Rough

This time, the guest of the “Underrated” column is “Rough” by Mitsuru Adachi, one of Shogakukan’s leading authors and the creator of “Touch”, “Miyuki”, “H2”, etc. The manga was presented in April ‘95 (the same month “Dragon Ball” began too) by the Kappa Boys in the magazine “Starlight”, taking the place of the hugely successful “Orange Road” and “Sesame Street” by Izumi Matsumoto. Unfortunately “Rough”, after just 9 months, something that had never happened at Star, was interrupted because of poor sales (perhaps suffering from the in-house competition of the aforementioned “Dragon Ball”), only to reappear on the newsstands in the “Storie di Kappa” series, in the form of 5 nice hefty volumes that conclude the story, through which the Kappa Boys showed a no-laughing-matter strength of will.

In short, the story vaguely resembles that of “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare (hoping Shakespeare doesn’t turn in his grave after this statement of mine): Keisuke Yamato and Ami Ninomya hate each other because of a rivalry that has lasted for years between their families, both pastry makers. Not only that: Keisuke is a skilled swimmer, who placed third at the national championships, while Ami is a diver who has only just started, but has an exceptional style and great talent.

The two attend the same school, and so, inevitably, they often clash. However, thanks to sport, friends and many other more or less important factors, Keisuke and Ami become friends, although later they will have to come to terms with their feelings, their families and the national freestyle champion, who is a veeeery close friend of Ami and, above all, Keisuke’s number one rival, both in sport and in love…

I won’t say more because, predictably, I would risk giving away details that would spoil the reading of this comic. I must admit that I myself didn’t buy “Rough” when it came out on the newsstands: besides “logistical” problems (which I won’t explain here), the comic didn’t grab me immediately. I don’t like Adachi’s style, in fact: I find that he draws the characters’ ears too big, and moreover, the way he draws male characters, they seem to have legs shorter than the rest of the body, or at least the crotch of their trousers very low. However, as master Go Nagai teaches, it is the story that makes a comic great, not the line, and Adachi seems to confirm it: the author has put together a very delicate love story, in some respects similar to Video Girl Ai, but without those pleasantly erotic winks, that voyeuristic atmosphere and that “lolita-ism” typical of Katsura (don’t get me wrong, VGA is my favourite comic).

Like Katsura’s comic, though, the feelings seep out of every page and you will rejoice at Keisuke and Ami’s victories and be sorry for their defeats, but above all, you will feel them “living”. What happened to the people who were asking loudly for Adachi? Even if you perhaps expected “Touch” or “Miyuki”, buy “Rough” anyway: I wouldn’t like to seem unpopular, but perhaps “Rough” is even better… bearing in mind that we are all still waiting for “H2”.