Director Yudai Yamaguchi just can’t stay away from baseball, and maybe that’s a good thing. After all, his adaptation of Man Gataro’s Battlefield Baseball manga was enjoyable enough. Well, it’s back to the diamond with Yamaguchi’s latest film to hit the burgeoning Sushi Typhoon label, Deadball
Taking up the lead role of Jubeh Yakyu is none other than frequent Yamaguchi collaborator Tak Sakaguchi, whose rise to fame within Japanese cult films can be traced back to Ryuhei Kitamura’s 2000 splat-classic, Versus (which Yamaguchi wrote).
This snippet from the synopsis on the film’s official page—where you can also view the trailer—should give you a pretty good feel for Deadball’s tone:
Baseball prodigy Jubeh Yakyu (Tak Sakaguchi) is the most feared and dangerous juvenile delinquent in all of Japan. After accidentally causing the death of his father with a super-powered, deadly fireball pitch, Jubeh swore off baseball and became a criminal and now, at 17, has been sent to the Pterodactyl Juvenile Reformatory for hardened criminals.