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larryhammerA long overview of long manga.
I recently alluded to Mitsuru Adachi, pining for more of his works to be licensed in English. Because, well, he deserves it. All that's officially available are two volumes of short stories that frankly don't show him at his best. And at his best, he's very good at what he does.
He's not my usual cuppa: he's best known for, and best at, shounen sports manga. Only, they aren't just sports stories. The athletics are, more often than not, extensions of relationships that get carried onto the field. For example, many series focus on romantic entanglements rooted in childhood friendships with added complications such as family rivalries, or competing with dead siblings, or a love quadrangle. They're better classified as shounen romantic comedies than sports series -- which is why I'll read Adachi's stories about sports I don't like or actively dislike.
Nor do I usually like shounen romance. Again, his are not typical of the breed -- though there are generous doses of lighthearted incidental fanservice. The heroines are no mere tokens of appreciation for the hero, but strong characters in their own rights, as complexly conflicted as he is, and usually athletes as well (though she's rarely given equal time -- her activities often fade into the background for the climax). Better yet, there's never a slightest hint of a harem. And wonder of wonders for shounen, there's subtlety. These are romances built up over years of small incidents, constructed from significant glances, pregnant pauses, and slips of the tongue. Oh, and quiet guilt over conflicting loyalties. Toss in deft pacing, five tons of silly jokes, gratuitous self-promotion, pulse-pounding high-tension games, and an open ending, and you've got the essence of an Adachi manga.
Only better than I'm making them sound. Time for some specifics. Adachi's best known for baseball, but let's start with something different:
Go. Read. And make him popular enough to get more licensed. (And if that works, we can start a campaign that'll result in licensing Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.)
---L.
I recently alluded to Mitsuru Adachi, pining for more of his works to be licensed in English. Because, well, he deserves it. All that's officially available are two volumes of short stories that frankly don't show him at his best. And at his best, he's very good at what he does.
He's not my usual cuppa: he's best known for, and best at, shounen sports manga. Only, they aren't just sports stories. The athletics are, more often than not, extensions of relationships that get carried onto the field. For example, many series focus on romantic entanglements rooted in childhood friendships with added complications such as family rivalries, or competing with dead siblings, or a love quadrangle. They're better classified as shounen romantic comedies than sports series -- which is why I'll read Adachi's stories about sports I don't like or actively dislike.
Nor do I usually like shounen romance. Again, his are not typical of the breed -- though there are generous doses of lighthearted incidental fanservice. The heroines are no mere tokens of appreciation for the hero, but strong characters in their own rights, as complexly conflicted as he is, and usually athletes as well (though she's rarely given equal time -- her activities often fade into the background for the climax). Better yet, there's never a slightest hint of a harem. And wonder of wonders for shounen, there's subtlety. These are romances built up over years of small incidents, constructed from significant glances, pregnant pauses, and slips of the tongue. Oh, and quiet guilt over conflicting loyalties. Toss in deft pacing, five tons of silly jokes, gratuitous self-promotion, pulse-pounding high-tension games, and an open ending, and you've got the essence of an Adachi manga.
Only better than I'm making them sound. Time for some specifics. Adachi's best known for baseball, but let's start with something different:
- Rough: My favorite. It's atypical in that it focuses on swimming, of all things, but it's a good introduction to his manner and themes, and a quick 10 volumes. Keisuke is a swimmer (100m freestyle) and Ami a high-diver, and their families are bitter rival confectioners. Nakanishi is Ami's older childhood friend and the current Japanese record-holder in Keisuke's events -- and worried about Keisuke's abilities. Plus Ami has a rival with a bone to pick with Keisuke. Then there's the cast of friends. And so on. Good stuff. The style of open ending is also typical for Adachi -- and how it's played shows that the romance, rather than the sports, is really the core of the story. Scanlations are complete.
- Touch: Possibly his best-known work -- one of the baseball stories. Tatsuya and Kazuya are athletically gifted twins and friends since birth with their neighbor Minami. The slightly-more-gifted older brother, Tatsuya, has habitually held himself back to avoid overshadowing Kazuya -- until, as he puts it, "one day we noticed one of us was a girl." And just as that rivalry starts heating up, (spoiler hidden) Kazuya dies, and now Tatsuya has to both replace him and compete with his perfect memory. Good stuff, and I speak as someone who's completely meh about baseball, though it has structural issues, not the least of which is how late that spoiler event happens. 26 volumes long, of which all but three are available in scans; the 101-episode anime, which is fairly faithful and also is unlicensed, has been completely fansubbed. ETA: Manga scans are now complete.
- H2: Another really long baseball series -- 34 volumes. This time we have childhood friends Hiro and Hideo, who end up playing for rival schools, their mutual friend Hikari, and new girl Haruka, all stewing together in romantic entanglement. (There's other paired H-names as well.) Three years of baseball tournaments, through which what you really want to learn is who concedes which competitions to whom. Though actually, I think it's better than Touch. Scans complete, though the last eight volumes are crappy jobs done by someone else (their quality, btw, highlights just how good a job Adachi usually gets from scanlators).
- Cross Game: Another baseball series with another dead sibling -- this time the heroine's. Who, btw, is one of his best heroines to date, a hardball pitcher as good as the hero -- though she can't play in competition games (*mutters about stupid sexist rules*). This is ongoing, only 8 volumes in, but so far I think it's handling Touch's themes better, and with better pacing. Scans are current.
- Katsu!: I can't stand boxing. I liked this series enough to finish reading it anyway. A strong heroine who can knock you out with an uppercut didn't hurt. Recommended only if you like the sport or want to be a completist. Note, btw, that it has what is possibly Adachi's least open-ended resolution. Scans complete.
- Hiatari Ryoukou! ("Sunlight All Around"): The first of his major shoujo romances -- yes, he switch-hits. High school girl lives with her aunt in return for helping run her boarding house -- with the other tenants all male classmates (of course). Sweet and light-hearted, with an emphasis on the comedy. It's probably telling that I can't remember more about it. Scans complete.
- Miyuki: His award-winning shoujo romance. Masato spends too many volumes torn between two girls named Miyuki, his stepsister and his girlfriend, before finally resolving things in a throw-across-the-room ending. The worst part being that, by the end, his ultimate choice would have hurt someone, yet the story refuses to acknowledge this. Feh. Disrecommended; mentioned because it is popular. Scans complete.
- Niji Iro Tougarashi ("Rainbow-Colored Chili"): I'm not sure how to describe this. A shounen historical adventure set in an alternate universe Bakumatsu era? A picaresque of six half-brothers and their half-sister? A vehicle for showcasing the cutest ninja baby EVAH? All strictly accurate, but none of them quite true. Either way, it's an odd dish that deserves to be more popular. Scans complete.
- Bouken Shounen ("Adventure Boys"): A recent collection of seinen short stories that all involve a man coming to terms with something that happened when he was young. Yes, I said Adachi does best at long sports series, but these are nearly as good (and a lot better than Short Program's stories). Worth tracking down. Scans complete.
Go. Read. And make him popular enough to get more licensed. (And if that works, we can start a campaign that'll result in licensing Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.)
---L.