I mentioned about awhile back that I wasn’t a big fan of sports anime and I still aren’t. However, Cross Game is another one of those exceptions that I will have to add to that still rather short list of sports anime or manga which I have enjoyed.
Synopsis: 5th grader Koh Kitamura lives next door to the Tsukishima family, owners of a batting cage and the Clover cafe. His girlfriend, Wakaba, is the 2nd Tsukishima daughter; the 3rd daughter, the baseball prodigy Aoba, can’t stand him. Wakaba dreams of Koh pitching at legendary Koshien Stadium, site of the national high school championship finals. However, tragedy strikes, and it is up to Koh, with the help of Aoba and his other teammates, to make Wakaba’s dream come true. (Source: ANN)
I personally came across Cross Game while browsing through OneManga.com when I was supposed to be working on an assignment (Yes, the allure of manga is hard to resist, Master Jedi…). Reading a couple of the later chapters, I found it interesting enough to take a look at its Wikipedia entry. That was when I found out that it was actually used in an academic paper as an example of the use of silent scenes to convey powerful messages. It was only then I actually started reading it from the beginning.
Something which has more or less been consistent with Adachi-sensei’s works is that he doesn’t use much dialogue in his manga. He is one of those manga authors who seem to belong to the “A Picture speaks a thousand words” category. Someone who prefers to use the images to tell the story as opposed to the conversations between characters. I admit I haven’t read much of this kind of work (or any of Adachi-sensei’s mangas) before Cross Game, but I really love the subtle messages which are inherent in the images themselves. (For example, pages 12-17 of Cross Game CH165 and Touch CH63 page 11 and CH66 page 11) The images in each frame each has its own significance and meaning, which I thought gave the manga a lot more substance.
Besides being a more “visual” kind of manga author, he is one of the better storytellers in the manga industry. He likes to take his time developing the characters and overall plot, but at the same time, willing to stun his readers with the occasional death or surprise twist. He knows when to tease and when to surprise or shock his readers, creating not just more emotional impact, but enough suspense as well to keep readers guessing as to what happens next. All this combined together with his occasional self deprecating humour as well as various references and in-jokes to his other series, makes Cross Game one of the best shounen mangas I’ve read recently.
SPOILER ALERT!
On a more personal note, I am glad that Aoba and Koh ended up together (Since it IS the ship which I support). Adachi has been teasing readers with the possibility of a Koh/Akane relationship which I thought wasn’t really meant to be, especially since Aoba has been around so much longer than Akane and has a much closer relationship with Koh. When you include the fact that Aoba is the female lead character, it gives more credence to a Koh/Aoba ship. I also thought it was nice to hint at a possible Akaishi/Akane relationship at the end.
I was browsing the Cross Game thread on the OneManga forums and some people were a bit concerned about the so-called loose ends in the series. While there have since been explanations and references to older chapters to show how Adachi-sensei tied these loose ends up, my opinion is that not all questions really need to be answered in “black and white”. I think that its fine to leave certain plot points (which are not central to the main storyline) somewhat ambiguous (like whether Aoba really gets to play in Koshien or did Koh hit the 160 mark or not), as long as the main plot gets a satisfying conclusion (Koh and Aoba finally “getting over” Wakaba’s death and accepting their feelings for each other).
Thanks to MangaDownloads.org for their scanlations.