Giant Killing

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Japanese: ジャイアントキリング

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 26

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 4, 2010 to Sep 26, 2010

Premiered: Spring 2010

Broadcast: Unknown

Producers: NHK

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Studio Deen

Source: Manga

Genres: Drama, Sports

Theme: Team Sports

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.54¹ (scored by 34,439 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1588²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2441

Members: 68,644

Favorites: 366

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Synopsis

East Tokyo United (ETU) has been struggling in Japan's top soccer league for the past few years. It has taken everything they have just to avoid relegation. To make matters even worse, the team has lost five matches in a row, leading to abysmal team morale. Even the fans are beginning to abandon them, and rumors hint that the home ground municipality is going to withdraw their support. With countless coaches fired and poor financial choices in hiring players, it is a downward spiral for ETU.

The board of directors, under pressure from general manager Kousei Gotou, takes a gamble and hires a new coach—the slightly eccentric Takeshi Tatsumi. Though considered a great soccer player when he was younger, Tatsumi abandoned ETU years ago. However, since then, he has proven himself successful as the manager of one of England's lower division amateur teams.

Tatsumi's task won't be easy; ETU fans call him a traitor, and the team is pitted against others with larger budgets and better players. Yet even the underdog can take down a goliath, and Tatsumi claims he is an expert at giant killing.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Supporting

Kirii, Daisuke
Japanese

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Staff

Kou, Yuu

Director

Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki

Episode Director

Kimura, Hiroshi

Episode Director

Furuta, Jouji

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Opening Theme

"My Story ~Mada Minu Ashita e~"" by THE CHERRY COKES

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Ending Theme

"Get tough!" by G.P.S

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Reviews

Sep 26, 2010

Mimi_Taylor

Recommended

Addicting, suspenseful, and fun, this is a story about what it takes for one dysfunctional soccer team with a poor record to regain its honor and make it in the national soccer league. This team is called ETU (East Tokyo United). The members of ETU start out with a lot of difficulty; they have poor communication, conflicting personalities, mixed low and high self-esteem, and an overreliance on one team member. But within every player, there is a talent that is waiting to be manifested. Their new coach, Tatsumi Takeshi, helps to bring out the ‘giant killing’ in all of them.

Story

Sports anime tend to have a ...

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Feb 27, 2011

Andristian

Recommended

When I was younger, I used to watch an anime series called Kickers which revolved around football (or soccer for some). It was one of my very first encounters with anime and it definitely left an impression on me as a child, especially with its inspiring message and characters. Of course, as I grew up I started realizing that the world isn’t as perfect as Kickers depicted it—you wouldn’t always end up coming out on the winning side from conflicts and battles. I also learned that there’s no “I” in team and that a single person can’t stand victorious without some kind of help. Kickers ... was an anime series that took football and depicted it in an idealized form, but it’s not Kickers that I’m going to talk about, but rather a much more recent anime that also deals with football, but in a very different way.

Giant Killing is an anime series based on the ongoing football manga of the same name. Despite what its title may suggest, Giant Killing delivers a realistic depiction of a sports team and its struggle to compete in Japan’s top football league. In other words, no, it does not feature football players battling each other with samurai swords and magical abilities. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall any people dying throughout the entire running time of this anime either. All jokes aside, the title ‘Giant Killing’ refers to the act of an underdog team coming out victoriously from the hardest of matches and winning against all odds.

The story focuses on Japanese football team East Tokyo United (or ETU short) which is having difficulty competing in the country’s top football league and barely avoided relegation last season. There is little hope for the team and even its fans are slowly starting to abandon it, but all is not lost yet, for ETU has selected a new manager for the upcoming season and he is not to be taken lightly. Former East Tokyo United player, Takeshi Tatsumi is hired to coach ETU after previously leading the English amateur team FC Eastham to victory.

Takeshi Tatsumi is a highly puzzling and intriguing character and often works in unconventional ways when training his team and preparing them for upcoming matches. His eccentric ways and his mysteriously confident personality easily make him the most interesting and important character in the series, but he is not the anime’s main focus. As a matter of fact, there is no such thing as a protagonist in Giant Killing. Instead, the series concentrates on the ETU team as a whole and even though it does feature some minor character arcs from time to time, it always remains devoted to portraying the characters as a group rather than individuals with a predetermined level importance.

Unfortunately, Giant Killing also comes with a limited budget and therefore may prove to be unsatisfying for some when it comes to its portrayal of the football matches. Action and tension are present, of course, but Giant Killing falls short when it comes to delivering fast-paced football games. Some will be okay with that while others will irreversibly turn their heads and prematurely walk away from the series. However, those who do decide to stay will come to experience a football anime series that is very unique at its core and which will deliver some really impressive things that will ultimately make up for its shortcomings in the animation department.

Unlike the series’ animation, Giant Killing boasts a fairly good look in terms of art and style. Each of the characters present throughout the anime have their own specific appearance, which helps a lot when it comes to the viewer connecting with them and being able to identify them individually early on. Even though the anime tries to focus on each of the ETU players in equal amounts, some characters tend to stand out more than others.

