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Cross Game - Omnibus edition #6
Cross Game 6
Reads R to L (Japanese Style).
The arrival of a new year brings Ko's last shot at Koshien closer at hand. But Akane Takigawa and her striking resemblance to Wakaba cause Ko's heart to stir. Meanwhile, something happens to make Azuma and Aoba grow closer. Young feelings wax and wane in Ko's third year of high school. And to top it off, the Seishu baseball team gets a new coach?!
373 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 2012
2 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Mitsuru Adachi
692 books220 followersMitsuru Adachi (あだち充 in Japanese) is a Japanese manga artist. After graduating from Gunma Prefectural Maebashi Commercial High School in 1969, Adachi worked as an assistant for Isami Ishii. He made his manga debut in 1970 with Kieta Bakuon, based on a manga originally created by Satoru Ozawa. Kieta was published in Deluxe Shōnen Sunday (a manga magazine published by Shogakukan).
Adachi is well known for romantic comedy and sports manga (especially baseball) such as Touch, H2, Slow Step, and Miyuki. He has been described as a writer of "delightful dialogue", a genius at portraying everyday life, "the greatest pure storyteller", and "a master manga artist". He is one of the few manga artists to write for shōnen, shōjo, and seinen manga magazines, and be popular in all three.
His works have been carried in manga magazines such as Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Ciao, Shōjo Comic, Big Comic, and Petit Comic, and most of his works are published through Shogakukan and Gakken. He was one of the flagship authors in the new Monthly Shōnen Sunday magazine which began publication in June 2009. Only two short story collections, Short Program and Short Program 2 (both through Viz Media), have been released in North America, though Viz is scheduled to begin publishing Cross Game in October 2010.
He modeled the spelling of あだち (rather than 安達) for his family name after the example of his older brother, manga artist Tsutomu Adachi. In addition, it has been suggested that the accurate portrayal of sibling rivalry in Touch may come from Adachi's experiences while growing up with his older brother. Adachi did the character designs for the OVA anime series Nozomi Witches, so he is sometimes incorrectly given credit for creating the original series.
Adachi is well known for romantic comedy and sports manga (especially baseball) such as Touch, H2, Slow Step, and Miyuki. He has been described as a writer of "delightful dialogue", a genius at portraying everyday life, "the greatest pure storyteller", and "a master manga artist". He is one of the few manga artists to write for shōnen, shōjo, and seinen manga magazines, and be popular in all three.
His works have been carried in manga magazines such as Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Ciao, Shōjo Comic, Big Comic, and Petit Comic, and most of his works are published through Shogakukan and Gakken. He was one of the flagship authors in the new Monthly Shōnen Sunday magazine which began publication in June 2009. Only two short story collections, Short Program and Short Program 2 (both through Viz Media), have been released in North America, though Viz is scheduled to begin publishing Cross Game in October 2010.
He modeled the spelling of あだち (rather than 安達) for his family name after the example of his older brother, manga artist Tsutomu Adachi. In addition, it has been suggested that the accurate portrayal of sibling rivalry in Touch may come from Adachi's experiences while growing up with his older brother. Adachi did the character designs for the OVA anime series Nozomi Witches, so he is sometimes incorrectly given credit for creating the original series.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 6, 2023
Young love is in the air in this volume of Cross Game. The budding romance between Aoba and Azuma is developed a bit here, with both sides going about it in rather indirect ways. Things go slightly awry when Azuma accidently injures Aoba during a training session, leaving Aoba with a leg injury for much of the second half of this omnibus. Ko's third year in high school shows him further developing as a player and a new coach joins on to lead the team. The quaint drama of Cross Game is both moving and entertaining, making this a pleasant read the whole way through.
February 28, 2022
Another great volume! I can’t wait to see where this goes, and who ends up with who, because I feel like it could honestly go a lot of different ways…
July 18, 2023
4/5 stars
The mangaka's self-insertion is not my favorite
The mangaka's self-insertion is not my favorite
October 4, 2023
I forgot this had baseball for a minute there, I'm so invested in these love lives and how everyone is sabotaging themselves constantly.
March 17, 2024
Everyone is so sweet and loving to each other. I love this series.
February 23, 2012
This is a volume (or rather two volumes) where there is focus on baseball only training-wise - what actually is explored and developed a bit more is the integration of Akane into the group of friend around Ko.
Azuma makes an open bid (even manipulates a bit) for Aoba's heart - unfortunately he manages to also be the one to hit a ball so hard in training that her leg gets a hairline fracture and she has to go to hospital for a while (missing the training and hating the fact that her injury doesn't really impinge on the team in any way - she's a girl after all). It really throws his famous stoicism for a loop and he starts getting hesitant about hard hits towards the other players, too.
During her time in hospital we can see how much Ko and Aobe know each other, but also how Akaishi decides to manipulate Ko into going out with Akane - simply because he wants to see Wakaba's smile again...
Meanwhile the players can only watch on TV as Ryuo Gakuen - finally fielding their strongest players - wins spring Koshien. Ko and his friends are third years now - this will be their last year to reach Koshien, like Wakaba dreamed.
Ko points out that he has always developed his skills with Aoba as his role model, so when/if they reach Koshien, her skills will be on the mound with him. Aoba is just glad she's able to train again.
Meanwhile Ko and Akane really seem to be getting closer. Not to mention that she applies for a part-time job at Café Clover - and considering she looks like a grown-up Wakaba - it's almost as if the full clover blooms now. It makes Akane more aware how much everyone sees her as Wakaba - and being her own person she introduces Ko to her real childhood by walking him around her old neighbourhood and showing him pictures from those times when she was sickly as a child.
