Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!!

Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!! (Japanese: がんばれ!!タブチくん!!, lit. "Good Luck!! Tabuchi-kun!!"), is a yonkoma manga series by Hisaichi Ishii which ran in the weekly Manga Action magazine from 1978 to 1979 in Japan.^[1] After that series ended, Ishii continued creating more baseball gag comics which were then collected under the title Tabuchi-kun (タブチくん) and released from 1985 to 1989.^[1]

Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!!
A flyer promoting Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!!
がんばれ!!タブチくん!!
Genre	Sports (baseball), comedy, slice of life
Manga
Written by	Hisaichi Ishii
Published by	Futabasha
Magazine	Weekly Manga Action
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	1978 – 1979
Volumes	3
Anime film
Directed by	Tsutomu Shibayama
Produced by	Yutaka Fujioka Mataichirō Yamamoto
Written by	Masaki Tsuji
Music by	Hiroki Inui
Studio	Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Released	November 10, 1979
Runtime	95 minutes
Anime film
Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!! 2nd Gekitō Pennant Race
Directed by	Tsutomu Shibayama
Produced by	Yutaka Fujioka Mataichirō Yamamoto
Written by	Masaki Tsuji others
Music by	Kensuke Kyō Hiroki Inui
Studio	Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Released	May 3, 1980
Runtime	94 minutes
Anime film
Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!! Hatsu Warai 3rd Aa Tsuppari Jinsei
Directed by	Tsutomu Shibayama
Produced by	Yutaka Fujioka Mataichirō Yamamoto
Written by	Shōichirō Ōkubo others
Music by	Kensuke Kyō Hiroki Inui
Studio	Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Released	December 13, 1980
Runtime	96 minutes
Manga
Tabuchi-kun
Written by	Hisaichi Ishii
Published by	Bunshun
Original run	1985 – 1989
Volumes	5

The main character of the gag comic series is based on (and named for) Kōichi Tabuchi, a Japanese professional baseball player. While in most instances, the character in the manga is referred to using katakana characters, the kanji used for the real Tabuchi were used in one instance.

A series of three anime films based on the manga were released in 1979 and 1980.^[2]

Collections

Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!!

• Volume 1, ISBN none, January 1, 1979, Futabasha
• Volume 2, ISBN none, June 20, 1979, Futabasha
• Volume 3, ISBN none, December 28, 1979, Futabasha

Tabuchi-kun

• Hello Tabuchi (こんにちはタブチくん, Konnichi wa Tabuchi-kun) (vol.1)

ISBN none, June 30, 1985, Futabasha

• Ah! Pro Baseball (ああ!プロ野球, Aa! Puro Yakyū) (vol.2)

ISBN none, December 8, 1985, Futabasha

• Everyone's Pro Baseball (みんなのプロ野球, Minna no Puro Yakyū) (vol.3)

ISBN none, November 28, 1986, Futabasha

• Our Baseball (わしらのベースボール, Washira no Bēsubōru) (vol.4)

ISBN 4-575-93117-9, April 29, 1988, Futabasha

• Your Baseball (あんたのベースボール, Anata no Bēsubōru) (vol.5)

ISBN 4-575-93160-8, May 14, 1989, Futabasha

Sources:^[1][3]