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Coronavirus-Canceled Baseball Tournament's Broadcast Replaced by Major 2nd Anime Rerun

The baseball anime series Major 2nd will re-broadcast its first 14 episodes from March 19 to 22, during the time slot that the 91st National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament (also known as "Senbatsu" or "Spring Kōshien") would have been broadcast on the NHK General channel prior to its cancellation.

The broadcast schedule is below:

• 3/19: episodes 1-2 from 1:05pm, episodes 3-4 from 2:05pm
• 3/20: episodes 5-8 from 1:05pm
• 3/21: episodes 9-10 from 1:50pm
• 3/22: episodes 11-14 from 1:05pm

Episodes 15-25 will be broadcast on later, unspecified dates.

The Spring Kōshien baseball tournament announced its cancellation on Wednesday due to concerns over the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said on February 27 that the government is asking elementary, junior high, and high schools to close until the end of spring break in early April to contain the spread of COVID-19. The government is also encouraging children and others to stay home and avoid large gatherings for the next few weeks. In March, venues and events such as Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, Universal Studios Japan, Ghibli Museum, Sanrio Puro Land, NAMJATOWN, and AnimeJapan are canceled, downscaled, or temporarily closed.

Takuya Mitsuda's Major 2nd baseball manga inspired an animated commercial in December 2015, and a television anime adaptation premiered in April 2018. Crunchyroll streamed the first anime series as it aired in Japan, and it describes the story:

Shigeno Daigo is an elementary school student whose father, Goro, is a professional baseball player. Inspired by his father, who was once a Major League player, Daigo started playing baseball with the Mifune Dolphins, a youth league team. He was unable to live up to the expectations of being the son of a professional, however, and quit baseball after less than a year. Then, in the spring of his sixth-grade year, Daigo's school welcomes a transfer student who's just returned from America. The transfer student is Sato Hikaru, and it turns out his father is Sato Toshiya, a former Major League player and Goro's close friend. The fate of these two young men begins to move forward!

The anime's second series will premiere on April 4 on NHK Educational.

Source: The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan-Web