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Rating: The collaboration between Takehiko Inoue and the American network ESPN (... huh?) resulted in the creation of this webcomic, a project likely put together from the start with the philosophy of low cost/maximum yield. It seems almost like a divertissement the author indulged in after Slam Dunk. Guessing blindly at a couple of motivations beyond the money, I would bet on T. Inoue’s desire to unleash a bit of 'stupideira' and give one last push to his fame on a terrain that is now familiar to him, such as basketball, before tackling a challenging and not very commercial project like "Vagabond."
The plot is nonsense; there isn't much to say. The space basketball tournament featuring an Earth representative team that is narrated seems more like a trick pulled out of a hat without much thought than a true idea to talk once more about that sport. Everything is resolved rather quickly. In the end, it results in four volumes, mostly containing sequences of game actions that fly by in the blink of an eye.
The reason why, in my opinion, it’s worth taking a look at this manga, and why I started talking about it, are some elements revealed by the minimalistic style with which it was created. The deliberately raw style, particularly in the creation of shadows and clothing folds, exposes T. Inoue's talent, highlighting the strength of his drawing precisely on pages made with essential lines. Probably the project's time and budget constraints, rather than a true stylistic choice, force him to create solutions to avoid background creation as much as possible. There are some intriguing ones beyond the many convenient close-ups, such as the peculiar use of very bright colors, sound effects in ideograms, kinetic lines, and especially the creation of a blur effect made with a thicker line for the contours. Personally, I also found the result obtained with the technique sometimes used for color addition that gives a felt-tip marker effect quite pleasant. I don't know what it is. The pages have an unusual square format. For these reasons, I would have liked to purchase the Italian edition, but I gladly passed when I saw the exorbitant price. I continued to read it in English, when I felt like it, on a site that all manga comics fans know.
Probably it’s not the most opportune time to talk about comics, but I had this ready and I’m publishing it. If someone is interested in the topic, they’ll read it whenever they want.
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