Underdog sports jdoramas are the hardest ones to stuff up. That is because viewer empathy is already built in. The characters are not expected to win easily gains audience empathy by trying hard. However, underdog sports jdoramas are not fullproof with Buzzer Beater being the no.1 example. If you can't get the sports part right, you lose all credibility.
Gekokujou Kyuuji or giant killing high school baseball players is about the Etsuzan high school baseball team somewhere in Mie's inaka dreaming of koshien, the big Japanese high school tournament. Rather, they dream about winning one game in the qualification because their team in weak. You have a student who has to travel two hours one way just to get to school and baseball practice and typical high school fighting problems.
Kuroki Haru is the teacher who transferred over from Yokohama to be the baseball team's manager and Suzuki Ryohei is club's adviser who is very reluctant to get involved because he harbours a big secret which has nothing to do with being married to Igawa Haruka. Kita Yoshio is also in the story as this very rich landowner who will do anything for his grandson who is the pitcher and wants to stick his nose into everything.
While there are plenty of the underdog sports tropes, Gekokujou Kyuuji does them pretty well and Suzuki Ryohei's secret does play a huge part of the storyline for the first 5 episodes. His character has a really empathetic back story.
Gekokujou Kyuuji is a surprisingly enjoyable baseball dorama. It hasn't gotten too cheesy yet and all the students are likeable. Surprisingly watchable. Big thanks for subie06 for subbing!
I'll always check out whatever Kuroki Haru does but after the first two episodes the story didn't grab my attention enough to continue. However, as much as I saw they did do a great job in getting the sports part right--the baseball sequences were as good as anything I've seen in a sports drama.
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