Real

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A manga revolving around wheelchair basketball. This is another representation of the manga form's greatest asset: variety. There are manga out there about any subject, topic or issue. There is a manga out there for everyone. Real is for everyone. Everyone with matured tastes anyway. It needs to be made clear that this manga is heavy on characterisation and not on battle royales involving hoops.

Takehiko Inoue's Real is his most mature and accomplished work. You won’t find constant court action here with secret techniques powering up people. This is a tale about three young men, the issue ... of disability in Japan, and of course basketball.

Nomiya is a rash outspoken school dropout searching for a purpose in life. Everything about him says he should not give a shit and just be a hooligan, but inside that rough exterior of his is a decent person wanting to make good use of his life. This is a man who acknowledges who he is, a very mature act indeed. He looks for redemption in the girl who he caused to become disabled thanks to a traffic accident.

Togawa is already in a wheelchair and a rabid basketball player. His arc is more predictable in the Slam Dunk mould of wanting to be a better player, setting his sights on a rival to use as a measuring stick for his own skills. How he got into the wheelchair is more interesting than what he's doing in it, but regardless his predicament is still engaging in a conventional sense. You root for him to succeed.

Takahashi is an antagonist introduced early on, making Nomiya's life a misery by not adhering to the spirit of sportsmanship, causing Nomiya to become an outcast by turning the school team against him. He's pretty much your typical teenager, ugly egotistical traits and all. He unexpectedly becomes the reader's guide to disability and enables Takehiko Inoue to explore the horror of having control of your own body and senses wrenched away from you. This character's arc is by far the most compelling, as Inoue slowly turns the hateful archetypical bully of the first volume into a relatable person by the fourth.

Reading this manga I kept trying to spot how Takehiko Inoue would go wrong; would make glaring mistakes or fall for convention. But he doesn’t. There's no typical genre formula for the basketball games, there's no beat by beat rundown of disability like you'd expect in some shonen genre tale with commentators spelling everything out for you. This is simply a tale led by three main characters dealing with what’s real in their lives, how to differentiate between reality and fantasy whether it be in society status or relationships, the falsities between the lines, how to hold onto truths, how to discover them in the first place.

How to deal with the cold harsh and undeniably true-to-life act of being abandoned by your so-called friends when you lose the ability to walk. How to continue to live in your new state, bearing that crushing defeat, the humiliation and loneliness that comes rushing in when you are outcast by nearly everyone in your life.

Real is Takehiko Inoue's best manga to date, it doesn’t use basketball games as a crutch, it doesnt revel in clichéd tropes of manga, it’s just simply a compelling story with a backdrop that’s rare to the manga form, so kudos to the author for going there and tackling it responsibly and creatively.

Real isn’t going to be everyone's cup of tea, because some are so used to associating manga with certain tropes. This most certainly isn’t Slam Dunk part two, but if you've an open mind and want to be pulled into the plights and trials of three young Japanese men dealing with life's challenges, drawn exquisitely by one of manga's most skilled artists, then read Real.

Takehiko Inoue made his name in the 90′s with Slam Dunk, the hugely popular basketball manga. After that he was sponsored by ESPN to do another basketball manga, Buzzer Beater, but that one didn’t go down as well. So the next year he decided to switch genres and starting drawing Vagabond, the samurai epic. But I guess after a few years of him waking up surrounded by pages of samurai doing slam dunks, he realised the basketball was in him and he needed to go back to that genre before he exploded. Sitting in front of his editor and faced with pitching his new sports ... manga, he desperately needed some new angle.

“It’s about bask..bas…” gaze darts around the office.

“Baske…ba…baaaaa” eyes dart from newbie mangaka sweating profusely to experienced editor in chief picking his nose to the new sub-editor who only has one leg so is in a-

“Wheelchair basketball! My new manga is about wheelchair basketball!”

One thing I was worried about going into Real was that the depiction of disabled folks would come off as patronising. There can be a bit of a tendency in stories focusing on disabilities to paint the characters as selfless heroic individuals with no faults, as though they think glorifying their achievements will somehow counterbalance the lack of respect regular society gives them. This is absolutely not the case with Real. The characters are assholes. Completely and utterly horrible people. There’s three main characters, two of which are in wheelchairs. One of them is a stuck-up, self-absorbed, weak-willed bully. The guy not in the wheelchair is a temperamental, anti-social idiot. Even the third dude, the up and coming wheelchair basketball star, is an angry whining little twit.

While this goes a long way to making the characters feel like human beings with genuine personality, dreams and weaknesses, it can also mean that watching them gets a bit difficult at times. Particularly at the start of the story. Real takes the approach that these characters will learn and grow to become better people through their interactions with others over the course of the story. To achieve that though, they really shove these characters down to absolute rock bottom. High school dropout loses his drivers licence and cripples the girl he picked up and has that looming over his conscious as he tries to put some sort of life together. Top-tier student breezing through class gets spinal cord snapped in traffic accident and realises while in hospital that none of his previous relationships are worth shit. Aspiring wheelchair basketball player tries to set up team but most of the players abandon them due to his relentless ambition.