In addition to Takeshi Tatsumi, who always remains a central character and is vital to the progression of the story, there are other notable characters such as the team captain and veteran Shigeyuki Murakoshi, who fans call ‘Mr. ETU’ for keeping the team together through the hardest of times, inexperienced but talented newcomer Daisuke Tsubaki and Italian midfield superstar Luigi Yoshida (or simply Gino), nicknamed ‘Prince’ for his impressive abilities on the field and his narcissistic tendencies. Of course, these are only but a few of the extensive amount of characters that Giant Killing manages to bring to the story. Apart from the football players, the series also goes on to develop side characters such as fans of the team, journalists, photographers and even opposing team players and managers.

Despite what some may believe, being able to enjoy Giant Killing does not depend on whether you’re a football enthusiast or not. Knowledge and understanding of the sport are not as crucial here when it comes to the anime’s watchability. The series does an excellent job at delivering an exciting look into the world of football, particularly that of team ETU, and the interesting characters help keep things exciting from start to finish. Sports anime may not appeal as much to some than they do to others, but it would be a shame to miss out on Giant Killing and what it has to offer simply because it’s often very different from the usual ride and viewers may find it a very rewarding experience.

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Dec 30, 2010

kekekeKaj

Recommended

I'd previously ignored "Giant Killing" as the combination of the title and its lack of popularity made me think it's some kind of mediocre fantasy anime. Then I heard it's actually about football, and no, not the American variety, I'm talking about soccerl - you know, the kind of football where you actually use your foot more than your hands. Since I'm pretty into football, my interest in this anime suddenly shot up.

"Giant Killing" follows the fortunes of ETU (East Tokyo United), one of the weakest teams in the top division of Japanese football. A once proud club capable of challenging the very best teams ... in the Japanese league, they start off in the series as a team barely able to escape relegation. But all this is about to change with the appointment the new manager, a former player named Takeshi Tatsumi, who as a player, had a hand in both bringing the club to the height of its glory, and to its knees after what many saw as his betrayal.

First of all, I should make it clear that "Giant Killing" is pretty serious about football. And by that I mean it tries to be realistic about the game, and it doesn't receive the whole over the top "anime treatment" given to the likes of, say "Captain Tsubasa". While I haven't watched "Captain Tsubasa", I've heard plenty of stories about it. Stories such as how an out of position goal keeper saved a shot by kicking the one of the goalposts so hard that it bent the goal frame, causing the shot, which was heading for the top corner, to bounce off the goal frame instead. This pretty much says everything you need to know about "Captain Tsubasa! Anyway, you won't find such epic feats of skill in "Giant Killing". Instead you'll see more realistic situations such as the hazards of defending too deeply and the importance of man marking on key players. If you think this might lead to boredom for the people who simply do not care about football, well, you may be right. But from the amount of effort that went into making this anime feel like a real football story, it can be argued that its primary concern is not about winning over people who aren't into football.

Having said that, I found the tactical aspect of "Giant Killing" to be somewhat limited (this is perhaps due to influences from games such as "Football Manager" giving people like me over-inflated opinions on the tactical part of the game). It seems to me that they opted for a more sensationalist than analytical, more tabloid than broadsheet approach to illustrating the game. Beyond the emphasis on the defence line, there really is very little "team" level tactics involved in "Giant Killing". It says a lot that for most of the series, I was in the dark about what formation ETU is using, or even what positions most of the players play in. Instead, the series is more concerned with micro scale management such as personal duels between players, which of course makes for a more straight forwardly entertaining but also more amateurish depiction of the game. Unlike "Nodame Cantabile" and "Hikaru no Go", "Giant Killing" feels more like an anime made by fans rather than experts of the subject. The animation also contributes to this feel. Shoddy quality of the artwork aside, a bigger problem is that whenever they're showing a view of the whole pitch, you would often get scenes like where all the players are moving in the same direction at the same speeds etc, and everything just looks stupidly wrong, not like a snap shot of a real football match at all.

What "Giant Killing" does portray extremely well though, is the human factors and the cultural aspect of football. The atmosphere during the matches is fantastic, with the noise of the crowd making it sound like a real match is being played. The foreign players often conform to the impressions given out by their real counterparts. Gino, the laid back, elegant Italian playmaker, is such a diva (in the spoilt sense, not the female singer sense), and fits right in with the image of overly pampered Italian footballers. The Brazillians, too, are portrayed as very pure players who just love playing football, be it an opportunistic kick-a-about while out on a stroll or in a proper match.

With so many foreign characters, "Giant Killing" makes a big effort towards making the series seem more real by having a LOT of dialogue spoken in a foreign language (Dutch, French, English to name a few) accompanied either by subtitles or a louder Japanese dub put on top. Although the effort is very commendable, the quality isn't really up to scratch. If the English voices are anything to go by, they most likely got some Janpanese people to do them rather than native speakers. The English spoken in the very first episode sounds quite odd even though it doesn't sound like run of the mill Engrish. It's spoken sluggishly, as though the voice person was trying very hard to avoid sounding English. But despite this, I still found it difficult to understand what was being said. In addition, the foreign voices seem very quiet compared to the Japanese voices (and I don't just mean when the Japanese dub were being spoken over the top), which makes them stand out even more.

