Cross Game

Cross Game
Cover of the first manga volume featuring Ko (left) and Wakaba
クロスゲーム (Kurosu Gēmu)
Genre	Coming-of-age[1] Romantic comedy[2] Sports[3]
Manga
Written by	Mitsuru Adachi
Published by	Shogakukan
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Imprint	Shōnen Sunday Comics
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Sunday
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	April 27, 2005 – February 17, 2010
Volumes	17 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Directed by	Osamu Sekita
Produced by	Shunji Aoki (#1–13) Fukashi Azuma (#14–26) Shinnosuke Wada (#27–50) Naohiko Furuichi
Written by	Michihiro Tsuchiya
Music by	Kōtarō Nakagawa
Studio	SynergySP
Licensed by	NA: Viz Media
Original network	TV Tokyo
Original run	April 5, 2009 – March 28, 2010
Episodes	50 (List of episodes)
Anime and manga portal

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.