But in US Marine style, breaking them down completely allows the story to start rebuilding their lives. It’s fucking gruelling to sit through at the start. With every breakthrough a character has, something else will knock them back. Team gets back together, instantly loses first match. Guy manages to get job, company goes bankrupt. But with each knockback, the person will learn something. They’ll draw inspiration from one of the other characters in the story and this will spur them on to go further. It’s a feel-good story about triumph in the face of adversity, which you could probably guess from the fact it was about wheelchair basketball. But in humanising the characters and knocking them down so low, it becomes that much more rewarding when they do make a breakthrough.

The artwork is fantastic. Takehiko Inoue opts for a more realistic drawing style, which works well with the story. Characters do seem to sweat an awful lot, which makes the basketball matches look like the players were all bukkake’d before getting on the court. This is compounded by the fact Inoue likes to draw the characters with their shirts off to display muscles and so forth. The author has no qualms whatsoever about drawing dicks either, which is a little bit weird. This is actually relevant material, since your own body image is a huge theme in the story. It’s both a huge part of sports and your disability. Shots of the Australian wheelchair basketball player with his humongous biceps next to his stick-thin legs go a long way to demonstrating how characters come to terms with how they body will be shaped.

Where the artwork really seemed to improve over the course of the series is the visual metaphors and panel composition. Now I admit that the panel composition thing may be just me taking time to get used to his style, given the guy is kind of a veteran at this whole manga thing. But the more the manga went on, the better he seemed to get at depicting the thought process of characters using visual cues. The moment that was an absolute standout for me was when the guy in hospital remembered the game of basketball he played against the guy in the wheelchair before he broke his back and he suddenly realises there is a sport for him. There’s a fantastic flow to the way the panels show his mind naturally wander before his eyes widen when he remembers the guy in the wheelchair. As for the visual metaphor, these increase over the course of the manga and go a long way to allowing me to understand how the disability effected people. Stand out moment here was the guy sprinting in a race and seeing his leg crash into some imaginary mud and snap off.

It took me a bit to get into Real as the story construction requires the start to be gruelling reading. But once the characters started growing, it became a highly absorbing and rewarding read. It hasn’t ended yet. There's 11 volumes out at time of writing. But I can’t see it continuing on for too much longer because it really feels that the characters have gotten over the worst of their problems. Plus it’s about wheelchair basketball. Goddamn wheelchair basketball! How awesome is that! Go read Real, it’s pretty great.

What can be said about REAL, that hasn't been said yet?

It is masterfully written manga by Takehiko Inoue revolving around overcoming what life throws at you. Three main characters are trying to live their lifes and find their path.

You relate to them, because atleast once in your life you had similar thoughts. As manga progresses you progress with it. You want to join them in their fights with obstacles. You want to go out and start playing basketball. You want to start studying and live your life at the fullest possible way. You are inspired not by their victories, but by their transformation. ... Jorney is sometimes more important than the destination. And this is one of those times.

Favourite quote from the manga: "I just want to be a better person"

What this manga revolves around can simply be described in two words, wheelchair basketball -- but that surely does it as much justice as calling nights dark.

If you've seen the movie Murderball, then this series is a essentially and almost entirely just the manga format of what that documentary has to offer in terms of issues relating to people of the disability -- but from a Japanese perspective of course. As a side note, if you haven't seen Murderball then get off your ass and do so!

Takehiko's brilliance can be seen immediately in his art. It is his own and it is unquestionably excellent and ... recognizable -- my personal favorite among manga artists. What makes his work so superb and endearing are his characters. Upon reading any series of his, be it Slam Dunk!, Vagabond, or this one, the immediate impression of the characters is that they are just that, characters. They have very specific personalities and their mannerism and dialogues and all other aspects to them are very specific to them. An obvious observation yes, however, this does wonders in providing a certain realism and depth concerning the ability of the reader to relate and understand the scope of what the characters within Inoue's mangas, and do so with an incredible grasp of who and what the characters represent with a certain clarity that is in my opinion genius.

Every page, and even the ones with not a single word communicate vastly the experience and environment of the characters within them and the thoughts and minds of these common yet distinct people that you will have the gratifying experience of encountering in a manga.

Fun. Emotional. Endearing. Memorable.

There are things in life that play within certain expectations, while there are things in life which transcend those expectations and that applies to every area, whether it is watching a sport, a movie, or reading manga.

In the world of manga, as in any other, you will find works that fit a certain criteria and with time you learn to know what to expect. You learn to know what to expect from Shonen Jump, you learn to know what to expect from a certain author, and so on. But every now and then, there comes a title that breaks from that and leaves you wondering ... what expectation is. Real is that sort of work.

I would be lying if I said that expecting great things from Takehiko Inoue isn't a thing. After all, he wrote what I consider (still to this day) the best sports manga, while he is also still working on Vagabond, which is also another one of those monstrous/bigger than life experiences.

I won't go on to spoil anything, but Real presents us with a subject that most people will not be familiar with, a set of characters that couldn't be more different from each other, ranging from pedantic, to eclectic. But the thing that sets Real apart from everything in any medium is its soul. It is extremely grounded, it is extremely real. You will feel emotions, you will move with the art, and you will cry.

You will cry.

I don't consider any fictional work to be perfect, but this as close as it may get. Not rating Real as a masterpiece is insanity.
Do yourself a favor, enjoy this.

