THE DEMON especially sports and martial arts manga, until in the action and morality of the martial arts. BALL: but also loving sons, protective brothers, and SPORTS MANGA, VISUAL DYNAMISM, earnest upholders of justice, sometimes spending as many panels parrying punks with judo tosses and karate chops or solving crimes as they do AND THE MAKYŪ are described as “hot-blooded” (nekketsu) on Ryan Holmberg their covers and title pages, a descriptor used It was not until the end of the decade, however, and fantasies of the ball itself while being thrown When reading about Japanese sports manga— hypermasculinity, self-abnegating masochism, and from the same “hot-blooded” crucible that of which there are countless, and their variety bloodsport action of manga under the sway of birthed supokon seven or eight years later. legion—the term you come across most often is supokon. In some cases, even “kamikaze baseball”— or “kamikaze volleyball,” or “kamikaze soccer,” as something like “sports spirit” or “sports grit.” and so on—would be appropriate. The genre can It is a name used for sports manga featuring be, as you will see below, truly over-the-top. recognize two additional developments within Kaizuka Hiroshi, (1958-63) (May 31, 1965), cover featuring Kazumine Daiji and Fukumoto Kazuya, (1963-65) Chiba Tetsuya and Fukumoto Kazuya, (1961-62) sadistic training regimes, iron friendships forged in the crucible of cutthroat competition, young Though a household word in its home country, Inoue Kazuo, Bat Kid (1948-49) . It stars a pitcher for champions who would rather perish than let “supokon” is familiar to few manga and anime and projectiles that move impossibly, invisibly fast credited with shifting the default star character who would go on to draw the cult boxing manga in that sense, is often inherently nationalistic. down their families, coaches, or teammates, by virtue of years-long ascetic training, supernatural in baseball manga from batters to pitchers. The ( Chikai is ripped and raging bodies, and bombastic “spirit,” are also doppelgangers of the eye. powers, and magic-like tricks. There are humorous eponymous “windy pitcher” of the title is Kuriyama launches balls through boards like projected important beyond its foundational position within Chikai stars Ninomiya Hikari, a young pitcher game play. It is not uncommon that athletes in impossible pitch, hit, kick, smash, or spike that baseball manga starring ninja, samurai, and folk karate chops, and sends the catcher hurtling the history of baseball manga. Within that genre, (an homage to Fukui’s Igaguri) means Chestnut into the backstop with his fastballs, leaving his it is lauded for its naturalistic rendering of bodies play again. Sometimes they even die there. its receiver, grinds down its sender, and around with baseball manga. 1 The term itself dates to most famously Terada Hiroo’s Mountain Chestnut Boy. His nickname, Kurikuri, hand throbbing and bloody. The “black secret in motion and its sensitive articulation of the main knuckleball whose speed and spin creates a mini which much of the narrative and visual drama of is the onomatopoeia for spinning. Kaizuka’s characters’ internal feelings and interpersonal whirlwind behind the ball, causing it to pause
As an ethos, supokon has its roots in the Meji many ball sports manga, and especially baseball baseball was introduced to Japan, as a catchall many scenes of impossible pitches with crazy so fast that it splits to appear as multiple balls, relationships—features that weren’t unknown in manga, are constructed, even from before the name for off-speed pitches, from curveballs to popularized by the manga of Shirato Sanpei in names and animated by racing, curving, spinning, the rear one casting a shadow on the leading downward or upward depending on the direction supokon era. As far as ball sports are concerned, breaking balls and knuckleballs. In manga, it and exploding FX are clearly indebted to the one, turning it black, drawing the batter’s eye, of the rotation. Though its physics are fantastic, physical and moral character training of boys in the ultimate goal of the notorious blood, sweat, usually refers to radical, fantasy variants of these suspense-driven breakdowns and impossible and making him swing at a phantom. While the (girls’) manga, where gracefully delineated poses Chiba depicts Ninomiya’s pitch conservatively: preparation for their military service as adults. It and tears of supokon is to transform the body pitches. Caricatures, short strips, and side episodes are more and personal intimacy are central. This realism simple motion lines, tame motion sounds, and a corresponds to the idea (oft-repeated in exoticizing and soul of the athlete into a machine capable of in serialized manga featuring baseball date back cinematic breakdowns of gekiga (literally “dramatic is skilled at judo and his teammates sometimes extreme than those in , they are is reinforced by featuring