could roll properly. She is happy in tears and thanks Kyosuke. Inspired by this, Kyosuke alone flattens the field to make it even better.
In the meantime, Kazuto learns about Kyosuke's past and violent behaviour when he was playing football. After seeing his efforts with the girl's field, he is convinced that Kyosuke still has a potential to be a good player. After continuing training, Miki inscribes his team in the regional championship. After a week passes, Kyosuke's commitment as coach ends, so Miki tries to return his school ID, which he refuses since he already had a duplicate. Trying to understand his motivations to help them despite not needing the ID card, Miki helps Kazuto and tries to convince Kyosuke to join the men's team playing using his own style and note for the sake of being Seisuke's brother. He eventually accepts to resume playing football after the frail Kazuto tries to defend him from the thugs from the previous incident try to take their revenge on Kyosuke.
In the trials for the team, Kyosuke meets two other problematic novices: Rodrigo, a midfielder from Brazil who prefers to play individualistically, and Koji Sakai Jefferson, a goalkeeper of Swedish heritage that looks down on Japanese football. The three challenge the senior members of the team claiming that the three of them are better suited to be regular players. The seniors accept the challenge and have a match between the novice members and the senior members. Despite a great start, Kyosuke and the others lose. Yet, the three of them show great potential and even manage to complete the 100 laps punishment while the rest of the novices can't even complete half of the challenge.
After that, Kyosuke meets the dietician of the team, Kaori Domoto, who gives him a strict diet based on vegetables that he immediately hates and does what he can to avoid it. Coach Kazuo Murakami, who had been watching Kyosuke since he began training the girls, makes him play as a defender, another situation that Kyosuke doesn't understand and hates. Kyosuke grows frustrated because he wants to play as a forward and so he quits the team. Miki convinces to return to the team and Kyosuke becomes a decent defender thanks to training closely with Gozo Kamata, vice captain of the team.
Once the real matches begin, coach Murakami unexpectedly puts the three novices, Rodrigo, Koji and Kyosuke in the starting lineup. To the surprise of everuone, Kyosuke starts as a forward, not as a defender as he had been used in all practice matches. The team starts winning and improving and with the three novices, it gets up to the semifinals of the regional tournament where Kokuryo High School, the strongest team with four members of the Japanese national youth team, defeats them.
Next year, after training hard and improving, it is Joyo who defeats Kokuryo and qualifies to the national championship. They lose badly to Tenryu High School, the two-time champions, in their first match at the national tournament, although Kyosuke manages to score a goal. This infuriates Tenryu's captain, Yuki Kagami, since his team, the same one in which Seisuke played before going to Italy, had not received a single goal in all previous games an does not receive one after. Yuki vows to not allow Kyosuke to score again.
In the next tournament, with the arrival of three new players, Joyo reaches the semifinals of the nationa tournament where they face Tenryu again. A much closer match this time, Joyo scores twice, and almost manages to equalize at the end of the match, but Tenryu prevails.
Kyosuke's performance is noticed and he is called to the national youth team to play in Europe against Cameroon. His performance there is noticed by Ajax's scouts who want to acquire his services. Initially hesitant to accept the offer since he had not yet defeated Tenryu, he decided to take the opportunity. Joyo and Miki say goodbye to him in the airport. The series ends in the Amsterdam Arena with Kyosuke entering the field wearing the Ajax uniform with the number 9.
Characters[]
- Kyosuke Kano (叶 恭介, kanou kyosuke). FW, 16 years old. Kyosuke is the main character of the series. He colours his hair orange so he is nicknamed "Orange Head". As a child, his brother Seisuke taught him football. He enjoyed the sport until he got fed up of always being compared to his more technically skilled brother to the point where he stopped playing football and became a delinquent. This changes when he meets Miki, who forces him to become coach of Akanegaoka High School women's team. With Rodrigo and Koji, the three form the "Conceited Trio" (生意気トリオ) and even without knowing develop a combination play, the TNS, (Triple Namaiki Special, トリプル・ナマイキ・スペシャル, Triple Conceited Special).
