Real, Vol. 1

By Takehiko Inoue
Viz, 224 pp.
Rating: T + (Older Teen)

From Takehiko Inoue, creator of Vagabond, comes Real a series in which the lives of three boys, their trials, triumphs and failures are chronicled. The three heroes come from three different walks of life, but find their lives intertwining due to two common threads: a love of a basketball, and incidents that leave them (or a friend) without the use of their legs.

The story starts off a bit oddly, focusing on Nomiya, a huge goofball with a deep passion for the game of basketball. Unfortunately he ruined his chances with school and within the sport after getting into a motorcycle accident. While he walked away virtually unscathed, his passenger was not so lucky. He knows next to nothing about the girl, Natsumi. He just picked up on that unfortunate night, but since then he’s dedicated himself to trying to help her out and to be there for her. During one of his frequent visits to her at the hospital they encounter the wheelchair-bound Kiyoharu practicing basketball at a nearby gym. From there things start to happen fairly quickly: the encounter with Kiyoharu leads to an interest in wheelchair basketball, partly because Noyima is amazed at how good Kiyoharu is and partly because his one-on-one match with Kiyoharu ultimately resulted in Natsumi smiling for the first time that he can remember. (Unfortunately, it’s also the last time he gets to see Natsumi as she moves away shortly after.) As his friendship with Kiyoharu slowly grows, Nomiya begins to cook up various schemes to earn money so that he can go and visit Natsumi.

The plot feels a bit disjointed at first. It takes a little while before the two characters really click with each other and before their goals are made plain, though towards the end of the volume it seems like Nomiya is using his desire to visit the girl he crippled as an excuse to hang around with Kiyoharu more than anything.

The third major character, Hisanobu, actually starts off at the periphery of the story. When we first see him, it’s as an antagonist or supporting character, you might even think he’s a one off-character as he vanishes towards the middle portion of the book. When he reappears towards the end of the volume, Inoue uses this rather unlikable character to show a formerly athletic person going through the early stages of paralysis. Whether or not it’s enough to make him sympathetic is another question completely, it almost feels like karmic payback for his jerkish behavior earlier in the volume, not to mention his criminal behavior shortly before his own accident. Still, it’s an interesting move and it does give us a glimpse at the paralysis situation from another angle–the beginning–as opposed to Kiyoharu, who’s been in a wheelchair for quite a while.

The artwork is lovely and is just about everything I’ve come to expect from Inoue thanks to his work on Vagabond. While it’s a little rougher around the edges, it’s not enough to detract from the work or the storytelling at all. The same attention to detail, the expressive characters and their distinct facial features are all here and it’s all depicted wonderfully. Some might find the wheelchair basket ball bits a little lacking though, Inoue doesn’t really spend much time with them, giving the reader only the barest of glimpses instead. Personally, I rather hope that he gives more space over to them as the series goes on. I’d be curious to see how he’d handle a match that takes place over more than a couple of pages.

In the end, Real is another strong first outing from Inoue, and a nice addition to the Viz Signature line as well.

Volume 1 of Real will be available on July 15th.