Mitsuru Adachi

4.5/5 I would have given this five stars, but the panty and boob shot panels felt so unnecessary. I know the boys are going through puberty but there are less misogynistic/revealing ways to get that point across. It felt...sketchy.

That said, I LOVE Part 6 for the in-depth context given to baseball losses and for the fact that the principal and that awful coach (what? If he couldn’t be bothered to learn his players’ names, why should I learn his?) get their just desserts.

Ko and Aoba show more really need to clear the air regarding Wakaba. Ko’s hanging on to a ghost and it’s going to bite him in the butt one day (one could argue that it has already with his relationship with Aoba).

LOVE Azuma and Senda so much. Looking forward to reading the next volume! show less

I'm always hesitant to read sports manga. I'm not a big sports fan, and sometimes the stories just don't grab me. Boy, this one did! It has drama, depth, and baseball. But more than that, it really lets readers connect emotionally to the characters, and manages to be a true slice-of-life manga as well. I can't wait to read more!

For some reason, I have been very reluctant to read Mitsuru Adachi's manga series Cross Game. I'm not sure if it's because the series is a sports manga or what. I've heard plenty of good things about Adachi and about Cross Game in particular, even from readers who aren't particularly fond of baseball. I even read a preview of the series in Otaku USA and enjoyed it, but for some reason still couldn't bring myself to read more of the series. My hand was finally forced when Cross Game was show more selected for the May 2011 Manga Moveable Feast. Because of that, I picked up the first volume released by Viz Media in 2010--equivalent to the first three volumes published in Japan between 2005 and 2006. Adachi began the series in 2005 and the seventeenth and final collected volume was released in Japan in 2010. In 2009, Cross Game was honored with a Shogakukan Manga Award. There was also a fifty episode anime adaptation of the series produced between 2009 and 2010.

The Tsukishima family, who run the local batting cages and the Clover coffee shop, and the Kitamura family, who own the sporting goods store down the street, are good friends and their children have grown up together. Wakaba, the Tsukishima's beloved second daughter (out of four) and Ko, the Kitamura's only son, are particularly close and even share the same birthday. It seems like fate that the two of them should be together. The only person who's unhappy with the two being nearly inseparable is the next youngest Tsukishima daughter, Aoba. She adores Wakaba and so holds a grudge against Ko. Although Aoba won't admit it, except for the fact that she loves baseball and Ko isn't even really interested in the game, she actually shares quite a lot in common with him.

While there are moments in Cross Game that are absolutely heartbreaking, the manga also has quite a bit of light-hearted humor to it as well, making the series more touching rather than depressing. Ocassionally, Adachi does have the tendency to either break the fourth wall or come very close to it. I did find this amusing, but it also threw me out of the story. However, I really enjoyed the small bits focusing on the Tsukishima's pet cat Nomo; they made me smile every time. Adachi's art style is fairly simple and straightforward. Every once in a while it feels like the panels are a bit disjointed, usually when Adachi sets up a dramatic reveal, but overall it is very easy to follow. One thing that he does that I particularly enjoyed and appreciated is how he captures the passage of time, often using the changes in season and in the neighborhood to visually transition from chapter to chapter. This also helps to establish a sense of place and makes the town feel as well-rounded and complete as the characters.

Although there is plenty of personal drama, conflicts, and lively baseball games, I mostly find Cross Game to be a rather quiet coming of age series. Out of this volume, I preferred the first part of the story which focuses a bit more on the relationships between characters than on the baseball. But even when baseball becomes more prominent in the manga, the character interactions remain crucial and convincing. There is something subtle and very skilled in how Adachi balances the two elements. That being said, I find it strange that I'm not more gung-ho about Cross Game; for some reason it just doesn't immediately grab me. However, I did appreciate it more and more after repeated readings. I truly care about the characters Adachi has created, even if I don't feel compelled to immediately rush out and read more of the manga. But, I've discovered that the longer I wait, the more I worry about the characters and wonder how they are doing.

Experiments in Manga show less

I read this straight through (unlike vol 1 where I paused between stories). More of these stories were interconnected by characters or places and there was a more bittersweet wistfulness to many of them.

"Spring Passes" is an obvious call out, about two former classmates and an act of kindness that separated them. "4 On the Richter Scale" and "Spring Call" were my two favorite tho with "Before Spring Comes" and "Aim at the Ace" both also strong contenders.

This collection was more heavily show more sports related tho which makes sense given Adachi's other series largely focus on sports in some manner. I do think some of the references either didn't translate as well as they could have or went straight over my head, but I found a lot of the insert stuff about being a manga-ka or writer quite amusing ("Don't trust dark alleys or editors!" is my fav background sign).

Overall though I remember very little of these stories, I think at this point I was subscribing less to Animerica Extra due to a price increase so it's possible I hadn't read these at all. I believe this is also the last collection printed domestically, but there are 2 more volumes available in general.

It makes me a bit sad as this isn't as popular a genre in America--that is the short form same author collections. So many of my older favs have collections out (Yumi Tamura, Chie Shinohara, Kyoko Hikawa, Yuzo Takeda...) that I'll likely never see domestically. show less