- Miki Tsujiwaki (辻脇 美紀, tsujiwaki miki). FW, 16 years old. Captain of the women's team of Akanegaoka High School. She doesn't know much about football starts and didn't even know who Seisuke was since her interest in the sport was sparked by a comic book. She manages to blackmail Kyosuke into becoming the coach of her team and in doing so also renews his interest in the sport. She and Kyosuke always argue, but, as everyone predicted, they eventually become romantically involved.
- Kazuto Mori (森 一人, mori kazuto). Manager, 16 years old. He used to play while he was in middle school, but stopped after an injury. Despite this, he still loves football with passion. He uses glasses during the first episodes, but later he changes to contacts. Despite this, Kyosuke keeps calling him "Glasses Monkey" (メガネ猿).
- Rodrigo (ロドリゴ). MF, 16 years old. An exchange student from Brazil on a football scholarship. His aim in coming to Japan is to become a professional since he would have a better chance there than in Brazil and he wants to do it as soon as possible to support his family. Due to this, he plays individualistically in order to stand out.
- Koji Sakai Jefferson (境 ジェファーソン公司, sakai jefferson kouji). GK, 16 years old. His father is Japanese while his mother was Swedish. Her mother died when he was very young, which caused him to look for friends. However, since his father's work made them move to different countries, he had a hard time as a foreigner until he discovered football which is played in every country. He is very attractive to most girls.
- Kazuo Murakami (村上 監督, murakami kazuo). Joyo Akanegaoka football team's coach, 42 years old. He is a former FW of the national team. It normally appears as if he just lazes around, but he is in fact a very good strategist. He notices Kyosuke's talent even before he joined the team and makes him play as a DF in order to improve as a FW.
- Kaori Domoto (堂本 香織, doumoto kaori).Sakae resident (栄寮生), 20 years old. She is the Akanegaoka's dietician and conditioning adviser. She is in love with Seisuke and at his behest he watches over Kyosuke.
- Seisuke Kano (叶 成介, kanou seisuke). MF, 19 years old. A football prodigy who is the most respected figure in the story. He used to play for Tenryu High School and is the first footballer from Japan to play in A.C. Milan. He very rarely appears in the anime, but he's a very important element of the motivation for many characters.
- Fukuko Omori (大森 福子, oumori fukuko). Chef of Akanegaoka's male dormitory. She likes Kyosuke's attitude and even lets him eat more from time to time and keeps him in line if needed.
- Toshiya Sako (佐古 俊也, sako toshiya). MF. Joyo's captain and playmaker prior to Rodrigo's takeover. Sako is level-headed, mentally quick and always willing to help his teammates. He has a rivalry with Ryosei's captain and genius playmaker Furuki during high school. He and Furuki end up being teammates in university.
- Gozo Kamata (釜田 豪三,kamata gouzou). DF. Nicknamed "Sergeant Chin" by Kyosuke, he used to play as forward in middle school, but becomes Joyo's defense leader and vice-captain.
- Karin Fujisawa (藤沢 かりん, fujisawa karin). An animation-exclusive character. She is an Akanegaoka student and older sister of Kenta. She isn't a fan of football until meeting Kyosuke and his team. She becomes attracted to Kazuto and eventually becomes manager of the team with him.
- Kenta Fujizawa (藤沢 健太, fujisawa kenta). Karin's little borther and fan of Kyosuke.
- Masashi Esaka (江坂 マサシ, esaka masashi). MF. Member of Akanegaoka. Called "Osaka" by Kyosuke, something that bothers him.
- Hiroshi Ichikawa (一河 ヒロシ, ichikawa hiroshi). MF. Member of Akanegaoka. Constantly clashes with Rodrigo due to Rodrigo's individualistic play.
- Yuya Kiba (木場 優也, kiba yuuya). An animation-exclusive character. FW. Member of Akanegaoke. He arrives during the second year and becomes the rival of Kyosuke both in the field and for the love of Miki.
- Kazuya Muroi (室井 和也, muroi kazuya). An animation-exclusive character. DF. Member of Akanegaoke. He arrives during the second year and become the replacement of Gozo.
- Masahiko Shinkawa (新川 マサヒコ, shinkawa masahiko). An animation-exclusive character. MF, Member of Akanegaoka. The fastest member of the team. Along with Muroi, he joins the team to help Yuya in his dream of joining the J-League.
- Yujiro Kamiyama (神山 雄二郎, kamiyama yuujirou). Kokuryo's ace striker. Kyosuke's rival as the best striker in the region and a member of Japan youth team.
- Kaoru Fujimori (藤森 薫, fujimori kaoru). Along with his brother Minoru, the dynamic duo of Kokuryo and a member of Japan youth team.
- Minoru Fujimori (藤森 稔, fujimori minoru). Along with his brother Kaoru, the dynamic duo of Kokuryo and a member of Japan youth team.
- Yuki Kagami (加賀美 勇樹, kagami yuuki). MF. Nicknamed "Seisuke Kano Jr.", he is Tenryu's captain and becomes Kyosuke's rival as Japan's best player in high school football.
Teams[]
High school teams[]
- Joyo Akanegaoka high school (城陽茜が丘高校, jouyou akanegaoka koukou, or known as Joyo or Jyoyo for short, and Orange Hill in the Latin American dub), is the team and school where Kyosuke and the rest of his teammates played during the series.
- Kokuryo high school (国領高校, kokuryou koukou). The regional champion with four member of Japan touth team.
- Tenryu high school (天竜高校, tenryuu koukou). The national champion and strongest team of the high school league.
Real World teams[]
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- AC Milan: a professional football club which appears in Hungry Heart anime series, where the Japanese Super Star Seisuke Sano appears as a midfielder after having played for U-22 Japan, and in the series has being playing for two seasons with great success.
- Japan: appeared on a match during the series where Seisuke had a match.
- Norway: this team played a match against Japan.
- U-22 Japan: Both Seisuke and Kyosuke Kano played for this team, together with the Fujimori Twins, Kamiyama and Kagami. This is the same team where the Captain Tsubasa Golden Age played in Golden-23.
Development[]
Nippon Animation, thinking about producing something in relation to Korea Japan 2002, contacted Takahashi while he was working on Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 and requested him a football series to revive the passion for the sport with the aim to create an animated adaptation. Thus, Hungry Heart was born.
An accidental effect caused by the success of the Captain Tsubasa series was a lack of players in positions different from midfielder, particularly natural forwards. This occurred because children who grew with Captain Tsubasa wanted to emulate Tsubasa Ozora, who is a midfielder. This meant that Japan had many midfielders, but few forwards, reflected in the fact that Japan's greatest stars, like Kazuyoshi Miura, were midfielders. To remedy this, Takahashi created the comic Striker Jin to get get younger generations interested in being forwards, but this attempt wasn't successful, in great part due to the similarities with Captain Tsubasa. With a new chance given with Hungry Heart, Takahashi took a different approach: instead of using the same approach of Captain Tsubasa, which failed with Striker Jin, Takahashi developed a different type of protagonist in physical appearance and in personality: a tall strong boy with a delinquent-like attitude similar to Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk and almost nothing of Tsubasa Ozora's virtuous persona or any other trait from other Captain Tsubasa main characters. The depiction of football would be more realistic, the protagonist's team would be as beatable as any other team and the story would have a faster pacing.
Hungry Heart is focused on high school since Takahashi felt that this period is an important part in one's life and in Captain Tsubasa, after the junior high school period, Tsubasa skipped this part to become a professional in Brazil. He also wanted to focus on the close relationship of school and sport life that is present in Japan.
Takahashi commented in the first volume that the name of the series comes from Bruce Springsteen's song "Hungry Heart" which Takahashi apparently listened while travelling to Sydney 2000. The orange motif seen in the series comes from the uniform of the Netherlands national football team, which Takahashi likes a a lot.
