Article date: June, 2001

Real Author: Takehiko Inoue Manga: Volume 1 (still running)

F rom Takehiko Inoue, the author of the famous basketball manga Slam Dunk and the current samurai manga Vagabond, comes his latest offering - Real.

This is a basketball manga with a difference - it's about wheelchair basketball. Plus even though only the first volume has been released so far, it's making Top Ten Manga lists all over Japan.

The story starts off introducing one of the main characters - typical High school loser Tomomi Nomiya, and shows his - rather dramatic - expulsion from school (he strips off all his clothes and "relieves" himself at the school gate...).

He thinks that life is bad at high school - until he's out in the real world. He can't even seem to hold on to a job at the local karaoke place without messing it up. Life is becoming more boring for him - plus also now that he is not in school he's lost contact with the few friends he had - but much worse he's no longer able to play basketball - the most important thing in his life.

Plus there are other issues in Tomomi's life. He has a fear of driving as a result of a motorbike accident, in which the girl riding double with him ended up in a wheelchair. He finally visits her (Natsumi) in hospital and he is taking her out in her wheelchair for some fresh air when they come across a gym with a basketball court. Tomomi wheels her inside and there they see a guy playing basketball - in a wheelchair! Tomomi challenges him to a bit of one-on-one, and to his amazement the guy beats him. So he grabs Natsumi's wheelchair and tries to play - but again loses. But he manages to achieve one thing in his failure - for the first time since the accident he sees Natsumi smiling...

The guy in the wheelchair playing basketball is Kiyoharu Togawa. He has his own set of problems. He still finds it very difficult to adjust to his disability and although playing basketball is his life, he recently quit the wheelchair basketball team that he was playing for - because he felt that they weren't serious enough about playing and he doesn't want to play just for fun.

Somehow - mainly through Tomomi constantly pestering Kiyoharu - they end up training together, and then Tomomi involves them in a scheme to win money off of other kids, by challenging them to play Kiyoharu for money. This scheme is working fine - until two kids who got done out of some dough bring a friend to challenge Kiyoharu the next day - and to the guys surprise - he is also in a wheelchair. And a very muscular almost pro-player who basically whips the pants off Kiyoharu (and to my embarrassment speaks in a bad Australian accent as he is a returnee, having lived in Australia for study).

This hits Kiyoharu hard - makes it also makes him resolve to train more and he decides to re-join his old basketball team - much to the surprise of the cute young female coach.

And just when you thought that there was enough young male teenage angst going on - there is another story woven into the main thread - that of Takahashi Hisanobu. We first see Takahashi in a two-on-two basketball competition with Tomomi and Kiyoharu - which Takahashi and his partner lose.

Takahashi is pretty much the popular guy at school, whom the girls chase after, one afternoon he and a girl who likes him steal a bicycle and the owner chases after them. He pulls the girl off - and in the surprise Takahashi doesn't pay attention to where he is going - which unfortunately is right in front of a truck...

He wakes up after being in a coma, very very angry. He asks his Mum to straighten his legs - but tearfully she tells him that they are already straight. Takahashi then has to start to come to terms with the fact that he no longer has control over the lower half of his body and that he may never walk again. Looks like the school has lost another of their top basketball players...

26) Comic Party

24) Sister Princess