drtomoe123
Member
Okay, so I recently just got back from spending a year in Japan as an English teacher with the JET Program. While I was there, being around SO MUCH MANGA (that I couldn't read lol) got me thinking about trying to read more when I got back to America. I had collected a few series (Chobits, Fruits Basket, Rurouni Kenshin, DN Angel, Maison Ikkoku, Digimon, stuff like that) when I was in middle and junior high school -- I fondly remember blowing my allowance at a Waldenbooks buy 4/get 1 free sale during my monthly trips to see my dad in the city -- but I really disconnected from anime/manga when I left for college.
Now that I'm back home for a bit, I realized I left ONE unfinished series: Daisuke Higuchi's WHISTLE!, a Shonen Jump series from the late 90s. The gist of the series is that there's this little runt kid who loves soccer more than anything else in the world (but sucks at it) and wants to be the genuine best player (and person) that he can be and we follow his adventures with his junior high soccer team that he essentially builds using his honesty, sincerity, and sheer unwillingness to give up. Going into this series back in the day, I knew absolutely nothing about soccer aside from the year I spent playing as a kid but Whistle does such a great job at getting to you care about soccer simply because the main character, Sho, cares so much! My wife has delved into my childhood Fruits Basket volumes and, now that we've talked about it, Whistle! feels a lot like a shonen Furuba -- especially when it comes to pretty boys, inspiration, and the abundance of #realtalk. Sho, like Tohru, is a dreamer and he manages to change every single person he comes into contact with (while making himself a stronger/more empathetic person AT THE SAME TIME!!!) It's some beautiful stuff. Also, when I found out that the mangaka of Whistle is a woman (I originally heard Daisuke and figured it was a dude) it made so much sense and it made the series as a shonen even more cool for me.
I ended up scouring the internet to pick up the final volumes that I needed for cheap and I'm currently on my way through the series -- I'm on Volume 15 right now (out of 24, I think). While rereading, I had so many memories come back from when I had read the first half of the series over 10 years ago. I ran cross country when I was in high school and college and I was the kind of athlete who found some success after starting out and being really, really, really bad at what I was doing lol (aka coming in very last in races). SO Sho's drive and determination about giving soccer and his dreams his 100% effort always stuck with me and inspired me in real life -- it's crazy how good shonen can be with stuff like this! I'm going through a period of transition and having this series going through my head recently has really got me pumped about the future and where I'm going. This is the spirit of life, y'all!
Anyone else ever think about Whistle? Compared to other series like Prince of Tennis or Eyeshield or Slam Dunk or whatever, I never hear about it online very much. I know there's an anime for Whistle out there but I heard it doesn't end with the manga so I figured I'd just read it first and check it out later if I want to. Apparently there's a new manga series with new characters running, too??!
Also, on a whim, I've picked up the first half of Hikaru no Go to check it out once I finish Whistle -- I liked what I read in Shonen Jump and it's like the universe has been telling me to read it for a while now (while in Japan, a teacher gifted me with a HnG-branded go set and my ALT neighbor randomly had volumes 2-on (in Japanese) in his apartment...which we found right after I bought volume 1 at a store) so I'm excited about that.
Now that I'm back home for a bit, I realized I left ONE unfinished series: Daisuke Higuchi's WHISTLE!, a Shonen Jump series from the late 90s. The gist of the series is that there's this little runt kid who loves soccer more than anything else in the world (but sucks at it) and wants to be the genuine best player (and person) that he can be and we follow his adventures with his junior high soccer team that he essentially builds using his honesty, sincerity, and sheer unwillingness to give up. Going into this series back in the day, I knew absolutely nothing about soccer aside from the year I spent playing as a kid but Whistle does such a great job at getting to you care about soccer simply because the main character, Sho, cares so much! My wife has delved into my childhood Fruits Basket volumes and, now that we've talked about it, Whistle! feels a lot like a shonen Furuba -- especially when it comes to pretty boys, inspiration, and the abundance of #realtalk. Sho, like Tohru, is a dreamer and he manages to change every single person he comes into contact with (while making himself a stronger/more empathetic person AT THE SAME TIME!!!) It's some beautiful stuff. Also, when I found out that the mangaka of Whistle is a woman (I originally heard Daisuke and figured it was a dude) it made so much sense and it made the series as a shonen even more cool for me.
I ended up scouring the internet to pick up the final volumes that I needed for cheap and I'm currently on my way through the series -- I'm on Volume 15 right now (out of 24, I think). While rereading, I had so many memories come back from when I had read the first half of the series over 10 years ago. I ran cross country when I was in high school and college and I was the kind of athlete who found some success after starting out and being really, really, really bad at what I was doing lol (aka coming in very last in races). SO Sho's drive and determination about giving soccer and his dreams his 100% effort always stuck with me and inspired me in real life -- it's crazy how good shonen can be with stuff like this! I'm going through a period of transition and having this series going through my head recently has really got me pumped about the future and where I'm going. This is the spirit of life, y'all!
Anyone else ever think about Whistle? Compared to other series like Prince of Tennis or Eyeshield or Slam Dunk or whatever, I never hear about it online very much. I know there's an anime for Whistle out there but I heard it doesn't end with the manga so I figured I'd just read it first and check it out later if I want to. Apparently there's a new manga series with new characters running, too??!
Also, on a whim, I've picked up the first half of Hikaru no Go to check it out once I finish Whistle -- I liked what I read in Shonen Jump and it's like the universe has been telling me to read it for a while now (while in Japan, a teacher gifted me with a HnG-branded go set and my ALT neighbor randomly had volumes 2-on (in Japanese) in his apartment...which we found right after I bought volume 1 at a store) so I'm excited about that.
