Hungry Heart: Wild Striker tells the story of Kanō Kyōsuke, a teenage high school student who at the beginning of the series, has just transferred into Jyoyō Orange High School. Kyōsuke's older brother is the illustrious and extremely famous A.C. Milan football player, Kanō Seisuke, who had first taught him how to play and love the game of football and whom he has greatly admired since childhood. After Seisuke left Japan to sign with Italian powerhouse A.C. Milan, people started comparing Kyōsuke with his brother and criticizing him due to his different playing style. Living in his brother's shadow, Kyōsuke's love for the game slowly started to evaporate and lessen, and he eventually lost most of his passion for it. After his transfer to Jyoyō and a fated meeting with Tsujiwaki Miki, an enthusiastic girl with a lot of passion for football and who soon reinvigorates his love for the game with her determination to excel, Kyōsuke's deep love and passion for football returns to its fullest. He soon joins the Jyoyō men's football team and makes several friends, such as his fellow freshmen, Sakai Jefferson, a talented goalkeeper, and Rodrigo, a passionate Brazilian transfer student. Kyōsuke, with the support of his friends at Jyoyō and invigorated with Miki's care and help and by his love and determination to excel in football, takes on the best, and discovers an immense and determined passion for the game.
Characters
;Kyōsuke Kanō ;Miki Tsujiwaki ;Rafael Rodrigo del Franco ;Kōji Jefferson Sakai ;Gohzo Kamata ;Yoshiya Sako ;Hiroshi Ichikawa ;Masashi Esaka ;Yūya Kiba ;Masahiko Shinkawa ;Kazuya Muroi ;Kazuo Murakami ;Kazuto Mori ;Fukuko Ōmori ;Kaori Dōmoto ;Seisuke Kanō ;Akira Furuki ;Makoto Iguchi ;Yūjirō Kamiyama ;Minori Fujimori and Kaoru Fujimori ;Yuki Kagami ;Masashi Nakayama ;Keisuke Narumi ;Mitsuko Narumi ;Coach Numakawa ;Toda and Ueno
Media
Manga
The series was planned by Yōichi Takahashi who wished to use the title of Bruce Springsteen's song "Hungry Heart" which he enjoyed. While developing the manga, Takahashi also contacted Nippon Animation to make an anime series at the same time. Despite being based on the Hungry Heart, Takahashi stated that the two would be highly different. The manga was published in Japan between in a total of six tankōbon volumes between November 7, 2002 and April 8, 2005.
Volume list
Anime
A Hungry Heart anime series retitled Hungry Heart: Wild Striker was produced by Nippon Animation and Animax. Satoshi Saga directed the series while Ken'ichi Imaizumi was in charge of characters designs which were significantly different from the ones from the manga. The series aired in Japan in Animax between September 11, 2002 and September 10, 2003, spanning a total of 52 episodes. Pony Canyon collected the series in a total of thirteen DVD volumes released in Japan between February 19, 2003 and March 17, 2004. All of the DVD covers use color illustrations by Yōichi Takahashi. The series uses two opening themes starting with Kids Alive's "2nd Stage". It is replaced in episode 43 by "Hungry Heart " by Natsuki Katō as Miki Tsujiawaki featuring Athens Generation. The first endingtheme song is "Mi Title" by Utaibito Hane for the first twelve episodes. It is then replaced by "Kawaranai Koto by Kokia for the following twenty-six episodes. In episode 40, Kokia's "Remember Me serves as the new ending theme and it is used for the remaining episodes except the final one which uses "2nd Stage."
