Kodensha's new series review

The Japanese publisher Kodensha has introduced a new magazine series on the Tigers. What is significant about this is it comes with a 50 minute DVD of superlative quality. The series adopts several focuses, famous Tigers players, themes and significant events in Tigers history. So the first edition covered the 1985, 2003 and 2005 victories along with a 2007 game v the Giants (Tigers won of course). Others focus on particular players, themes or groupings comparing players. Watching the first few editions one is impressed by the quality and thought that has gone into the series. This is certainly a must for Tigers fans (though Japanese is also a must) and non-Tigers fans would probably find a lot of it very interesting. For example, a lot of people would be interested in edition no 8 Randy Bass. Up to now we have the introductory edition, the Giants Tigers battle and Kanemoto.

More on the Kodensha series. I was able to watch the Giants Tigers DVD which focused on the rivalries between individual players. Once again it was done in superb quality and with relevant interviews of the key Tigers players. For example the history of Murayama's dislike of Nagashima was explained clearly including Murayama's (successful) determination to make Nagashima his 1500th strike out victim. We also saw Kobayashi who became a Giants killer after he came to Tigers from Giants during the Egawa scandal. The bonus game was Shimoyanagi's complete game from 2008 (see my report for 16th April). I also have the DVDs for Kanemoto and Enatsu and the next will be Fujikawa but I am not going to review every one.