COMICS REVIEW / Beautiful Game, middling manga
Stephen Taylor / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Whistle
By Daisuke Higuchi
Translated by Naomi Kokubo
20 volumes and counting
Viz Media, 182-216 pp and 7.99 dollars each
Like Captain Tsubasa, who inspired a generation of Japanese soccer players in the 1980s–including a certain Hidetoshi Nakata–and Roy of the Rovers, who was required reading for any teenage fan of the round-ball game in the ’70s, Daisuke Higuchi’s Whistle is sure to find a place in the hearts of a new generation of soccer players.
Originally published in 24 volumes in Japanese, with the 20th volume in English published last month, this story of how a young boy pursues his dream of becoming a professional soccer player is a good read, with good graphics and an engaging plot.
The story opens in 1998, with the Japanese national team preparing to make its debut at the soccer World Cup. Sho Kazamatsuri, a soccer-mad middle school student, has transferred to a new school, Josui Junior High School, from a prestigious private school, Musashinomori, simply because he was unable to command a regular place in the soccer team.
His move doesn’t turn out to be as smooth as he imagined, especially when his new schoolmates mistakenly assume he is going to bring some star quality to their first XI.
Higuchi takes readers through the trials and tribulations of Sho’s rigorous training schedule and introduces a range of characters who all impact on our young hero’s aspirations.
The star of the struggling Josui team is Tatsuya Mizuno, whose father is the coach of the Musashinomori team, and Sho and Tatsuya form the core of the team from the beginning. They are joined by a former professional soccer player, Soju Matsushita, who agrees to coach the team, and Ko Kazamatsuri, Sho’s elder brother.
There is plenty of drama provided by the numerous games that Sho participates in, and it is interesting to follow his progress as he works harder and harder to overcome his lack of natural ability.
He is rewarded for all his hard work by getting selected to join the Tokyo Select Team that will head to South Korea to face a Seoul Select Team, giving Higuchi the chance to show readers the correct way to eat yakiniku and even make a comment on how Japanese perceive South Koreans, when one of the Tokyo players says: “Because he speaks fluent Japanese, he doesn’t look like a [South] Korean to me. He isn’t that different from us.”
A few pages later though, the sight of a group of tough-looking locals cooing over a pile of Namie Amuro, Speed and Morning Musume merchandise reinforces the stereotype that Japanese culture rules across the Sea of Japan.
The most irritating aspect of Whistle, though, has to be the English explanations of various aspects of soccer.
A brief outline of the game of soccer at the beginning of Volume 1 is not too bad, but by Page 84 the cracks are beginning to show. The Brazilian World Cup star Ronaldo is described as playing for a team in Italy called “Intel,” rather than “Inter,” while England’s Alan Shearer has transformed into “Shiarrah.”
If this is an attempt to avoid breaching copyright, how does that explain the correct spellings of Spain’s Raul and Nigeria’s Kanu?
As these are all foreign words, perhaps they could be excused, but when a Japanese player is described as playing for the “Yokohama Antlers,” and when other J.League teams include “Abispa,” “Espal” and “Leisol,” I’m sure that fans of Yokohama F Marinos, Kashima Antlers, Avispa Fukuoka, Shimizu S-Pulse and Kashiwa Reysol, respectively, might get slightly irritated.
But if you can steel yourself against these katakana English spelling horrors, Whistle conveys the passion and commitment that can be inspired by the Beautiful Game.
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