Team Astro

TEAM ASTRO is the story of how J. Shuro (portrayed by J.J Sonny Chiba) meets the legendary pitcher Eiji Sawamura in the Philippines during WWII. Per Sawamura’s last wishes, Shuro gathers nine “Supermen” born at nine minutes and nine seconds past nine on September 9th of the 29th year of Showa (1954) -- the baseball shaped scars on their bodies a sign of their mutual bond -- to create the greatest baseball team in the world, able to beat the Yomiuri Giants and the US Major League teams.

The TEAM ASTRO cast members were chosen for their ability to play baseball and include past participants in the annual Koshien high-school baseball tournament, resulting in realistic baseball scenes and spectaculars stunts taken directly from the original manga. For TEAM ASTRO, each game is all or nothing -- the characters literally play for their lives. But through such determination emerges the spirit of professional baseball’s youth, a time when baseball was still strongly associated with people’s hopes and dreams.

Also known as Astro Kyudan.