1 Name: bang-bang : 2013-09-13 16:20 ID:GIRxjf2/ (Image: 768x480 jpg, 426 kb) [Del]
Experiencing a long streak of poor performances for several years in the Japanese professional football league, East Tokyo United hires Takeshi Tatsumi as manager to try to break the curse that seems to have fallen over the team. The task won't be easy as the teams pitted against ETU have bigger budgets and better players. However, Tatsumi is an expert at Giant Killing.
Unlike a lot of sports manga/anime, Giant killing is pretty grounded. Without stretching the limits of believability or using some superhuman power, the players' abilities are well within human limits and games are won instead with hard work and thorough planning. It's also not entirely about the players on the team, dealing with the club's management and its fans and supporters as well.
The story is about ETU, but also about Tatsumi, its manager. Tatsumi is an interesting protagonist, a lot of the things he says and does seem to be out of the left field, it's pretty hard for the characters (and for the reader) to get his motives at first. He gets very driven when aiming for victory, his ideas seem a bit insane sometimes, but in fact every risk he takes is a very calculated one. His regular mood though is very laid back and he barely gets phased by anything. He's exciting to watch and he likes to make matches exciting which is very entertaining to read.
I'm not particularly passionate about football/soccer, but I still really like this manga. So I think it's definitely worth checking out even if sports isn't really your thing.
2 Name: bang-bang : 2013-09-13 16:36 ID:GIRxjf2/ [Del]
I think this started as almost a review but I gave up halfway through.
I should stop talking, but another thing I really like about is that even though Tatsumi is introduced as a kind of eccentric genius, it's never really just about him and he doesn't like to think of himself as a big deal either. There's a lot of emphasis on teamwork and how everybody's particular skill contributes to making the club successful.
This is what it seems like to me anyway and I like this kind of level attitude much more than having one big hero taking all the glory, which is kind of what Tatsumi seems to be at first.