actual professional bit of vibratory linework and elliptical distortion to accounts of Japanese sports philosophy) that spirit achieving or countering demonry in the ball. As pictures”), a visually oriented style of comics that wield bats like bokken (wooden practice swords), also given careful (if nonsensical and bogglingly Japanese baseball players as main characters in let you know the ball is moving in an exceptional and dedication mean more than inborn talent the US-led Occupation, multi-page comics and originated in mystery and violent gangland action so many of his rivals have names derived from complicated) explanations, in the vein of Shirato’s the story, namely shortstop Nagashima Shigeo, in achieving excellence. As a genre in manga, designed to defeat evil rivals to a form of serials focusing on baseball proliferated almost comics for late teens and young adults within the homerun king Oh Sadaharu, and coach and later on—a knuckleball that seemingly splits magic capable of making dreams come true: immediately after the war, the most beloved being kashihon (rental book) market in Osaka, versus the them Miyamoto Musashi, Tange Zazen, and also more naturalistic and the FX and breakdowns former slugger Kawakami Tetsuharu, all of the making it to the pros, besting the pros, besting Inoue Kazuo’s wholesome (Batto kun, more “cartoony” modes preferred by mainstream more dramatic and cinematic, presaging the larger, stronger foreign players. It is also around magazine publishers in Tokyo. Broadly speaking, is simply called the “dropcurve” ( ), synthesis of the bombastically fantastic and in baseball manga before (there are also many zigzagging motion and that the actual ball can be associated originally with writer Kajiwara Ikki, who the mad, magical, unhittable, unreturnable, everyday happenings, small achievements on the if supokon can be characterized as judo and his rivals’ pitching and batting tricks have hyper-visual with the palpably corporeal that short biographical manga about star players), channeled said Imperial Age philosophies and a names matching their swordsmen namesakes, only with Chikai is the young fan fantasy of being
personal preference for martial sports into scripts variously with hyper speed lines, freeze frames, ball—with the two sides smashing together like the Unsheathing Throw ( ) and the able to play against and even defeat the pros for manga and illustrated stories about boxing, stroboscopic layering, extreme deformation, they are usually just small circles with conservative into a mixed sports and martial arts free-for-all Sparrow-Dropper Swing ( ). comicalizations of and other tokusatsu depicted as somehow believable and achievable. wrestling, and judo, as well as team ball sports, and markers of splitting, cloning, and invisibility— wakes trailing them. Swings are simple swooshing whenever realism withdraws as a balancing force. that it disappears on its way to the plate and is that some of the wildest visual experiments in arcs, hits believably wooden cracks, and missed The popularity of led to numerous other magic at the heart of the everyday, it radiates with learned from a bearded hermit who trains in a and “samurai baseball” have been sidelined for the Kaizuka Hiroshi’s Before , Fukumoto the promise to make the impossible possible, cave in the mountains. Though series like The Orientalist exaggerations they are when speaking becomes the point at which visuality itself, the further than they ever could in reality, but they ( scripted another baseball manga for which means not just ascending to the pros, chose to go the other way about baseball as it has actually been played in acts of seeing and representing, is challenged: rarely assume a dynamic life of their own or Book and its successor (the precursor writer Fukumoto Kazuya’s Chiba Tetsuya’s (Wish but further, as in Chikai
Japan, they remain workable descriptions for the sharpening it, transcending it, or even destroying existentially change the players around them. to ) is regarded by many to (
Ryan Holmberg Ryan
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And so, not surprisingly, it to its fetishized position in popular Japanese “ and their (male) coach’s spartan methods that volleyball team’s hardcore training regimen largely due to news coverage of the women’s sports wasalientomost Japanese. Itwas, infact, debut), the mere idea of competitive female ( theOrient” of volleyball team—known popularly as the “Witches tennis occasionallyinschoolteenromances dancing and ballet had featured centrally in supokon’s entry into girls’ comics. While ballroom love in bromance, and paternalistic and brotherly tough ironic that the focus on bodily contact, passionate retrograde models of masculinity, it may seem Considering Kajiwara’s reputation for reinforcing would interpret asfascistic, BDSM, orboth. throwing up images and tropes that later artists aggressive. Without ever becoming sexual, it heart. As the manga progressed, it got more serving as an extension of the hand and the wrestling, Inspired by grappling sports like judo and dotted-line connectingtwobodiesandsouls. bat or body. It creates a chronophotographic leaves the pitcher’s hand and reaches the batter’s missive by stretching out the process by which it rival-cum-friend. What the slow-motion breakdown physically and communicate their superiority as a aims primarily not to escape its recipient (like with ”—the “kon” (spirit) of “supokon”—ascended (as in most other baseball manga), from Star of the Giant the of Star Attack No. 1 Star of the Giants Giants the of Star missive (1968-70) rather thanjusta Star of the Giants the of Star s paved the way for )—won gold at the Star of the missile on the . It to the national championship, turning arch enemies her health. But her competitive spirit cannot be middle school after stress and overwork has ruined a volleyball prodigy who transfers to a non-elite character Ayuhara Kozue is a brilliant student and by a TV anime series and copious merch. Lead second), with the woman’s volleyball team’s return at the Urano Chikako’s roller skating, and handball titles by artists both Urano, andtennis, pingpong, skiing, speedskating, many othersports storiesinthe serialsandone-off Inspired by eyes in horror or pain, and thereby forcing them self-worth, making them wince and shut their ball threatening todestroy theplayer’s senseof the difference between winning and losing, the point when seeing and reacting deftly becomes the girls’ twinkling galactic eyes—marking the no explained reason) turns black—blacker than hit super powerfully or dangerously, the ball (for There’s also an interesting tension between the the school’s ballet club; a Russian rival later trainsvolleyball team to perfect her somersaults with derived from ballet. (Ayuhara absconds from the for or engaged in action and by pinwheeling stunts tapering legs, which are further emphasized by speedthat echotheplayers’long,of exposed, their trajectories traced by taut white ribbons No. 1 and men. The dominantformalmotifsof ricocheting balls, creating anaudiovisualrhythm and applies it to frantically jumping bodies and tennis manga after it, takes this aesthetic of grace Attack No. 1 accouterments, mostovertly indancingscenes. slow-motion display of moving bodies and their fashion to relation “style pictures” ( graceful and stylish bodies through full-body in Japanese pop culture, but also by a focus on have become global stereotypes for “girliness” barred spirit of boys’ sports manga, it does so of originality The close topatterns setby distortion, and slow-mo afterimages. Hemming slight vibration, ball lines, speed simple exceeds Whirlwind Drop ( Spinning Serve( ( given exciting names like the Lightning Spike more blazing serves, nimble saves, and thunderous declarations that “spirit” triumphs over all, and heated sports, debates aboutthemeaning of abusivetraining,passages of frenemy showdowns, by theway), previously drawn asoftball mangafor Clearly shapedby world championships (as they did in Mexico), but Team losing by a hair to the Russians at the story ends with Ayuhara on the Japan National Soviet Junior National Team along the way. Theinto allies and impressing college teams and the are orbsandtubes:ballssmashedintoovals, , executed by three sisters), the Reverse Attack No. 1 Attack No. 1 , like numerous other volleyball and Attack No. 1 ), the Thunderbolt Attack, (i Attack No.1 tatsumaki otoshi Attack No. 1 croquis Star of the Giants the of Star is credited for fueling the Chikai ’s success, success, ’s races ahead with , so-called due to their ( is that, while , Ayuhara’s , involving ), and the (Urano had nazuma Attack ran , , later perfected asthe Thunderbolt Drop ( Demonic Curveball Serve( resistance springs while balls are hurled at their weighted shoes and being tied to trees with absurdly brutal training regimes that include she and her teammates submit themselves to pro company sports team (a real thing), where school, obsessively toward it. Shejoinsasemi- motherat went into debt to put attack her through heart thea sport, then, oncefrom she learns thatdies her single sister elder Yumi’s Talk about melodrama! Lead character Asaoka is a testimony to how dynamically synthetic bootstrapping working-class heroes. The manga cartoon linework, supokon masochism, and intrigue, and extended interior monologue, as “style pictures,” acrobatics, catty schoolyard suspenseful breakdowns, enrapt eyes, and Bunko are evidentin gekiga for the kashihon publisher Hinomaru manga artist for years, his beginnings drawing The best known is artist Mochizuki Akira and manga. volleyball own their create to racing success of No. 1 boys’ magazine, commenced. But more immediately, the Attack No. 1 V for Victory! (1968-70) ( , with its , founded inazuma Attack . , , ), “friendship, effort, victory”( synonymous with in a