2.) Touch
Number Two in the countdown is one of the best manga series of all time, it is Mitsuru Adachi’s Touch. In this story, it follows twin brothers Tatsuya and Kazuya Uesugi, along with their childhood friend and nextdoor neighbor Minami Asakura. Tatsuya, a naturally gifted athlete whose raw skills exceeds Kazuya’s, has always allowed his hard-working younger brother to take the spotlight, but as the two of them near high school with Minami, Tatsuya realizes that perhaps he doesn’t want to lose Minami to his brother after all. When Kazuya is struck in a traffic accident on the morning before the final game of the regional tournament, Tatsuya takes over his brother’s position of ace pitcher, and utilizes his natural talent to complete his younger brother’s goal of fulfilling Minami’s dream of going to the Koshien.
This series was originally serialized in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shōnen Sunday Magazine August 5th, 1981 through October 12th, 1986, it was collected in 26 tankōbon volumes and was adapted into an Anime Series which led to being one of the highest-rated television series ever. Mitsuru Adachi would later write one of his greatest stories, Cross Game.
1.) Real
Here we are at Number One, and it is another title from Takehiko Inoue except that it is a Wheelchair Basketball themed story called Real. The story revolves around three teenagers: Nomiya Tomomi, a high school dropout, Togawa Kiyoharu, an ex-sprinter who now plays wheelchair basketball and Takahashi Hisanobu, a popular leader of the high school’s basketball team who now finds himself a paraplegic after an accident. Tomomi is riddled with guilt after ruining the life of a young girl following a traffic accident.
One of the most fascinating things about this story was that it dealt with the reality of physical disabilities, and the psychological inferiority that the characters struggle against. The characters break through their own psychological barriers bit by bit. The series was serialized in the Seinen Manga Magazine from Shueisha Inc called Weekly Young Jump in 1999 and was collected in fifteen tankōbon volumes. It recently returned from hiatus in November 2020. It would also be picked up by Viz Media for an English release in 2008.
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