Title: H2 ~ Kimi to itahibi
Genre: Drama
Director: Tsutsumi Yukihiko, Imai Natsuki
Format: 11 Episodes
Dates: 13 Jan 2005 - 30 Mar 2005

Synopsis: Kunimi Hiro and his best friend Hideo were baseball superstars in middle school. But, when he finds out he can never play baseball again because of a glass elbow, he specifically chooses to go to a high school with no baseball team so he won’t be tempted to play again. But when he finds out the doctor who diagnosed him was a quack, Hiro resolves to create a baseball team and challenge best friend Hideo in the Koushien, the national high school baseball championship tournament.

Highlights
Story: Simple, but charming.
Characters: Perfect representations of their manga counterparts.
Humour: Does not translate well from the manga.
Use of CG: A bit distracting.

Based on the popular manga of the same name by Adachi Mitsuru comes H2 ~ Kimi to itahibi, the first and so far only Adachi work to be represented in live action format. But, how well does the live action format represent the original story of the manga? In only 11 episodes can Kimi to itahibi do what a 43-episode anime series failed to do and finish the story? The answer is yes, and it does so fairly well.

The story is simple enough. Kunimi Hiro goes to a school without a baseball team and decides he wants to go to the national tournament. Using his amazing talent as well as the talent of a few more players he teaches the rest of the team to work together and soon they become a winning team. All the while romance blooms between Hiro and the female team manager Koga Haruka. Although the story is simple, there is a certain charm to it and it is paced well enough so that it never drags and doesn’t fast forward too quickly. Although the story is a bit condensed from the 34-volume manga, it still tells the entire story without leaving out too much. What might even be more surprising than that is that the characters’ personalities are almost perfect interpretations of their manga counterparts. A few of them may not quite look the part, but I have to say they hit their characters perfectly.

Unfortunately the humour from the manga doesn’t quite translate as well as the story and characters do. The manga relied on a few running gags such as Haruka being clumsy and falling over a lot. In the manga when it happens every few volumes, there’s enough time between each fall so that it remains fresh and doesn’t go stale so quickly, but in an 11-episode series, it seems to happen almost every five minutes and seems all too forced. Most of the other jokes miss for much the same reason.

Another thing that detracted from the overall experience was the use of CG during the baseball games. Whenever Hiro pitches the ball, instead of actually showing him pitch they use computer graphics to make the ball look like its going faster, but it really stands out and doesn’t quite look right.

If you’ve never seen or read any form of H2 before, Kimi to itahibi is a good introduction to the H2 universe. As one of Adachi’s biggest hits, Kimi to itahibi had alot of big expectations and for the most part it delivered fairly well. Unfortunately there were some hiccups as most of the humour in the series fell flat on its face. But when it came right down to it, the story and characters were all pretty well-represented and in the end, that is what matters most.

The Rating: 7