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Cross Game - Omnibus edition #8
Cross Game 8
This poignant coming-of-age story will change your perception of what shonen manga can be. About the game of life...and baseball.
Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences T.
Cross Game is a moving drama that is heartfelt and true, yet in the brilliant hands of manga artist Mitsuru Adachi, delightfully flows with a light and amusing touch. The series centers around a boy named Ko, the family of four sisters who live down the street and the game of baseball. This poignant coming-of-age story will change your perception of what shonen manga can be.
The Seishu Gakuen baseball team is one win away from fulfilling Wakaba’s final dream of seeing Ko pitch in front of a packed crowd at Koshien. But they’ll have to beat powerhouse Ryuou Gakuin in the North Tokyo Tournament finals in order to get there. Meanwhile, Akane Takigawa’s health takes a turn for the worse, and she’s scheduled to have surgery…on the day of the big game.
Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences T.
Cross Game is a moving drama that is heartfelt and true, yet in the brilliant hands of manga artist Mitsuru Adachi, delightfully flows with a light and amusing touch. The series centers around a boy named Ko, the family of four sisters who live down the street and the game of baseball. This poignant coming-of-age story will change your perception of what shonen manga can be.
The Seishu Gakuen baseball team is one win away from fulfilling Wakaba’s final dream of seeing Ko pitch in front of a packed crowd at Koshien. But they’ll have to beat powerhouse Ryuou Gakuin in the North Tokyo Tournament finals in order to get there. Meanwhile, Akane Takigawa’s health takes a turn for the worse, and she’s scheduled to have surgery…on the day of the big game.
376 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2012
3 people are currently reading
67 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 - 30 of 42 reviews
June 13, 2014
This high school baseball melodrama was like five or ten times better than it should have been. I’m not bothering with a story summary, because it will sound terminally corny. But PEOPLE. It is SO GOOD. I’ve read some Adachi before, and it all left me hoping he’d eventually write this series. It even made me care about baseball.
Above all else, I credit Adachi’s skill as a cartoonist. This is a very comics-like comic, which wouldn’t transfer to another medium with any moiety of its charms intact. The timing and moment-to-moment transitions are brilliant, as are the volume-to-volume rhythms and visual callbacks. The cartooning makes this book.
It does have some problems, mostly gender-related. I’ve mentioned before that Adachi’s art tends to be very male-gazey, and there’s some of that around — nowhere near the weird amount of staring you get in some of his other work, but, like, it’s there and you will notice it. Also, and more fundamentally, it’s just such a boy story. And there’s nothing wrong with boy stories, but… I liked the female characters in this book so much, and they got systematically short-changed.
That said, though, you should read it. If you live in my neck of the woods, the Multnomah County Library has several copies of the whole thing with basically no waiting list.
Above all else, I credit Adachi’s skill as a cartoonist. This is a very comics-like comic, which wouldn’t transfer to another medium with any moiety of its charms intact. The timing and moment-to-moment transitions are brilliant, as are the volume-to-volume rhythms and visual callbacks. The cartooning makes this book.
It does have some problems, mostly gender-related. I’ve mentioned before that Adachi’s art tends to be very male-gazey, and there’s some of that around — nowhere near the weird amount of staring you get in some of his other work, but, like, it’s there and you will notice it. Also, and more fundamentally, it’s just such a boy story. And there’s nothing wrong with boy stories, but… I liked the female characters in this book so much, and they got systematically short-changed.
That said, though, you should read it. If you live in my neck of the woods, the Multnomah County Library has several copies of the whole thing with basically no waiting list.
July 8, 2016
This is a review of the entire series, which I blitzed through during the start of this year's summer holidays. I wanted to read a sports manga, I'd heard many good things about this series and my library had all eight volumes stacked neatly together on the shelf, so on I went to read them.
