The Stagnation of Shonen Sports manga

Sports manga are a stable in the manga industry. They feature in shonen magazines as well as seinen and possibly at times even shoujo and josei. Of course, they vary significantly to match the respective demographic of the magazine they pander to. However, why is this the case? why are sports manga so common place? There is many reasons for that but the most important is how prevalent sport is as a form of entertainment be it as a viewer or as a participant. Therefore, it is inevitably a great source for stories especially in a visual medium like manga where its action can be crafted into a fluid way for the reader. 

The focus on expressing the action of the sport in clear way feels more important than the story itself at times, especially in shonen sport series. These series embody a singular spirit of sports which best helps it create a story about portraying the sport in various flashy or over the top ways. This singular spirit being the one of competition. These manga are blatant about this as they often have story lines focused around the main character by himself or team depending on the sport trying to get better and better. Of course, getting better entails becoming successful which means winning competitions and its precisely the competitive aspect that shape stories in most shonen sports manga. 

This focus on competition and the simple story structure that originates from it allows the author to explore the expression of the sport through the art as well as the emotions of the participants. It can be  passionate and rather flashy at portraying this and thats where the 'feel' of shonen sport manga lies. What is the significance of this? when it comes to sports manga this singular focus on the competitive aspect and portraying the sport through the art that dictates the story, hence the story is usually empty and mediocre and a lot of shonen sport manga author have grasped onto this. 

Yowamushi Pedal Vol 13 - Yen Press

One example of this is Yowamushi Pedal. The setting of Yowamushi Pedal is rather simple, the main character has through his hobby developed an ability for cycling. His deep involvement in his hobby means he does not have a lot of friends though his ability for cycling gets him scouted for the cycling club and from there on the story develops. He gradually makes friends with his club mates and with them he seeks to become a better and better cyclist. 

The story is simple and one might believe this is a story about a introverted boy coming out of his shell through participating in sport. However, I believe you would be wrong to think that. In essence Yowamushi Pedal is a manga about competitive road race cycling, the initial set up and story of a boy coming of age serves the competitive sport theme of the manga not the other way around. This might seen to be a pointless distinction but it is rather important because the story is secondary to the sport aspect which means its often thoughtless and undeveloped. It only serves as a base to allow the author to explore the competitive aspect of 'improving oneself' with 'passionate' scenes. This is to some extent he basis for many shonen manga in general and I might touch on this another time.

You might say what is the problem with the sport covering the most part of the manga? It is not a problem per say and uts are a respectable way to create a simple story to explore the competitive 'get better' attitude. However, this means the story is always subdued and barebones because all the characters play into this competitive theme and rivalries and friendships also are embedded as parts of the former as well, they are not really things added to develop the characters of built onto the story. The prevalence of this in shonen sport manga has meant the genre is rather stale and it lives of powerful and stylish expressions of sports and the themes of competition, whilst the story and setting only serve to feed into this. This has led to a stagnation of the genre with almost no titles bringing any sign of innovation in recent times, of course part of this is partly also caused by the conformity of mainstream shonen magazines which is the topic for another post in the pipeline. 

Major Vol 1 - Shogakukan

Major is series with a story set up that might lead people to think it is not driven in the singular way as I have described.  However, the set up of the story just feeds into the latter as it serves mostly as a motivation for the main character to play baseball. The motivational factor is important to drive a sport manga but its not continuous and the manga is mostly going from one baseball match to another. The stage changes as the main character grows from elementary school to high school and he meets new people and develops friendships. However, these moments are weak and really are a small matter in comparison to the baseball matches. 

A good example 

Touch Vol 1 - Shogakukan

Touch is an example of shonen sport manga that stood out as it used the sport and embedded it into a story. The story can stand alongside the sport and whilst it still has a focus on competition because the story has more meat, the package all together more polished and has more to offer. This can happen because the series does not hesitate to spend time away from matches or even practice, the competitive sport theme of the manga feeds into the story it does not dictate it. It does not need to base its whole identity towards the theme, so it can explore other themes more effectively and also tell a more meaningful and deeper story. It is not caged and doomed to be just another story that treads the same path as other sport manga.  Other works by Adachi Mitsuru also do the same thing and perhaps other sport manga authors should look to him for inspiration.