Inoue, Takehiko

Tomomi Nomiya, former captain of his high school's basketball team turned delinquent, decides to drop out of school after he is crushed by the guilt of ruining a young girl's life in a traffic accident. As he dedicates his free time to helping her, he stumbles upon Kiyoharu Togawa, a former sprinter who has lost the use of his right leg and now plays wheelchair basketball as an alternate outlet.

After challenging Kiyoharu to a one-on-one game, Tomomi is completely defeated. Inspired by this encounter, he realizes that he can't let his love for basketball die so easily and decides that he will do what he can to help others while striving to become a professional player. Meanwhile, Hisanobu Takahashi, Tomomi's replacement as the high school's team captain, gets into an accident and finds himself permanently paralyzed below the waist. Real tells the touching tale of these three young men as they struggle to overcome their disabilities and inner conflicts in order to achieve their dreams while igniting a passion that will bring them together.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Real

リアル

Sakamoto, Shinichi

Through pain and arduous effort, one can reach the top of the world. Standing where no man has ever set foot before, there is an exhilarating feeling of success. This is what Mori Buntarou trains, works, and lives for.

His climb to the top starts when he transfers to a new high school. Despite his lonesome and solitary nature, Mori's classmates persuade him to climb the school building. Without a harness or hesitation, he begins his scale to reach the top. Edging past the point of no return, he halts when he is faced with a final intimidating obstacle—a horizontal overhang. Adrenaline courses through him, and Mori jumps for the final hold at the summit.

From there, he casts his eyes upon something that he normally would not have seen—another peak, another goal. With an awakened passion and newfound purpose in life, Mori explores the breathtaking sport of rock climbing.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kokou no Hito

The Climber

孤高の人

Yumemakura, Baku

Taniguchi, Jiro

In 1924, mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted a daring challenge: to be the first to scale Mount Everest. However, they disappeared during the final stages of their trek, leading to one of mountaineering's greatest mysteries—did the pair ever make it to the summit?

1993, Kathmandu. Japanese photographer Makoto Fukamachi discovers a vintage camera in an antique store, which he believes might have belonged to Mallory. However, the camera falls into the possession of "Bikha Sanp," a burly Japanese man who Fukamachi realizes may very well be Jouji Habu, a legendary Japanese mountaineer who disappeared from the scene several years ago. Unfortunately for Fukamachi however, Bikha Sanp refuses to talk to him and leaves with the camera in tow.

With the trail gone cold, Fukamachi has only one course left to pursue: to delve into Habu's past and see just what may have brought the former climber to Nepal. For the sake of rewriting mountaineering history, Fukamachi begins his investigation, a task that will bring him to the greatest height in the world—the summit of the gods.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kamigami no Itadaki

The Summit of the Gods

神々の山嶺

Tsunamoto, Masaya

Tsujitomo

East Tokyo United has been struggling in Japan's top football league for a few years. In an effort to improve their performance, ETU hires a new coach, the slightly eccentric Tatsumi Takeshi. Tatsumi was once a star player on ETU before abandoning the team, but has proven himself as manager of an English amateur team. The task won't be easy as the teams pitted against ETU have bigger budgets and better players. However, Tatsumi is an expert at Giant Killing.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Giant Killing

GIANT KILLING

Kazama, Eiji

Sakata, Nobuhiro

Okita Keisuke begins his career as a golfer at age 24. Okita gets a good result in the Asian tour, and attends the UK open. He meets a caddie named Lily who's the daughter of a family of many excellent caddies. While fighting the tough tournament together, Okita and Lily get attracted to each other.

Kaze no Daichi received the 1994 Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga.

(Source: MU)

Kaze no Daichi

風の大地

Mizushima, Shinji

Abu-san is a baseball manga that tells the story of fictional baseball player Kageura Yasutake.

Abu-san

あぶさん

Adachi, Mitsuru

Kou Kitamura is a fifth grader whose family runs a sporting goods store. One of the regular customers of his family's store is the Tsukishima Batting Center, and so he gets to know the four daughters of the Tsukishima family (Ichiyo, Wakaba, Aoba, and Momiji) very well. Since Kou has spent so much time practicing in their batting cages, he has become a genius hitter, but has no knowledge of any other aspect of baseball. This is in contrast to Aoba, who, despite being a year younger, is an adept pitcher and hitter. Wakaba is a classmate of Kou's, and she seems fully intent on marrying him when she grows up. All seems idyllic in their world, until tragedy strikes. The story then skips ahead to four years later, as Kou has continued the training he began four years ago, but has not played in a baseball game since. As he finally begins playing again, it remains to be seen whether or not he will live up to the expectations of those who know the true talent he has been hiding all this time.

(Source: ANN)

Cross Game

クロスゲーム

Touch is a shounen story about two twin brothers, a pretty girl next door, and that good old pastime of baseball. The manga was written by one of the most well known manga-ka out there, Adachi Mitsuru in the early 80's (1981-1986). He's a wonderful writer who tends to write stories that are related to baseball and Koshien, the stadium where the All High School Baseball Tournament is held.

(Source: MangaProject)

Touch

タッチ

Mitsuda, Takuya

The story of Major follows the life of Gorou Honda, from kindergarten to being a professional baseball player, seeking and overcoming tremendous challenges.

Major

MAJOR

Tsunomaru

Midori Makibao is a small white racehorse. Compared to other thoroughbred horses, he looks more like a donkey with wide nostrils. However, with his guts and speed as his weapon, Makibao wins in every big race. In the beginning of his career, Makibao had a trouble making his debut as a racehorse, because of his appearance and various disadvantages he had. But Makibao had reasons to overcome his difficulties; there was a lifelong rival horse called Superhorse Cascade, that Makibao needed to defeat. Plus, he was determined to win back his mother, a horse that had been taken away for pay back the debt on the farm. There are many hardships that Makibao has to overcome, but he thrives in the series of races to become a great racehorse.

Midori no Makibao

みどりのマキバオー

Kuramochi, Fusako

Haruto is the son of the head priest of Hibiragi shrine. Kano, the daughter of the tatami maker living next door to the shrine, began learning Japanese archery because she was deeply impressed by the sight of Haruto and him drawing a bow. Separated by a tragic event, the two meet again several years later.

The story revolves around Kano and Haruto, who remain at a cautious distance—neither too close nor too far—as they grow up. It depicts with a certain tension the fine subtleties of feeling experienced in the difficult adolescent years.

(Source: MU)

Hana ni Somu

花に染む

Nagai, Noriaki

The story is about an enthusiastic kid soccer team at the Kitahara elementary school, who struggle without a competent striker, when little Kakeru Daichi's family moves in to the town. He immediately applies to join the team, keen to use his skills gained in the kid team of famous soccer club "The Falcons."

(Source: MU)

12 Manga Like Medalist