And, eeehhhh . . . this is objectively excellent. I appreciated it a lot. But it done in a style that is in striking contrast to a lot of the shoujo I usually read, what with its complete absence of angsty interior monologuing, melodrama, sparkles, fragmented panels and wispy, floaty images. It is instead incredibly restrained and operates almost entirely on subtext; emotions are never outright shown or stated, but expressed obliquely and indirectly (although to be fair, most shounen manga isn’t as restrained as Cross Game, nor is all shoujo incapable of subtlety. Hell, even Fumi Yoshinaga's Eisner Award-winning Ooku isn’t as restrained as Cross Game).
Characterisation for some the supporting characters is somewhat larger-than-life, but for the main cast, the mode is realistic, and like most people in real life, they can be at times open and forthright, but on many other subjects, waffle, mislead, lie and give casual non-answers. The observer is expected to parse their words, facial expressions and actions to yield a more complex, authentic look into their emotional states, and while this is undoubtedly realistic, but it also makes them come off as frustratingly evasive.
In this series, the protagonist, Ko, is driven and highly competitive; he’s also easy-going, mischievous and happy-go-lucky, which becomes a relaxed, steady veneer used to cope with moments of extreme anxiety and fear. And the huge, overwhelming sense of loss over his crush Wakaba, a persistent, ever-present, unwieldy thing that, as a teenager, he does his best to deal with but still doesn’t quite know how to handle. Aoba is the opposite in many ways, prickly, blunt and to-the-point from the outset, ruthlessly, unwaveringly dedicated to baseball from early childhood, and her complicated relationship with Ko is wound up, among other things, in her jealousy of him monopolising the attention of her sister Wakaba.
Of course, all of this is conveyed very carefully and subtly, with the romance that occurs between Ko and Aoba developing so quietly it may appear to some to have popped out of nowhere. I did not have that experience with the romance, but following their very minutes changes in opinion towards each other was almost like trying to decipher a continuous stream of code. The vein of realism that Adachi works in is one in which reality is defined by how meticulous the attention to physical surface detail is, and where all these exhaustive, precise observations themselves do not mean anything, but are signifiers for "true" hidden meanings underneath. A smile is not a smile, but when contextualised, an expression of anxiety, spite or loneliness and seemingly trivial observations are filled with great emotional significance. I think it's telling that Ko is haunted throughout the entire series by his grief over Wakaba's death, he is only ever shown actually crying over it twice.
It works, and I admit that Adachi’s storytelling abilities, and the way that characters develop and slowly change over the series is masterful; it's so seamless and natural and - authentic? I want to use the word authentic, because so little felt forced or artificial. I just can't say in all honesty that my emotional engagement with the story was on par with his skill, because again: you have to decode everything the characters say, which made it for me quite distancing.
I should probably spare some words on baseball, given that it's a baseball manga and the characters very much breathe the sport, but really, the game itself is not as important as how the act of how being passionately devoted to a sport shapes and illuminates the characters - admiration, dedication, commitment, fear, loss, insecurity and friendship are explored through this to great effect. And the actual competitions are great fun to read about - tense, compelling and extremely satisfying after pages of hard practice and mounting anxiety.
Another thing I loved about this series was the art. Although the character designs for people's faces are very simple, a lot of page space is spent on drawing backgrounds, scenery and baseball equipment in gorgeous detail. Like, Kaoru Mori’s Emma: A Victorian Romance-level of detail. The characters all live in unremarkable suburban areas, but the huge number of large, lingering panels Adachi devotes to them make them seem beautiful.
And, eeehhhh . . . this is objectively excellent. I appreciated it a lot. But it done in a style that is in striking contrast to a lot of the shoujo I usually read, what with its complete absence of angsty interior monologuing, melodrama, sparkles, fragmented panels and wispy, floaty images. It is instead incredibly restrained and operates almost entirely on subtext; emotions are never outright shown or stated, but expressed obliquely and indirectly (although to be fair, most shounen manga isn’t as restrained as Cross Game, nor is all shoujo incapable of subtlety. Hell, even Fumi Yoshinaga's Eisner Award-winning Ooku isn’t as restrained as Cross Game).
Characterisation for some the supporting characters is somewhat larger-than-life, but for the main cast, the mode is realistic, and like most people in real life, they can be at times open and forthright, but on many other subjects, waffle, mislead, lie and give casual non-answers. The observer is expected to parse their words, facial expressions and actions to yield a more complex, authentic look into their emotional states, and while this is undoubtedly realistic, but it also makes them come off as frustratingly evasive.
