Release of a stunning book on the relationship between sports and manga. Published by Third, baseball is one of the main players in this work.
Today as yesterday, sports fascinate.
But historians explain that the power of sports isn’t limited to revenue, contracts, and audiences. The athlete could be a political tool in the 20th century, but also the great hero of spectators who followed their performances on television. Inevitably, artists slipped among the curious or practitioners.
Japan is no exception, and through late historical exchanges, post-war occupation, and the economic race of the second half of the 20th century, sports even became a case study regarding its cultural influences.
Sports manga, like many others, was born after the war and never stopped evolving with its time: manga and Japanese society go hand in hand, one developing at the rhythm of the other. During this long period of transformation, manga established itself in the Land of the Rising Sun as a particularly effective, accessible, and popular medium.
Thus, from the first fights of Ashita no Joe to the meticulously planned matches of Eyesshield 21, sports manga has always found its audience and constitutes a reflection of Japan’s political and economic history.
Book Table of Contents
