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Mar 31, 2012 3:37 AM
#1

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Feb 2008
5563
THIS IS A MANGA ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS ANYTHING BEYOND THIS CHAPTER.
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Didn't really like the way it ended. It reeks of premature cancellation :/

Decent series overall though.
Apr 22, 2012 9:53 PM
#2

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Sep 2008
1836
I don't believe it had a premature end, but then not much was accomplished either. They did a decent job of showing Sho's growth, although even that was a little sketchy. They never really got into the technical aspects of how he preformed but more of his willpower and determination.

Reading all 216 chapters in one setting made me realize one thing. I read the same story/fight/game around 3-10x. The matches seemed almost repetive and I never got fully into the characters. I was always rooting for Sho and I started to enjoy the additions of Tatsuya and Shigeki but I never got into the other characters and their development was lacking. Heck, until they got into more of Tatsuya's background I didn't even enjoy him as a character. Things started to pick up with the side chapter showing Tatsuy and Shigeki's past together and why Shigeki left the soccer club the first thing.

With that all said I did enjoy the series. It was a refreshing sports series from the 1990's and I don't doubt the time I spent in it. For the ending I'm a little disappointed but I couldn't expect much more. For the plot development it wasn't going anywhere. I either expected this or he was drafted to the J-League and was playing there until he meets all his friends again. By getting him injured and then recovering just goes with his character that he always shows full determination. What did upset me a little was the scene where he says he would rather die/lose his leg then not being able to play soccer. While very touching, on a personal level it made me love Sho and also hate his character to be that so engrossed that he would think about ending his life because of it. Although that scene kept getting me mixed feelings.

Again it was an enjoyable series and I do recommend it for some quick reading.

p.s. I forgot to mention with my discussion with the loss of plot development. They leave out so much character information and potential plot information and keep plowing straight ahead. This does go with the theme that its a shounen series and not much more deeper one. Do the fights not the full meaning aspect.
Jan 21, 2015 10:11 PM
#3

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Nov 2009
14588
Hrmmm, the series was "okay", it wasn't great our groundbreaking, but it wasn't a hopeless mess either. Too be honest I would call this a "generic" sports manga. By that I mean it really did have just what you would expect from a sports manga, nothing more and nothing less. I am probably of the part that says it felt "incomplete" . . . Or rather, with such a long series it is odd that it didn't continue on into his return from Germany, or even cover his time in Germany, but it did stop at a reasonable place (whether it was the intended stopping point or not). Anyways, I would give this series a 6/10.
Jun 16, 2017 11:11 AM
#4

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Aug 2013
2073
I found this manga to be very "well-executed", it was competently made, stayed true to it's main theme's and did a fairly good job at fleshing out a small handful of it's rather large cast. Even after finishing it I'm still not really sure how to feel about Sho as a main character, I liked him, but there was just something off about the way he inspired like almost everyone he met, not exactly like a self-insert but something fairly close. Overall I'd give this series a solid 7.5, it had a lot going for it, a lot of the games where fun to read, and it was pretty clear the Mangaka had a huge passion for her work and tried really hard to make a quality product.

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May 20, 2017 8:52 AM
It’s time to ditch the text file.
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