In this series, the protagonist, Ko, is driven and highly competitive; he’s also easy-going, mischievous and happy-go-lucky, which becomes a relaxed, steady veneer used to cope with moments of extreme anxiety and fear. And the huge, overwhelming sense of loss over his crush Wakaba, a persistent, ever-present, unwieldy thing that, as a teenager, he does his best to deal with but still doesn’t quite know how to handle. Aoba is the opposite in many ways, prickly, blunt and to-the-point from the outset, ruthlessly, unwaveringly dedicated to baseball from early childhood, and her complicated relationship with Ko is wound up, among other things, in her jealousy of him monopolising the attention of her sister Wakaba.
Of course, all of this is conveyed very carefully and subtly, with the romance that occurs between Ko and Aoba developing so quietly it may appear to some to have popped out of nowhere. I did not have that experience with the romance, but following their very minutes changes in opinion towards each other was almost like trying to decipher a continuous stream of code. The vein of realism that Adachi works in is one in which reality is defined by how meticulous the attention to physical surface detail is, and where all these exhaustive, precise observations themselves do not mean anything, but are signifiers for "true" hidden meanings underneath. A smile is not a smile, but when contextualised, an expression of anxiety, spite or loneliness and seemingly trivial observations are filled with great emotional significance. I think it's telling that Ko is haunted throughout the entire series by his grief over Wakaba's death, he is only ever shown actually crying over it twice.
It works, and I admit that Adachi’s storytelling abilities, and the way that characters develop and slowly change over the series is masterful; it's so seamless and natural and - authentic? I want to use the word authentic, because so little felt forced or artificial. I just can't say in all honesty that my emotional engagement with the story was on par with his skill, because again: you have to decode everything the characters say, which made it for me quite distancing.
I should probably spare some words on baseball, given that it's a baseball manga and the characters very much breathe the sport, but really, the game itself is not as important as how the act of how being passionately devoted to a sport shapes and illuminates the characters - admiration, dedication, commitment, fear, loss, insecurity and friendship are explored through this to great effect. And the actual competitions are great fun to read about - tense, compelling and extremely satisfying after pages of hard practice and mounting anxiety.
Another thing I loved about this series was the art. Although the character designs for people's faces are very simple, a lot of page space is spent on drawing backgrounds, scenery and baseball equipment in gorgeous detail. Like, Kaoru Mori’s Emma: A Victorian Romance-level of detail. The characters all live in unremarkable suburban areas, but the huge number of large, lingering panels Adachi devotes to them make them seem beautiful.
June 8, 2019
9/10.
Un bonito final. Muy contento con la lectura y con tener otra gran obra de Mitsuru Adachi en mi estantería.
Un bonito final. Muy contento con la lectura y con tener otra gran obra de Mitsuru Adachi en mi estantería.
November 16, 2012
This collection contains volumes 16 and 17 of Cross Game (as originally published), and is the final collection of the series. It is the culmination of 15 previous volumes (7 collections). There is absolutely no point in starting here - go back to the beginning.
** This review contains NO plot details of any kind and NO spoilers for ANY volumes of the series. **
Cross Game is, simply put, one of the most exquisitely told stories I ever read. It unfolds at exactly the right pace, hitting exactly the right notes, in exactly the right ways. I have never gotten caught up along with the characters the way I did in this series. I have never wanted things for characters the way I wanted them for the Ko and his friends. From art to humor to drama and everything in between Adachi's coming of age baseball epic works perfectly. And, as I've mentioned in reviews of other volumes, I don't even particularly like baseball.
Cross Game is easily one of my favorite pieces of literature (yes, literature) of any form. It certainly won't be so for everyone, but I will gladly agree to disagree on the point.
Highest possible recommendation. And then some.