Can I even call this a review? I mean, I’ll be talking about things I like. I’ll be going over aspects of the series as if it was a review. But I won’t really be talking about Real as if I’m reviewing instead I’ll just be talking about it as if I was casually discussing it in a discord chat or VC. But before we start I need to establish 3 things. Firstly, Real is still an ongoing manga as of the writing of this review. Secondly, I haven’t caught up to Real, I’ve read 13 volumes. Thirdly, Real is my 2nd favorite manga so ... there really won’t be any talks of criticism as quite honestly, there isn’t much, if anything I find wrong about Real. I think Real is one of the greatest works of art I’ve ever read & it submitted Takehiko Inoue as not only my favorite mangaka, but my for sure one of my top 5 favorite creators in any media (Music, Games, Manga, Anime, etc.) of all time. Sufficed to say Real is a manga that means a lot to me which is why I want to stress the question asked at the beginning of this lengthy introduction “Can I even call this a review?”.

So what is it that makes Real such a god tier favorite for me? Well it’s the whole package as a short answer but I’ll be discussing this package because I doubt anybody wants “It’s the whole package” as an answer to that question. But firstly, lets begin with that story. Real’s story is about taking these 3 (& then later 4) very different characters, exploring their minds, & finding their own paths to self discovery. If there’s one word to describe Real’s story, it’s “Human”. It gives us very realistic, & to some even relatable situations. It gets us to understand how these situations effect each individual & really understand their state of mind. I don’t think it’s a stretch to state that these characters are extremely unlikable at first, but I don’t think it’s an extreme unlikable. Like lets just think about things, Nomiya in the beginning is a lost loser who has no desire for his future, a high school drop out, brash, & he ruined the life of this girl named Natsumi by paralyzing her from the waist down due to a motorcycle accident. Takahashi is a dickish brat who steals somebody’s bike just because he feels like it, makes fun of Nomiya for dropping out of highschool & looks down upon him harshly, & is very self centered. Speaking of self centered, we’ve got Togawa, somebody who’s selfishness caused the demise of his own team. While these described traits make the characters sound really unlikable, we quickly learn of their backstories & it helps us to peel back the layers of these characters & really understand where they come from. Plus Real’s phenomenal character development turns these characters into tragic heroes in a sense. Nomiya, after rediscovering his love for basketball thanks to Togawa. Does his best to set things right with Natusmi (and succeeds). Gets his driver license whilst simultaneously getting over his fear of the road. Gets a job that sets him on the right path. Changes his attitude on life & becomes a generally more positive person. Togawa gives into authenticity, learns the value of teamwork, & gets the tigers back together after splitting them apart originally. Takahashi gets over himself, takes his rehab seriously, much like Tomiya, rediscovers his passion for basketball, & gains a newfound appreciation for life that he originally didn’t have. Character development like this throughout 3 very different, yet equally layered individuals take Real & turn it into a manga that so easily cracks the top 2. All throughout this manga I’ve been engaged & when you’re at such a point that you can’t put a volume down until you finish it because you’re that immersed into the story that’s how you know you’re reading a fantastic manga. Now is also probably a good time to mention it. But if you’re coming into this manga expecting fast paced, frantic exciting Basketball action, either don’t or turn back & don’t read this manga. While Real does have really good & exciting Basketball action like Slam Dunk. That isn’t what Real’s about. Real is a character drama at its core & it’s about character development. To put it bluntly, if you’re reading Real for the Basketball action, you’re doing it wrong. Unlike Slam Dunk which is about the sport but has fantastic characters with good pacing. Real is about character drama first & foremost with the sport of Basketball as supplementary material that helps serves as a driving force for this character development to take place. Just for we’re clear, I’m not shitting on or trying to undercut Slam Dunk. Slam Dunk is my 12th favorite manga, my favorite manga that ran in weekly shounen jump, & a manga that I think appeals to everyone. I really do love Slam Dunk but what I’m getting at is that if you’re expecting Real to be like Slam Dunk, then your expectations aren’t in the right place & you may end up disappointed.

