By Dustin Cabeal

I was surprised by this series. I had seen all the hype around the anime and how it had already become a huge franchise, but when I sat down and read it for myself. Well, I loved it. I tried the anime, didn’t love that as much, but the manga was surprising.

It didn’t feel like the regular sports genre series in the least bit. Sure, it still had some key elements in that it picked a sport that’s not always common to high school and then when into an impressive amount of detail about it. But the story setup and the main character were presented in such a way that you could relate to this character. I couldn’t put it down and promptly picked up more, especially after the first volume left on a goddamn cliffhanger. I’ve never been more pissed at a cliffhanger than I was with the first volume, but it was good that it made me feel so strongly.