Cast/Staff[]
Japanese cast
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Staff
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Theme songs[]
- Openings
- "2nd stage" (ep. 1-42)
- Lyrics: Keiji, Yoshiyasu Ichikawa
- Composition: Keiji
- Arrangement: Kids Alive, Junichi Igarashi
- Song performance: Kids Alive
- "Hungry Heart: Kiseki no Tsubasa" (ハングリーハート～奇跡の翼～) (ep. 43-52)
- Lyrics: Mami Takubo
- Composition: Hiroaki Ono
- Arrangement: Jun Asahi
- Song performance: Natsuki Kato as Miki Tsujiwaki featuring Athens Generation
- Endings
- "Mi-title" (未タイトル) (ep. 1-12)
- Lyrics: Shinichi Yasuoka
- Composition: Tetsuro Honda
- Arrangement: Junjiro Seki
- Song performance: Utaibito Hane
- "Tell tell Bozu" (tell tell 坊主) (ep. 13-39)
- Lyrics: Kokia
- Composition: Kokia
- Arrangement: Taisuke Sawachika
- Song performance: Kokia
- "Watashi no Taiyo" (私の太陽) (ep. 40-51)
- Lyrics: Kokia
- Composition: Kokia
- Arrangement: Taisuke Sawachika
- Song performance: Kokia
- "2nd stage" (ep. 52)
- Insert song
- "Song for lover" (ep. 52)
- Lyrics: Keiji
- Composition: Keiji
- Song performance: Kids Alive
Episodes[]
| # | Title | Animax airdate | Fuji TV airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "You're Kyosuke..?" (お前、恭介か…?) | 2002-09-11 | 2002-10-09 |
| 2 | "Thank you... coach!" (ありがとう…コーチ!) | 2002-09-18 | 2002-10-23 |
| 3 | "I'm not gonna lose!" (絶対…負けねーっ!) | 2002-09-25 | 2002-11-06 |
| 4 | "Me? What? Defender?" (オレ?何?ディフェンダー!?) | 2002-10-02 | 2002-11-13 |
| 5 | "Running away?" (逃げまくり?) | 2002-10-09 | 2002-11-20 |
| 6 | "Why do you have to be a forward?" (なんでFWじゃなきゃダメなの?) | 2002-10-16 | 2002-11-27 |
| 7 | "Don't underestimate football!" (サッカーをなめるな!) | 2002-10-23 | 2002-12-04 |
| 8 | "Absolutely nobody will pass me!" (決して誰にも、渡しはしない!) | 2002-10-30 | 2002-12-11 |
| 9 | "If you`re a man, what`re you getting scared for!?" (男のくせに何びびってるの!?) | 2002-11-06 | 2002-12-18 |
| 10 | "I can see it! I can clearly see it!" (見える!はっきりと見える!) | 2002-11-13 | 2003-01-08 |
| 11 | "Kyosuke-kun is Akanegaoka's weakpoint?" (恭介君が、茜ヶ丘の弱点…?) | 2002-11-20 | 2003-01-15 |
| 12 | "Don't be taken by the posts!" (枠にとらわれるな!) | 2002-11-27 | 2003-01-29 |
| 13 | "Hot-headed mister!" (爆発頭のお兄ちゃーん!) | 2002-12-04 | 2003-02-12 |
| 14 | "Everyone! Locker room meeting!" (全員、ロッカーに集合だ!) | 2002-12-11 | 2003-02-26 |
| 15 | "What kind of shot was that?!" (な、なんだ、あのシュート!?) | 2002-12-18 | 2003-03-05 |
| 16 | "I can`t take it anymore!!" (もう、ガマンの限界だ!!) | 2002-12-25 | 2003-03-12 |
| 17 | "I'll force you to come out!" (今に引っぱり出してやるからな!) | 2003-01-08 | 2003-03-19 |
| 18 | "There`s something wrong with Rodrigo!" (何か変よ、ロドリゴは!) | 2003-01-15 | 2003-04-09 |
| 19 | "If I say I`ll make it, I`ll make it!!" (決めると言ったら決める!!) | 2003-01-22 | 2003-04-16 |
| 20 | "It's not like you to hesitate!" (うじうじと、らしくない!) | 2003-01-29 | 2003-04-23 |
| 21 | "You`re a bad loser!" (おーじょーぎわが悪いわねっ!) | 2003-02-05 | 2003-04-30 |
