I watched this drama for the theme song, but now I have come to love this drama just as much as the song.

Greeeen’s Kiseki キセキ DOWNLOAD

Rookies is a Japanese manga about teenagers written and illustrated by Masanori Morita. It was published from 1998 to 2003. It was later adapted into a television series between April 19, 2008 and July 26, 2008 with the same name. The finale of the TV series was released as a movie called Rookies: Graduation (Rｏｏｋｉｅｓ－卒業－, Rookies -Sotsugyō) which premiered in Japan on May 31, 2009 with a resounding reception, topping Japan’s box office chart.

As a student, Kawato sensei is a dream teacher. As a teacher, one can only wish he/she comes close to being half as good as him.  Koichi Kawato is a new Japanese Literature teacher at Futakotamagawa high school. The school’s baseball club was suspended for a year from school competitions after a brawl during a match. The team scattered, and what was left were a group of delinquents. The students are at first suspicious of Kawato, but he doesn’t abandon them. Under Kawato’s persistent and gentle guidance, the team rediscovers their dream of going to the Koshien meet.

The road to Koshien is a bumpy one. One by one, he convinces each team member how important it is to live up to your dream – whatever it maybe. He starts off with Mikoshiba Toru, who was about to quit school, but was quickly stopped. Mikoshiba is a nervous wreck and has very low self-esteem of himself. Then it was Sekikawa Shuta, who was beat into a pulp by Shinjo Kei, after Shinjo discovered him helping out Kawato by cleaning the club room. In Shinjo’s mind, Sekikawa had betrayed the group. Sekikawa is the fastest runner in the team. Then he earned the trust of Wakana Tomochika, Hiyama Kiyooki and Okada Yuya, by proving that he will help them achieve their dreams, even if it is not baseball (although it turned out to be a lie by Wakana). Wakana is the only player able to see and catch Aniya’s fast calls.

When Kawato finally convinced the group leader – Aniya Keiichi, the group finally turned around, one by one. Aniya is the team’s primary pitcher and all-round star. Eventually, Shinjo comes around too and rescues the team when Wakana becomes too injured to bat. He was reluctant to join at first, because he was ashamed of his actions of beating up friends who he really cared for. Mikoshiba, the first person to come around, was elected team captain. Even Aniya’s girl, Yagi Toko pitches in to help the team and becomes the team’s manager. Vice Principal Ikebe, a former baseball member who made it to Koshien, becomes the coach of the team to led the team once again to Koshien.

The drama series was awarded five of the possible nine awards at the 58th Television Drama Academy Awards in 2008. It won best drama, best actor (Sato Ryuta aka Kawato), best supporting actor (Ichihara Hayato aka Aniya), best theme song (Kiseki by Greeeen) and special award for Nikogaku Nine (the baseball team)