#cross game

[kindwhispers]

Cross Game: Understanding grief, living around it, and pursuing dreams through baseball

I finished my first Adachi manga, Cross Game. And what a treat that was! I don’t think there’s any other mangaka who masterfully writes a good coming of age, slice of life sports manga with a balanced assortment of romcom, family, themes of grief & living around it & pursuing dreams through baseball. Of course, I have qualms about it, like Akane being a mere story device, without even the effort of shelling out her character other than being a spitting image of Wakaba & closing the distance between Aoba and Kou; it may not be a perfect manga to some— nevertheless, I’m still giving it a 10/10 because this is just so wonderfully written I feel like a 9 wouldn’t suffice.

Aoba & Kou’s relationship has always been reliant on subtext, and I think it is wonderfully executed! There were implications that they like each other, sometimes the people around them can bear witness to this. Of course, taking it with a grain of salt, could mean a lot of things. From Ichiyo reiterating how alike Aoba and Kou are, Momiji apologising to Wakaba, to Mizuki realising that the fixated hatred of Aoba towards Kou meant that she was always watching him.

Still, with its vagueness, it makes you think: when exactly did they like each other? Aoba, who is often reminded of her guilt for Wakaba, fixating on her strong feelings of ‘hatred’ towards Kou. Kou, who has always kept a façade & grieves in silence, learning that he can allow himself to love somebody without having to toss aside his love for Wakaba, accepting that it will always be a part of him, that she will always fill that void in his life. Nobody understands this as much as Aoba does, and Kou with Aoba.

Kou & Aoba, finally allowing both of their feelings to reach one another. Closing the distance between them yet still sharing the same love for Wakaba; both of whom remembers & carries & loves Wakaba the most: the two who understands each other, more than anything, more than anyone in the world.

To add, I feel like just had a eureka! moment for this one. I’ve just realised that Kou inviting Aoba to Wakaba’s grave before their last qualifier for koshien was him introducing Aoba to Wakaba as someone he likes in response to their dad’s assurance from before that he needs not to hesitate when he comes to like somebody else… I feel so unwell…

[sunshinepyl0n]

Carol of Hope.

Top to bottom, left to right

Nagito Komaeda - Ultimate Inventor

Mikan Tsumiki - Ultimate Anthropologist

Ibuki Mioda Soriano - Ultimate Astronaut

Kaito Momota - Ultimate Musician

Miu Iruma - Ultimate Lucky Student

Korekiyo Shinguji - Ultimate Nurse

Yasuhiro Hagakure - Ultimate Aikido Master

Kokichi Ouma - Ultimate Gambler

[punk-63]

[choujinx]

CROSS GAME (2005-2010) by adachi mitsuru

[jariten]

クロスゲーム (Cross Game), Mitsuru Adachi

[squirrelstothenuts]

[ghosthippie27]

[who-do-i-know-this-man-s3revived]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[messupeveryday]

some cross game fan art I drew last year…they are still my fav ship since 2019 T__T

[animepopheart]

is frieren any good?

The manga is sooooo good. I’ve been reviewing it as VIZ releases physical copies, and it’s become very possibly my favorite series—at least right up there with my other fav, Cross Game.

It’s a very gentle, moving, funny series, and one of the best meditations on friendship that I’ve ever seen or read. I really hope the anime adaptation does it justice.

[onehappyhungrydarkdragon]

No one will ever be avle to haunt a narrative like tsukishima wakaba

[duscarasheddinn]

I played MInePlay for the first time. It's a thing that allows Minecraft and Roblox to play on the same world, with things in one affecting the other. And by "Minecraft", I mean that both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition are compatible even at the same time.

Below the cut is screenshots I took of my in-game characters in multiple places at the same time.

Roblox looking at Bedrock Edition:

Bedrock Edition looking at Roblox:

Java Edition looking at Roblox:

Roblox looking at Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition looking at both Java Edition and Roblox:

Java Edition looking at both Bedrock Edition and Roblox:

Roblox looking at both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition:

[kouxaoba]

When did Kou and Aoba fall in love ?

I feel like this is the first question people ask themselves when they finish the series. I believe he was always in love with her, and I'd like to offer my interpretation based on different things that point to that. I'll be analyzing different events and interactions (mostly from the manga as I'm more familiar with it than the anime and well, because it's the source material).

The answer is in Wakaba's "do not take him away from me" : a person cannot be taken away by someone who does not want to be taken away. Wakaba here was already admitting that Kou liked Aoba and was acknowledging her as her rival for Koh's love. Her statement just doesn't make sense if she was confident Koh was as in love with her as she was with him.

Everyone always mentions how much Wakaba loved Koh but no one ever states Koh loved Wakaba. If the feelings were mutual, we would have more statements like "those two were so in love", but instead it's always "Wakaba loved him so much" or "Koh monopolized Wakaba". It doesn't make sense for the author to have the side characters constantly emphasize this point if the romantic love was mutual.

The closest Koh came to ever stating he loved Wakaba was in his conversation with Yuhei. Note that even this exchange starts with him saying "She was totally in love with me". Again, a strange way to talk about someone you loved that passed away. This is why Yuhei can't help but ask "were you in love, too ?".

The pause/silence followed by the "..." imo speaks volumes. Compare this to when Senda asks him if he likes Aoba and then he answers "yeah" straight away with no hesitation. And we know it's not a lie because he throws his pitch perfectly.

Back to the conversation with Yuhei, he follows Koh's answer by stating "dealing with you guys is tiring".

"You guys" here means Koh and Aoba. Again, it's little tidbits like these that jump out and make me question the author's intent. There is no reason for Yuhei to bring up Aoba and Koh in a conversation about Koh's love for Wakaba, unless being the perceptive character he is, he understood the hesitation in Koh's answer meant something else. Mind you, at this point in the story he hadn't spent that much time with them to fully grasp their complicated relationship, so imo this says a lot...

4. Koh and Aoba are the same : this is a statement that Ichiyo and Yuhei (the two most perceptives characters) kept repeating throughout the show. When Aoba admits that she has always "hated" him, we understand what she means is she always loved him. When Ichiyo says they are the same, it's not just in terms of personality but in terms of their feelings for each other. So if we believe Aoba love Koh from the beginning, so did he.

5. Their love/relationship is everlasting : during the flashback of them at the cemetery, they are seen fighting, throwing mud over two graves. The names on the grave are "Kudo" and "Takeda". Now I admit my Japanese is non-existent so take this with a grain of salt. But the "Ku" in Kudo means "long time, old, long-cherished" and the name Takeda is synonymous with hard work, resilience and determination, all things that remind us of our 2 protagonists, right ? I admit I could be reaching, but I can't help but feel like this isn't a coincidence, and it's the author telling us in a subtle way that these two hard-working people have been in love since the beginning.

The beauty of Cross Game though, is that Adachi Mitsuru wrote a very subtle work that is open to interpretation. I'm not claiming my interpretation is the only correct one btw, but I just love re-reading the manga because every single re-read I notice the dialogue, pauses may mean something else. At the end of the day it really doesn't matter when they fell in love just that they both love each other, probably "More Than Anyone in the World"... My heart flutters

[choujinx]

CROSS GAME (2005-2010) by adachi mitsuru

[jariten]

クロスゲーム (Cross Game), Mitsuru Adachi

[punk-63]