Manga: Cross Game

[Munsu]

I know few of you here read sports manga, but I can't be the only Mitsuru Adachi fan here. Cross Game is his latest work, and still ongoing. I wonder if anyone here is reading this series so that we can discuss it. And if you're a sports manga fan, then you better start reading this. From all his mangas, this reminds me most of Touch. Of course this is a baseball manga, but some of the story elements are very similar (which I won't discuss at this moment as to not spoil).

Chapter 67 was recently released, and the series is being done by Manga Downloads. Don't be put-off by the young characters in the first volume, there's a time jump in the second volume.

Cross Game is one of the newest manga series by Mitsuru Adachi. It tells the story of Koh and the Tsukishima family's 4 sisters in a very Mitsuru Adachi kind of way. The comic starts off as a comedy and shows the relationship between Koh and the 4 sisters. As with all Mitsuru Adachi's main characters, Koh's character is slowly built up with amusing and unforgettable scenarios with most of the character building scenes showing off Koh's talent as a baseball player. The manga is still running in Japan at its 7th volume.

[animus]

I've been reading it. The pacing's quite slow, and the themes quite soft so it feels boring sometimes. But it's a good read overall, but as of yet no romance has bloomed yet, so we'll just have to wait longer I guess. And this is my first Adachi manga, so it takes a bit to get used to his art. It's quite outdated and bland, but it's decent.

[Munsu]

His mangas are very mellow, not much happens... chapters are usually "Just another day in the characters' life, let's see what happened today". I like how there's always a coincidence of some sort, like the two main characters remembering the same part of a boring movie etc. The romance possibility will be dragged out throughout the whole story, so don't expect much from it, just that there'll be plenty of love triangles with the main characters oblivious to their love between each other, often causing a rift and hatred between them, yet doing uncharacteristic things for one an other (usually when no one is looking).

It's just a nice read, and the games are usually well done, especially towards the end. But yeah, your complaints are valid, the themes are soft, but there's always that one incident that comes from out of nowhere, like a character's death, and it has that much impact because you didn't see it coming.

And yeah, even with the improvement of the art, the characters still look old. The details in the buildings etc. are well done though. He uses the same character designs in all his mangas, the main characters often looking just the same, probably why his characters look outdated.

[Dark Dragon]

yeah and Adachi himself made jokes about how all of his character looks the same many times. I'm reading this but i'm disappointed because the chapter release are way too slow, if i remember correct i'm on chapter 63 so i will probably wait for a nice chunk of them to come out before i start reading again.

[Munsu]

04/01/07 Cross Game 67 Manga Downloads
03/24/07 Cross Game 65-66 Manga Downloads
03/01/07 Cross Game 64 Manga Downloads
02/25/07 Cross Game 63 Manga Downloads
02/16/07 Cross Game 62 Manga Downloads
02/09/07 Cross Game 61 Manga Downloads
02/04/07 Cross Game 60 Manga Downloads
01/25/07 Cross Game 58 Manga Downloads
01/25/07 Cross Game 59 Manga Downloads

That's not that bad of a pace if you ask me... it's like 1.5 weeks per release. But, this type of manga is best read in batches, especially since there's usually lack of events in each chapters... I would do the same, but when I'm bored with nothing else to read, I just say fuck it and read the newest chapter.

I think that's simply a problem with manga in general, there's usually so little content in one chapter that it's frustrating, and this is no exception...

[Dark Dragon]

yeah, that why i go back to read old manga sometime. Being able to read all 34 volume of Urusei Yatsura or all 38 of ranma without having to stop is pure bliss.

Oh and if you like sport manga i would recommend captain Tsubasa, it's a super old sport manga from the 80's. Shinji started scanlating chapter since november of 06 and i believe it is up to volume 13 now so if you have nothing better to do, it's worth a shot.

[Munsu]

Ah nice, I was waiting for someone to do the original series, guess I missed that... Will check it out soon, will see me creating a thread once I do

[Munsu]

Just read up to the latest scanlation, chapter 76.


They finally started the tournament, and it has been pretty good thus far. I liked how all the weaknesses were "leaked" to the opposing team, and were used against them. Yet, they prevailed with a pitcher you see once every 10 years.

[Munsu]

yeah and Adachi himself made jokes about how all of his character looks the same many times. I'm reading this but i'm disappointed because the chapter release are way too slow, if i remember correct i'm on chapter 63 so i will probably wait for a nice chunk of them to come out before i start reading again.

So, you still waiting for a nice chunk to start reading again?

Anyways, I just read up to chapter 84... it has been a great game so far, I'm not sure who's going to win. I have a feeling they're going to lose this round, as it always happen, since they still have one (or two) years together to reach the Koshien, so I don't think they'll make it on their first try.

[Dark Dragon]

I started reading again when chapter 80 came out, just haven't been posting much.

