REAL, Inoue's other basketball manga

Volume 10's release date was recently announced on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Vol-10-Takehiko-Inoue/dp/1421540517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307582433&sr=8-1

November 15. A full year after the release of Volume 9. Wow.
 
IncantatioN said:
Cool update! But so far away :judo:. I'm current on the raw version up to Vol 10, so I've read it - sans the English translation >_<.
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That's pretty worthless in an Inoue series.

"It looks like what this guy is saying is very important! .. There's tears in that guy's eyes and he's walking away... some shit is going down!"
 
I see your point! But I was anxious to know what happened next ^_^.

Given the same token (from your post), isn't it like that for any other manga series? One of the reasons for my purchase of raw's is to find out what happens next without having to wait months for a translated version. I'm really glad SK translates Berserk episodes and fans can keep up like that. I haven't seen it happening for Vagabond or REAL on the site and haven't had the time to look elsewhere. So for me, as a big fan, like Berserk, I want to know, raw or not. It may seem pointless, but that's subjective ^_^.
 
Real vol 10 came out a few days ago. It's the first volume in over a year, and volume 11 just came out in Japan, so we can expect to wait another year before Viz brings it over to the US.

It's a difficult series to follow at this pace. Unlike Berserk which has distinct chapters and arcs, Real's plot is segmented by character but isn't told in story arcs. I had trouble recognizing some of the sub-characters after being away from the series for a year. I realize that's my own fault, but my point is that the pace of release has begun to affect my enjoyment of the series.

For what it's worth, the way volume 10 ends is somewhat of a spoiler for the plot, but thematically, it's powerful enough that Inoue could put Real on the shelf for a while if he really wanted to. Which, I'm pretty sure he did?
 
Awww crap! I missed the release date! I'll check in to Kinokuniya tonight (if the CPA I'm supposed to meet doesn't take too long with me *sob*) and pick it up. I've been dying to read what the dialog is because I read the volume in Japanese *wide smile* and didn't understand coughanydialogcough.

Thanks for the heads up Walter! Any favorite moments in this volume?
 
IncantatioN said:
Thanks for the heads up Walter! Any favorite moments in this volume?
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Just one big one really. I got goosebumps when the old coach tells Nomiya that he can "see the whole game." It was nice to see his natural strength coming out ahead of his natural weakness.

Perhaps it was the one year break between releases, but in this volume in particular, I had a problem with how the chapters were paced. Individual chapters, weighing in at around 30 pages each, usually contain pieces of all three character arcs. This structure makes sense within the body of an individual chapter, but when you put multiple chapters together, the pacing starts to seem meandering and artificially frantic. I get the feeling that Inoue wants to include a glimpse into each character's story in each chapter, whether that makes sense with the overall pacing of the volume or not.

Occasionally Inoue will weaves together related narrative beats in ways that complement each other nicely (an example in v10 being Togawa reflecting on his own depression while in the clinic that Takahashi is still at). But I'm beginning to feel that these connections are too few and far between to warrant the way the entire series is structured.

Normally I wouldn't second guess a writer's decisions, because clearly he knows better than me how best to tell his story. But I couldn't help but feel the pacing problems were especially pronounced in this volume. I think it would be an improvement if the character stories were grouped together, rather than be interspersed for the sake of cramming in a glimpse of each story per chapter. It's hardly analogous, but imagine if for each episode, Miura felt compelled to stitch in Griffith's story every 5-6 pages, then switch over back to Guts, and on and on...
 
Go go gooo Inoue! It beat other new manga volume releases comprehensively. Thanks for the info, Branded.

Walter said:
Just one big one really. I got goosebumps when the old coach tells Nomiya that he can "see the whole game." It was nice to see his natural strength coming out ahead of his natural weakness.

Perhaps it was the one year break between releases, but in this volume in particular, I had a problem with how the chapters were paced. Individual chapters, weighing in at around 30 pages each, usually contain pieces of all three character arcs. This structure makes sense within the body of an individual chapter, but when you put multiple chapters together, the pacing starts to seem meandering and artificially frantic. I get the feeling that Inoue wants to include a glimpse into each character's story in each chapter, whether that makes sense with the overall pacing of the volume or not.

Occasionally Inoue will weaves together related narrative beats in ways that complement each other nicely (an example in v10 being Togawa reflecting on his own depression while in the clinic that Takahashi is still at). But I'm beginning to feel that these connections are too few and far between to warrant the way the entire series is structured.

Normally I wouldn't second guess a writer's decisions, because clearly he knows better than me how best to tell his story. But I couldn't help but feel the pacing problems were especially pronounced in this volume. I think it would be an improvement if the character stories were grouped together, rather than be interspersed for the sake of cramming in a glimpse of each story per chapter. It's hardly analogous, but imagine if for each episode, Miura felt compelled to stitch in Griffith's story every 5-6 pages, then switch over back to Guts, and on and on...
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That's a damn interesting view, I didn't realize it ... now that you mention it, I notice it. I wasn't able to finish reading it all last night, hopefully I can catch up tonight.
 