sports deathmatch genre that was immensely gekiga andparodic supokon bombast, resulting and superhero players, souping it up with hyper melodrama, realistic as the leading arena for bombastic sports and manga bothandtheseriesthat established Astros The manga periodical. Important to outstripped injury that has unleashed cancer across her match, during which she exacerbates a shoulder Saunders, however, dies after a championship violence on and off the court. Her teammate June survives the manga despite some pretty intense paneling, on theinherent stasisof reminiscent of stops momentarily in the air: an interesting play will spike the ball. Yumi also develops a spike abovethat the net, vanishing like ninja to obscure who which Asaoka and a teammate jump and crisscross also theDemonic X Attack ( downward and slamming into the court. There’s almost to the ceiling before rocket zigzagging serves the ball backwards over her head, it sailing otoshi ( The Astros The ’s famous motto of of motto famous ’s as the top-selling asthetop-selling revives the spirit of revives thespiritof Chikai ’s apotheosis . Asaoka ), in ). Team, composed of the vengeful offspring offspring vengeful the of composed Team, Japan: the eight (going on nine)-time champion On their rise to world domination, the Astros and karate master, bats brilliantly and holds down manga, one of the Astros, a former racecar driver precision, run lightning fast, and hurtle each other blazing tri-curve pitches, smash balls with pinpoint century adventure classic their bodies at birth (an idea inspired by the 19th birthmarks, the result of stellar orbs lodging inside are recognizable by their baseball-shaped of assembling this dream team, whose members death, Sawamura imparts toaFilipino boythetask capable of beating the MLB. Before his banzai There, he has a dream of nine players all born on career cut short by being drafted into the military is alsoaghostpresence inChiba’s behind conceit The The Astros The The Astros The Astros , but done in a far more Hakkenden (1972-76) (1972-76) is as wonderful and Chikai ). They throw ), has his you mightnotreturn homewhole. watch So, next timeyouread asports mangaor stereotypical features Japanese popculture. of lodging themselves in the global imagination as comics and animation, berserk sportsmen and engine in the global ascendancy of Japanese magazine and its “media mix” became a central and more reserved, less testosterone-driven manga foryears, evenasromcoms, gagspoofs, “hot-blooded” supokon masculinity and super Bizarre Adventure Masami ( Hiramatsu Shinji( bandageswhilehehits. belly withawrap of game-tying grand slam, keeping his guts in his (ritual self-disembowelment) before smashing a spine. Another Victory player commits seppuku out the batter, but paralyze him by drilling into hislike a Buddhist rosary and is designed not to strike his jugular explodes. His signature pitch spirals pitcher is a former kamikaze pilot who throws until multiple players dead and crippled. One Victory Their deathmatch with the Astros—“a return to the leader with the Nazi salute and cries of “Fuhrer!” Yukio’s paramilitary Shield Society, and hail theirwearing uniforms resembling those of Mishima into lethal missiles. They show up to the stadium on—who hone their skills to turn all pitches and hits and martial arts—boxing, sumo, karate, track, andteam so composed of the champions of various sports slumber. To destroy the Astros, he assemblesand a jolt Japanese youth out of their spineless to massacre his Astro brothers to create a shock status as a license to induce helter-skelter, vowing Though born to be one of the nine baseball carries acopyof has a giant portrait of Hitler behind his desk and to the neo-rightist foundations of Kajiwara’s The manga’s climatic match is an absurdist homage mid-pitch tonailtheballintoscoreboard. escapes death by achieving nothingness, then batter by smashing into their head. Kawakami cyclone then crawls up the bat to murder the of former players used up or crippled by the out (June 10, 1974), coverfeaturing ), The Astros The , and Araki Hirohiko ( Hirohiko Araki and , ’s circulation eclipsed inhisbellywarmer. ) that generates a The Astros ensured that ), Kurumada stars like (Tokyo: Futabasha, 1991), and Yonezawa Yoshihiro, Natsume Fusanosuke, in this essay generally follows those narrated in 1 www.mangaberg.com. This essay was specially A full bibliography of his work can be found at Decade Talent he isalsotheauthorof Osamu’s Tezuka and New York Review Comics. Hiseditionof on over two dozen different books with such an editor and translator of manga, he has worked the University of Tokyo, among other schools. Astranslator. He has taught at Duke University and Holmberg Ryan Chiba Tetsuya andFukumoto Kazuya, , 1964-1973 Kawasaki NoboruandKajiwara Ikki, is an arts and comics historian and The Translator Without (1961-62) Star of theGiants Star of
l, (1966-71)
ARTSPEAK ESSAYS