Aoba has come to the point that she can admit to herself she understimated Ko for the longest time. Ko has no idea how to deal with that, because they have had the same kind of relationship since they've known each other - and it was antagonistic.
The team gets a new supporting coach - it's Azuma's elder brother, because Ichiyo has actually promised to marry him if the team reaches Koshien (quite mischievously, too, as she admits). Aoba and Akane develop their own kind of friendship.
Incidentally, I love the fact that while Adachi uses photographs for a lot of his scene change backgrounds, he lets his assistants (I'm pretty sure ^^) draw those painstakingly in pen. These are not simply scanned and digitally inserted, as quite a lot of other artists do it.
I loved the heart to heart between Azuma's older brother and Aoba when they were scouting Ryou's training. Not just the to the point question whether Aoba ever things about Azuma when someone isn't asking her about him - but especially Aoba's determination that their team will reach Koshien this time, no matter what, because Wakaba saw it in that dream.
And so Wakaba's and Ko's birthday comes around again - he's 18 now. He meets her dad at the grave and both encourage the other to move on. Ko even lies about still buying those birthday gifts that Wakaba wrote on a list. Akane made him a birthday cake... her birthday is NOT on the same date.
Azuma makes an open bid (even manipulates a bit) for Aoba's heart - unfortunately he manages to also be the one to hit a ball so hard in training that her leg gets a hairline fracture and she has to go to hospital for a while (missing the training and hating the fact that her injury doesn't really impinge on the team in any way - she's a girl after all). It really throws his famous stoicism for a loop and he starts getting hesitant about hard hits towards the other players, too.
During her time in hospital we can see how much Ko and Aobe know each other, but also how Akaishi decides to manipulate Ko into going out with Akane - simply because he wants to see Wakaba's smile again...
Meanwhile the players can only watch on TV as Ryuo Gakuen - finally fielding their strongest players - wins spring Koshien. Ko and his friends are third years now - this will be their last year to reach Koshien, like Wakaba dreamed.
Ko points out that he has always developed his skills with Aoba as his role model, so when/if they reach Koshien, her skills will be on the mound with him. Aoba is just glad she's able to train again.
Meanwhile Ko and Akane really seem to be getting closer. Not to mention that she applies for a part-time job at Café Clover - and considering she looks like a grown-up Wakaba - it's almost as if the full clover blooms now. It makes Akane more aware how much everyone sees her as Wakaba - and being her own person she introduces Ko to her real childhood by walking him around her old neighbourhood and showing him pictures from those times when she was sickly as a child.
Aoba has come to the point that she can admit to herself she understimated Ko for the longest time. Ko has no idea how to deal with that, because they have had the same kind of relationship since they've known each other - and it was antagonistic.
The team gets a new supporting coach - it's Azuma's elder brother, because Ichiyo has actually promised to marry him if the team reaches Koshien (quite mischievously, too, as she admits). Aoba and Akane develop their own kind of friendship.
Incidentally, I love the fact that while Adachi uses photographs for a lot of his scene change backgrounds, he lets his assistants (I'm pretty sure ^^) draw those painstakingly in pen. These are not simply scanned and digitally inserted, as quite a lot of other artists do it.
I loved the heart to heart between Azuma's older brother and Aoba when they were scouting Ryou's training. Not just the to the point question whether Aoba ever things about Azuma when someone isn't asking her about him - but especially Aoba's determination that their team will reach Koshien this time, no matter what, because Wakaba saw it in that dream.
And so Wakaba's and Ko's birthday comes around again - he's 18 now. He meets her dad at the grave and both encourage the other to move on. Ko even lies about still buying those birthday gifts that Wakaba wrote on a list. Akane made him a birthday cake... her birthday is NOT on the same date.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 22, 2013
It's been almost two years since I've spent quality time with Ko and the Seishu team but once I dove into the sixth omnibus edition of Mitsuru Adachi's manga, it did not feel like such a long time as much as a brief weekend away from good friends. In the last volume, people were wondering if ghosts could age as new girl in town Akane walked into their lives, striking more than a passing resemblance to the deceased Wakaba. In this volume, we explore more of Akane's character and see what happens when another eligible young woman comes into the sphere of Ko Kitamura.
My full review of CROSS GAME 6 is at my blog, Nagareboshi Reviews: http://nagareboshi-reviews.blogspot.com/
My full review of CROSS GAME 6 is at my blog, Nagareboshi Reviews: http://nagareboshi-reviews.blogspot.com/
April 5, 2013
Things are heating up as Adachi takes a volume to develop the various romantic relationships. As always, he is the master of oblique storytelling. There are more knowing winks to the reader about manga deadlines &c. Looking forward to Volume 7. This is one of the best manga I've read in a while.
February 7, 2012
I am continually amazed by the economy of Adachi's storytelling. He says more in one silent panel or one innocuous conversation than most mangaka do in an entire chapter.
August 27, 2012
Love the characters in this story, and unlike Adachi's earlier baseball manga, Touch, the baseball action is balanced well with the human interest drama.
October 24, 2013
The relationships in this series are amazing and sweet and the characters are just utterly delightful. I LOVE THEM ALL.
December 11, 2014
Viz Digital - Still top notch. The relationships take precedence over baseball in this volume.
November 10, 2025
Aoba breaks her leg and then recovers and the team continues to practice. As everyone is getting older, questions of romance and who likes who come up more frequently.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews