The Summer Olympics (and Paralympics) are only a few weeks away, so what better way to boost your excitement than by reading a sports manga? Takehiko Inoue is best known for Slam Dunk, a wildly popular basketball manga series originally published in the 1990s. His latest series, Real, is a gritty, gut-wrenching story about three young men--two of whom use wheelchairs--who are brought together by their love for basketball.
Tomomi Nomiya, struggling with intense feelings of guilt after causing a motorcycle accident that paralyzed a young woman, quits his basketball team and is expelled from high school shortly before graduation. Basketball is his passion in life, but there are no public basketball courts to play on or teams for him to join. Nomiya is a good-hearted person who made a terrible mistake and can't find a way to move on with his life.
He meets Kiyoharu Togawa, a young man who lost a leg to bone cancer and plays basketball with a skill and passion that rivals Nomiya's own. Due to teammate conflicts, Togawa has quit his wheelchair basketball team. He misses the sport as much as Nomiya. The two men form an unlikely team of their own, challenging Nomiya's high school basketball teammates and rich kids on the private courts to pickup games--which they almost always win.
Nomiya's former teammate, Hisanobu Takahashi, is the story's third protagonist. Although Takahashi is smart, good-looking, and a basketball star, he's a bully who uses his popularity to humiliate others. His world is turned upside down when he is paralyzed in an accident, and he must come to terms with his past--including a troubled family life--before he can move forward.
Real is a quintessential sports manga. All three protagonists are passionate athletes with a strong desire to succeed both on and off the court. They practice alone and with each other, they compete in pickup matches and in league games. Basketball is what brings them together and keeps them going. But these young men (all recent high school graduates) each face enormous personal challenges. Inoue pulls no punches here. Real is emotionally raw and painfully authentic, not sentimental or preachy.
Real also takes a nuanced look at disability. Inoue doesn't present people with disabilities as one-dimensional tragic or inspirational figures. There are lots of disabled characters, and all of them unique individuals with have diverse, complex feelings about their disabilities and about their lives. The story also questions assumptions that society tends to make about people with disabilities, especially when Togawa (who isn't above exploiting his opponents' prejudices, especially if it gives him a competitive edge) challenges able-bodied basketball players on the court.
That's not to say that Real doesn't have it's light-hearted moments. Nomiya is comically clueless at times, and there's some almost imperceptible romantic tension between Togawa and Azumi, a childhood friend who manages his wheelchair basketball team. Though it tackles serious subjects, Real doesn't feel like a "heavy" read. It's a fascinating slice of--pardon the pun--real life with a genuine love of basketball at its heart.
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