From the back cover:
Banned from his school’s soccer team for being too short, Shou Kazamatsuri decides there’s only one thing left to do: switch schools!

But even a change in scenery doesn’t help the David Beckham wannabe. On campus, he is mistakenly introduced to everyone as a hotshot star athlete. When the truth is revealed, Shou drops out of school to practice on his own.

Alone, the spunky teenager must work twice as hard to make his dreams come true. He wants to play soccer so bad he’s willing to hustle day and night to make it happen.

Review:
I really liked this story. Even though I know there are translation problems with the title (some soccer terms and names of famous pros), they couldn’t prevent the cute art and fun pacing from winning me over. To clarify one thing about the blurb: the title is really not as cracky as it sounds with regard to schools. Shou’s transfer happens before the story begins, and he doesn’t really drop out of the new school so much as skip classes for a couple of weeks while he practices.

Whistle! is obviously a sports manga, but what differentiates it from others I have read is that Shou is actually pretty abysmal to start out. He doesn’t have a bishounen ghost to help him, nor has he won a bunch of tournaments before the manga starts. He simply loves the sport and works very hard to improve.

He has a great, encouraging brother that I like, and the best player on the team (Mizuno) respects his efforts, rather than being snooty about his superiority. It’s all warm and fuzzy without being saccharine, and I was surprised by how into the game I was. I’ll definitely be reading more.

From the back cover:
In another world, ninja are the ultimate power—and in the village of Konohagakure live the stealthiest ninja in the world. But twelve years ago Konohagakure was attacked by a fearsome threat—a nine-tailed fox demon which claimed the life of the Hokage, the village champion. Today, peace has returned, and a troublemaking orphan named Uzumaki Naruto is struggling to graduate from the Ninja Academy. His goal: to become the next Hokage. But unknown to Naruto and his classmates, within him is a terrifying force…

Review:
Our library has all of the English volumes of Naruto so far, so I thought I’d see what the fuss is all about. Many of the gimmicks were overused or crude or both, Sakura’s love fixation bothers me, and Naruto went from needing a smacking to inspiring his future rival far too quickly, but still… there’s something about this title that makes me want to give it at least one more volume before making up my mind.

It’s not any kind of fondness for Naruto himself, but some of the side characters are likeable or interesting (Iruka-sensei and Sasuke) and I like the ninja academy idea and the glimpses we’ve seen of Konohagakure. It’s a weird mesh of modern and historical design, and I’m curious to see whether they explain how things developed that way in that world. Lastly, there’s occasionally these little bits of omniscient narration that give off a fairy tale, Princess Bride sort of vibe that I like.

There’s potential here. Maybe there’ll be fewer nosebleeds in the next volume.

From the back cover:
At the Kanto Tournament, the brilliant play of Hyotei Academy’s Mukahi and Oshitori drives Seishun’s Momo and Eiji to assume the Australian formation, a technique they masterfully pulled off in a previous match. Meanwhile, the Seishun team of Kaidou and Inui walk into a landmine filled with “scud serves” and accurate, aggressive doubles play. But just when things look bleak, Inui unleashes his well-planned counterattack…

Review:
There’s really not much to say about this volume, it’s all about people finding inner strength and not giving up and coming from behind, though not in a pervy way. One thing that really bothers me is that the spectators seem to be able to hear the things the players are staying to each other despite distance and mad cheering, and then, of course, must cry out in reaction to same. This reminds me of the HP game, where some doofus at the Gryffindor table thinks they can comment on conversation going on at Ravenclaw. There was also one mistake where the needless changing of surnames to given names resulted in one of Fuji’s moves being attributed to Oishi.

I have to wonder whether Konomi gets tired of drawing reaction shots or panels in which characters on the sideline cry out the name of a player’s trick shot. “Boomerang Snake!” I think I’d get bored with drawing it, though it really isn’t boring to read it. Familiarity with the formula merely makes it a zippy read. The quality between volumes is consistent in this series, and I continue to enjoy it.