With the Cats vs Dogs rivalry solved, @heinragas suggested we take a look at other:
đŠč Rivals đŠž
Whether it heroes vs villains, two friends locked in competition, or something in between, show us your favorite rivalries across #anime or #manga.
Do so by @-ing pics of your favorite rivals to @apc and by using the hashtag #AniMangaFoundIt to help make sure your post is seen.
Send your rivals by April 5th to make it in to the community collage.
@apc I need to start digging in, but this time may be different ones, with a lot of "post-tag catchup."
I like a lot of works, where the "true rival" for a character is their own insecurities, or a circumstance they must overcome. And while I could definitely wedge Space Brothers into that, I feel like I'd be "violating the spirit" of the tag.
And since we had "Best Villains" not too long ago, I'm thrown off your more conventional action fodder, too. (No shounen battle foes for me, especially ones that do horrible things and then become "best frenz" after only a few murders or genocides.)
So... sports it is! And to be fair, it delivers top-tier rivalries, of all sorts.
And I could certainly have an easy time promoting my #2
@apc ...but as delightful as many of them are, especially Chihaya and Shinobu, they are still more straightforward. Certainly Taichi's biggest rivalry is against himself and his circumstance, and I have a lot to say about all the best best characters in Chihayafuru, but on the "rivalry" front?
We are going to want a lot more. So this time we will #AniMangaFoundIt through the works of Mitsuru Adachi, ending on this pair of rival pairs in Cross Game, but proceeding through many more. (Especially H2 and Katsu) Cross Game and Chihayafuru for me are themselves "rivals for the best-constructed high school competitive arcs" and so welcome to the rabbit hole! (Fitting, today.)
In chapter 84 of 160, we get these pairs' real setup:
@apc But this is right now more of an "intentions accouchement" as my own day's dynamics will set me afield for a while, and I'm not sure when I'll be back.
With it will come a sit-down regarding Adachi generally, and then series' specifically, while I'm reading them and hunting for the right snapshots.
We'll see how far my attention gets me! đ I just wanted to make sure my intentions make it pre-collage. đ
@apc AND HERE WE ARE!
But where is that? đ€
Oh, right, this "Adachi" guy.
He is such a strange anomaly for me. I don't recall running into his works early on; it would take until Short Program to show up for me to recognize much.
I was aware of some of his manga, specifically H2, from prominent Kinokuniya placement, but like... it was baseball stuff so kinda who cared?
I did not know that his series Touch was such a touchstone (ha!) in Japan, and would not know what basically he was King of Weekly Shounen Sunday to Rumiko Takahashi's Queen, and they would often be compared alongside. And while they have sold similarly (in the lower 200-millions) and Viz had access to as much Shogakukan as they wanted, basically ALL her works have been translated out here, and not much for him.
@apc So like... why?
I would eventually get familiar through scanlation with all his works, and would occasionally spend a day just marathoning to reinforce the better ones.
I am thinking much was a matter of timing? Early Adachi is finding its footing, and not as oddball as Takahashi, with some unremarkable shounen baseball to start, a swerve to shounen romance, then back to a kinda pervy romcom... Interesting to me from a "historian view" but not too compelling.
Touch would explode his visibility, but that was 81-86; anime in the West didn't really lean "sports" at all. Heck, I sometimes forget how many years it took for anything "not SFF/battle/fighting" to appear at all. The timing and genres didn't line up, but it is curious that they never really have even in the age of Haikyuu
@apc On that, I think it's how front-loaded his popularity was; Takahashi hit the ground running, and her works got more and more popular through InuYasha carrying her into the 2000s, while Adachi was much more front-loaded with Touch even in Japan (probably half his total sales) and H2 a prominent block only in the 90's, ending without any real "sports age" pickup.
Cross Game stands out for many as an individual title, and I'm glad that it was translated and anime'd, but he always felt like someone who should have had much more raining down. There are still many works never adapted in any form, and some like H2 sadly incomplete. His 5 volume shoujo from 80-81 was his largest non-Touch series for more than 25 years
I'm not sure if he's the MOST anomalous mangaka, but it sure feels close
@apc What's he like?
Well, for me, his humor is probably the "stickiest" part, and what joins him in my mind with Takahashi. They don't share the same quirks, but both fit right into my strike zone (ha!). Reasons I love going back to Ranma 1/2, I also get from a number of his titles. Self-deprecating MCs, self-deprecating author via 4th wall breaks... For me with romcom elements, the better the com the sweeter they often deliver the serious and the rom. But Adachi leans on this more in his works, since he doesn't have so much farce and supernaturalism... it's got sports, humor, and romance!
