Title: Area no Kishi; The Knight in the Area
Date Aired: Jan 7, 2012
Producers: TV Asahi, Shin-Ei Animation
Director: Hirofumi Ogura
Original Creator: Hiroaki Igano (story) Kaya Tsukiyama (art)
Genres: Comedy, School, Romance, Shounen, Sports
Episodes: Unknown
Characters & Voice Actors:
Main
Aizawa, Kakeru: Sanpei, Yuuko
Mishima, Nana: Itou, Shizuka
Supporting
Aizawa, Suguru: Fukuyama, Jun
Synopsis
Believing himself to be useless at football, Aizawa Kakeru opts to become the manager of his school's football team, while his brother Suguru is its ace, and is even good enough to represent Japan. However, Kakeru may be harbouring a strong talent within himself that only Suguru can see, and the two often get into arguments over Kakeru's denial of his skills. Things are made more complicated with the return of Nana, an old playmate of theirs that Kakeru has a crush on. Join the brothers in their journey to the national and even international championships!
(Source: ANN and MAL)
Additional Thoughts: The soccer version (reverse) of Cross Game? It definitely has a similar feel to it. You have an two brothers where one is the overachieving star athlete and the other lives in his shadows. The eldest brother (Suguru), who is the pride of Japan's soccer youth league, wishes his younger brother would get over a past incident that happened some time ago. The incident caused the younger brother (Kakeru) to fear shooting with one of his legs. Thus he has taken up the manager position on Suguru's team. An old friend Mishama Nana (romantic interest of the story?) moves back into their lives as a major life turning event is about to take place for both brothers.