Apart from the different footballing cultures, the relationship between fans and the club and its personnels are also well fleshed out. You can see the disillusionment of fans while the club is doing badly, and also their hope as a former hero returns to try and change the club's fortunes. It's not smooth sailing for Takeshi though - his reception at ETU as he returns to coach the club is very much a mixed one. Some aren't ready to forgive him just yet for turning his back on the club, while he is still adored by others for setting the the club alight during his time there as a player. Several bad results in a row, and it's not too surprising that the mixed reception starts to turn hostile rapidly, with hecklings and protests popping up all over the place. It's a familiar situation that can often be seen at real football clubs. In these respects, "Giant Killing" seems to give a very accurate up close and personal perspective of all the drama revolving around a football club that you see and hear regularly on the TV and other media.

"Giant Killing" focuses on the development of several players within the squad, and this is probably the most interesting part of the series. The fleshing out of these players are very believeable, and their up and downs seem to be consistent with what we see of the players of the real world. It's funny because the anime's airing coincides with the time period where, in the real world of football, a young Welsh winger named Gareth Bale is just starting to shine and attract attention. The fictional character Tsubaki (still not sure where he plays, I suspect he's a winger or a fullback) is quite similar to Gareth Bale - both are blessed with blistering pace and great stamina, both are under-achievers in the early stage of their careers and both are just starting to blossom. Less than a year after "Giant Killing" started airing, Gareth Bale is now arguably the world's finest left winger, having completely destroyed Maicon (acknowledged to be the world's best right back, the opposing position to the left winger in the other team's formation) and almost single handedly demolished one of the top teams in Europe. Although Tsubaki isn't quite in the same league as Gareth Bale, it's kind of exciting to see a similarly aspiring player reflected in "Giant Killing".

The exploration of the mentality of strikers is also particularly well done. It recognises that not scoring for several games in a row for an out and out striker is a big burden to bear, and you can see it playing more and more heavily on the mind of the player as the goal draught gets longer and longer. But just like in real life, the fans loves a player who gives it his all for the club, and it's a familiar sight seeing them getting behind and cheering for a striker who's running himself to the ground match after match without the reward of a goal. More profoundly than this though, is the anime's exploration of the mentality of a selfish goalscorer. I've heard it said more than once by ex-strikers that, you need to be selfish to score lots of goals, so I'm quite impressed that "Giant Killing" has picked up on this intricate insight of balance between team work and selfishness, especially since it's by no means an obvious one given football's emphasis on team play in general.

As you can see "Giant Killing" does a lot of things right, and most of its flaws are fairly minor, but one aspect that really hurts it badly is the pacing. When it comes to key matches, it really suffers from the "shounen syndrome" where it would stretch them across an unreasonable number of episodes. A couple of the matches literally goes on for 5-6 episodes, and when you consider that a normal football match is played over 90 minutes, it really is beyond ridiculous to have the showing of a match go beyond the full length of a real match. And because the series contains these two matches which make up for nearly half the entire season, you don't actually get to see that many matches overall.

Still, the good points do outweigh the bad, and so I think "Giant Killing" is a good anime that is likely to appeal to football fans a lot more than a casual viewer. It's a show that tries to portray a football in a more down to earth and realistic way, and even though it doesn't do that perfectly, it's probably the closest you're gonna get to an anime about REAL football.

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Soccer Manga Giant Killing To Be Animated

According to Morning magazine, Tsunamoto Masaya's manga Giant Killing was announced to get a TV anime adaptation. It will be aired from April 2010. 26 episodes ...read more

Dec 7, 2009 6:23 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (13 comments)

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Poll: Giant Killing Episode 17 Discussion BitchMaster - Jul 25, 2010	29 replies	by tinker3bellz1 »» Mar 19, 10:04 PM
Poll: Giant Killing Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Kagura89 - Apr 4, 2010	99 replies	by ryzxgum »» Jan 29, 6:14 PM
Poll: Giant Killing Episode 19 Discussion devilangell - Aug 8, 2010	38 replies	by Shiroko_kun »» Oct 7, 2022 12:15 PM
Favorite club (other than ETU of course) and favorite player? darthbarth - Jun 5, 2022	6 replies	by awrup »» Jul 12, 2022 4:07 AM
Will there be a season 2? ( 1 2 ) TheRealNeji - Sep 5, 2010	66 replies	by sohaibsohaib21 »» May 11, 2022 9:33 AM

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Tatsumi, Takeshi

Yoshida, Luigi

Tsubaki, Daisuke

Murakoshi, Shigeyuki

Sera, Kyouhei

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Akasaki, Ryou

Natsuki, Yotaro

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