Cross Game: Volume 5

by Mitsuru Adachi, 372 pages

Everyone's emotions are already stirred up due to the Koshien regionals, but life gets exponentially more complicated and stressful when they meet the daughter of the family opening the new soba noodle shop next door.

"Do ghosts get older, too?" Even Mr. Tsukushima drops whatever he's holding every time he sees her. How will this affect the slowly changing dynamics of the kiddos? I have to wait till January? I guess that's not soooo long.... *impatient grumble*

For more details, please check out my review of volumes 1-5 on NoFlyingNoTights.

Cross Game: Volume 4

by Mitsuru Adachi, 372 pages

Summer Koshien (the national high school baseball tournament) regionals are starting up and second-year Ko and the boys (since the girls, like Wakaba's year-younger sister and darn good pitcher Aoba, can't play in official games) gear up for the challenge to see how far they can get. But Ko had better watch out that he doesn't get beaten off the field as well as on when the Tsukushima girls' admiring cousin shows up and makes his intentions pretty clear.

Ah, competition. Makes you play a little more seriously, doesn't it? But first you have to admit you're even in the game. Hee hee.

Cross Game: Volume 3

by Mitsuru Adachi, 370 pages

It's another expendables vs. the official team match-up, but this time there's more riding on the outcome than the participants' pride.

Hee hee. Greedy, heartless, ambitious grown-ups beware, these kids play for bigger stakes than you can handle. Mean coach and his crony-in-a-suit are going to find they're out of their league (haha, sorry, couldn't help it).

Cross Game: Volume 2

by Mitsuru Adachi, 374 pages

Ko and the other kids on the "expendables" baseball team have a scrimmage game with the head-coach's hand-picked team supposedly to determine if any of them can make varsity, but the kids' goals are more about showing him up than showing him what they can do for him. So there, you jerk!

Just 'cause they don't win doesn't mean they don't "win." Muahahaha. Evil coach "Shades" and the interim vice-principal don't look quite so happy now, do they?

Cross Game: Volume 1

by Mitsuru Adachi, 572 pages

Fifth-grader Ko Kitamura's family's sporting goods store is just down the street from the Tsukushimas' batting center and coffee shop. The two families have always been connected by Ko and the Tsukushima's second daughter (of four), Wakaba, who were born on the same day in the same hospital. Indomitable Wakaba, convinced Ko will become an ace pitcher, takes it as a given that they'll transition into couplehood and Ko doesn't argue, transfixed by everything about her. But when tragedy strikes, Ko and all those left behind must learn how to move forward, taking upon themselves the responsibility of making sure their loved one's dream becomes reality.

Baseball, comedy, and impressively wrought depth. Pretty much wonderful, really. This first English volume contains the first three books of the Japanese series, which is good, because the reader needs to be able to move on from the sadness of the first book's conclusion as much as the characters do. And that's easier than you think it would be due to the thoughtful writing and hardwired-for-optimism personalities that fill the pages.

Saturn Apartments: Volume 3

by Hisae Iwaoka, 188 pages

The story unfolds in greater complexity as the reader's perspective expands in a slowly broadening radius out from Mitsu. What is the big picture, really? Who should we believe?

For more details on this quietly thoughtful series, please see my review of volumes 1-3 on NoFlyingNoTights.