Manga at Its Finest: Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game
Although Adachi has written many incredible works to date, none are as perfect as Cross Game, which seamlessly blends romance, light comedy, and a love for baseball to create seventeen volumes of sheer brilliance.
Cross Game focuses on the lives of Ko Kitamura, the son of the owner of the local sporting goods store, Kitamura Sports, and the four neighboring Tsukishima sisters, Ichiyo, Wakaba, Aoba, and Momiji. Because of their proximity to one another, the children of the Kitamura and Tsukishima families have always been close, but none are closer than Ko and Wakaba. Born on the same day in the same hospital, Ko and Wakaba are the best of friends, sharing a relationship that goes beyond mere friendship. In contrast however, Aoba, who is a year younger than the two of them, dislikes Ko for “stealing” Wakaba away from her.
Though his family owns a sporting goods store, Ko doesn’t play any sports. In fact, he really doesn’t do any extracurricular, that is, until he is dragged into playing the position of pitcher in a game of baseball. After being completely shown up by Aoba, a natural pitcher and baseball fanatic, Ko resolves to become as good as her. As a result, Ko begins to train and practice, his efforts all the while supported by Wakaba, whose dreams of seeing Ko play in the national high school baseball championships at the Koushien stadium. However, when Wakaba suddenly dies in a swimming accident, Ko is forced to fulfill her final dream with the help of Aoba.
Cross Game, in my opinion, is probably Adachi's best work to date. Like his previous works, it has a great plot, appealing characters, and bucket loads of never-ending humor, but what Cross Game has that the other mangas do not, is polish. In this manga, Adachi finally manages to achieve perfection—or as close to perfection as it’s ever going to get—through a balance of storytelling and artwork.
For me, I think the greatest aspect of Cross Game was how he manages to presents the story in such a way that it never makes it seem superfluous, clichéd, or awkward. The plot was always engaging and quietly dynamic, the dry humor always managed to get a laugh out of me, and in the end, the manga left me completely satisfied despite its ambiguous ending. In short, Cross Game is a wonderful example of a slice-of-life manga and brilliant storytelling. I would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat.
