Whistle! (Whistle!)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I asked on a comics newsgroup for a good manga or graphic novel for my son who is into sports (especially soccer and basketball). This was one of the few recommendations. My son loved it and read it more intently than I have seen him read any book. Excellent suggestion and one that I will pass on to others.

Rating:
Summary: Not Too Impressed
Review: I must admit that I have never gotten into sports much in my lifetime. Of course, if you know me personally then this news comes as no surprise to you, but this is still essential information to reveil whenever I'm reviewing a sports manga. When I look at sports I look at how much time is wasted doing the same thing. Baseball is the worst offender of the bunch in my book, but basketball also gets on my nerves a lot too. Sports is big in all parts of the US, even though some sports like hockey are more popular in some states then others. One sport that never really caught on in the US is soccer, always being labled as "the weaker version of football" by many people I know. Since soccer is shunned by almost everyone in the US, the arival of "Whistle," a series about no more then a kid trying to becoming a the best soccer player of all time, is extremely puzzling. The story of "Whistle!" revolves around Sho Kazamatsuri. Sho is your standerd shonen hero. He has big spirits, brushy hair, and a determination to be the best at something. Sho had high dreams of becoming one of the greatest soccer players of all time, but he was banned from his old school's soccer system because he was too short. Now Sho has transferred to a new school in hopes of doing something else.

Unfortunetly for him, the second he arrives at school he is immediatly put on the schools soccer team, the reason being that the school that Sho transferred from was Musashinomori School, which is a school that is known for training the best soccer players in the world (or at least in Japan). Since Sho was so short though, he was never allowed to actually play in the games, so the only thing Sho can do good is kick the ball on his knee. Not exactly greatest player skills, but hey, you've got to start somewhere right? Since no one knows about all this though, Sho is asked to show off some moves and quickly makes a fool of himself in front of everyone. On the field Sho has trouble passing, running, keeping track of the other players, navigating, and everything else. However he sure can kick the ball...on his knee. As if this wasn't enough to embarress Sho, one of teams best players, Tatsuya, mentions that he's good friends with a soccer player for Musashinomori, and that Sho's name never comes up in the list of players to play games. Well, this seals it, Sho apologizes to everyone and vows never to play soccer again. Of course Sho can't not play soccer forever, because if he did we'd have no story. Despite the fact Sho has proven himself to be a lousy soccer player, everyone thinks that they see something special in Sho, and many of the most important (and sexy looking) teachers believe that Sho will show his true potential in the near future and become a great soccer player. In sports manga there are two types of protagonists: The good player and the bad player.

The good player is naturally good at whatever the sport is, and ends up being undefeated until a better player comes along, at which point his goal in life will be to become better then that player. The bad player is naturally bad at whatever the sport is, however he has potential to be good. This person's goal will be to train himself to the point where he wants to die, just so that he can become a better player. Not much varity huh? These formula's work for sports series, however the problem is that because the forumla's don't change much, the readers have a hard time connecting to anything or anyone. We have no doubt in our mind that Sho is eventually going to blow everyone's mind away with his hidden talent, the question is when is Sho going to blow our minds away? Because once Sho becomes an excellent soccer player the tension is gone, and then we just go through the motions. Which is why when someone is striving to be the best, it usually takes forever before we see some real results. The cast of characters in this series is relatively small, and the few characters that there are aren't very interesting. We have Sho's older brother Ko, his role in the story is to encourage Sho to follow his dreams. Then we have Sho's teacher Yuko, her job is comment on all of the cool moves Sho is pulling off on the soccer field. Then there's Tatsuya, who is the team captain and Sho's destined lifetime rivel.

Finally we have old man Oyassan. Oyassan runs an oden shop and lets Sho pratice his soccer in the back of his store. At first we're not sure why Oyassan has taken such a liking to Sho (esspecially since Oyassan doesn't know what soccer is), but we can tell right off the bat that Oyassan has a good chance at being the most interesting character in this series. Unfortunetly Oyassan doesn't get nearly as much screen time as the annoying Sho does. Since Sho's the soccer player he will (naturally) be getting the most screen time in this series. Sho is a likable enough individuel, however Sho is also pretty weak when it comes to character development and personality. His goal is to become the best soccer player ever, and that's about as far as we get with his personality. What's worse is that there is no love interest or best friend for him to play off, which means that Sho gets to have the oppertunity to skip all the character development and concentrate on just practicing soccer. So where does this leave the reader? Well, if you love soccer then I'm sure you'll get a kick out of watching the soccer games. If you're not into the game of soccer though, then there's a pretty good chance that you'll be pretty bored with the series. Unlike "Slam Dunk" and "The Prince of Tennis," the author doesn't do a very good job of making soccer look exciting to someone who is unfamiliar with the sport. From an artistic standpoint, the soccer matchs are all very boring to watch. You don't really get a sense of excitement watching these kids kicking the ball around, the author doesn't get into the stradegy of the game much, and I walked away from the book wondering what the big deal about the game was.

I may not like basketball in real life, but I got an adrinalin rush from reading the wonderful basketball games in "Slam Dunk" play out. In that series the movements, the different angle's, the stradegy's, everything about the games were exciting to look at and read, while the games in "Whistle!" are sleep inducing. At the beginning of the book the author writes a letter to the readers of the book explaining what soccer is and what makes it so great, and that letter was a very good read. However for some reason the letter did a better job at making soccer sound more exciting then the actual manga did. Even the character designs lack any real depth and originality, and some of the characters look like they were ripped straight out of "The Prince of Tennis" and re-used here. If you're a little kid you might enjoy this because it's about a 10 year old who's making something of himself, but chances are if you're over 10 then journey will feel more sluggish then breathtaking. "Whistle!" is simple entertainment for simple people. It's nice that more and more sports manga is being released in the US, however at the moment "Whistle!" is the worst sports manga that's been released in America. Yet for $7.95 a book I'm sure kids will get a kick out of it. Of course, for the same price they could pick up "The Prince of Tennis," which is, at the end of the day, a better series overall.