The works of Mitsuru Adachi

Nine, Touch, Rough, Niji Iro Tōgarashi, H2, Itsumo Misora, Katsu!, and Cross Game serialized by Shogakukan in Shonen Sunday. Hiatari Ryōkō! serialized in Shoujo Comic. Miyuki serialized in Shonen Big Comic. Slow Step serialized in Ciao. Jinbē serialized in Big Comic Original.

I’ve been interested in this manga author ever since reading the one small bit of his works that came out in North America, Short Program. Short Program is a collection of short stories that the author produced over the years. There are 3 volumes, but unfortunately they sold poorly over here, so Viz is unlikely to release the third. The stories run the gamut from comedy to drama, and most of them share Adachi’s sense of subtlety.

But short stories is not what makes him the biggest Shonen Sunday author to never get a hit over here. He writes sports mangas. And in general, baseball mangas are his specialty. The most recent of these, Cross Game, just finished in Japan this week after 170 chapters. He’s had several TV animes (including Cross Game, which is still running as an anime), some live-action adaptations, and for the most part has been running continuously in Shogakukan titles since about 1978. He mostly writes for Shonen Sunday, but also for the seinen Big Comic line, and has had 2 series in Shojo Comic and Ciao. What with some short stories running in the josei Petit Comic, he is the rare mangaka to have a 4-genre home run.

The reasons he’s never made it big over here are unknown, but I can guess. First of all, he does sports manga. Sports manga, and especially baseball manga, has a tendency to be viewed as ‘low-selling kiss of death’ over here for some reason. (OK, perhaps the reason being that when Viz has tried sports manga, it *has* sold poorly.) Secondly, his best, most popular titles are long-runners. Touch is 26 volumes, H2 is 34, and Cross Game will be 17. In a poor economy, that can be a dangerous investment. Third, while he can draw some lovely art, he’s not usually known for his artistic abilities, and has been accused often of having his various heroes and heroines look exactly the same with only minor hair variants. It’s also possible, after Short Program didn’t really do well (and had art flipped) that the artist may simply not want to be licensed over here.

And lastly, there’s his character’s emotions. Or rather, their placidness. I don’t mean that during the course of his various series, characters don’t get angry, or cry, or cheer, etc. They do. But overall, he’s almost the anti-Rumiko Takahashi (a good friend of his, who has described him as her greatest rival) in that you don’t find a lot of crazy over the top madness in his series. Cross Game, the most recent, has a tsundere-type in the lead heroine of Aoba Tsukishima, but even her ‘what a jerk! I hate him!’ is pretty mild.

Likewise, there is a romantic aspect to almost all his series, with crushes, rivalries, and the like. But for Western audiences, the lack of ‘payoff’ might be frustrating. Many of his series end with the two leads still not explicitly stating their feelings, choosing to hold hands, or having a kiss silhouetted. It’s meant to be a peaceful ending showing that life goes on, and certainly the romantic entanglements always seem to be resolved by the end (as opposed to, say, Takahashi’s UY or Ranma), but many fans tend to be dissatisfied at the lack of a final explicit resolution. Not all of his series are like this; Rough, about 2 swimmers who fall in love, is far more explicit about its love, mostly as the plot involves a Romeo and Juliet-style rivalry between their two families. But for the most part, if you’re reading Adachi for romantic payoffs, you’re reading the wrong author.

That said, there’s lots to love about Adachi’s works. His guys tend to be genuinely likeable, his girls cute and independent. He has several themes besides sports that run through his works; death hovers over several of his series, with the death of a major character being the focal point on which two of his series turn. It’s not used in a horrific or dramatic way; usually the focus tends to be on those left behind, and their inability to move past the incident. Likewise, there’s a strong family element in his stories, with fathers, mothers and siblings playing important roles. As with many shonen series, there’s a lot of attention devoted to improving oneself; many of his heroes start off as lazy or unmotivated, and end up discovering their passion through the sport of that particular manga.

Where would I start if I were Viz and didn’t care about things selling? Actually, probably with his most recent work, Cross Game. At 17 volumes, it’s long but not too long. It would be a good feeler to see if baseball manga can work out over here. It’s well-written, with several surprises. And it handles most of the themes I’d mentioned above with the ease and grace of a veteran in the manga industry. Rough, which I’d mentioned earlier, is a great manga with a more explicit romance than usual and some great swimming and diving scenes. And Slow Step could, even with its old-school 80s art, slide seamlessly into Shojo Beat; it deals with softball and romantic entanglements from a female lead’s perspective, and ran in their Ciao magazine for 7 volumes.