And since I generally don't care much for sports, I really dig into his serious elements, and the way he etches the romance out.
@apc Mostly for sports, as with "hype battle shounen," I need it "abstracted weirdly" to enjoy it, because I'm not interested in the fisticuffs or the "normie sports." I'll watch them battle in the culinary arts, tho, or do highschool bike racing. Or hot insane gambling girls with crazy faces, or a roll through badminton.
Not hype for Haikyuu nor krazy for Kuroko... But add some deeper characters, some meaningful purposeful arcs, some humor, some investable romance... Then even to your "normie sports," I will Harlem Beat. I will One Pound Gospel. And I will most-certainly anything Adachi gots. I mean it's mostly baseball, but he can deliver even boxing (which I detest as a sport) with excellence.
Narrative triumphs over all, dawgs.
@apc He has... a BIT of a... reputation? Some might consider it a "cheat code" through certain dramatic tropes. As he will involve main-character deaths as a way to completely change the dynamic you thought you were going to get. Or much more often, of their family members; both before the narrative and during.
If some might find that upsetting, let it serve as warning before I start going into spoilery bits. I don't find them objectionable or tacky, however. His characters "rivals" are often themselves and their feelings of inadequacy, or past feelings they can't process. Adachi writes any number of emotional directions, and they add character depth and connection in ways I basically never get with "normie shounen sports." It is hard to compare.
Let us start with the Touch-stone
@apc Touch is built around the dynamic of childhood friends and direct neighbors, twin brothers Tatsuya and Kazuya Uesugi, and Minami Asakura.
Elder Tatsuya has raw talent, but no specific drive or interest, and feels some "duty" to allow his younger brother to claim the spotlight.
Younger Kazuya is "perfect" in most obvious ways, and has a passion for baseball. The ace of Meisei Academy, with talent enough to carry them to the Koshien,
Minami has been friends with them their entire lives, and in fact they've shared a "clubhouse" set up between their yards, where they play and study, and spend time with each other. Responsible and sharp, she is sister and friend and supporter of them both in everything they do; but most specifically Kazuya, since he is a part of a team sport.
@apc Of course, they both fell in love with her as they grew older. What was there not to?
Tatsuya, the "older brother" and less-serious, less-dedicated, saw himself also as less-deserving, and would step back even on this, which... as much as Kazuya loves his brother, his feelings for Minami are pure and serious, and he wouldn't "hand her over" to anyone else.
Minami loves "Tatchan" and "Katchan" both, but reveals that while she will support Kazuya fully with his goals (to the point of becoming the baseball team manager for a while), her heart is with Tatsuya. This both confuses and encourages, but he does desire to "get in the game" more seriously this time around, and so he joins...! The boxing team?
Well. He's suspiciously good at it.
@apc And that is the dynamic we are expecting to keep moving forward with, as brothers vie for the affection of their love, and challenge themselves against sports rivals, and possibly some level of "making a man out of themselves" shounenny bits, but... we already know Minami's mind?
The manga goes into the 250's, but it is Kazuya we lose in the 60's, struck by his car on the way to the prefectural finals, in order to save a child.
200 more chapters, and we see a sports series, where the only true rival is a ghost, and their memories, and grief. Tatsuya fights to be accepted by the Meisei team and take them to the Koshien, Minami eventually serves with the school in rhythmic gymnastics, and they have to pass through they grief to have any future with each other.
@apc It is an excellent overall series, and cemented Adachi's growth and maturity as a writer, and is worth the visit. (Especially for anyone really retro-enjoying.) It is... not easy to pursue, sadly, in manga or anime form. But we covered that already.
And yet, while I recommend it as "the baseball one to start with" if you're going to invest in Adachi, it's not even in my top three of his series. Even while ending on a hella-good movie.
But before we go to H2, I will drop hella-anisong
https://animethemes.moe/anime/touch/OP1-BDLyrics
https://animethemes.moe/anime/touch/OP2-BDLyrics
https://animethemes.moe/anime/touch/OP3-BDLyrics
https://animethemes.moe/anime/touch/OP4-BDLyrics
https://animethemes.moe/anime/touch/OP5-BDLyrics
https://animethemes.moe/anime/touch/ED1-BDLyrics
]https://animethemes.moe/anime/touch/ED2-BDLyrics
Watch Touch OP1 Version 1: Touch on AnimeThemes.
