Yūji Moritaka Draws Sequel to Akio Chiba's Captain Baseball Manga

This year's sixth issue of Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine announced on February 15 that manga creator Yūji Moritaka (also known as Jōkura Kōji) will launch a sequel manga to Akio Chiba's Captain manga in the magazine's ninth issue on April 5.

The story will follow Captain protagonist Takao Taniguchi in his third year of high school, as well as his successors Marui and Igarashi as they aim to take their baseball team to the high school baseball championship at Koshien.

Moritaka has drawn a number of baseball manga, including Shō Ban, Stripe Blue, and Gurazeni. His follow-up to Gurazeni, titled Gurazeni: Tokyo Dome-hen, is still ongoing in Kodansha's Morning magazine. Kodanshapublished the manga's ninth compiled book volume in November.

Chiba — the younger brother of Tetsuya Chiba — launched the Captain manga in the February 1972 issue of Shueisha's Bessatsu Shonen Jump magazine (later titled Monthly Shonen Jump) and ended it in 1979. The story follows middle school student Takao Taniguchi, who transfers from a school famous for its baseball to a no-name school. There, he is chosen as the baseball club captain.

The series ran concurrently with Chiba's other baseball manga Play Ball, a sequel to Captain starring the same protagonist in his high school years after an injury forces him to temporarily give up baseball. Play Ball ran from 1973 to 1978 in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Captain was adapted into a television anime special in 1980, an anime film in 1981, and a television anime series in 1983. The also received a live-action film adaptation in August 2007. Play Ball was adapted into a television anime in 2005-2006.

Akio Chiba passed away in 1984.​