Now onto the characters. I’ve already gone over our main 3 that Real centers around. But they’ll still get mentioned from time to time. However, there is one other character that more or less becomes a main character later on in the story that I’ve failed to mention until now. The Scorpion, otherwise known as Shiratori. Shiratori is a former wrestler who found himself in an accident that made him lose his ability to walk. But unlike Takahashi (at first anyway) he’s very optimistic, claiming that he’ll be able to walk again within a month. He’s a hard worker with a very optimistic outlook on life, & with a certain volume that I’ll be discussing later on in this segment is really impressive given the circumstances he’s had to put up with. We also got Shiratori. An aspiring manga artist. Although Tomiya paralyzed her from the waist down. It ironically ends up helping her to pursue her dreams of creating manga. Real has a lot of characters, & it makes them all memorable. We’ve got Hisayuki, Takahashi’s father who expresses extreme regret over neglecting his son for most of his life & tries his best to make up with his son after the accident. We’ve got Tora, a guy Togawa looked up to as if he was a brother. This character specifically actually has one of my favorite moments in the series in which he gives Togawa a wheelchair designed for Basketball & Togawa breaks down crying. The pure emotion this scene carries with it it powerful & I’ll fully admit this is one of the moments of Real that made me cry. I can go on about these characters but I honestly don’t think that’s super interesting & even still, there’s no way a mere text post could peel back all the layers of these characters. So I’ll give off three character moments of Real that add onto making this my top 2. We’ve got Takahashi crying & yelling at Shiratori not to lose his first match after rehab after learning that his other rehab partner was the one who sent Shiratori the letters that he talked about earlier. We’ve also got the moment where Nomiya gets fired from his job & instead of sulking takes that as motivation to continue finding his new path in life & uses it as motivation to get back into basketball. We’ve got the moment where on his death-bed, Togawa still texts Yamauchi “you’re my hero”. If I had to give 2 volumes that exemplify what makes Real what it is. It’s volume 11 & volume 13, Volume 11 we get the main , we see Nomiya trying out for the lightnings. Togawa continuing to learn the value of teamwork. & Takahashi starting to find the motivation to take his rehab seriously & gain a newfound appreciation of life that he didn’t have previously. Combine these 3 stories together & you’ve got as of now my favorite volume of Real. Volume 13 is the shiratori volume in which we learn of his backstory. We learn that he went through a divorce & lost his kid, we learn the reason he became a wrestler in the first place, we learn what wrestling really means to him, & we get to see some of the best character development Real has to offer up to this point. I think I’ve exerted about all the energy I can on the characters of Real without going into college essay territory. Honestly, I don’t feel like I’ve even began to scratch the surface of why these characters are so good but I do hope I’ve at least offered enough as to give readers an understanding as to why these characters are so good & why they only add onto how much this manga means to me.

Onto the art. To the surprise of nobody Real’s art is amazing. Takehiko Inoue is one of the most renowned artists in manga for a reason, & Real is just another exemplary showcase of Inoue’s artistic prowess. While I’m not sure if I’d say Real’s art is as good as Vagabond’s on the whole, I will say it’s better than Slam Dunk even at its best & the art only continues to go up from volume 1. The text to art ratio is on the lower end, Real’s pages can have a decent sum of text on them but it’s not huge & I found myself flying through the pages no matter if it was majority text or just art. The art itself in the action scenes flows really well & there’s never a dull moment, the hype of these games can equal Slam Dunk in all honesty. I’m sorry this section was significantly shorter than the other 2 segments but I really don’t know what else I can say about Real’s art being amazing without repeating myself.

That’s Real. If I can say 3 words. “Thank You Inoue”. Thank you for creating one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve ever experienced. Thank you for giving me some of my favorite characters with some of the best development in all of manga. Thank you for creating a story that immerses me in a way that very few manga. Thank you above all else for creating Real. I know Inoue will never read this. But I still want to thank him for writing my second favorite manga of all time & cementing himself as my favorite mangaka of all time. Please read this manga people, if you love human drama you have no excuse not to read this because I honestly don’t think you’ll get a better drama series than this one. I don’t think you’ll get better character development than Real. I don’t even know where I’m taking this anymore, but I wanna end this with a final “Thank You Inoue”.

Out of Takehiko Inoue's three major works, I would say Real is overall the best. His first major work of Slam Dunk, whilst good for what it was, had too few stakes to keep investment high and Vagabond took too long to provide a major focus on character development. In that sense, Real can be considered the best of both worlds and overall an improvement on everything about Slam Dunk to the point of the predecessor's redundancy akin to what Hunter X Hunter is compared to Yu Yu Hakusho.

The plot is something fairly straightforward and summaries of it wouldn't make the series sound so interesting. ... If it were purely the disabled playing wheelchair basketball, the series would have nothing to keep investment high. What does allow it to shine compared to many other manga, especially of the sports genre, is it's focus on characters and their psychology. Most of the cast are given a large focus on their personal struggle and how being catapulted into the realm of disability can affect both their path in life and relationships with their loved ones, particularly well done with the character of Takahashi. There is also exploration on the guilt and regret that comes from this sudden change, with many of the transformations into a paraplegic being due to an accident caused by reckless decisions. This can be particularly seen through the character of Nomiya and his attempts to atone for his sins in a life that he ruined. These elements provide the opportunity to create great drama, which the series utilises to it's full potential with it's exploration on the temporary nature of life.
However, it's not as though the synergy of a plot with good themes and very good characters makes something a masterpiece. Unfortunately, later chapters of the series spend so much of a focus on the failures of characters to get past their problems to the point of derailing the manga's pacing and causing some story lines to seemingly go in circles.

Onto the superficial element of art, this is an aspect of the series that is truly excellent. Inoue's art is well renowned as highly detailed and realistic, this holding true for Real. His work as an artist and ability to catch the audience's attention through it has improved staggeringly since Slam Dunk, though I'd say the peak of Vagabond's art surpasses Real's, but when the former is one of the most breathtaking manga artistically that's still a worthy feat.

As for the conclusion, is Real the greatest sports manga of all time? No. That title would belong to Ashita no Joe. However, Real is a worthy second place in that category with it providing enough drama and danger to stand above the countless titles of lukewarm importance within the genre and act as Inoue's expansion as a writer after Slam Dunk. Too bad the series will likely be stuck in hiatus hell for many years.

