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- Ear Worm: Omoi kondara shiren no michi o... The Shin version, performed by none other Isao Sasaki, is especially catchy.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Hyuuma's Friendly Rival Mitsuru Hanagata, to the point that decades after the end of the manga and TV series, he got TWO media pieces dedicated to him: an OAV series that narrates the story from his side, and an AU prequel manga.
- Funny Moments: The canon takes itself really seriously. The pachinko games and their ads... not so much. Definitely not.
- Fountain of Memes: The series is so iconic in Japan, it has spawned many memes and Shout-Outs.
- A scene where poor Hyuuma loses it and throws a tantrum in Christmas when no one comes to visit him has become kinda... popular among Westerners.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In this case, Italians LOVE Tommy La Stella dei Giants.
- Narm: The scene featuring Mina's death of illness is truly sad and dramatic. Hyuuma's understandable yet extremely melodramatic Heroic BSOD over it? Not... so much... (Conversely, his reactions in the next episode are back to genuinely sad)
- The scene where Hyuuma almost goes through Fingore to save himself and Kyouko from gangsters becomes this when Kyouko stops him and gets her hand hurt... but the cut she gets on her finger is a very small one compared to what could've been, annd ye she reacts as if she suffered an Impaled Palm or something. As a consequence, it's extremely jarring and funny to see Kyouko react so a cut on a finger as if she had been stabbed to the chest or something.
- Several Shin scenes featuring Akiko become this because the late Fuyumi Shiraishi kept voicing her with a high-pitched, childish tone... even when she's a married woman in-story. Having a adult lady speaking in a borderline little girl's voice can be hilariously jarring.
- Seinfeld Is Unfunny: All the tropes that Kyojin no Hoshi codified have been recycled and polished by other Gaming and Sports Anime And Manga. And yet without it, JPN Sport Stories wouldn't be the way they are now.
- Signature Scene: SEVERAL:
- The argument between Hyuuma and his father, which finishes with Ittetsu slapping Hyuuma across the face.
- From the OP: Akiko tearfully staring at Hyuuma and Ittetsu from behind a tree as they train
- Hyuuma destroying his already prepared big Christmas dinner in grief.
- Ittetsu talking to Hyuuma to entrust him with his broken dreams, then pointing at the stars as Hyuuma and Akiko watch.
- Values Dissonance: All over the story, particularly regarding Ittetsu's treatment of his two children.
- Tear Jerker: The story is damn good at these.
- World of Woobie: There are WAY too many Woobies in this story, starting with Akiko and Hyuuma who have been constantly kicked around by life ever since they were children. The siblings' tearful natures may be grating sometimes (especially poor Akiko's), but one cannot say they cry without reason.
- Ittetsu is a Jerkass Woobie, as a man who suffered a lot in life but also caused enormous pain to his wife and children alias those he should've taken care of the most.