EMBERS
Haitani is a high school delinquent. When Oshimi sensei is called to break up a fight in the hallway he is surprised to see that Haitani has yet to throw a single punch, choosing to dodge his opponent repeatedly. Oshimi puts Haitani on a new path in life, by showing the seemingly aimless student a way to put his talent to better use, and does so in a way that reflects many a training arc staple, without feeling too worn out in its premise.
Oshimi Sensei, as it happens, is exceptionally talented at football (I won’t be calling it soccer here… other than here) and challenges Haitani to take the ball off of him. As this opening chapter progresses, we can see Haitani slowly improve, while not necessarily succeeding in taking the ball in any of his attempts; Oshimi sets goals for him that clearly help with his progression. There’s a massive reader retention hurdle for sports oriented series to get over, and while I wouldn’t say this is anything groundbreaking, it’s something solid, intriguing, and inspirational to watch it all unfold.
The first page of the chapter tries to hint at elitism being a formless antagonist to the progression of the plot, but besides finding a path for Haitani to progress on, it’s early days to really judge the story as to how well it will highlight class struggles that the sport may have in japan.
SPOILER WARNING
Haitani’s introduction to the world of football is filled with failure, at least when it comes to viewing his progress in broad strokes, but in every failure he experiences, we can see him improving incrementally as he starts to become noteworthy. I would like to see the pace slow a little in future chapters, but watching his teacher repeatedly up the stakes was easily the biggest highlight for me, especially when Haitani and friend’s face up against an experienced team by the end of this debut chapter.
Yuga Takami from Aota Academy while the more experienced and skilled player in a better team, has to genuinely fight for every goal against Haitani’s team of stereotypical drop-out types. There’s a brilliant scene, where Haitani’s ability to get in Yuga’s way creates this titanic visual of facing off against an impassable giant. Ultimately Haitani’s team lost without a single goal, but it’s enough for Takami to acknowledge Haitani’s progress.
CONCLUSION
Sports series don’t really tend to do well in Shonen Jump, but this one has a fair enough shot at sticking around in 20 or so weeks time. It doesn’t really have any outstanding issues with its premise, but it is somewhat cursed with having nothing stand out about its story as it currently stands other than centering on a guy wanting to do well in a sport.
I don’t think it’s impossible for a series like this to make its mark though, and with a lot of the previous decade’s big series leaving Shonen Jump, it’s in the best possible climate to do well. After all, there will hopefully be a new generation of readers who are unfamiliar with Jump’s legacy titles, and to them the story will hopefully appear a lot fresher to them than it can to me.