** This review contains NO plot details of any kind and NO spoilers for ANY volumes of the series. **
Cross Game is, simply put, one of the most exquisitely told stories I ever read. It unfolds at exactly the right pace, hitting exactly the right notes, in exactly the right ways. I have never gotten caught up along with the characters the way I did in this series. I have never wanted things for characters the way I wanted them for the Ko and his friends. From art to humor to drama and everything in between Adachi's coming of age baseball epic works perfectly. And, as I've mentioned in reviews of other volumes, I don't even particularly like baseball.
Cross Game is easily one of my favorite pieces of literature (yes, literature) of any form. It certainly won't be so for everyone, but I will gladly agree to disagree on the point.
Highest possible recommendation. And then some.
November 15, 2012
While the main story of recognizing and embracing love is concluded, it was the ball game that made up the entirety of the omnibus. Not to complain though, it was one hell of a ball game.
August 5, 2023
Just a consistently pleasant and uniquely engaging reading experience from start to finish. Slice-of-life isn't usually up my alley, but Mitsuru Adachi continually found ways to prove me wrong with his baseball teen drama. Cross Game excelled at both building tension leading into games and also at winding down to the quieter, more pensive moments between characters.
The majority of this final volume covers Seishu's final game which is tightly contested and goes into extra innings. Each page depicting the game is filled with tense moments and close calls, leading to one of the most entertaining games in the entire series. In the final portions of this volume, we get the resolution to the Ko and Aoba tensions and the series ends on a high, but thoughtful, note.
This is just a great drama series from start to finish, and one that I imagine I'll return to in a few years to get more out of a second reading. Highly recommended.
The majority of this final volume covers Seishu's final game which is tightly contested and goes into extra innings. Each page depicting the game is filled with tense moments and close calls, leading to one of the most entertaining games in the entire series. In the final portions of this volume, we get the resolution to the Ko and Aoba tensions and the series ends on a high, but thoughtful, note.
This is just a great drama series from start to finish, and one that I imagine I'll return to in a few years to get more out of a second reading. Highly recommended.
March 15, 2024
"It's hard not to be romantic about baseball." -Billy Bean
This baseball manga is a crowning achievement. Expertly paced with panel work and scenery that placed you in every moment with sharp quips to keep the inevitable tears joyful. I adored this series as a hopeless romantic and die hard sports fan. Adachi's maneuvering through deep lows and incredible victories had me gripped. The handling of grief, love, failure, and well earned triumph was better done here than in most other places. It was in every sense of the word romantic, bleeding with reverence for all life experiences-- a care for what has been lost and what we can hope to forge out of it. Brilliant.
This baseball manga is a crowning achievement. Expertly paced with panel work and scenery that placed you in every moment with sharp quips to keep the inevitable tears joyful. I adored this series as a hopeless romantic and die hard sports fan. Adachi's maneuvering through deep lows and incredible victories had me gripped. The handling of grief, love, failure, and well earned triumph was better done here than in most other places. It was in every sense of the word romantic, bleeding with reverence for all life experiences-- a care for what has been lost and what we can hope to forge out of it. Brilliant.
January 20, 2019
I don't even like baseball!
I love a good character story, and this really delivered. The last volume was full of tension the whole way through, and I could not put the book down. The resolution was perfect, and the little sprinkles of romance throughout the series went the way I wanted them to.
The only thing that would have made the story better is
I love a good character story, and this really delivered. The last volume was full of tension the whole way through, and I could not put the book down. The resolution was perfect, and the little sprinkles of romance throughout the series went the way I wanted them to.
The only thing that would have made the story better is
September 9, 2022
It's hard to review a single volume of a manga series, so I'll mostly be reviewing the series as a whole here. This is a story about some neighbours, told through baseball, and about life and humanity. I really enjoyed it both times I've read it and would absolutely read it again in the future. Without spoiling the story, I can say the effect is a good one and I'd gladly recommend it to anyone.
January 26, 2025
I definitely enjoyed my reread of Cross Game. Always been a fan of Mitsuru Adachi’s work. I wish there had been some side stories to see what happens to the team but I’m still satisfied with the ending. The hint of romance was just right for the sports storyline. Overall, enjoyed it, would reread. Just sad that it’s over!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2017
This book is the final book of the series, with lots of twist with Iyaco bubbling romance on the edge of marriage or not, KO, and the love triangles, and the baseball game which ends it all! read more to find out more in Cross Games 8!
