ルーキーズ

ROOKIES

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
24
RELEASE
November 4, 2003
CHAPTERS
233

DESCRIPTION

Koichi Kawato is the new Japanese teacher at the ill-famed Futakotamagawa high school, whose baseball club is composed of thugs and bullies who have been suspended for a year from all school competitions, for causing a brawl during an official match. The newly appointed teacher finds that the club members left are only interested in women, smoking and doing nothing until, under Kawato's guidance, they discover a new dream called the Koshien. However, the road to the Koshien is far from easy as many obstacles await them.

CAST

Kouichi Kawato
Tomochika Wakana
Keiichi Aniya
Kei Shinjo
Toru Mikoshiba
Shuta Sekikawa
Shoji Akaboshi
Ikebe Kyoto
Tetsuro Yufune
Kiyooki Hiyama
Murayama Yoshio
Shinobu Imaoka

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO ROOKIES

ONE SHOT SportsRookies: Yume no Tsuzuki

REVIEWS

sakuyamons
80/100
sometimes all u need to switch your life around is someone who believes in you,and that's Kawato does for his students

"The Baseball team is here..to fuck you up!"

A really fun manga by the author of Rokudenashi Blues, Rookies is one of those stories where despite being a spokon (technically) it is not really about baseball, but rather is a story of mutual trust and how to gain it with baseball as a vehicle for this to happen.

Not to say this doesn't focus on sports, or that other sports series don't do the same thing - sports with the purpose of growth - because they do, and there is a lot of focus on Rookies baseball matches but the former delinquents could have pursued any other sport, be either football, basket, or karate. Other than the genius Aniya or Mikoshiba, they might or might not pursue baseball as a profession later, but that isn't the point. The point is how to motivate young students who felt they weren't understood, and how you do not attempt to change, judge them, or kick them out, but rather try to understand them because they are human too - just very young and bored.

The main character of Rookies is not a player, but rather, their coach. Kawato is a very interesting and positive teacher (someone who some would call a 'static' character as his development is completed by the time the series starts, and even then, I think he grows alongside his students). He doesn't know anything about baseball, a total rookie, and he is also new to this school due to an incident that happened on his past. He is relatively new to teaching too - in a school where most professors are jaded, cynic and downright mean to their students, someone who actually cares for the people he teaches was met with distrust and then eventually gratitude by the students. Despite being a good dude overall, he is kind of rash and unpredictable, and it sometimes doesn't end up well for him, but in times where his students need someone to stand up for them, he will be there for them. He even changes some of the fellow professors.

As the baseball players are usually an ensemble cast, a lot of them tend to be forgettable - it is a common theme in sports manga, not just in rookies, some people shine more than others just like real life - but the stars are definitely the genius Aniya who regains his passion, the hilarious Hiratsuka, Wakana and super fast and charming Sekikawa, and even the unsure Mikoshiba who end up having one of the best moments in the series.

However, there are some things that should be noticed - I think that the treatment of injuries was treated quite poorly, especially for young players, and it is one of the things where Kawato was arguably in the wrong here. I wish we had seen more of the teachers, especially as the latest ones have an old relationship with the protagonist, as Kawato's treatment of his students helped flip the baseball club reputation around, there was no reason for them to be as hostile to the students at the end of it.

Overall, I really liked the message of Rookies, sometimes all you need to switch your life around is someone who believes in you, and that's Kawato does for his students.
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SneedsGreed
30/100
I haven't read Onizuka yet, but I'm goddamn sure this shit's worse.
Genuine dogshit. The only reason to read is if you like to torture yourself, which is what I was doing until I got bored of doing even that. Pretentious as fuck. The main character is the worst self-insert character I've ever seen. At least these type of characters tend to get everybody jacking off to them by doing some level of busted bullshit, but this guy has it happen by supposedly being the only 'genuine' guy in the story. He's just insanely perfect and superhuman. Smart, educated, handsome, skilled at fighting, funny, and has all the girls after him. You'd think with how much the author likes to fellate himself about how much literature he reads, he might have enough of a sense of taste to know not to write juvenile horseshit like that. He pretty much gets all the delinquents to get their shit together with just sheer persistence, which leads to nothing interesting getting revealed about them. Teenagers who are this violent, and anti-social just have nothing going in their personal lives that could have led to them lashing out this way. They were bored, and because sports isn't boring they just do that instead. How this shit got 233 chapters is beyond me.

The arts looks good, but a lot of the characters look hideous at times. And not the on purpose goofy ugliness he does for comedy. But even in normal times Kawato just looks ugly. The art was what actually sort of had me thinking this might've been alright at the beginning. But it quickly stops being entertaining just due to plain repetition. He makes all the characters make the same damn goofy faces over and over again anytime Kawato says something 'cool' or weird (which he does on repeat the entire goddamn time.) The faces were neat at the start and but blegh. The paneling is stiff and boring. There isn't really much flow to it. There are several shots of just the ball because he doesn't have any idea on how to portray the ball speeding to the batter interestingly. The worst part about the visuals is how there's absolutely fuck all breathing room. He's so proud of his artstyle that everything is up the ass of every character. face shot, face shot, face shot, generic background shot with nothing interesting, face shot, face shot. And with the large assortment of characters the entire manga is just so claustrophobic because every panel is filled to the brim with bullshit.