I also feel that they are going to lose this game, since in the other mangas the lost usually occur around this time. Hopefully Adachi will introduce the "main rival" character soon so the story can pick up the little, it has been kinda slow even for an Adachi manga.

[Munsu]

I think he has already been introduced, that guy who was on the bench all this time and just got the opportunity to play should be the main rival. Or do you think he won't be enough?

[Dark Dragon]

Nah, the typical Adachi formula is to introduce a guy who seem to be like the main rival but then turn out to be another short time character (Kimoto Takamichi from katsu for example). Then about half way through the series he'll introduce a new character that turn out to be the main rival (H2 is the only exception i could think of because everyone was introduced at the start).

[Munsu]

Yeah, I guess that's true... it also depends on how long Adachi is planning on running this series. But this guy looks like a monster, and he can really be the main rival mainly because his team has had him on the bench and hasn't been using him much. He has instilled a bit of fear on both Koh and the clean-up hitter. The way I see it, if they win then he's surely not the rival, if they lose there's still a chance, but I guess I'm gonna start hoping for some bigger monster to come along.

[Munsu]

Well just read up to chapter 130...

Apparently, this was the end of "Part 2" of the series. Seems like they're taking a break until Spring of 2009. You read up to the latest chapter? Kinda of a sucky place to end it... in the middle of the tournament.

I don't know about you, but I found it interesting, funny, and quite unexpected how that former coach of theirs and his new team lost. They took some time building them up to be this monster of a team, just to have the lose. It's very rare to see this, and it's always a pleasant surprise. It's very unusual for a series to build this obvious superpower, just to then make them irrelevant in an instant.

[Dark Dragon]

lol after reading your post referring to only just me, i came to the realization that we're the only two people that really post in this thread.

I've actually stopped reading after he met up with the new girl that look like his dead childhood friend.

What i have been doing is rereading old Adachi series like Touch and H2. Adachi Mitsuru is an awesome story teller, i feel like you can't really appreciate his manga unless you can spend time to read the entire story at once because some of the very subtle hints that he leave around suddenly hit you if you progress through the story without breaks in between.

But back on topic, i plan to catch up with this series as soon as i get done rereading some old series. I just finished up Touch and is half way through H2, pretty soon i plan to read Katsu so i'll most likely catch up with Cross Games after Katsu.

edit: oh yeah, Adachi manga finally finished Touch after like forever so if you've never got a chance to finish that manga i highly recommend it. I know the Anime finished like 10 years ago but it's always good to read the source material .

[Munsu]

Yeah, it seemed a bit wierd mentioning "you guys" when it's just you and me apparently reading this.

I had stopped reading myself, but marathoned it a couple of days ago. You have till Spring to catch up, so I guess you should be in no hurry.

Touch, I've seen the anime and the movies... very good stuff, probably my all time favorite baseball anime. I might check the manga version, but not sure... the anime seemed quite thorough. Might be more interested to see if anything varied between how the anime ended and the manga.

H2, I currently read tha manga. I had stopped a while back because mangascreeners where going very slow, so I've yet to restart it again. And I completely forgot where I left off, but I have to say it's a really good Adachi series. Well I've yet to read something from him that I haven't enjoyed. They may not be the best series out there, but they at the least are consistenly enjoyable, and the he's pretty good with the slice-of-life elements.

Katsu I read... I had hoped it would be longer, but it had a nice ending if I remember correctly.

Other Adachis I've read have been Rough, Niji-Iro Togarashi, and Nine.

[Dark Dragon]

I've read all those also, another finished Adachi series that you can try is Miyuki but it's a romance/comedy that is devoid of sport so it might not be your cup of tea.

[Munsu]

I've read all those also, another finished Adachi series that you can try is Miyuki but it's a romance/comedy that is devoid of sport so it might not be your cup of tea.

That's on my list... I was actually waiting to watch the anime but no one ever picked it up after some groups did the first 11 episodes or so. So, I might simply read the manga when I get the chance.

[Dark Dragon]

That's on my list... I was actually waiting to watch the anime but no one ever picked it up after some groups did the first 11 episodes or so. So, I might simply read the manga when I get the chance.

That's a shame, a lot of older anime series that was never brought to the US deserve proper subbing since they are arguably better than some of the newer series. I mean, it took me forever to find the complete series of Saint Seiya but boy it was definitely worth it.

[Munsu]

That's a shame, a lot of older anime series that was never brought to the US deserve proper subbing since they are arguably better than some of the newer series. I mean, it took me forever to find the complete series of Saint Seiya but boy it was definitely worth it.

You got the complete Saint Saiya series? Decent quality? I know I was getting those Azn fansubs, but I think they stopped at around 52 episodes or so, and never bothered with the series because of that.

Or did you just find the dubbed version, or what?

We're way off-topic, but fuck it...