H2

During the winter break, I finished the complete collection of H2, a highly addictive manga by Mitsuru Adachi. I had a great time, digging into a lengthy serialized manga for the first time in a long while. It also made for a fun refresher course for my slowly rusting Japanese.

H2 is a story about high-school baseball, romance, friendship. At the center are two best friends on two different baseball teams: Hiro the ace pitcher and Hideo the star batter. (You know what's coming, don't you?) They are joined by Hikari and Haruka: Hikari is Hiro's childhood friend, Hideo's girlfriend, and the first love for both of them; Haruka is Hiro's budding sweetheart. Hence, H2 - it refers to the duel of Hiro vs Hideo, as well as the 2 couples whose names all begin with "H".

The story follows Hiro through the 3 years of Japanese high school. It begins with Hiro enrolling in a school without a baseball team, after giving up baseball because he is mistakenly diagnosed with a young-career-ending injury. It ends with a head-to-head matchup between Hiro and Hideo at the national high-school baseball tournament, the shobu (win-or-lose fight) that both of them have dreamed of. In between those two plot points are numerous baseball games, romantic interludes, subplots about teammates and opponents, and a death in the family. The story is told with subtlety and humor; H2 is a very funny work, loaded with verbal puns and setups worthy of the best sitcoms.

But events do not drive H2's story. What makes H2 special is Adachi's deft handling of the changing dynamic among the characters. During the gradual progression towards the final duel, the 4 H's develop and reveal their feelings about love, friendship, and winning and losing. The nail-biting moments in H2 don't take place during the bottom of the ninth inning, but in conversations, arguments, confessions. Much of the exposition is open-ended: in what feels like a rare feat for manga, Adachi asks the reader to work a little to understand the characters - to read between the lines, to study the facial expressions. Given Adachi's craft, it makes for pleasurable work.

The Hiro-vs-Hideo climax is set up as early as in the first volume, and takes places in the very last volume. Thus, it was remarkable that Adachi was able to keep me invested in the duel for so long, and even generate some suspense as to its outcome. (I admit that it might have a little do with my not understanding every word.) I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say that the question becomes: can Hiro win in baseball, love and friendship - all at the same time? What I found so sweet is the twist that Adachi puts on the answer. Adachi led me to expect the realistic resolution: no, he cannot win in all of them, and he must choose and sacrifice. But when Hiro makes his choice, he is able to do what is best for everyone, as another character puts it.

I began thinking about what H2 says about Japanese culture. It presents a conservative viewpoint in many ways:

The context of high-school baseball involves a view of the world that is rooted in timeless tradition. In that world, going to the Koushien (the stadium in which the national tournaments are held) is the dream of every high-school baseball player and fan, year in, year out. H2 takes place within this dream, unchanging through the seasons. It follows that H2 lacks obvious signifiers of a time period, save a Nintendo 64.

Along with the timelessness of the H2 universe, there is a strong presence of the past within the characters. Even as high-school students, Hiro and his friends are driven by memories of their childhood that serve as sources of regret or affection. Flashbacks appear frequently. The past is shown to be a major guiding force in life; rarely do the characters use the unmapped future as a motivation.

The dominant family relationship is between father and son. While one mother figure has a prominent role, there are more explorations into how the son is shaped by the father. The twist is that many of these explorations end (happily) with the father breaking with society to help the son.

The main female characters have mostly reactive roles. This might seem nitpicky, given that both Hikari and Haruka are portrayed as intelligent and athletic young women. But emotionally, they are not as strong. They react to the feelings of their male partners or are motivated by their own memories.

Visually, the emphasis is on the clarity of storytelling, with Adachi's clean, uncluttered style. When formal elements do stand out on their own, it has the distinct feel of old-school Japanese cinema, such as the use of long shot / wide framing at moments of heightened emotion. The pacing is both precise and relaxed, and despite the length of the series (34 volumes), few frames are wasted.

Adachi is famous in Japan but not outside of it, especially when compared to peers like Rumiko Takahashi. (googlefight.com shows Rumiko beating Adachi handily, 50100 vs 8300.) I hope this will change soon. The last few years have seen an expansion in the range of mangas available in the US, including popular shonen and shojo titles such as Initial D and Love Hina. H2 and Adachi's other works would be a welcome addition to that growing catalog.

Adachi's Universe (Download the first few chapters of H2 and other manga, with fan translation.)