One Outs (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese baseball-themed manga series written and illustrated by Shinobu Kaitani. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Business Jump from 1998 to 2006, and was followed by a short-term sequel, One Outs: Miwaku no All-Star-hen, from 2008 to 2009; the overall chapters were collected in 20 volumes. A 25-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by Madhouse and directed by Yuzo Sato, aired on Nippon TV from October 2008 to April 2009.
Plot
The Saitama Lycaons are the weakest team in the Japanese league. Hiromichi Kojima, the Lycaons' star batter, forms a training camp in Okinawa to try for his last attempt at a championship after 21 years. When the minor league pitcher training with Kojima becomes injured, him and Kojima's trainer goes to look for a replacement, but run into trouble by participating in the "One Outs" game, where a pitcher and batter duel 1-on-1 with money on the line. The next day, Kojima arrives to avenge his teammates and meets Tōa Tokuchi, who appears to have no special pitching skills, but defeats Kojima easily and causes him to enter seclusion to re-evaluate himself as a professional player. Later, Tokuchi accepts a rematch after Kojima raised the stakes, proclaiming he will retire immediately if he loses, but he will "take" Tokuchi's right arm to make sure he will never gamble on baseball again if Tokuchi loses. This time, Tokuchi experiences his very first loss and offers Kojima his right arm to have it broken. Instead, Kojima tells him he never intended to break it, and asks Tokuchi to join the Lycaons and use his unique pitching ability to take the Lycaons to the championship. Soon, Tokuchi meets Saikawa, the greedy owner of the Lycaons who only cares about the team making a profit.