One Outs

One Outs (ワンナウツ) is a Japanese baseball manga series by Shinobu Kaitani originally serialized in the seinen manga magazine Business Jump from 1998 to 2006. It was relaunched in Business Jump on October 1, 2008. An anime adaptation by Madhouse began airing on October 7, 2008.

Plot
Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the Lycaons, heads to Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meets Toua Tokuchi, a 134 km/h (83 mph) pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called "One Outs". At Kojima's urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons. His contract, the 'One Outs contract', differs from the usual, though, in that he gets 5,000,000 yen for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen for every run he gives up.

Primary characters

 * Toua Tokuchi (渡久地 東亜)
 * Toua is a successful gambler and a pitcher in the game called "One Outs". After losing a game of One Outs for the first time ever to Kojima, he joins the Lycaons with an odd contract, the One Outs contract, that decides Toua's pay based on his performance. As the Lycaons' famed star pitcher, he can pitch entire games without giving up a single hit.
 * Toua is a successful gambler and a pitcher in the game called "One Outs". After losing a game of One Outs for the first time ever to Kojima, he joins the Lycaons with an odd contract, the One Outs contract, that decides Toua's pay based on his performance. As the Lycaons' famed star pitcher, he can pitch entire games without giving up a single hit.


 * Hiromichi Kojima (児島 弘道)
 * Kojima is the cleanup batter for the professional baseball team, Saikyou Saitama Lycaons. He is defeated by Toua during his time at the training camp after challenging Toua to avenge his relief pitcher, Nakane. After his defeat, he goes into the forest to train himself mentally against Toua but as he trained he injured his wrist. Even with the injury, he decides to challenges Toua to a rematch with the bet that if he wins, he would take Toua's hand. With the One Outs game ending in a do or die pitch, Kojima resolves that he couldn't lose, getting in the way of the ball and making the pitch count as a deadball. He wins the match because of this, albeit not without contention. Toua admits defeat and Kojima makes Toua join the Lycaons, effectively taking Toua's hand and disabling him from gambling ever again in a One Outs game.
 * Kojima is the cleanup batter for the professional baseball team, Saikyou Saitama Lycaons. He is defeated by Toua during his time at the training camp after challenging Toua to avenge his relief pitcher, Nakane. After his defeat, he goes into the forest to train himself mentally against Toua but as he trained he injured his wrist. Even with the injury, he decides to challenges Toua to a rematch with the bet that if he wins, he would take Toua's hand. With the One Outs game ending in a do or die pitch, Kojima resolves that he couldn't lose, getting in the way of the ball and making the pitch count as a deadball. He wins the match because of this, albeit not without contention. Toua admits defeat and Kojima makes Toua join the Lycaons, effectively taking Toua's hand and disabling him from gambling ever again in a One Outs game.

Other characters

 * Tsuneo Saikawa (彩川 恒雄)
 * The owner of the Saikyou Saitama Lycaons team. He is more interested in gaining money than getting the Lycaons to win. He forms the One Outs contract with Toua Tokuchi but later on as he realises he is still losing money to Toua he adds more conditions to the contract. He has a few members of the team under his control as pawns that will do his bidding, few of them are the secretary, sales, scouts, scorekeepers and even the manager of the team. He blackmails the Lycaons shortstop, Yoshida, to sabotage the game for Toua, but after Yoshida sees the Lycaons players manage to stop the Eagles by 8 players he decides to neglect what the owner and contributes in scoring the 12th run from the winning against the Eagles which causes the owner to get angry.
 * The owner of the Saikyou Saitama Lycaons team. He is more interested in gaining money than getting the Lycaons to win. He forms the One Outs contract with Toua Tokuchi but later on as he realises he is still losing money to Toua he adds more conditions to the contract. He has a few members of the team under his control as pawns that will do his bidding, few of them are the secretary, sales, scouts, scorekeepers and even the manager of the team. He blackmails the Lycaons shortstop, Yoshida, to sabotage the game for Toua, but after Yoshida sees the Lycaons players manage to stop the Eagles by 8 players he decides to neglect what the owner and contributes in scoring the 12th run from the winning against the Eagles which causes the owner to get angry.


 * Yuuzaburou Mihara (三原 雄三郎)
 * The manager of the Saikyou Saitama Lycaons; Obediently obeys every order given to him by the owner until anime episode 15. In episode 15 he is likened to a dog for his unwavering obedience to the owner.


 * Satoshi Ideguchi (出口 智志)
 * He is the catcher of the Saikyou Saitama Lycaons and he also notices Toua's talents as he catches Toua's pitches.
 * He is the catcher of the Saikyou Saitama Lycaons and he also notices Toua's talents as he catches Toua's pitches.


 * Jun'ichi Kawanaka (河中 純一)
 * The Fingers' starting pitcher and the Rookie of Year for the year before. He also notices how terrifying Toua is when he pitches, he urges the team to try and take a hit, but the result is still the same and his team loses the match.
 * The Fingers' starting pitcher and the Rookie of Year for the year before. He also notices how terrifying Toua is when he pitches, he urges the team to try and take a hit, but the result is still the same and his team loses the match.

The Chiba Mariners
 * The strongest team in Japan for the last 3 years. This team goes against the Lycaons with 3 consecutive games, with their strongest cleanup crew comprising Takami Itsuki, Thomas and Brooklyn.


 * Itsuki Takami (高見 樹)
 * One of the cleanup batters in the team "Chiba Mariners", he is known to be a prodigy in baseball and his eyes have the best in motion vision in the baseball world. He is the best player in the team and is able to think of counters against Tokuchi's fastballs, until he is outwitted and his team loses.
 * One of the cleanup batters in the team "Chiba Mariners", he is known to be a prodigy in baseball and his eyes have the best in motion vision in the baseball world. He is the best player in the team and is able to think of counters against Tokuchi's fastballs, until he is outwitted and his team loses.

Music

 * Opening Song: "Bury" by Pay money To my Pain
 * Ending Song: "Moment" by Tribal Chair