Harlem Beat! No, it's not that Yaoi manga or a New York soul group, the Manga!

Since I've written blogs on almost all my favorite anime series, it's only fitting it's time to write one on my favorite manga! With the announcement of the new Fate/Stay Night anime being an adaption of my beloved Unlimited Blade Works, There is only one anime I crave, one on Harlem Beat. I love this series so very much, which is strange because I think sports are queer, and don't follow any. So what sets this story apart ? It's a drama that involves basketball. The cast is varied, fun, and loveable. So let's slam into the jam! I'll be using Tokyopop translations, since barely anyone read those,and no one reading this in English will know what I'm talking about otherwise.

     Harlem Beat follows the story of Nate (Naruse) Torres, a loser who always gives up. Be it sports, music, whatever, he quits and moves onto something else. But not this time, this time he's going to give basketball his all. He makes his school's team and while going out to buy gear he meets an old friend, Mizzy Kusada. She introduces him to street hoops to help him improve. Nate starts off week, but it turns out he has a secret weapon, he can do the Air Walk! Soon he's joined by Kyle, a street thug who has a crush on Mizzy, and Masahiro Sawamura, a smooth talker with a rough past. The four of them form Scratch, and head off to the Skykiss tournament.

Main Characters:
Nate (Naruse) Torres- Our generic shonen hero! He's got an amazing ability to learn, and loves basketball.
Mizzy Kusada- The girl next door and former classmate of Nates. Her father walked out when she was young, and she lives with her rich mother.
Kyle Ozman- A gangster with a crush on Mizzy, he's a teddybear underneath it all and admires Nate.
Masashiro Sawamura- The best character in the series, his father abandoned him at a young age after being betrayed by a friend and amassing a large amount of debt. He's street smart, great at three point shots, and loves money.
Shuji (Shu/ shoe) Shurman- The hero of Johnan's basketball team and local street player. He comes off as sort of a big brother.
Sumisugi Kobayashi- The samurai of the team, he becomes captain when the Seniors quit to study.
Tomomi Koizumi-Nate's love interest he meets at the High School Basketball finals.

Nate, our hero.

Mizzy, a cute girl with daddy issues.

A good looking man who likes money and gambling.

A gangster who wants Mizzy.

At the tournament, Scratch faces off against local heroes Three Man group, and discovers their main player is the hero of Nate's Highschool Basketball team, Shu. Nate sees him as unbeatable, but Shu encourages him to keep playing. Scratch barely wins the match. They go on to face other teams, but withdraw during the semi finals due to fatigue. The series was a hit at this point, and could go onto longer serialization. Hence back to Nate's school team, with Shu the team's leader, Kobayashi the teams samurai type, and joined by Sawamura to form a great team. In the past Johnan's current seniors were freshman the team was pitiful. The seniors didn't care and they lost every game. This year will be different, and they did well the previous year, losing to Harada Commercial high in the semi finals. They manage to overcome them this year,and head to Sapporo for the Finals of the tournament. This ends Harlem Beat, at least when it was released in America. It covers volumes 1-9 of the source material.

Johnan's team

   Volumes 10 and 11 were skipped before Harlem beat was re branded as Rebound in America. I revently bought them both due to them being cheap on amazon.com. The important parts form these volumes are that Nate goes to Sawamura's house and sees a photo of his father. This is important later. Mizzy and her home life are shown, and she talks about her crush on Shurman, which really seemed to come out of nowhere in Rebound. Finally fellow street players help train Johnan for the finals in Tokyo. I can't read moonrunes, so this is me guessing based on the pictures.

    Rebound begins with Johnan arriving in Sapporo, and meeting their first opponents, Kyan High. They're tanned punks with attitudes, but they play street ball and comes off as cool guys. Nate meets Koizumi during this time, and the two begin a friendship.Johnan barely wins, though they have their eyes on the tournament favorites, Kanakita, who have a player favored to compete in the Olympics. During all this, Sawamura is reunited with his father who he hates. The two make peace, and his father offers him a place to stay, but Sawamura declines.After winning the right  to face Kanakita, Johnan trains hard to overcome their defense. Despite all of this, Johnan loses. It's heartbreaking to see them make it so far, and lose.  They head back to Tokyo afterwards, with Nate and Koizumi promising to keep in touch.

The final few volumes are enjoyable, but they feel unfocused. The Johnan seniors retire and leave the team to Kobayashi. They all go on a beach trip together, where It's revealed something is going on between Shurman and the team's female manager, Kim. Mizzy confesses to Shurman, but is turned down. The next few volumes deal with someone trying to conquer all of the street hoops in Tokyo. Sawamura joining up with an old friend in a high stakes Basketball gambling tournament. Nate, Mizzy and Kyle defeat him, and then face the head honcho, some random guy who wants to find a hero among basketball players. Yeah, whatever, Shurman shows up to help, and Nate defeats the head guy. The last three volumes seems lost, with Johnan failing to make it to the finals, and Nate and Sawamura being forced to work as ushers during the events.Koizumi and Nate get as close as they can be, and Nate promises to tell her he loves her the next time they meet.

     Finally comes the end of it all, Shurman and the other seniors are graduating, so they hold a party for them, and the new team tearfully says goodbye. Shurman and Kim head off for Doctors without borders together, while the Three man hoop where Nate and his friends met is threatened by a construction crew. Eventually the hoop is moved to the local playground where all can play together. The end!

   What I loved about this series is the characterization. Everyone has a distinct personality, even if the art makes it a bit hard to tell faces apart. The artist loves to draw SD chibis, and she is much better at that than regular. It's more about drama, compare this Slam dunk, which was about energy on the court and awesome moves. Sakuragi has no real depth to him other than being a loud idiot who loves basketball. Nate falls in love, faces defeat, and trains hard to do his best. The real draw is the supporting cast. Sawamura is an amazing guy, he has a rough life, works to support himself, and does his best to help Nate and make money. He's very funny, and amazing at three point shots. Kyle is an idiot whose awkward attempts at romance and making friends are enjoyable to watch. Mizzy is hot, but she does seem to have some depth. Shurman is the older brother everyone loves. Kim is the team manager who loves to torture the team, especially Nate. Even the rival teams have stand outs, like Sasuke Amagi, Higa Yuuta, or Kuwata. They're all such interesting people that make this manga about Basketball a joy to read.

    As with most series in the 90s, there was spin offs. First up is a Playstation game- Harlem Beat- You're the one! From what I gather it's a visual novel with basketball in between. I won a copy, but my lack of understanding of the moon stops me from playing such a text heavy game.There's two novel spin offs, but once again I don't know Japanese. maybe someday I will and shall buy the two volumes and the new G Gundam manga. I have more money than common sense anyway.

Harlem Beat manga- 99/10!

Novel 1

Novel 2

Yeah, I have no idea what I'm suppose to do here . . .

    I'll probably write a blog on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Code Geass. I'm fairly certain this blog is fueled by Code Geass, so it's only fitting that my 200th blog is on it. I'm rewatching it as I write this. This Dub is truly terrible, but I must suffer for my craft.