Real: Volume 5

by Takehiko Inoue, 210 pages

Three lives linked by tragedy and basketball.

Hapless delinquent Tomomi Nomiya drops out of high school following a motorcycle accident from which he walked away but which left his passenger without the use of her legs. Never more than a mediocre student with a love of basketball, now he finds himself unemployed, directionless, and incapacitated by guilt. But when he stumbles upon a wheelchair basketball practice, he's inspired to challenge one of the players and maybe start facing his own demons.

Togawa Kiyoharu, once a star sprinter, has lost one of his legs below the knee due to a bone disease and is now trying to learn to love wheelchair basketball the way he once loved running. The pressure he puts on himself and his teammates is high, but so are the goals he's aiming for.

Takahashi Hisanobu is a popular student, top of his class, and captain of the basketball team. When an accident leaves him paralyzed from the chest down, he loses his identity and his faith in himself. Always a harsh judge of others, he turns his scathing criticism inward and is demoralized by what he sees. If he's going to face his physical hurdles head-on, he'll have to overcome his emotional ones first.

Strong character development is the heart and soul of this series. As the three young men deal with their pasts, presents, and as-yet-unknown futures, they have to dig deep to find the determination and confidence to move forward and to recognize and hold onto people they can trust, be they family, friends, physicians, or each other.

This is not a soft-edged, sugar-coated after-school special. These characters' lives and struggles are realistic and hard. They cry, they swear, they throw punches. The scenes of Hisanobu's grueling, humiliating physical therapy sessions are painful to witness. When Nomiya pushes through his debilitating fear to finally get his driver's license, you want to cheer. I've lost count of the number of times this series has made me cry. Luckily, there's also a healthy dose of humor (much of it thanks to earnest Nomiya's tactless honesty). And Inoue's expressive art is as realistic and affecting as the stories it conveys, with or without words.

A sportswriter and basketball fanatic, Inoue has written about the game before (in the long-running, teen action / comedy Slam Dunk), but here the sport takes backseat to the complex interior lives of the characters who love it and need it.

Real won an Excellence Prize at the 2001 Japan Media Arts Festival. The judges' citation stated that although they gave Inoue the award, what they really wanted was the next book. It's good. Read it.