Incredible news!

According to Oricon's ranking for the period Nov 22nd 2010 - Nov 20th 2011, REAL ranks # 47 in the Japan Manga Sales Ranking By Series with 1,020,367 units and # 40 in the Japan Manga Sales By Volume with 578,105 units.

Offtopic - I'm glad about One Piece ranks # 1 (with a big difference in sales compared to # 2 Naruto aka sucky manga) and disappointed not to see Berserk on the list.
 
IncantatioN said:
Incredible news!

According to Oricon's ranking for the period Nov 22nd 2010 - Nov 20th 2011, REAL ranks # 47 in the Japan Manga Sales Ranking By Series with 1,020,367 units and # 40 in the Japan Manga Sales By Volume with 578,105 units.
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That's... incredible? That sounds pretty shitty, to be honest. Though REAL isn't a very popular manga, Inoue is one of the big names in manga as a result of Vagabond and Slam Dunk, so anything he does should come with some weight. To see REAL barely make the top 50 is pretty sad.

As a comparison, Berserk and Vagabond are regularly ranked in the top 3 when they are released.
 
Understood, I didn't know Vagabond's track record since it's been a year and a half since I was introduced to the manga ... which's why I only mentioned Berserk. In a way, REAL being the lesser popular manga of say Berserk or Vagabond, if that's a fair comparison, it was pretty good for it to be on those lists. If shitty manga like Naruto or Toriko are that ranked high with the audience, I'm just glad a serious good manga like REAL made the list. Most titles on there are ridiculously lame. I definitely see where you're coming from too.
 
Volume 12 came out three days ago, picked it up last night but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Since it's been a while, I plan to re-read the series for a quick recap.

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Summary on Viz's site - Togawa’s pursuit of excellence takes him to a wheelchair basketball camp, where he discovers major deficiencies in his teamwork and leadership. While his fierce drive for individual competition has carried him this far, will it now be a hindrance?
 
I had it pre-ordered. Not gonna spoil anything to those who haven't read it yet ,but it's good ,a lot of development for Togawa and Takahashi and also a year of waiting starts again.
 
IncantatioN said:
Volume 12 came out three days ago, picked it up last night but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Since it's been a while, I plan to re-read the series for a quick recap.
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I will pick it up this weekend. Thanks!
 
Real, love it! Volume 12 continues to be fantastic proving that Takehiko Inoue is a master at his craft. Real is even better than Vagabond and I don't say that lightly. It's like he took everything that made vagabond amazing and then took everything that made Slam Dunk amazing, and rolled it all into one. The pacing is perfect and watching
Takahashi finally getting over his trauma and growing is some of the best writing I've ever seen in a manga or in story telling period. It's incredible how Inoue is able to capture all the emotions so perfectly. I literally fist pumped the air saying "YES" when Takahashi finally realized it wasn't over and he could still play basketball.
Something he could strive for and the build up was fantastic. Every character just feels so genuine and...dare I say real.

Definitely picking up volume 12. If it wasn't for Kentaro and Berserk, Inoue would definitely be the greatest mangaka alive.
 
IronBerserk said:
Real, love it! Volume 12 continues to be fantastic proving that Takehiko Inoue is a master at his craft. Real is even better than Vagabond and I don't say that lightly. It's like he took everything that made vagabond amazing and then took everything that made Slam Dunk amazing, and rolled it all into one. The pacing is perfect and watching
Takahashi finally getting over his trauma and growing is some of the best writing I've ever seen in a manga or in story telling period. It's incredible how Inoue is able to capture all the emotions so perfectly. I literally fist pumped the air saying "YES" when Takahashi finally realized it wasn't over and he could still play basketball.
Something he could strive for and the build up was fantastic. Every character just feels so genuine and...dare I say real.

Definitely picking up volume 12. If it wasn't for Kentaro and Berserk, Inoue would definitely be the greatest mangaka alive.
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Please use spoiler tags in the future... I added them to your post. The volume just came out, so be mindful of others.
 
I caught up just recently with reading Volume 13, which became btw probably my favourite Volume of Real.

Real is again a very good written stoy by Inoue. Real's 3 main character's Takahashi, Togawa and Nomiya really are something. I really love those 3 character's each of the grows in a very nice way and their development is fun to watch.
With the addition of shiratori we got one more amazing character. Volume 13 really was great.
 
Awsome news. Most of the tim when Inoue comes back from a hiatus he starts off with Real as a warm up before drawing Vabaond. I hope thats the case, but i love both series anyways
 
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