Overall ranking - 7.5/10

Real is an inspirational manga about being better, overcoming adversity and redemption. It takes excellent advantage of its premise about disabled characters who want to show that they can be great wheelchair basketball players in their current state. This is only the iceberg peak of the stuff that this manga offers. Let's see some examples about it:

1) Characters: The manga made a great job focusing more on the psychology of them instead of the sports involved. For example, one of the protagonists made a mistake that nearly costs his life and left disabled her lover. The manga invested more time watching the redemption path of ... him, his internal conflicts, the steps he took to improve himself and the reconstruction of his relationship with the girl she loved who started the manga hating him for ruining permanently her life. I have to point that you will see him playing basketball rarely, so yes, this shows the strong psychological aspect that this manga offers. And this is not the only highlight character of this manga, we have, also a disabled main character who learnt what the true teamwork is about showing his struggles to accept this fact, another disabled character who spent big time of the manga in a hospital having to accept that he's now permanently disabled and the strong chemistry between him and another patients that share his condition, among others.

2) Multiple focus: One of the strongest points of this manga is that the approach is not only with one main character. During the reading, the manga presents the progress in the character development of it's main cast, and it's not like this stories are stand alone, all this characters have their connections and interactions with each other most of the time, so all of them grow together with the advance of the big main plot. Another important aspect and makes the difference between this and the other works of the author is the fact that every conflict and the main objective of each character in the show is different. Most of them are disabled, however, their stories and motivations are clearly differenced in the manga.

3) Realism: As the title of this manga subscribes, here are not Gary Stu type characters, miracle last minute points or convenient asspulls in order to advance faster the story and the character development. Instead, the result of the matches are consistent with the presented the previous chapters and the opponents our protagonists faced, the solution for the outcomes or the conflicts presented are really creative in several occasions keeping the internal logic presented in the manga and, ignoring the result of the matches, there's no inmediate character rewrite as a consecuence of the result previously mentioned, so the characters make a quick post-match analysis and then move on with their lives and their current conflicts.

4) Drawing: Excellent and the best part is the fact that it goes better with the advance of the chapters. Also, it complements very well with the topics and plot presented here.


Of course, I'm not telling you this manga is perfect. During the first episodes, the manga, actually, becomes melodramatic with the conflicts presented. Fortunately, this issue is solved progressively with the advance of the chapters to the point of becomes inexistent the rest of it. Another issue is that the pacing can be slower sometimes with the resolution of the protagonists conflicts, also, when this conflicts are not solved the manga can go in circles repeating some steps in order to make a new attempt of solve them.


In conclusion Real is a great sports manga that doesn't limit itself presenting just the sport referenced, it goes much further with its messages, characters psychology and its well made drama. Highly recommended.

When you tell someone to read a manga about wheelchair basketball it sounds almost absurd, but once you get into it you realize this manga is more than just wheelchair basketball

If i had to describe real, it would be this sentence: "life is fucking hard", because this is what real is, the hardness of life, the effort one has to make to keep living, this is the reality of the world.

What i like most about REAL it's that it has more than just 1 protagonist, the series revolves around 3 persons, each one battling their own demons and battling to survive the condition their living ... in. The characters from REAL have so much depth and development that i'd have to say, from all the mangas i've read, this manga is the only one that actually made me cry, and it wasn't just some tears, i was actually crying my eyes out, which made me realize how much connection i had to the characters on this manga. The ways the characters are presented makes you feel what they're feeling, for example even though Takahashi is presented as an asshole and a selfish person, the more you know about him, and the more you go on into this character you start to like him, you start to feel what he's feeling on a deeper level, which many mangas fail to do, the same can be said about nomiya or togawa, they're all created on such a personal level, that i'd say this manga feels more real than most of the manga I've read.

If you wanna read something serious, something to actually think about at night or in the shower, then read REAL, I wouldn't say everyone would like it, it feels more of a book than a manga, for the simple fact that this manga doesn't follow the normal characteristics and tropes of a manga.
It isn't farfetched to say this is the best manga I've read up to date, and if you wanna have something to think about, then give it a try.

Real is an extremely underrated manga by Takehiko Inoue, the master in their craft. It began serialization in 1999, together with the author's masterpiece, Vagabond, and currently has 15 volumes (at the date of this review).

The manga presents the story of three young people (Tomomi Nomiya; Kiyoharu Togawa and Hisanobu Takahashi) whose lives are intertwined by basketball, drama and immeasurable tragedy.

Nomiya is a boy who loves basketball but drops out of school after getting involved in a serious accident; Togawa is a wheelchair user who also loves the sport, an extremely competitive person but who still has fears and regrets about his life, and Hisanobu ... is a not-so-nice guy, captain of the basketball team at the same school he attends. Nomiya was part of it, but suddenly his life is completely transformed due to a certain calamity.

In the plot, we will see how the three boys relate to sport – all the love for the game and training – and how they live (seeking to overcome themselves) even under the aegis of despair and the imponderable.

Real is – at first glance – a generic manga like any other, in which we will see characters who love what they practice and who have their lives connected to it, seeking to improve themselves and trying to become the best of all. However, there is something clear and precious because it will not only deal with basketball itself, it will deal with wheelchair basketball and the way society and the players themselves see it. More than that, it will show us how people deal with real heartbreaking problems and try to accept and overcome events and their limitations.

