Adversity! The only word that is perhaps as important to Toshi is "baseball," seeing as how he’s the captain of All-Out High School’s team. But because the team’s record is all losses and no wins, the Principal has made it clear to Toshi that their days are over. Their precious baseball field will be handed over to the soccer team (an unbearable bunch of undeserving jerks!). But nothing seems to motivate Toshi like adversity – his family name, Fukutsu, means "fighting spirit" - and he defiantly tells the Principal that his team will challenge the undisputed champs, Sunrigh High, and if the All-Out team wins, they will keep their field. Toshi’s visions of glory are not initially shared by his teammates, but with a little encouragement – okay, a whole gutwrenching mountain of overwrought drama – Toshi gets them on the field to confront Sunrise. It’s raining, however, and the frightening Sunrise team shows up just long enough to tell the All-Out gang that they’ve won by forfeiture. Could things be looking up for the team? Possibly, but more likely, they’ll be facing a whole lot more… you guessed it, adversity!

Adapted from the immensely popular manga by Kazuhiko Shimamoto, The All-Out Nine: Field Of Nightmares is a gloriously, uproariously, deliriously over-the-top parody of a genre that’s got equivalents the whole world over, but seems particularly common in Japan – the unintentionally absurd teen-sports drama in which disappointments and deterrents only seem to provoke ever more inappropriate displays of can-do, never-say-die spirit in students who should probably just find another pastime. Director Hasumi and his effects designers clearly had a blast transposing Shimamoto’s comically bombastic manga devices to film, so fasten your seatbelt – or maybe tighten your batting helmet? – for a thundering amusement-park ride of a movie! By the way, an aside for sentai fans: if the Principal looks a little familiar, it’s because once upon a time, the actor Hiroshi Fujiyoka played the original Kamen Rider!