| 22 | "What are we doing..." (ワイらは何をやっとるんやろ…) | 2003-02-12 | 2003-05-07 |
| 23 | "Open-air bath?" (露天風呂?) | 2003-02-19 | 2003-05-14 |
| 24 | "You guys are too cocky!" (お前ら生意気すぎんだよ!) | 2003-02-26 | 2003-05-21 |
| 25 | "Me, seizing the world of football!" (ワシ、サッカーで天下獲ったるわ!) | 2003-03-05 | 2003-05-28 |
| 26 | "I've been waiting for this!" (これを待っていたんだ!) | 2003-03-12 | 2003-06-11 |
| 27 | "Let the penalty shoot-out begin!" (PK戦の開始です!) | 2003-03-19 | 2003-06-18 |
| 28 | "As usual..." (いつも通りって…) | 2003-03-26 | 2003-06-25 |
| 29 | "Bring it on, Sergeant Chin!" (来ォォーイ!アゴ軍曹!) | 2003-04-02 | 2003-07-02 |
| 30 | "I made it, brother!" (来たぜ、兄貴!) | 2003-04-09 | 2003-07-09 |
| 31 | "I'm not excited at all today..." (今日は、全然ワクワクしないよ…) | 2003-04-16 | 2003-07-16 |
| 32 | "Kyosuke Kano... I won't forgive you!" (叶恭介…許さない!) | 2003-04-23 | 2003-07-23 |
| 33 | "It can't be...Kano's the captain!?" (まさか、カノウがキャプテン!?) | 2003-04-30 | 2003-07-30 |
| 34 | "You're 10 years too early, bird nest head!" (十年早ぇよ、鳥の巣頭!) | 2003-05-07 | 2003-08-13 |
| 35 | "At such time to Kyosuke…!" (こんな時に恭介君まで…!) | 2003-05-14 | 2003-08-20 |
| 36 | "What are you doing, guys!" (何やってんだよ、みんな!) | 2003-05-21 | 2003-09-03 |
| 37 | "Isn't anyone else coming!?" (誰もついて来ぇへんのか!?) | 2003-05-28 | 2003-09-10 |
| 38 | "Captain Esaka...!?" (『キャプテン・エサカ』…!?) | 2003-06-04 | 2003-09-17 |
| 39 | "Eat and run woman! How long are you going to sleep?" (食い逃げ女!いつまで寝てんだ!) | 2003-06-11 | 2003-09-24 |
| 40 | "I was finally able to come back..." (やっと戻って来れたぜ…) | 2003-06-18 | 2003-10-15 |
| 41 | "T-Twelve goals !?" (じゅ、12点!?) | 2003-06-25 | 2003-10-22 |
| 42 | "Who's that? Sergeant Chin?" (誰だ、アゴ軍曹って?) | 2003-07-02 | 2003-10-30 |
| 43 | "Can you give me a little time to think?" (…少し時間をくれませんか…) | 2003-07-09 | 2003-11-05 |
| 44 | "Father, I'm okay now..." (父さん、ぼくはもう大丈夫だよ…) | 2003-07-16 | 2003-11-12 |
| 45 | "Come, bring it!!" (さあ、来いや!!) | 2003-07-23 | 2003-11-19 |
| 46 | "Itemae football?" (いてまえサッカー?) | 2003-07-30 | 2003-11-26 |
| 47 | "Where are you planning to take me!?" (何処、つれてくつもり!?) | 2003-08-06 | 2003-12-03 |
| 48 | "How can we stay in this horrible place?" (んな所でチンタラやってられっか) | 2003-08-13 | 2003-12-10 |
| 49 | "Murakami, can you stay a while longer?" (もう少し居てくれんか?村上!) | 2003-08-20 | 2003-12-17 |
| 50 | "I've been waiting for you, Kyosuke Kano!" (待っていたぞ叶恭介ー!) | 2003-08-27 | 2004-01-14 |
| 51 | "The spirit of Akanegaoka!" (茜ヶ丘魂じゃあああ!) | 2003-09-03 | 2004-01-28 |
| 52 | "Go visit! Kyosuke Kano!!" (行って来い!叶恭介!!) | 2003-09-10 | 2004-02-09 |
Gallery[]
Videos[]
External links[]
- Official website at Fuji TV (Japanese)
- Official website at Nippon Animation (Japanese)
- Production data at Nippon Animation (Japanese)
- Series info at aniDB
- Series article at Wikipedia
- Series article at Japanese Wikipedia
- Series article at Italian Wikipedia
- Series article at Spanish Wikipedia
- Series info at Japanese Works Database (Japanese)
- Series article at TV Tropes