This first volume is an introduction to the story and – although carrying out an analysis of it alone is not very fruitful – it already lays the foundations of a narrative that tends to be touching, sad and even terrifying for some, with the characters involved by the tragedy and the drama emerging at every moment. The plot begins, for example, with Nomiya out of school, after a motorcycle accident that left a girl who was with him paraplegic. With the world at his back, he will try to live with the anguish of what he has done and the traumas arising from it, while at the same time, he will need to find a place in the world.

Although he has the characteristic of being tough and cool, he is not unlike any other person who flirts with misfortune and ends up feeling guilty for what happened to the girl. He is afraid of traffic due to the accident and, in the middle of everything, he still has to work to survive. And it is in this context that his initial lifeline is basketball, or rather the encounter with a great player in the sport, Kiyoharu Togawa, a young man who, sitting in his wheelchair, manages to play much better than Nomiya.

Although he gets into several fights during the volume (one of which, at the end of the first volume is quite intense), basketball and the encounter with Togawa make Tomomi manage to survive, even though the fears and traumas remain, even though his personality stays present.

The introduction that this volume gives us is some of Togawa's history as well. Togawa is a young man who had one of his legs amputated, in the past, due to illness and has been using a wheelchair for a long time, having found salvation in wheelchair basketball.

Not only that, basketball becomes so important that he wants more than just playing, more than just having fun, he wants to win and he wants to be the best. In other words, he is a character who comes ready-made, with all his baggage from the past tragedy, now seeking to go further. In the meantime, he even uses his drama for his benefit (I can't say more because of the spoiler).

His big dilemma is precisely not being with people who also want to win. We soon discover that he left the wheelchair basketball team he was part of because his teammates just wanted to have fun and were happy even after a loss. One of the most striking scenes is exactly this, with Togawa hearing from one of his companions that they shouldn't care so much because nothing would change in their lives since they were wheelchair users. This is an emblematic moment, as it opposes Togawa's thinking, who wanted more and more, despite his physical limitations.
Despite everything, we see in Togawa still traces of the things that happened to him. In particular, he finds it difficult to accept help, thinking that it interferes with the lives of other people with whom he lives.

We couldn't stop talking about the last figure of the plot's triad, Hisanobu Takahashi. And the best definition of him is a person who is hateful, bad, lazy, treating others badly, etc, etc. Typical bad boy. But there is a turn in the story: after stealing a bicycle, he ends up being run over and becomes paraplegic.

If at the beginning of the plot, the great drama is about Nomiya, from the middle to the end, Takahashi is the star of the tragedy that takes over.
We will see him in a regrettable situation, unimaginable until then, having to deal with something and things that greatly affect his psychology.

And Real is basically that, an exacerbated drama that affects the characters at the same time that the basketball game is their soul, the strength necessary for them to fight. Despite his hurts and limitations, Togawa will be there playing for fun (and for money) despite being the cause of an accident, Nomiya will be fighting to get things going and so on.

Although it is a story originally intended for the Japanese public, Real brings a universal image of how we often see people with disabilities, with pity, as incapable and so on. A clear case, in this sense, occurs when Togawa goes to play basketball at certain times and everyone thinks he is poor, taking it easy on him because he is a wheelchair user. The move is right there, as we see the boy in a very athletic way and better than several players without any disabilities.

And perhaps therein lies the great point of the manga.
It makes us think about ourselves, think about how we see paraplegic people and how we would react in a similar situation. By presenting several people who have learned or are learning to deal with a certain condition, the story puts us in an impasse situation, which can make us feel sad about the situations shown and empathize with the characters at the same time that it can make us be scared of that.

Real inserts a little finger in the wound. It makes us reason about things that we try to forget most of the time, that we are not used to seeing in the manga, and that is one of the great qualities of this work.

Finally, remember what I said earlier: this story has a great introduction that smoothes the rough edges of the story. Even so, it is clear right away that Real is a work that speaks deeply – it touches on essential and uncomfortable points – and the whole development of characters seems to show us that the intensity of things tends to increase.

Real is one of those titles that are almost essential for comic book readers those that make us think about life, despair, happiness, fear and most importantly, not judging people just because they are different from us. We need to have empathy and help people because, in their minds, they are fighting a gigantic war to survive.

I use MAL for keeping track of series I want to read/watch, so this will be my first(and probably only) review. I could right pages about REAL but I'll keep it somewhat brief.

If you are on the fence about reading this series, do it. No hesitation. If one person starts this series because of this post, then I have done my job. If you are expecting Slam Dunk or Vagabond, it's somewhat a mixture of the two, and somewhat something completely different. We may never get a completion to the story, and taking that into consideration, it's still one of the greatest STORIES I have ... ever read(and I've read my fair share). That's somewhat of an extreme opinion and I don't think it will resonate as personally with everyone as it did with me, but I'm positive anybody that gives it a shot will gain something of value from it. I think that's the highest praise anyone can give for a story.

