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Director/screenwriter Yoji Yamada (The Twilight Samurai) teams with emerging filmmaking talent Kyoshi Sasabe (Half a Confession) for this screen adaptation of author Hideo Yokoyama's somber novel. Koji Namiki is a young pitcher who has shown great promise on the diamond by winning the National High School Basketball Championships. Shortly after entering college, however, Namiki's athletic career is called into question after he suffers a severe elbow injury. But despite a disheartening diagnosis, Namiki is determined to make a comeback. With a little help from his teammates it appears that he is getting back on track, too. Recently, he's even developed a new slow ball that he and his teammates have christened "the magic pitch." Fate can be a cruel mistress though, and when World War II breaks out Namiki the entire team join the navy and begin a training regiment specifically designed to prepare them for the ultimate darkness. Yet even at the bottom of the ocean, as Naimki prepares for the "kaiten" (an submarine attack method also known as "The Human Torpedo"), he never loses hope that he may one day be back on the surface and striking out opponents with his patented "magic pitch."