The Knight in the Area

Kakeru Aizawa is the manager for his middle school soccer team and younger brother to soccer prodigy Suguru Aizawa. His childhood friend, Nana Mishima, returns from America and enrolls into his class. That night, Kakero secretly practices soccer at the park and is challenged to a match by a masked stranger. The next day, Suguru has Kakeru enter a soccer match for the chance to join the regulars as a forward.

aired Jan 7, 2012

Kakeru displays his skills as a forward by predicting and receiving Suguru's skilled passes. Whenever Kakeru has a chance to score, he changes his footing and hits the ball with his right leg reducing the power of the shot and prevents him from scoring. That night, Kakeru meets the masked stranger and explains how he injured a classmate with his left leg during a soccer match which is the cause to his playing style. That morning on the way to school, Suguru attempts to tell Kakeru he is the only forward able to receive his passes. In the middle of the conversation, they are hit by a truck.

aired Jan 14, 2012

In the coma, Kakeru relives the day he, along with Suguru and Nana, promise to join Japan's national soccer team. Meanwhile, Suguru is pronounced brain dead and his family agree to the hospital's decision to transplant his heart into Kakeru to save his life; Nana happens to overhear the decision. After several days, Kakeru is discharged from the hospital and resigns from the soccer team. At the park, a girl is almost hit by a car but is saved when Kakeru kicks a ball and stops the driver.

aired Jan 21, 2012