Story: 10
Riveting. Heartbreaking. Funny. Frustrating. Thought-Provoking. I have gone through almost every possible emotion through each sit-down. Essentially, the story resolves around 3 guys connected through basketball, or more specifically, wheelchair basketball. It's a balance of despair and hope, swirling through the pages as characters try to right their wrongs and find their place in the world after traumatic experiences. It's a pretty vague premise, but there are many subplots that really give the story its legs.

Art: 8
Definitely not the best I've seen as it's spotty at times(Due to the author working on Vagabond at the time), but it really has it's own charm. I think Inoue is unrivaled in portraying movement in his panels. He's mastered the small details, and easily makes you forget you're looking at a still page. It's not just basketball scenes where his art shines either. He can portray emotion with shocking realism, and it greatly adds to the effect of whatever feeling he wants you to feel. And in my opinion, his character designs are perfect. It's the sweet balance between being able to tell people apart while also not making them too outlandish where that sense of realism is lost. Each character has their own unique set of features, not just in their face but in their body language as well, which is super impressive considering a lot of the cast is in a wheelchair.

Characters: 10
The characters are the best part about this series, and that is saying a lot. You know a story is special when there're 3 main characters, and each are equally fleshed out with extreme care, depth and unique development. What's even crazier is that some of the best characters play supporting roles. Side characters are supposed to help the main characters grow, and they accomplish that flawlessly. However, countless of these characters receive just as much or even more growth that other story's MAIN cast gets. Everyone is a weirdo, an asshole or both, and yet, I can't help but root for them. Their flaws are so blatant, but you understand why they do what they do. They're given structure and as you watch these characters go through the ringer countless times, all you want to see is them come out on top.

Enjoyment: 10
Through each of my numerous reads, my interest has not faltered even a little bit. I enjoy it as much as I did years ago.

Overall: 10
It's less than 100 chapters, and still one of the most fleshed out pieces of work this medium has to offer. It's relatable on so many levels and mad me reflect in ways I never had before. In my honest opinion, a must read for everybody, not just anime/manga fans.

Yes, this is a manga about wheelchair basketball. I've enjoyed SLAM DUNK, but this manga is so much more than just the sports itself.


The story is a roller coaster throughout. It isn't a tear jerker, but accurately depicts the highs and lows of life. The characters are very humanlike, the mistakes they make haunt them, and yet they are constantly pushing despite being set back by life. This book is inspiring, not in a traditional sports manga type of way. It inspires you to be better, and shows you that people are able to forgive themselves and move on. ... The art is obviously a 10, as it drawn by Takehiko Inoue.

Maybe the best manga I've ever read. Inoue's ability to make you love what he loves is unparalleled. If you don't love basketball before reading this, you will at least understand what it is like to have a passion for something.

Every part of it is superb:
-The art is as expected from Inoue
-The action is well drawn and suited for the genre
-The comedy is genuine
-The story is emotive and captivating

The only thing that's a negative is having to wait for him to finish the work, but to put it a way that Nomiya would say, "This is not despair. This is joy!"

This is divine work by Takehiko Inoue. It's like Dostoievski writing manga. The human behaviour is perfectly detailed, this is the best manga in this subject I have ever put my eyes on.
I am subjective about the basketball part, as i am a player, but i can tell you that he has some good points there, and some good points in leadership that any team sport can use.
His momentum is great, it blew me away how it kept crawling and digging in more and more misery.
This is some hardcore slice of life. If you're not ready for drama or facing your issues, then step away. ... If you just finished Slam Dunk, and are expecting an easy read with basketball flavor, mister Inoue will surprise you :)
Also art-wise, it's greatly done - consider his other ongoing manga Vagabond
I would put this manga in the education system , it's really food for your mind

Real.


There are so many converging stories that it always places a fresh reminder on how insecure, lonely, angry or happy we can all get, taking such simplistic things and transforming them to fit nearly every narrative from all points of view is just genius story-telling.

Do not go into this manga with expectations because I can guarantee you that they will be shattered in nearly every regard, I'll be keeping the character summaries brief.
------
Real follows Nomiya, Tomomi: a high school dropout unsure on his dreams but regardless remains motivated to achieve his lifelong goal.

Takahashi, Hisanobu: a high schooler who has his whole world view turned upside ... down, forcing him to change with the times.

Togawa, Kiyoharu: a wheelchair basketball player, eager to change but too stubborn to accept it.

-----

Just read it, you will cry.

10/10

Spoiler free review



The art:

The strictly realistic art, sets a serious tone throughout the manga. It never or rarely feels exaggerated, pretentious or flat out wacky. It depicts emotions in a natural, REAListic way, without trying to force them unto readers. Captivating, even from the cover, Inoue’s incredible artistic vision of facial expressions give characters a living vibe. The main characters are laid bare in artistic REALism, drawn masterfully in private situations and strong emotional states. Theres a deep, almost intimate connection made with them.