October 15, 2018
This is such a fun story. Light and cliché where it should be, but doesn't lack depth where it counts. This was my first experience with manga, and I can see why my friend recommended it is a gateway to the medium. Highly recommended.
March 7, 2022
Somehow I forgot to review this, so here’s my review!
I LOVED the ending. While they didn’t show the team going to Koshen Ko and Aoba holding hands more than made up for it. I would love to read more of this mangaka’s works, I really hope they eventually come out in English!!
I LOVED the ending. While they didn’t show the team going to Koshen Ko and Aoba holding hands more than made up for it. I would love to read more of this mangaka’s works, I really hope they eventually come out in English!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2018
Mitsuru Adachi is a fantastic storyteller who made me care about and be emotionally invested in baseball, which I swore off forever after some awful experiences in Elementary School. ‘nuff said.
August 30, 2020
siêu phẩm.
hình đẹp, thoại hay lãng đãng nhiều dư vị.
hình đẹp, thoại hay lãng đãng nhiều dư vị.
September 27, 2020
The overall story gave me so much feels. I still think about it randomly. Great story. Great characters. Baseball. What else do you need?
Read
April 1, 2022I didn't read it
april fools'
april fools'
September 5, 2022
This is like a platonic ideal of comics.
October 5, 2023
Hitting me right in the heart what the hell I love sports manga
March 14, 2024
Reread the whole series February 2024.
I can't with Adachi's art style - it's so instantly recognizable across series and so dang cute.
I can't with Adachi's art style - it's so instantly recognizable across series and so dang cute.
August 9, 2024
A fitting end to a great series. A strong finish and overall an enjoyable read throughout. Helps if you enjoy baseball.
November 4, 2024
5/5
Reread
Reread
August 3, 2025
Maybe my fav manga I’ve read in years
November 13, 2025
one of those stories I'd recommend to any artist who wants to understand how to write a story. adachi knows the human heart.
December 31, 2012
I'm so glad we got any real and full (not that short story collection Short Program by VIZ) Adachi manga in the first place.
Is this story as good as Touch? I'm not sure. Touch had 26 volumes to tell its story and this ends at 17 volumes. I think it is a distilled, updated (especially with regards to modern technology) baseball teenage romance coming-of-age story of the sort he has done in a variety of sports genres. Wakaba dies in the first book, so we have much faster development of that shock to spread to the characters than in Touch.
In these volumes we have on the one hand the grand finale dream of the Seishun team trying to reach the summer Koshien against a team which a) has been sympathetic and very good in previous volumes and b) was in the spring Koshien of this year.
On the other hand we have the personal drama climax of Akane's surgery on the day of that final and the true feelings between Aoba and Kou. The way that all these strands are slowly interwove, dramatically intense where appropriate, leisurely where it makes the most sense, with flashbacks that illuminate facets of the personal history of the main characters which we hadn't seen before but which interweave perfectly with previous flashbacks and just plain real dialogue between the respective people... it's Adachi playing to his strengths and showing off a polished version of what he has perfected through the years without coming across as stale (admittedly I haven't read all Adachi though).
I thought the little bit of Kou getting closer and closer to 100 mph in the game (and then suddenly the scoring board seems to break down and the game just goes on, with Aoba and Asuma's big brother just being a bit puzzled) as he had promised Aoba he would show her.... and then later on Aoba being surprised that he keeps fulfilling all her other expectations in this game and she sits their shell-shocked... and I suddenly realize that the score board has continued to function afterwards and it probably didn't show the speed of that throw because it wasn't programmed to show a speed that exceeded 99 mph ^^ (after all 100 mph are three digits) - and meanwhile Adachi is spoofing baseball experts' commentary in the background of the game - and it all interweaves perfectly.
He's a maestro. The only male mangaka with male main figures who makes reading sport manga enjoyable for my money. Period.
