Cross Game

Cross Game
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Ko (left) and Wakaba
クロスゲーム
(Kurosu Gēmu)
Genre
Manga
Written byMitsuru Adachi
Published byShogakukan
English publisher
ImprintShōnen Sunday Comics
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Sunday
DemographicShōnen
Original runApril 27, 2005February 17, 2010
Volumes17 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Directed byOsamu Sekita
Produced by
  • Shunji Aoki (1–13)
  • Fukashi Azuma (14–26)
  • Shinnosuke Wada (27–50)
  • Naohiko Furuichi
Written byMichihiro Tsuchiya
Music byKōtarō Nakagawa
StudioSynergySP
Licensed by
  • NA: Viz Media
Original networkTXN (TV Tokyo)
Original run April 5, 2009 March 28, 2010
Episodes50 (List of episodes)
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Cross Game (Japanese: クロスゲーム, Hepburn: Kurosu Gēmu) is a Japanese baseball-themed manga series written and illustrated by Mitsuru Adachi. It was serialized in Shogakukan shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from April 2005 to February 2010, with its chapters collected in 17 tankōbon volumes. The series was adapted as a 50-episode anime television series that aired on the TV Tokyo network from April 2009 to March 2010.

Cross Game is the story of Ko Kitamura and the four neighboring Tsukishima sisters, Ichiyo, Wakaba, Aoba, and Momiji. Wakaba and Ko were born on the same day in the same hospital and are close enough that Wakaba treats Ko as her boyfriend, though nothing is officially declared, while Aoba, one year younger than them, hates how Ko is "taking" her sister away from her. After Wakaba dies in an accident, Ko and Aoba slowly grow closer as they strive to fulfill Wakaba's final dream of seeing them play in the high school baseball championship in Koshien Stadium. The manga is divided into multiple parts. Part One, which consists of volume one, is a prologue that takes place while the main characters are in elementary school, ending in tragedy. Part Two starts four years later with Ko in his third year of junior high and continues into the summer of his third year of high school. Part Three continues the story without a break, ending with Ko and Aoba traveling to Koshien.

In 2009, Cross Game received the 54th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category. Both the manga and its anime adaptation have been overall well received by critics.

  1. ^ "Viz Manga App Adds Six New Digital Manga Titles for the Ipad, Iphone and Ipod Touch for June". Viz Media. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  2. ^ Garrity, Shaenon K. (May 8, 2014). "Cross Game - House of 1000 Manga". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  3. ^ "The Official Website for Cross Game". Viz Media. Archived from the original on July 21, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2017.