...
The Story:

Tough revolving around it the whole manga, wheelchair basketball is mostly used as a catalyst for story/events and also as a stage to exhibit character development. Most of the REAL DRAMA happens outside the court, in the lives of the main characters, how they cope with with REAL life difficult, AWKWARD, Far from fairy tale like, situations. Ambivalence, acceptance(not only of others but of oneself), REGRET, true friendship, starting over, love(in general), are just some of the major themes masterfully explored and expressed in REAL. This story is a down right, in your face reminder of the cruelties of real life. Little to no plot armor here, no magic dragon balls, no sugar coating it for readers, no tears falling on someone to magically heal them, no super emotional screams = flashy power up sequences, no super hero magic powers. The only super heroes you'll find here are personifications of REAL life, flesh and blood heroes. And the only powers here, are the ones of the human spirit, exhibited in true magnificence.
It is NOT as dark!!! depressing or gloomy as one might think when judging the "cover" or synopsis. I would even venture out and say its heart warming and inspiring. The unpretentious, unexaggerated darkness, has a natural “REAL life” feeling to it. A darkness we are used to, for its all around us. But this story isn't about darkness(its no emo manga), its about the radiant light that contrast it, this story is about the beauty of life!

I recommend everyone give this one a try, for the quality is world class.

3 men, 2 points in common: handicap and passion for basketball

With Real, Takehiko Inoue signs, once again, a masterpiece. I have to point out the magnificent drawings!

Disability
Takehiko Inoue tells the story of 3 young men who have seen their lives destroyed because of disability.

Tomomi Nomiya has just been expelled from high school. Passionate about basketball, he has not played since he caused a motorcycle accident in which his passenger - Natsumi Yamashita - lost the use of his legs.
While visiting Natsumi, Tomomi meets Kiyoharu Togawa. Amputated with one leg, Kiyoharu started playing handi-basketball but he finds his team mediocre.
Hisanobu Takahashi became leader of the basketball ... team after Tomomi's dismissal. One day he gets hit by a truck trying to steal a bike. Surgeons tell him he's lost the use of his legs.

Inoue Sensei and his love for basketball: a recurring theme
Takehiko Inoue has already praised basketball in his mythical work Slam Dunk (I have never laughed so much).

In Real, the mangaka uses basketball as therapy. Basketball, as a lot of sports, unites and enables people to surpass themselves.
Thus these three characters must accept their handicap, face it and especially stand up against it.

Friendship, love, family
The characters may gradually face their disability but it would not be the same without their loved ones who try as best they can to help them. They also have had their lives turned upside down. Standing beside each other will enable them to overcome the handicap little by little, defeat after defeat, victory after victory.

The publication rate is too slow
The only negative point is undoubtedly the publishing rate (13 volumes since 1999). If Takehiko Inoue had declared several times that he wanted to take his time and publish at his own pace, the wait becomes very long and we end up losing the thread...

You can still start the manga which currently contains 13 rich volumes. Some chapters have been released since...

In summary
A realistic and touching manga, sometimes funny, sometimes sad.
A truly inspiring lesson, sometimes very hard, that shows that no matter what the hardships, you have to get up again and again because life is worth living.

This story was soo good, around chapter 70 I was worried about the story ending abruptly because I noticed there were only 90 chapters but I'm so glad the story isnt finished, I just hope that new chapters will come out soon, because I really wanna see more from nomiya and the three musketeers. they were my favorite characters. I def didn;t expect to cry as often as i did with this series but they way they depicted each characters trauma and their resilience and persistence to overcome their obstacles was so powerful, the shiratori arc with broom made me bawllllll T-T as did Nomiya ... at tryouts. def one of my new favorite series. also the art is amazing. nomiya was looking hot as fuck when he popped up on takahashi and showed off his 6 pack lmaooo. im also very interested in where the storyline will go between nomiya and the girl.

Great, great manga. Another masterpiece from Takehiko Inoue.

This is not a new Slam Dunk. It deals with much heavier and mature themes, deepens them to an unprecedented level. The love of basketball here is a background and, at the same time, a crucial aspect.

It's a background because the story, at least until now (volume 14), is not about basketball, but it's about people dealing with the various impacts of a physical disability.

It is crucial because it is in the rescue or building of love of basketball that the characters rebuild themselves from trauma and resignify their experiences with the physical disability.

Real basically deals with this: ... how disability, with its specificities, with its challenges, with all that it brings, is also a possibility of a rescue of the past, of a re-elaboration, a re-signification of oneself, a rescue - and a discovery - of potentialities and of what really matters in life.

The protagonist trio brings together such diverse characteristics, so different ways of dealing with how the physical disability goes through their lives. In common, the fact that their stories intersect from the (re)discovery of basketball as a turning point.

Great, great manga. Another masterpiece from Takehiko Inoue.

This is not a new Slam Dunk. It deals with much heavier and mature themes, deepens them to an unprecedented level. The love of basketball here is a background and, at the same time, a crucial aspect.

It's a background because the story, at least until now (volume 14), is not about basketball, but it's about people dealing with the various impacts of a physical disability.

It is crucial because it is in the rescue or building of love of basketball that the characters rebuild themselves from trauma and resignify their experiences with the physical disability.

Real basically deals with this: ... how disability, with its specificities, with its challenges, with all that it brings, is also a possibility of a rescue of the past, of a re-elaboration, a re-signification of oneself, a rescue - and a discovery - of potentialities and of what really matters in life.

The protagonist trio brings together such diverse characteristics, so different ways of dealing with how the physical disability goes through their lives. In common, the fact that their stories intersect from the (re)discovery of basketball as a turning point.

Unmissable.