Is this story as good as Touch? I'm not sure. Touch had 26 volumes to tell its story and this ends at 17 volumes. I think it is a distilled, updated (especially with regards to modern technology) baseball teenage romance coming-of-age story of the sort he has done in a variety of sports genres. Wakaba dies in the first book, so we have much faster development of that shock to spread to the characters than in Touch.
In these volumes we have on the one hand the grand finale dream of the Seishun team trying to reach the summer Koshien against a team which a) has been sympathetic and very good in previous volumes and b) was in the spring Koshien of this year.
On the other hand we have the personal drama climax of Akane's surgery on the day of that final and the true feelings between Aoba and Kou. The way that all these strands are slowly interwove, dramatically intense where appropriate, leisurely where it makes the most sense, with flashbacks that illuminate facets of the personal history of the main characters which we hadn't seen before but which interweave perfectly with previous flashbacks and just plain real dialogue between the respective people... it's Adachi playing to his strengths and showing off a polished version of what he has perfected through the years without coming across as stale (admittedly I haven't read all Adachi though).
I thought the little bit of Kou getting closer and closer to 100 mph in the game (and then suddenly the scoring board seems to break down and the game just goes on, with Aoba and Asuma's big brother just being a bit puzzled) as he had promised Aoba he would show her.... and then later on Aoba being surprised that he keeps fulfilling all her other expectations in this game and she sits their shell-shocked... and I suddenly realize that the score board has continued to function afterwards and it probably didn't show the speed of that throw because it wasn't programmed to show a speed that exceeded 99 mph ^^ (after all 100 mph are three digits) - and meanwhile Adachi is spoofing baseball experts' commentary in the background of the game - and it all interweaves perfectly.
He's a maestro. The only male mangaka with male main figures who makes reading sport manga enjoyable for my money. Period.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2016
I really liked the entire series, even if I didn't quite understand nor got interested in the technicalities of baseball.
I took away one star because the main love connection became super repetitive, obvious, and eventually annoying as toe-stubbing. It was so predictable halfway through the series - whether the mangaka added "curve balls" (hehehehe) to maybe make the reader think that the it wouldn't work out in the end, or to make it painfully obvious they were meant to be, I do not know.
Despite all that, I would still recommend the series.
My only regret is that it doesn't go beyond to Koshien. I wanted to see Wakaba's dream.
The end was quite abrupt, but I understand considering the nature of serialized mangas.
I took away one star because the main love connection became super repetitive, obvious, and eventually annoying as toe-stubbing. It was so predictable halfway through the series - whether the mangaka added "curve balls" (hehehehe) to maybe make the reader think that the it wouldn't work out in the end, or to make it painfully obvious they were meant to be, I do not know.
Despite all that, I would still recommend the series.
My only regret is that it doesn't go beyond to Koshien. I wanted to see Wakaba's dream.
The end was quite abrupt, but I understand considering the nature of serialized mangas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 25, 2025
3.5
I thought that the artstyle was really charming and nostalgic. And while the characters were all just pretty standard archetypes, they were still fun to follow. Some of the matches got pretty intense and it was very cathartic on a base level (haha get it) seeing some of the super cocky people get taken down.
Bad things:
The introduction of Akane was kind of stupid, and there was WAY too many shots of just random inappropriate "b-roll"
I thought that the artstyle was really charming and nostalgic. And while the characters were all just pretty standard archetypes, they were still fun to follow. Some of the matches got pretty intense and it was very cathartic on a base level (haha get it) seeing some of the super cocky people get taken down.
Bad things:
The introduction of Akane was kind of stupid, and there was WAY too many shots of just random inappropriate "b-roll"
May 9, 2013
Great and satisfying ending to a wonderful series! I love Adachi's art style and he is the master of oblique storytelling. The final ballgame is epic and gripping. I find myself wishing there were more, but in a good way. The story ended well. I just love these characters so much that I want to see more of them.
July 14, 2013
A perfect ending to a perfect series. I will dearly miss everyone in this series, from the Seishu team to the Tsukishimas. One of the best series put out by Viz and one that is severely underrated by mainstream manga audiences. I really hope there is an anime out there and that I'll be able to watch it soon!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews