Ganbare, Kickers!

Ganbare, Kickers! (がんばれ!キッカーズ) is a romantic soccer kid anime drawn by Noriaki Nagai. It was published by Shogakukan in CoroCoro Comic magazine from 1985 to 1989. The story is usually classified as Comedy, Drama, Shōnen and Sports.

The manga was turned into an anime series by Studio Pierrot during 1986–1987. It ran 26 episodes and one 40 minute special, but only 23 episodes were aired in Japan. In 1988 the anime arrived to EMEA in its dubbed version and had some success in the Middle East (الهداف Al Haddaf), Iran (فوتبالیست‌ها), South Korea (내일은 축구왕), Italy (Palla al centro per Rudy), Spain (Supergol), France (But Pour Rudy), Poland (Piłkarze) and especially in Germany and Austria (Kickers). In Malaysia, the anime was aired on TV1 RTM in 1990s, Awesome TV in 2020. In Indonesia, the anime was aired on Indosiar in 1995-1997, TPI in 2003, Bali TV in 2005.

Story
The story is about an enthusiastic kid soccer team at the Kitahara elementary school, who struggle without a competent striker, when little Kakeru Daichi's (大地翔 Daichi Kakeru) family moves into the town. He immediately applies to join the team, keen to use his skills gained in the kid team of famous soccer club "The Falcons". With Kakeru the team becomes complete in every sense and he motivates the team to challenge the "Red Devils", a strong secondary school team whose goalkeeper Uesugi is considered undefeatable. They lose 10 to 1, but Kakeru's scoring a single goal is still a small miracle. Under the strong leadership of their own goalkeeper Masaru Hongo, Kickers then enter the kid championship and fight their way up through hard won victories. Meanwhile, Hongo falls in love with Ayumi Daichi (大地歩 Daichi Ayumi), Kakeru's cute, sporty sister. In turn the striker enamours Akuna Yukie, a fragile, angelic pianist girl, who happens to be Uesugi's much younger sister. These affairs lead to some embarrassingly funny situations as well as numerous complications with the team's devoted and jealous cheerleader trio.

For a short while, Kickers gain a professional trainer whose instructions help them win their way to the semi-finals, just to meet the Red Devils once again. After a dramatic match, that spans two 20 minute episodes, Uesugi fends off Kakeru's final freescore and so the Kickers are out! The devastated team is soon divided by the arrival of Harry, a famous junior talent, who has been fired from three big name teams already for subversive behaviour. He infiltrates and splits Kickers, but his rudeness and Hongo's strong leadership re-unite the team. Harry then seduces Ayumi and assembles a faux team out of the school's scum so he can defeat the Kickers almost alone. Although the naive Kakeru is no match for the older and much stronger Harry, the Kickers's teamwork spirit and Uesugi's support secures a victory in this dirty match and Harry is devastated. The anime series ends with a redeemed Harry reconciling with the Kickers, before leaving the town to play overseas.

Crew

 * Original story: Noriaki Nagai
 * Series Director: Akira Shigino
 * Series Composition: Sukehiro Tomita
 * Script: Hiroshi Kaneko, Isao Shizutani, Mitsuo Aimono, Sukehiro Tomita
 * Episode Director: Akira Shigino, Harumi Tamano, Kazu Yokota, Minoru Shinbayashi, Roku Iwata, Shigeru Morikawa
 * Storyboard: Akira Shigino, Harumi Tamano, Kazu Yokota, Makoto Moriwaki, Minoru Shinbayashi, Roku Iwata, Shigeru Morikawa, Takayuki Kaneko
 * Art Director: Satoshi Miura
 * Art design: Masahiro Sato
 * Character Design: Takeshi Ozaka
 * Animation Director: Takeshi Ozaka, Katsuichi Nakayama, Masami Shimoda, Mitsuo Shindo, Takafumi Hayashi
 * Composer: Jun Irie
 * Director of Photography: Hitoshi Kaneko
 * Editing: Masanori Sakamoto
 * Sound Director: Naoko Asari
 * Sound Effects: Kazutoshi Sato
 * Production manager: Reiko Fukakusa
 * Producer: Haruhiko Akamine (NTV), Kunitaka Okada (I&S), Takaichi Matsumoto (Pierrot)
 * Executive producer: Yuji Nunokawa

Voice actors

 * Tomiko Suzuki - Kakeru Daichi
 * Yuko Kobayashi - Akuna Yukie
 * Ikue Ohtani - Kiyoshi Hara
 * Kazue Ikura - Masaru Hongō
 * Tarako - Taichi
 * Michie Tomizawa - Tetsuya
 * Urara Takano - Mamoru
 * Eiko Hisamura - Hikaru Uesugi
 * Chieko Honda - Ayumi Daichi