Battery Manga Ends in September

This year's September issue of Kadokawa's Asuka magazine revealed on Tuesday that Chikage Yuniwa's manga adaptation of Atsuko Asano's Battery novels will end in the magazine's next issue on September 24.

Asano's novels revolve around Takumi Harada, a young man who moves to a mountain town in Okayama Prefecture during the spring break before he enters middle school due to his father's job transfer. Takumi is a pitcher, and after he moves he loses faith in his own talent, when suddenly his classmate Gō Nagakura appears in front of him. Gō has a strong desire to form a "battery" (a combination of a pitcher and catcher) with Takumi.

Yuniwa launched the manga in Asuka in 2005, but it went on hiatus in 2010. It resumed once again in August 2015, but went on hiatus again shortly afterward. The manga resumed from hiatus last December. Kadokawa published the manga's ninth compiled book volume in July 2016. Manga creator Takako Shimura drew a mini-series manga based on the Battery novels in 2016.

Kyouiku Gageki originally released the novel series in hardback between 1996 and 2005, and Kadokawa re-released the series in paperback in 2003-2007. A live-action film adaptation opened in Japan in 2007, and a live-action television series aired in 2008. A television anime adaptation of the novels premiered in July 2016 in Fuji TV's Noitamina anime block. Discotek Media released the anime on Blu-ray Disc in May 2020.

Asano's No. 6 novels also inspired a manga and a television anime adaptation.