Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!! Hatsuwarai Dai-3-dan: Aa Tsuppari Jinsei

がんばれたぶちくん はつわらいだいさんだん ああつっぱりじんせい

Aired: 1980

A theatrical anime produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and distributed by Toho-Towa, the third series film adapting the professional-baseball parody four-panel manga that Hisaichi Ishii published through Futabasha. Centered on the deadpan-faced catcher Tabuchi-kun, it depicts laid-back sports gags performed by the distinctive players, manager, and staff of the team, rendered with the dry humor characteristic of Hisaichi Ishii. As the subtitle indicates, this work takes Tsuppari Jinsei as its theme, comically chronicling the bittersweet baseball lives of Tabuchi-kun and his companions. Inheriting the series' light comedy while developing at a brisk pace under director Tsutomu Shibayama, it is a family comedy beloved also by professional-baseball fans of the era.