H2 (manga)

H2
Cover of H2 volume 1 published by Shogakukan, Featuring Hiro Kunimi.
エイチ・ツー (Eichi Tsū)
Genre	Romantic comedy, School, Sports (baseball)
Manga
Written by	Mitsuru Adachi
Published by	Shogakukan
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Sunday
Original run	1992 – 1999
Volumes	34
Anime television series
Directed by	Hidehito Ueda
Studio	Ashi Productions
Original network	ABC, TV Asahi
Original run	June 1, 1995 – March 21, 1996
Episodes	41
Television drama
H2: Kimi to Ita Hibi
Original network	TBS
Original run	January 13, 2005 – March 30, 2005
Episodes	11

H2 (Japanese: エイチ・ツー, Hepburn: Eichi Tsū^?) is a Japanese manga written by Mitsuru Adachi portraying high school baseball. It has been made into a 41-episode anime series and an 11-episode television drama series, H2: Kimi to Ita Hibi, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi.

During middle school, Hiro Kunimi (pitcher), Hideo Tachibana (third baseman and 4th batter), and Atsushi Noda (catcher) were friends and teammates on the same baseball team. Thanks to their skills, their school achieved an unbeaten record on their way to consecutive national championships.

In the seventh grade Hiro also played matchmaker to Hideo and Hikari Amamiya, a neighborhood childhood friend who grew up with him as close as a sibling. At this time Hiro, victim of a delayed growth spurt, was a very short, comparatively immature boy, uninterested in girls, and initially happy that he could get the two of them together. Eventually Hiro realized that he too had feelings for Hikari and, once he grew up, Hikari also realized that her affection for Hiro might be something more than sisterly.

As the manga begins Hiro is dealing with a doctor's diagnosis that tells him that, if he continues pitching, his elbow would shatter within three months. Likewise, Noda is diagnosed with a severe back injury by the same doctor, seemingly ending their dreams of Kōshien. Because of this, Hiro and Noda choose to go to Senkawa High School, which lacks a baseball team; Hiro instead joins the soccer team and Noda, the swim team. Their friends, Hikari and Hideo, attend Meiwa Daiichi High School, which boasts one of the top-ranked high school baseball teams in the country.

While Senkawa does not have an official baseball team they do have a baseball "fan club," voluntarily managed by the cute but klutzy Haruka Koga, a girl Hiro keeps running into- literally. While a member of the soccer team, Hiro is drawn into a practice baseball game between the soccer team and Haruka's fan club. Disgusted by the demeaning behavior of his team captain and the pompous 1st year star player, Ryūtaro Kine, (once an accomplished Little League pitcher), Hiro decides to switch sides and pitch "one last game" for the fan club. Joined by Noda, they very nearly come from behind and overcome the soccer team's large advantage in just a couple innings, but do succeed in rallying the demoralized fan club and embarrassing the soccer team.