@apc H2's primary rivals, both in baseball and in love, are middle school friends now entering their high school years. No "event" kicks anything off, just... timing. And a quack doc.
Let me explain.
Pint-size Hiro Kunimi and childhood friend Hikari Amamiya (Adachi loves his pitchers almost as much as his childhood friends) were close, more like siblings, through elementary and beginning middle-school years. Though elementary, Hiro and his friend Atsushi Noda formed a pitcher/catcher battery skilled well beyond their years, and during middle school they are joined by powerhouse Hideo Tachibana, and form the core of a team that dominates their league.
They were SUPPOSED to continue that domination into powerhouse Meiwa Daiichi High School.
@apc Hikari took an interest in Hideo when they joined the same middle-school team, and Hiro winged that man to girlfriend bliss. The problem comes after hitting his growth spurt, and realizing his feelings for Hikari were just too slow. And she, understanding her feelings were deeply complex about Hiro as well.
The baseball split comes from a doctor, who during checkups for Hiro declares him "three months from tearing his elbow apart" and for Noda, a glass backbone that would suffer permanent damage from a catcher's pose.
Baseball-heartbroken, they seek out a school without any team at all. Hiro can still play soccer and Noda joins the swim team, but their talents and dreams are gone.
@apc Hikari goes to Meiwa as does Hideo, so their dating life continues apace, but her family and Hiro's are close, so they spend time together as well, and Hiro and Hideo remain fast friends as well, even if Hiro is listless, unable to pursue his pitching passions.
As it happens, the school he did attend (Senkawa) has no "team" but does have a "club" and they run afoul of the soccer team (which Hiro just joined) who wants to abuse them and drive them off any field use by humiliating them in a baseball scrimmage.
And sure, HERE we get some proper asshole-type villains.
Including a sore loser/rival pitcher from their middle school days, who gave up and joined the soccer team instead.
@apc But these are merely "serve a purpose/setup" kinds.
Hiro has already met and been attracted to the attitude of the baseball team manager, and through her the earnest-but-overrun players themselves who "just want to play" and while Hiro's skills were leaking out while he was on the soccer team side, he gets pissed at them and switches over. Noda, who was watching the game from afar, joins him.
They commiserate on the bench at intervals, not concerned with potential physical damage; they just want to put these assholes in their place, even just for one last game.
Hikari is summoned by way of memories as well, as she's been with them the whole time too, and can read Hiro like a book.
@apc Needless to say, with a lead-off grand slam from Hiro (the asshole Kine was loading the bases on purpose to humiliate them) and some follow-up from Noda, they bring the game close to even. At that point, the entire opposing team realized who they were but not QUITE what was going on.
Just pure glam.
And while the soccer team won the scrimmage, their role as "rivals" ends immediately. Kine will eventually join the Senkawa baseball team (and be levels of "comic relief" to start, with eventual excellent growth by the end), and the others were just there to be stomped.
Best Battery Boys find out soon after, however, that the doctor who treated them was a quack, and after they are re-examined, they are determined to be of optimal health. The baseball blood is back.
@apc Interestingly, this 338 chapter work gets quickly to a different kind of dynamic. Senkawa quickly forms into a powerhouse team around an experienced core, and trade championships around Meiwa (who have to reform in Hideo's second year to get their pitching up to snuff for his third).
A lot of time is instead spent around the romantic drama (Haruka is the fourth "H" to add to them, the manager of the Senkawa baseball team and heart in pulling them together, who takes interest in Hiro and who he much admires). Hikari is manager and aspiring sports journalist, and has the keenest eye and connection to all of them, and while the teams are rivals, it is Hiro and Hideo around whom it all revolves. Even while they maintain their close friendship.
@apc There is plenty of excellent baseball as well, but it's really the core characters' dynamic that draws me to it, and an ending that is often not interpreted well, but is mature and unexpected. More that Adachi delivers quite well.
One of my most-desired "Brotherhood" remake wishes. It had four cour in the mid-90's. It can come back. It SHOULD come back!
Link to this post if it comes back! đ
There is contrived silliness--it is a romcom and that is his style and all--but it's all a well-served treat.
(There are also some injuries and parental loss.)
Interestingly, another pattern with Adachi is that he doesn't hold any real importance in showing/winning the Koshien finals. All the important matchups are prior to that. But you never miss it.
AniManga Picture Challenge
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