Yuriko Nishiyama

Nate Torres has a history of starting enthusiastically into different sports, but losing his enthusiasm and quitting almost immediately when he finds that (gasp) he rather sucks, only having just started and all, and that there are (double gasp) other people better than him on the team so he may as well let them play. As our story starts, Nate has just started basketball and is showing all signs of starting in on his usual pattern when he runs into an old female friend of his that introduces him to the local street ball court. There, Nate learns of the local legends, sinks his first shot, feels the glory of the street ball crowds cheering him on, and finally really starts to care about the game. He joins a team, and despite some initial tension with his teammates, seems to be headed down the road of improvement...

Though I mock, Nate's self-defeating behavior of immediately labeling himself a loser at anything he tried and was not immediately good at was to me the most interesting, and perhaps most psychologically realistic, part of this manga. Unfortunately, it was virtually the only part, and was not really followed through with at all. After Nate discovers street ball and suddenly finds motivation (which seems to be to be mostly based in the desire for glory), you're pretty much set on the most typical sports manga path I can imagine. (Keep in mind I haven't read too many, but this is pretty much exactly how I imagined an average fairly unimaginative sports manga would be.)

The main character is not fantastic yet but has a certain ability which allows them to look cool and impress everyone occasionally (he can, with proper motivation, jump really, really high). He has some sort of mental hurtle me must get through now and then and while he is struggling with it he will play quite crappily. Once he gets through it, he will suddenly be able to play better and wow everyone. Sometimes, he will also be able to play well if he simply has excessive amounts of determination, no matter how bad he is realistically speaking. He has a female romance/motivation figure, who in this case isn't overly irritating but is still too patient and perfect for words. There is no real internal conflict besides the fact that the main player wants to be The Best of Them All, but is not yet good enough/does not yet have everyone's respect. (For a while it seemed as if there might actually be some added in conflict with the main characters' teammates, their motivation for playing and their ability to work together. However, this seems to be resolved before this first volume ends. It was also not particularly interestingly done to begin with.)

But again, I imagine this stuff is pretty average for a sports manga. While these tropes can be overly simplistic or irritating to some, if they don't bother you, I suppose it could work. They are not incompetently used, just used without much variation on the usual theme. But unless you've got a particular hankering or tolerance for this sort of thing, I'd skip this manga. There's not much here for others to enjoy.… (meer)