The humor was the only alright part about it. Superhuman teacher against delinquents is funny. The part where Anya trashes his paper because he failed, but Kawato tapes it all back by had is funny. It just makes for pisspoor drama, especially at the hands of a guy who loves the sniff of his own farts and doesn't know how to write. That Hiratsuko shit got old really, really quick.

The worst part about all of this is the author still hasn't changed at all. The main character in his new manga is this savvy dude with a chiseled jaw line who likes books a lot. The very first chapter has a fat fuck teacher tell him, "books are for idiots, I don't read that shit" as the protag tells him "Books are cool bro!". And then followed by three different shots of the protagonist 'stylishly' sitting in his chair reading it in silence. I dunno, maybe he's grown self-aware and is riffing on himself, but ehhh.

This shit was just... lame.

And also the main character makes the Pixar-dreamwork eyebrow raise face the entire time:

Of all the things he could have stolen from the Americans, he picks that. For fucks sake bro come on!!
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Turcobandido
80/100
El valor de un educador que cree en ti.
Rookies es un manga que comienza como un drama de delincuentes. Aun a pesar de que su nombre y su premisa inicial asegura que se va a tratar el béisbol, nos encontramos con que sus primeros 50 capítulos se dedican a formar este mismo equipo de béisbol aprendiendo cada vez más de todos sus miembros. Es un equipo problemático, lleno de macarras que caen en todos los tropos posibles, desde el fumar a pelearse contra todo el mundo y el hacer pellas constantemente.

Pero Kawato es un protagonista 100% honesto. Es un profesor que realmente quiere ver que el potencial de sus alumnos se llegue a completar. Puede que sea algo tontorrón en muchas ocasiones y que dude de sí mismo, pero sigue siendo un adulto que realmente busca lo mejor de sus estudiantes y se preocupa por su educación.

El mayor punto de comparación en este sentido con otro manga es con "Great Teacher Onizuka". En esta última obra, Onizuka realmente no quiere ser un profesor. Entra dentro del trabajo por suerte y consigue ayudar a sus estudiantes a salir de situaciones francamente duras, pero Kawato en Rookies realmente se siente como un verdadero profesor que siente una vocación por los demás. Es un enfoque más realista a pesar de que al principio haya bastantes puñetazos soltados entre todo el casting de personajes. Adoro esta actitud optimista que se propaga por todos los personajes del manga.

El equipo de Futakotamagawa está lleno de personajes que se hacen notar. De un elenco de 12 jugadores al final del manga, todos tienen momentos de importancia, euforia, tristeza y de camaradería entre todos los jugadores. Aniya se hace destacar como el pitcher principal y como el "líder" de los macarras, pero aun así vemos poco a poco cómo otros jugadores como el capitán Mikoshiba, Wakana o Sekikawa hacen todo lo que pueden para ayudar al grupo. El elenco de todo el manga es excelente y no creo que haya un sólo personaje que sobre.

Dicho esto, cuando el manga empieza a ser un verdadero spokon de béisbol, realmente no deja caer el ritmo. Los partidos suelen ser largos y extensos y muy detallados, sin llegar a saltarse muchas partes. Por ello mismo, Rookies es un manga con tan sólo tres o cuatro partidos importantes a lo largo de toda su duración, pero tampoco es algo que me llegue a importar. El estilo detallado y sombreado de Masanori Morita funciona a la perfección para dar dramatismo a cada bateo y cada strike. La narrativa más detallada en la que a cada jugada se le ofrece su debido tiempo hacen que siempre esté lleno de tensión a la hora de ver el resultado final.

Ante todo, Rookies se siente como un manga sobre la importancia de la educación más que sobre el béisbol en sí. Realmente es donde consigue que se quede contigo, la conexión entre Kawato y todos sus estudiantes es lo que impulsa este manga. Kawato cree en el potencial de estos diamantes en bruto y los insta a mejorar y a creer en sí mismos a pesar de ser unos absolutos macarras al principio del manga. Es una relación que sustenta todo el manga y de la cual surgen conflictos y triunfos increíbles. La forma en la que Kawato, siendo tontorrón con muchas cosas, siempre es capaz de entender y ayudar a sus estudiantes con cualquier problema es una señal de su carisma y hace a este personaje simplemente irresistible. Dudo mucho de tu corazón si no te acaba molando Kawato.

Es una obra altamente recomendada. Un 8 alto (no me gusta dar 8.5 o 8.75 o tal en este tipo de apps). Si te gustan los mangas de deportes, este es un acercamiento más serio que sin entrar en los tecnicismos del deporte o el entrenamiento exhaustivo, sabe enfocarse en la fisicalidad del deporte y no se pasa de rosca con los hitos deportivos. Si te gustan los shonen, los personajes consiguen dar la talla y con su dramatismo saben aguantar muy bien toda la duración del manga. Igualmente, creo que es una lectura fácil para un montón de gente, que no introduce dentro de su lectura elementos que me echen para atrás teniendo en cuenta el mundo establecido. Si quieres ver un manga de deportes donde el enfoque es el entrenador y cómo ayuda a todo su equipo, ESTE es tu manga.
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