Underplayed Gems

Forza! Hidemaru

Forza! Hidemaru poster
Country
Japan
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A young boy pursues his dream of playing soccer. The series follows his efforts to improve and compete in the sport.

energeticyouthfuldeterminedupbeatsportynostalgicstraightforward

What happens

Forza! Hidemaru (Japanese: フォルツァ!ひでまる, Hepburn: Forutsa! Hidemaru) is a Japanese anime television series. It was produced by NAS and aired on TV Tokyo for twenty-six episodes. Enoki Films licensed the series as Forza! Mario, and NAS refers to the series by that name on its English website. The series, about a boy who wants to play soccer, aired in 2002, the year of the FIFA World Cup in Japan and Korea. Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy, the authors of The Anime Encyclopedia, Revised & Expanded Edition: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917, wrote that the series "seems far out of its time in the early 21st century" but "the very young audience sees" the sports tropes "with fresh eyes." A manga adaptation, Hidemaru The Soccer Boy by Makoto Mizobuchi, was serialized in Shogakukan's Corocoro Comic. Hidemaru appeared on the website nakata.net, Hidetoshi Nakata's official website. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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