I’ve finally completed all 338 chapters of this high school baseball series, and it was certainly worth my time, even if it meant pushing back my assignments for a couple of days.
As usual, Adachi Mitsuru doesn’t disappoint with his usual style that remains the same from Miyuki. Chapters that begin with random sceneries, cold/lame humor that for some reason or another I find funny, and very simple clean art.
Here’s a sum up of the story with all the nitty gritty filtered out.
2 best friends since junior high who are awesome baseball players fall for the same girl, Hikari, who happens to be the main character, Hiro’s childhood friend. However, Hiro only learned that he liked Hikari after he played cupid between Hikari and his best friend, Hideo. The story goes on revolving around the relationship between the 3, the people around them and baseball. It eventually ends of with the 2 Hs (which explains why the title is H2), Hiro and Hideo facing off in a cliche pitcher vs batter duel at the holy baseball ground, Koushien. Who won? That’s for me to know and for you to find out, if you haven’t read the manga yet.
I enjoyed H2 as much as I enjoyed Major, but in a different way. Major focuses much more on baseball itself, while H2 has much more character development and romance as compared to Major. Hence, the main thing about Major is to observe how Goro proceeds through his life of Baseball, while the main thing about H2 is to observe how the love triangle and other surrounding relationships, be it friendships or romance, proceed with baseball as a medium. Of course, I have yet to read the Major’s manga, but I”m sure that the anime adaption is faithful to the manga. Still, it’s not an overstatement to say that both series are awesome.
Some people might question why I enjoyed the manga even though the art was not very catchy. My answer is simple.I read manga not just for the art, but for the storyline. If a storyline interests me, and the art’s decent, it’s worth a read. I guess I’m just easily entertained.
Pure Moe fans should stay away from this manga though, since the girls aren’t portrayed to be Moe despite an amount of fanservice present. Compared to current series with panty shots ever few pages, H2 would lose hands down, but I’m pretty sure that according to the standards of more than 15 years ago, it’s quite an amount.
Miyuki was awesome, and now that I’ve read H2, I’ve come to realise that I’m growing to like Adachi Mitsuru’s work more and more. I think I shall move on to enjoy more of his simple yet entertaining works such as Katsu!, Touch and Cross Game
Left to Right: Hikari, Hideo, Haruka, Hiro
In the meantime, I shall complete the live action Jdorama adaption of H2 aired in 2005. I’ve watched the first few episodes, and I’m pleased that it’s faithful to the original story, and that almost all the characters resemble their manga counterparts. The length’s that of a typical Jdorama, spanning over 11 episodes, so I think it’s worth a watch for those who have read the manga. After all, good live action adaptations are hard to come by these days.
P.S. The live action Haruka is so darn cute!
I’m always on the lookout for a good live-action series. Let me know what you think of H2 (in a spoiler-free way, of course!) after you’re finished with it.
The H2 live action dorama’s really awesome. The story is totally the same as that of the manga, although some stuff was left out. That really can’t be helped though, since it’s impossible to squeeze 388 chapters in 11 episodes without compromising the quality of the story. Watch it if you have it chance.