Kindergarten Arc

Kindergarten Arc
Kanji	幼稚園編
Rōmanji	Yōchien-hen
Manga
Volumes	3
Chapters	23
001. Goro's Dream 002. Switch 003. First Meeting 004. Playing Catch 005. Second Baseball Career 006. Friendship 007. Little League 008. VS. Little League 009. Misunderstanding 010. First String Battle 011. A Big Job 012. A Parent's Example 013. The Zoo 014. A Birthday One Day Late 015. An Uncooperative Superstar 016. Gibson's Up 017. Major Skills 018. Homerun 019. Gibson is Desperate 020. Deadball 021. Sudden Event 022. The Depths of Sorrow 023. World's First Love
Anime
Episodes
Number of Episodes	6
Ep1: Goro's Dream and Daddy's Dream Ep2: Their Friendship Ep3: I Hate You, Daddy! Ep4: A Birthday One Day Late Ep5: The Man from the Majors Ep6: Goodbye...

The Kindergarten Arc is the first story arc of the MAJOR series.

It is centered on Goro Honda's relationship with his father, Shigeharu Honda and his kindergarten teacher, Momoko Hoshino.

Summary

A few years prior to the start of the series, Goro Honda loses his mother, Chiaki Honda, to an unknown illness. In the present day, he lives alone with his father, Shigeharu Honda, a professional baseball player that is going under retirement, while Goro attends pre-school to study under Momoko Hoshino. Shigeharu, instead of retiring, tries to change his position from pitching to batting with the help of his friend Hideki Shigeno. After succeeding on that, Shigeharu resumes his baseball carreer by playing for the Yokohama Marine Stars (Blue Oceans in the anime adaptation). After Goro graduates from kindergarten and turns six years old, Shigeharu starts a relationship with Goro's teacher, Momoko Hoshino, and eventually proposes to her. At the same time, a pitcher from the U.S Major League Baseball, Joe Gibson, signs a contract with a rival team. Eventually, Shigeharu and Gibson face off during a match, where Gibson accidentally throws a 158km/h deadball that hits Shigeharu's head. Due to this injury, Shigeharu passes away shortly after the game, and Goro is left orphaned. Afterwards, Momoko Hoshino adopts Goro and the two begin living together.

Manga and Anime Differences

Two scenes are cut in the anime adaptation. The first one is Goro's fistfight with the soccer kids in chapter 001. The second one is a rather long section of chapter 023, where Goro stays at his uncle's home before getting adopted by Momoko.

Matches

• Yokohama Marine Stars ? - ? Unnamed Team (Shigeharu's professional debut, flashback) - Ch 001.
• Yokohama Marine Stars 6 - 4 Tokyo Giants (Tokyo Warriors in the anime. Shigeharu's batting debut) - Ch 010-011.
• Yokohama Marine Stars ? - ? Tokyo Giants (second game) - Ch 012.
• Yokohama Marine Stars ? - ? Tokyo Giants (third game) - Ch 014.
• Yokohama Marine Stars ? - ? Unknown team (results also unknown, presumably, the Marine Stars won) - Ch 016.
• Yokohama Marine Stars (Blue Oceans) vs. Tokyo Giants (Warriors) - Ch 016-020.

Important Events

• Joe Gibson arrives in japan and signs a contract with the Warriors.
• Joe Gibson and Shigeharu Honda face against each other in an NPB match.
• Shigeharu Honda gets hit in the head by a deadball thrown by Joe Gibson and dies shortly after.
• Goro Honda is adopted by Momoko Hoshino.