{"id":30999,"date":"2013-04-12T14:05:20","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T18:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/?p=30999"},"modified":"2013-04-12T14:07:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T18:07:17","slug":"ask-john-are-there-any-anime-about-golf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/ask-john-are-there-any-anime-about-golf\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask John: Are There Any Anime About Golf?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5ZQDM2LqKDA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong>Question:<\/strong><br \/>\nSince this is Masters Week, I have to ask is there any anime that predominantly or exclusively focuses on golf?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>Answer:<\/strong><br \/>\nI may not have a complete knowledge of all of the existing golf-themed anime productions, but I do know of four of them, three of which I&#8217;ve watched some of. Arguably the most famous of all golf anime is Doraemon co-creator Fujiko Fujio A&#8217;s long-running anime series Pro Golfer Saru.  Contrary to it&#8217;s title, the show is not about a golfing monkey but rather about a rough-around-the-edges country boy who discovers his talent for golf and &#8220;battles&#8221; a variety of foes in hot-blooded golfing competitions. The TV series aired 147 seventeen-minute-long episodes (including opening &#038; ending credits) from 1985 through 1988 and receiving anime feature films in 1986 &#038; 1987. The end of the first TV series was immediately followed by a sequel ten-episode TV series titled &#8220;Shin Pro Golfer Saru.&#8221; (Despite being the longest-running golf anime, this is the one that I&#8217;ve not watched any of.)<\/p>\n<p>The other golf anime that rivals Pro Golfer Saru is Japanese awareness and affection is the earlier 47-episode Ashita Tenki ni Nare! television series from 1984. This nice, slice-of-life-style drama about a good-natured, slightly portly teen boy who enjoys playing golf was successful enough to occasionally earn homage in other, later anime such as the 1987 Batsu &#038; Terry juvenile delinquent action movie. Although Ashita Tenki ni Nare is fairly well-known and beloved in Japan, like Pro Golfer Saru, the show is entirely unheard of here in America.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fmR61EUvQ7M\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In early 2010 I had the opportunity to watch the obscure &#038; forgotten 1989 OVA Beat Shot.  The OVA was animated primarily by AIC with supplemental assistance from Gainax. The lighthearted drama revolves around a talented young golfer who has trouble getting his mind off sex long enough to concentrate on playing well. The 30-minute OVA contains numerous scenes of realistic golf along with two softcore sex scenes. The OVA isn&#8217;t bad, but it&#8217;s been forgotten because it&#8217;s just not exceptional in any regard apart from being a historical footnote as one of Gainax&#8217;s earliest professional productions.<\/p>\n<p>Few American otaku are aware of 2004&#8217;s 26-episode television series Dandoh!! despite the fact that Bandai Entertainment released the complete series on domestic DVD. The shounen sports adventure anime, taking a cue from Pro Golfer Saru, once again revolves around a rough-around-the-edges young boy. In Dandoh!!, junior-high school baseball star Tadamichi &#8220;Dandoh&#8221; Aoba discovers that he can easily transpose his home-run swing into a golf swing and potentially earn a lot of prize money from participating in golf tournaments.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"450\" height=\"330\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/embed\/video\/xjvf04\"><\/iframe><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/video\/xjvf04_yyyyyyyy-op-ed_music\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Since this is Masters Week, I have to ask is there any anime that predominantly or exclusively focuses on golf?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-john","category-video-trailer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30999"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31008,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30999\/revisions\/31008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}