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Yūji Moritaka, Keiji Adachi Launch Gurazeni Dai League-hen Baseball Manga

The first 2022 issue of Kodansha's Morning magazine revealed on Thursday that Yūji Moritaka and Keiji Adachi will launch Gurazeni: Dai League-hen (Gurazeni Big League Arc), a new story in their Gurazeni manga, in the magazine's next issue on December 9. In the new story, Natsunosuke Bonda heads to America to join Major League Baseball's "Boston Blue Sox."

The Shōwa no Gurazeni spinoff manga by Kawa also ended its first part in the issue to make way for Gurazeni: Dai League-hen. Shōwa no Gurazeni's second part will launch in next year's 14th issue on March 3. The manga's first compiled book volume will ship on April 2022, at the same time as the first volume of Gurazeni: Dai League-hen. Shōwa no Gurazeni launched in Morning on October 7.

Moritaka and Keiji Adachi's Gurazeni baseball manga focuses on a baseball team that operates as a highly-stratified society, where the player's performance determines his annual salary. The story follows an eight-year relief pitcher with an odd left-handed side-arm throw named Natsunosuke Bonda as he fights to survive under the team's strict system.

Writer Moritaka and artist Adachi began serializing the original series in 2010. The original series ended in 2014 with 17 volumes, but the creators launched the Gurazeni: Tokyo Dome-hen sequel manga that same year. Tokyo Dome-hen ended in February 2018, a new series titled Gurazeni: Pa League-hen (Pacific League) launched in March 2018 and is ongoing. That series' 13th volume (seen right) shipped on October 21.

The original manga inspired two television anime series, which premiered in April 2018 and October 2018. Crunchyroll streamed both anime as they aired.

The manga also recently inspired the Gurazeni: Natsunosuke no Seishun (Gurazeni: Natsunosuke's Youth) spinoff manga by Yōsuke Uzumaki, which debuted in Kodansha's Evening magazine in March 2020. The manga went on hiatus in July earlier this year.

Source: Morning issue 1