Baseball manga creator Shinji Mizushima's (Dokaben, Song of Baseball Enthusiasts, Abusan) works are so beloved in his hometown of Niigata, that back in 2002, the city honored him with Shinji Mizushima Manga Street, which has several statues of Mizushima manga characters. Among them is a statue of Taro Yamada, the portly hero of Dokaben.

Naturally, people have been having fun with it in a creative and wholesome way.

Enter ケツバットガール, ketsubat girls, or basically ass bat girls. The name is self-explanatory:

Here are some of our favorites:

The photo project, posted on Tumblr, is the brainchild of Shinya Nishimura, creative director of the free newspaper Okinawa Bishojo Zukan. So far, it's already up to 62.

Just this past November, Mizushima was inducted into the Order of the Rising Sun. He continues to draw manga to this day, with Dokaben Dream Tournament currently serializing in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion.

[Via Kai-You]