Atsushi ditempa dalam latihan keras klub atletik agar bakatnya dapat dikembangkan seluas-luasnya. Sementara, Yuho sudah mulai ingat kembali kenangan lama yang tersimpan. Dan Kosei pun akhirnya mendapatkan apa yang selalu diimpikannya.
Tapi ada keanehan yang terjadi pada Kyu!? "Berjuanglah sekuatnya... Atsushi". Inilah volume terakhir kisah hubungan kakak beradik karya Mitsuru Adachi!
Mitsuru 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.
I really enjoyed this series. This series is your typical slice of life/school life story but with a twist, accompanied with an ending which itself is another twist. One might have probably heard a similar story in some other form of media, but the execution matters here. I was not impressed with the fan service, though it's still pretty toned down according to today's (sickly)standards. Overall, a notable effort for an artist who made a name making baseball oriented stories
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Sebuah twist ending. Meskipun sentuhan Adachi sensei kurang begitu menggigit pada manga ini. Dari sisi sport (atletik) tidak ada perkembangan sama sekali, begitu pula untuk urusan roman, jalan di tempat. Malah humor-humor tidak penting serta beberapa gambar ataupun cerita tidak perlu yang memperlihatkan seolah Adachi-sensei sadar kalau Q and A ini memang "cukup" sampai di sana. Namun bagi penggemar karya Adachi-sensei tiada masalaha menikmatinya walau ini bukanlah pakem standar ala Adachi-sensei.