This is a realistic manga. The way the teacher earns their respect is realistic, I don't actually like much sports type of manga buuuut after reading GTO I somehow was looking for a manga that had a teacher and troublemakers and I am really glad I read rookies. Give it a try, the art might be awkward at first but you get used!

this manga is full of youth spirit, i was hooked form the first time. the mangaka is great in creating characters - they dont just 'change' for the sake of the plot, we can feel their little progress from one chapter to other. i can feel so much, my heart was racing while reading this.

the art is great and the pacing and paneling is superb. there are often time a page only have one panel - a closeup or an action, and it make every emotion and action amplified.

i dont understand a bit about baseball, and i continue dont understand it after so many baseball manga i read. but you will still enjoy this quintessential shonen sport manga.

Rookies just might be one of my favorite mangas ever, and I hate baseball.

There are so many times during the whole story where I was simply laughing my ass off or when I could feel my palms starting to sweat up as I was turning the pages in the book. There were even times during the final volume where I started really feeling genuine emotions for the characters in the series because it reminded me a lot of my time in organized sports from my youth.

Also, barbapapa's review is spot on.

Funny thing about baseball anime and manga---they make a very lame sport fun, probably because all that (boring) time the players are just standing around on the field doing nothing can be used for introspective moments. If you can read or hear what the second baseman is thinking, he becomes much more interesting!

Why this baseball manga as opposed to another? The characters! In many sports mangas, the rugged individualist is the exception, not the rule. In "Rookies" the bad boys are all like Popeye. You know, "I y'am what I y'am." Their dueling egos make them seem so (dare I write it?) American. It is easy to identify with them. Why has no publisher brought this manga to the US?

The live action TV series is not nearly as much fun as the manga. The "badness" is de-emphasized, in favor of a kind of syrupy "Let's all win this together!" spirit. If you want to watch (as opposed to read) some bad boy baseball, try "One Outs" the animated series.

A much more realistic portrayal than most sports mangas. Rookies doesn't focus on the training aspect so much as in the maturing character of it's main team; probably because the team is already athletic to begin with, and is lacking only in willpower, self control and character. It also touches on a grubbier school life, with sex, cigarettes and such. My one main peeve, though, is that I occasionally tend to lose track of who's who in the team. Some of them just don't stand out.

That said, it is a fantastic read; inspiring, funny, and real. I recommend it and wish there were more scanlations out there.

... Last updated on March 13th, 2010, 12:13pm

Its just me who thinks that it is irritaiting than main character is talking about dreams so much ? it sounds like naruto ... and its not a compliment but dont get me wrong its pretty good manga just skip those parts about how you should not give up your dreams and you will like it but i m reading 8 volume maybe later on it gets better ( with less talks about your dreams and shit ) so for now i grade it 8

Rookies is one of those mangas that leaves you craving for more. While i've seen the story before it seems diferent for me. The depth added to the characters, the hilarious moments it provides, the message it gives... It's much more than i expected when i begun reading this. Kawato sounded silly at first but his message got to me especially hard since i'm going to be a teacher soon. This manga is about so much more than baseball, truly an amazing experience.
It's so great that cannot describe it properly.
" Flutter into your dreams. Glitter into tomorrow. "

Also i have to give props to L5RG, their work allowed me to continue reading this awesome story.

is this the ultimate manga experience? could very well be the case.
read it. absorb it into your life.
and full praise to the L5RG.

There are many pages of this manga, where if you read it by itself, it would sound really, really lame. When I was first reading it, I was thinking, "Haha, is he serious? He's trying TOO hard to convey a message." But, just like the students in the manga, Kawato sensei had me believing in his words before long. Don't take my word for it though. Read it for yourself. "Flutter into your dreams. Glitter into tommorrow!"

It's hard creating a realistic shounen manga, and having it succeed nowadays. Even harder is it to convey some sort of message along with it, and not make it come over as contrived and obviously aimed at children. But Morita managed to do both with Rookies in a superb manner.

Read along as this group of supposedly no-good thugs get riled together by their passionate-about-life rookie coach. How they slowly start to grow as a team, and more importantly, towards becoming a group of people who stick up for each other.

It might not look spectacular at first sight, with your fancy-pants ninja/death god shounen series out there, but invest some time to get acquainted with the charismatic cast of Rookies, and you will no doubt see that there's some real substance in this. (That is, if substance is your thing. *WINK*)
What makes this stand out from other baseball series is its emphasis on character interaction, and further developing the individuals who make up the team, more than the game itself.
Not to mention that it's pretty badass (though not in a "gar" way), and funny, too.

also: L5RG ftw.

... Last updated on March 19th, 2008, 8:16pm