Hiatari Ryoukou! TV Episodes 1-4. Subtitled by Random Masters using LD-BOX Disc 1 Catalog Number KELD-1058

Background information (optional, fast forward to episode notes if desired) :

Adachi Mitsuru wrote Hiatari Ryoukou in the 70s before writing the hit baseball/romance manga Touch. However, the week after the Touch anime ended, Hiatari Ryoukou premiered in the same timeslot. HR ran for 48 episodes between March 29, 1987 and March 20, 1988, and had its ending movie, Kasumi, Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita (Kasumi, You Were in a Dream) paired up with a double feature with the first Kimagure Orange Road movie.

Due to that both Touch and HR were both produced/animated by Kitty Films and Group Tac, if you've watched Touch, you'll notice a lot of recycled character designs and voice actors for Touch in HR, though all Adachi characters look pretty much the same. Here's a list (Touch on left, HR on right):

Tatsuya = Yuusaku
Tatsuya's Mom = Chigusa
Baseball Coach = Baseball Coach :-D
Koutarou = Ariyama
Punch = Taisuke
Terajima = Takanesawa
Nishimura = Momiage
Nitta Yuka = Maria
Nitta Akio = Katsuhiko
Kuroki Takeshi = Mikimoto Shin  
Nishio Sachiko = Keiko

Also, while he doesn't speak, Kasumi's dad looks like Tatsuya's Dad. 

Ep 1:

The Title: Hiatari Ryoukou literally means something like "Sunny Satisfaction". It's not a real Japanese phrase so it's hard to translate. In fact, Japanese people don't understand what it means really! "Hiatari" means "hit by the sun/sunny" and "Ryoukou" means "Satisfaction". Kasumi says this phrase in episode one, but I have asked several Japanese people and they say Japanese people never say this (so Kasumi's plugging the title ^_^) One could also translate this title as "Sunny Delight" (but it's not an orange drink) or, as the pretty-sounding yet not all that accurate one manga translators The Hawks use, "Sunlight All Around".

Since you will see signs, posters, etc with 'Myoujou' on them 10,000 times during this series, and because I am lazy, I have subtitled them only once. I suggest you learn to recognize the chinese characters quickly. Also, I only subtitled "Myoujou Cheering Squad Headquarters" once for this same reason. You should be able to remember the wooden sign in the anime since the place is always the same.


Stendhal, real name - Marie Henri Beyle. 1783-1842. One of the greatest French novelists. His most famous works are Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma).

Some Japanese High Schools have Cheering Squads (Ouen Dan), which consist of male students who cheer for the big athletic teams like the Baseball Team. The members in the Chering Squad wear their school uniforms and usually put on gloves and bandanas and have military-style cheering Engrish chants like "Play, play, Myoujou! Ganbare, ganbare, Myoujou!". Personally, I find Cheering Squads silly and they remind me of pre-World War II Japan. I much prefer the alternative: female cheerleaders in degrading near-lingerie uniforms. ^_^

Ending song note: Maria is name of the Virgin Mary (brought from the Portuguese missionaries and monks 500 years ago), but very few Japanese people are Christian. Sometimes in love songs, Maria is used as the unattainable woman who the main character in the song longs for. While I think many Christians would take offense to the idea of having a romance with the Virgin Mary, for whatever reasons, the concept in Japan is different with the religious meaning ignored and/or dropped and is harmless.      

Ep 2

Kasumi's wearing the same thank you t-shirt that Minami wore in Touch. Man, even the outfits are recycled! ^_^

Those three boys arm band things have the 'Myoujou' written on them.

Jumping to Katsuhiko-san's height - Kasumi probably is referring poetically to the greatness of his character and not his physical height, though he is taller than her.

ep 3

I swear Kasumi's voice actress says 'Meijyou' instead of 'Myoujou' after the opening. If she did indeed, she would be misprouncing the first character in the school's name.

1.5 vision - since Japan uses the metric system, they don't measure eyesight on the 20/20 scale that America uses (whereby a person with 20/20 can see clearly at 20 feet what should normally be seen at that distance. However 20/20 is not 'perfect' vision) It seems the Japanese system takes the fraction and converts it to a decimal so 1.5 would be equivalent to 20/13.33 or 6/4 (metric) would mean one can see at 20 feet (6 meters) what normal eyes can see at 13.33 feet (4 meters). Not great vision, but pretty good and functional.

There is a Japanese saying that idiots don't catch colds.