As the first review of the new year, I thought a throwback was in order! This is one of Shoujo Beat's older series, Crimson Hero by Takahashi Mitsuba. It's one of Shoujo Beat's only manga series to have been left discontinued, with only localizing fourteen volumes out of the full twenty. This is in desperate need of a pick-me-up.
Crimson Hero is a manga series that is centered around volleyball. Not as heavily as Haikyu!! of course, this being a shoujo manga and all, but it is a very much volleyball-oriented manga nonetheless. This was the manga that introduced me to volleyball, so it has a special place in my heart. Our main character, Sumiyoshi Nobara, is a girl whose family runs a ryotei restaurant that has been in the family for seven generations! She is expected to take on the restaurant as she is the first born daughter, but all she wants to do is play volleyball. Nobara heads to Benino High, Crimson Field is what it's called in the English translation, where she finds out that her mother made a generous donation to the school to disband the girls' volleyball club! I honestly think that is so messed up, that she put the ryotei before her daughter, it's revolting to me.
Anyways, Nobara finds this out and tries to get the volleyball team back together, all while running away from home and then becoming the dorm mother to four of the boys' volleyball team members...
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
Nobara is an extremely tomboyish girl who dresses a like a boy because cutesy girly stuff doesn't suit her. While at Benino High, she tries to find herself a team to play volleyball with. And while she does find a team, she runs away from home, her mother disapproving of her interest about volleyball. Nobara ends up going to her aunt for help, who is the school nurse at Benino, and Aunt Momoko directs her to the dorm that houses four students that are at Benino on volleyball scholarships. Nobara works there to try and cover her tuition and other fees since her mother was the one who was paying for everything for her. She eventually improves her skills at being the dorm mother and befriends the residents there: Yushin, Haibuki, Tomonori, and Tsuchiya.
Nobara struggles but finally gets a team together, even facing off in a three-on-three match with the boys' team to get them to stop insulting the girls' team! Eventually, the team: Sumiyoshi Nobara, Komizo Rena, Suzushiro Yui, Mochida Ayako, Goto Kyoka, and Osaka Tomoyo, play their first official match together, but are beaten by Yabe, the other team, but gave them a good fight, forcing them into paying all three sets and bringing out Shoji, their ace. That ends up being Yui's last match because of her being a third year student, and they are on the chopping block again, if they don't find another member by summer break the team is to be disbanded!
Sidenote: by this time, Nobara's mother has backed off somewhat. She tried forcing Nobara back once and it didn't end well, with Yushin interfering. Then there was an incidence with Souka, Nobara's younger sister, who Nobara had to save and ended up being late to the team's very first practice match. Souka ended up staying and watching Nobara play, stating that she had never seen her so happy before at home. Nobara and Souka make an agreement with their mother: Nobara is allowed to play volleyball throughout high school, Souka will take her place during this, and she will take over the ryotei and give up volleyball when she's done school. Their mother accepts and so Nobara is continued allowance of volleyball and to stay at the dorms with the boys. By the way, her staying at the dorms is a secret, the school doesn't know.
While Yui can’t be an active member due to being a third year with entrance exams and the like, she becomes the manager for the team, so she’s not entirely gone. The team find their new sixth member in Noda Kanako, who used to be a high jump champion in junior high. She is even taller than Nobara and Nobara is 5'9"! Before Kanako joins the team though, Nobara and Tomoyo go to see the boys' team play at the inter-high preliminary tournament, where Nobara realizes her feelings for Yushin. So, the reason why Kanako joined the team was to try and get close to Yushin and it was throwing her off her game. By the time they went to the summer training camp with the boy's team in Karuizawa, Nobar is completely and fully aware of her feeling for him. Kanako tried to peek in on the boys' room one night during the training camp and Nobara went to stop her, inadvertently yelling out that she like Yushin, too. Cringe moment: Yushin was in the hallway when she yelled this. Like, by the gods! I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did that.
Nobara and Kanako make up and Yushin tries to avoid Nobara but she's all like no way is this going to be awkward now! She confronts him and said confidently that she didn't ask him out, she didn't ask anything of him, she just likes him that's all. No need to be so awkward about it. It is after this though that Haibuki, the shark that he is, comes out and kisses Nobara! Flashback, he knew her back in elementary school and liked her back then, and the reason why he took up volleyball was because of her. And apparently he still likes her now! Typical 1990s to 2000s love triangle in shoujo manga trope. Happened a lot back then. So now Nobara is in a dilemma with these two boys! What is she to do?!
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
I'm going to leave things off there, all melodramatic and such. Reading this manga gave such flashbacks to the 1990s and 2000s shoujo manga. So many of them relied on the love triangle trope to push them through: Peach Girl by Ueda Miwa, Fruits Basket by Takaya Natsuki, Tail of the Moon by Ueda Rinko, just to name a few! Even Red River by Shinohara Chie had a love triangle, despite it being short lived.
I really enjoy this manga very much! I do highly recommend this. It has a good story, it is well paced, the characters grow and progress, they aren't at all stagnant. Heck even the pacing for the team establishment was well done. Not just one of those where the main protagonist puts together a team and they start working well together right off the bat, but these guys struggled with working together, some even having a bit of friendly rivalry, before being able to actual play together on the court cohesively.
Through their trials and tribulations, they work so hard and it makes you just want to cheer for them with all your might, and cry when they fail, feeling your heart go out to them for a job well done. This manga gave me many Lovely Complex by Nakahara Aya vibes and I just loved it. Nobara reminded me so much of Risa with her confession.
No matter! I really do wish that the series didn't end like it did though.
The ending is something I am not too happy about. I wish things ended differently, but they didn't. If you like volleyball manga, this is definitely a title you should pick up, it is completely worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment