Giant Killing

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)

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Giant Killing has been digitally published in English by Kodansha USA since March 7, 2017.

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Giant Killing

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Characters

Tatsumi, Takeshi

Main

Yoshida, Luigi

Main

Tsubaki, Daisuke

Main

Murakoshi, Shigeyuki

Main

Sera, Kyouhei

Supporting

Akasaki, Ryou

Supporting

Kuroda, Kazuki

Supporting

Nagata, Yuri

Supporting

Natsuki, Yotaro

Supporting

Midorikawa, Hiroshi

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 17, 2023

Harsh234

Recommended

Preliminary (514/? eps)

Giant killing is one of the Mangas which cover almost all the aspects of a Football club from players to Mangment to fans. It has everything a sports manga should have and from my pov I rate it as the best sports manga ( above SD, Haikyuu)

The author also had gone deep in J1 league Getting back story of Other teams and their players and mangers.

There is 2-3 arcs solely about the Club Ultras (regular supporters) As a football enthusiastic I recommend this Manga to Every football fan and if you don't watch football Then this will give you a whole new experience about how ...

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Dec 1, 2022

Noobmixups

Recommended

Preliminary (493/? eps)

Do you still confused why so many eyes seeing 22 players running around the field only to chase a ball? Why people from another regions of the world giving up their sleep schedule just to see 90 minutes of football match from their favorite team? Why they still keep supporting their favorite team even though they were always losing? Then you should read giant killing.

Giant killing were really good on pinpoint things that usually not being a main factors about football clubs in any sports manga, they focused Not just about the game, but the football all inside out. The Manager, staff, players, the owners, ...

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Sep 16, 2020

PowerUpOrDie

Recommended

Preliminary (215/? eps)

The biggest giant this series killed was my usual disinterest with sports manga.

STORY

I've always had a major roadblock between myself and enjoying a sports series: I know that the events taking place on the field are scripted. This may seem like a strange gripe, since EVERY event in every manga is scripted, with the outcome decided by the author long before I pick up the book, but I when it comes to sports series I have a particular problem suspending my disbelief. There just aren't that many potential directions a story can go when the only two realistic outcomes are 1) They score the points ... and win, or 2) They don't score the points and lose. But "Giant Killing" finally achieved what I thought was impossible for a sports series: genuine dramatic tension. In volumes 20-22 the unthinkable happened and I was on the edge of my seat for a soccer match. The match itself was simply a mid-season game against a mid-tier opponent, not some final showdown for the championship or anything like that, but I was completely sold on the idea that this game was an all-out, no holds barred battle right down to the wire between two evenly matched teams, where the outcome hung by a thread and the protagonists had no plot armor guaranteeing a victory. After finishing that story arc I decided I HAD to write a review for this manga.

CHARACTERS

But just a in real life sports, the enjoyment isn't derived solely from a mere abstract appreciation of the tactics and athleticism of the sport in question, but also from the "narrative". The quarterback isn't just a man skilled at throwing a football- he's an old veteran making one last attempt to win the championship that has eluded him his whole career; the baseball team isn't just some kids from a small high school- they're a plucky band of underdogs trying to beat the big high school's advantage in talent and money using just their sweat, teamwork, and brains. "Giant Killing" provides a large cast of distinct characters with a wide variety of story arcs to keep things interesting. Individually, I can't say any particular character is an all-time favorite of mine, but they work extremely well as a group. Players, coaches, front office staff, fans, and media personalities all bounce off each other in complex and interesting ways as their personal storylines intersect. This large and well-balanced cast means the spotlight can regularly switch between characters to keep things fresh while still feeling like one cohesive story. Perhaps the true main character is East Tokyo United itself.

ART

I'm always interested in manga with a distinct aesthetic. You definitely won't look at the art style of "Giant Killing" and confuse it for anything else. The simple fact that characters have NOSES will differentiate this series from a good chunk of the manga out there. The art has a slightly rough and sketchy feel without seeming amateur. Moving past the nose joke, the character designs are memorable and widely varied- a crucial accomplishment given the size of the cast. Just as an example let's look at the supporting character of Natsumi, a passionate but somewhat clueless player in the latter half of his career still trying to project the image of the cool young soccer stud. His main visual quirk is a huge mop of hair held back by a headband, sure it looks like an athlete's hairstyle but it's also just a bit outdated. It sums up all the crucial points of the character in a single image: his age, his love of soccer, and his awkwardness. That's a smart use of visual clues to help the audience remember what a character is all about, even if he's only the main focus on rare occasions.

ENJOYMENT

I'd call this "The Sports Manga For People Who Don't Like Sports Manga". It has a completely different vibe than your generic story about a group of high school kids saying "LET'S GO TO NATIONALS!", so don't write it off just because you tried other sports series but they didn't stick. The story is more mature, not in the sex, drugs, and profanity kind of way, but mature in the sense that you understand that most of the characters are adults dealing with issues more complex than making friends and confessing to the cute girl. Even as a red-blooded American who won't budge on the fact that FOOTBALL is the sport with the pads, helmets, and brown egg-shaped ball, I found myself deeply enjoying this look into professional soccer.

OVERALL

"Giant Killing" will probably never dethrone my all-time favorite manga such as "Vinland Saga", "A Silent Voice", or "The Ghost and the Lady", but it IS my favorite sports manga by a wide margin. GO GO EAST TOKYO UNITED!

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is the manga close to ending? tryatrya - Mar 31, 2023	3 replies	by Noobmixups »» Jun 15, 2023 4:18 PM
Poll: Giant Killing Chapter 1 Discussion peroxid - Jan 3, 2010	9 replies	by FNH04 »» Mar 29, 2023 10:18 PM
Poll: Giant Killing Chapter 508 Discussion Noobmixups - Mar 15, 2023	0 replies	by Noobmixups »» Mar 15, 2023 5:44 AM
Poll: Giant Killing Chapter 502 Discussion Noobmixups - Jan 31, 2023	0 replies	by Noobmixups »» Jan 31, 2023 3:12 AM
Starting point for manga after anime jonno_a - Oct 23, 2021	5 replies	by Ryan_Melvin15 »» Nov 5, 2021 5:55 AM

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