Cross Game, 1 [Anglais] [Broché]

When Mistusu Adachi published Touch in the early eighties, nobody thought that he will able to surpass that success. Touch inaugurated a new genre in manga: sports-romance. Adachi was a very successful writer in his early thirties, he had a lot of time in front of him, but he had set the bar pretty high, it took him almost 30 years to set a new standard.
Cross Game is much more than a sports-romance manga. In his great style Adachi manages to talk about everything, and also to emulate life in baseball. Not just the win and lose passion but also the more delicate edges of life, as uncertainty, memories, melancholy.
In Cross Game Adachi also remembers his own gone brother, because in this manga memories have even more weight than common life.
The drawing skills of Adachi have not improved a lot since Miyuki but his narrative is much more accurate and effective. The Master only needs a few pages to transmit his idea and more.
From the very beginning of the manga you cannot put it down. It really does not matter if you like baseball or not, I have not seen a complete game in 20 years or so, what does matter is to feel the feelings it transmits.
Adachi is not well known in America but in Japan is one of the most famous mangakas of all time. I will strongly recommend you to read the best work of one of the best mangakas since the art was invented.
Cross Game in short, is one of the best magas ever, you should not miss it.

Cross Game is the story of two families and baseball in Japan. 5th grader Ko Kitamura's parents own a sporting goods store. The Tsukishima Batting Center and its next-door coffee shop is owned by the family of his classmate, Wakaba Tsukishima. Ko has been delivering supplies and hitting balls at the Tsukishima Batting Center ever since he was three and has become quite a hitter. He's also managed to make Aoba fall in love with him, even though he doesn't get along very well with Wakaba's sis, Aoba. Even though Ko has been around baseball all his life, and even pushed his class to form a team, he doesn't have much interest in playing. It seems he only started the team so he could raise his allowance by having them buy uniforms and equipment his sporting goods store! But he finds himself playing on the team after he uses a game to escape from a bully that wants to kick his butt because he likes Wakaba. She has a lot of faith in Ko. She foretells that one day he will become the best pitcher in Japan. Volume 1 of Cross Game actually contains the first three volumes of the series in omnibus form, which tells you why this is a bit higher in price than the usual $9.99-$10.99 manga volume. Each volume moves forward in time a bit. Volume occurs in the 5th grade. Volume 2 and 3 cover his junior high and freshman year in high school.

The really cool thing so far about this series is that the characters are allowed to grow, and I don't mean just physically. The fact that Cross Game moves through time makes Mitsuru Adachi have to deal with character development, which is noticeably absent in a lot of shonen titles. And really, that is the main thing that this series has going for it, the characters. All the relationships are very authentic and never smack of melodrama for the most part. It has more of a slice of life feel to it. Adachi started drawing manga back in the 70s and it really shows. His style is very reminescent of artists from that era, like Rumiko Takahashi, with all its strengths and weaknesses. Artists from that time of shonen are not very good at non-action facial expressions. I mean, they do a good job with fighting or comedic expressions etc, but are sorely lacking when it comes to illustrating moods like sadness or other more subtle emotions. It really hurts in some scenes in volume 1. A couple of panels are actually just copied like you're supposed to go "oh, he must be sad because they showed this same expression twice", even though the look on the character's face is just blank. That's about the only complaint I can make about this book. I loved it otherwise. Definitely check it out.

Just reading about the success of author Adachi's previous titles alone made me pick up this first volume. This is the first of his works I've read, but so far I'm willing to give this series a chance.

Without giving away the main spoiler in this 3-volume-in-1 release, the story revolves around a young boy, Ko. The first volume covered in this release is more of a backstory on his childhood, floating between his father's sporting goods store and his neighbor's coffee house. Readers are immediately introduced to his love interest in Waka, his neighbor and second oldest of four girls. Waka's interactions with Ko alone are enough to establish that they're gonna be the main pairing you're expecting while reading, but to bring it on home, you also find that they're born on the same day. It'd be cheesy in any other instance, but Adachi makes it work just well enough for readers to tolerate it.

... but you'd be wrong to assume this manga is a full-on romance. As suggested by its genre alone (most shonen manga rarely delve that deeply when it comes to romance) its primary focus isn't on the possible couplings throughout the story, but moreso on the action, which in this case is baseball. The latter two volumes covered in this release are different from the first in that focus is less on the romance (which was only done in the first volume more to establish characters than the full story itself) and more on baseball--which will either make or break it when it comes to whether you should buy the release or not.

Having read this 3-in-1 release, the overall tone of the series tends to that of your typical sports manga with the smallest doses of romance and suggestiveness (in the chapter title pages alone!) expected from your typical sports manga. Regardless, there's just enough charm for me to continue with the series.