Buzzer Beater (stylized as BUZZER BEATER) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. The series debuted as a webcomic in 1996 and it was also serialized in Shueisha's Monthly Shōnen Jump shortly after its introduction on the web. An anime television series adaptation produced by TMS Entertainment, released in 2005, followed by a second season in 2007.

Characters

Media

Webcomic

Inoue launched Buzzer Beater as an online comic in May 1996 on the Sports-i ESPN website (now J Sports). It was his second manga to focus on basketball, following his very successful second manga series, Slam Dunk. The name of the manga comes from the term used for when a basket is scored at the same moment a period or the game itself ends. Buzzer Beater was published in print format by Shueisha shortly after it began, as it was serialized in its Monthly Shōnen Jump manga magazine from February 1997 to August 1998. The manga was collected in four wideban volumes, released from July 4, 1997, to August 4, 1998. It was later republished in two volumes, released on February 4, 2005. In May 2021, Manga Planet announced that they licensed the series for English digital release starting in June of the same year.

Anime

Buzzer Beater is Inoue's second manga series to have been adopted into an anime. An anime series adaptation produced by TMS Entertainment, aired on WOWOW from February 5 to May 7, 2005. The second season aired on Nippon Television from July 4 to September 26, 2007. Both anime adaptations were supervised by Inoue. The anime series includes story elements, and characters that were either hinted at or did not originally appear in the manga.