Area no Kishi

[Sun Shine]

Synopsis taken from MyAnimeList
Believing himself to be useless at football, Aizawa Kakeru opts to become the manager of his school's football team, while his brother Suguru is its ace, and is even good enough to represent Japan. However, Kakeru may be harbouring a strong talent within himself that only Suguru can see, and the two often get into arguments over Kakeru's denial of his skills. Things are made more complicated with the return of Seven, an old playmate of theirs that Kakeru has a crush on. Join the brothers in their journey to the national and even international championships!

http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/12032.jpg

Genres: Sports, Shounen, School, Comedy

Its being scanlated by Chibisuke-scans at the moment and they have currently released 7 chapters. Its one of my favourite mangas and so far the plot has been pretty good with decent characters.

[frubam]

I've been reading this since they released the first 2 chapters a while back. Pretty solid. Actually kinda struck a chord with me when at the end of chap 5? Kakeru had that steel pipe through his chest O.O. You just don't expect something like that so early in a sports manga. Sugeru was actually a good character. After he died, personally I thought it would have been better if it happened later in the manga, while Kakeru quit the team and upped his skills on the sidelines(not in a game, but doing stuff like with that masked person). Then it would have had more impact. Although it was typical(in the sense that Sugeru would be permanently be made to stop playing soccer, not typical how they did it), it still was good stuff.

Side note: Nana's probably better than all of them >.>

[Sun Shine]

Yeh I agree although I wasn't surprised about Sugeru's death but more the timing of it in the manga. The story was building up for it to happen but it still came as a shock because it happened so early. The characters upto this point have been well balanced and there really is a variety in personalities which is good. Who do you reckon the masked player was? I was thinking it was Sugeru or Seven but if they still appear now it can't have been Sugeru.

[retracnosna]

seems so obvious the masked player is Seven, kind of hoping it's someone else just for a surprise

awesome manga so far. Always surprised how little attention online-fans give to sports mangas

[HmR.kS]

I'd read it immediately if I were a football fan. Looks pretty good.
But how's the drawing quality? It looks like a pretty old series.

[Sun Shine]

It started publishing in 2006 and is still going now but has only recently started to be scanlated so the scanlations are waaaay behind the raws. The drawing quality is average-above average but the character designs are great and the story has been decent as well so far.

[Dark Mage]

I love this series but does anyone think Seven likes Kakeru or is it only Kakeru that likes seven. I would like to know the mystery behind Seven's football skills and in chapter 12 even the brazilian Ace seems to know her. So I am guessing that she must have been a really famous soccer player in america. so why did she come back to Japan and does anyone here know what is happening in volume 12?

[retracnosna]

not sure I like the setup for the main character. Seems kind of short-sighted. Dead brother and heart transplant is dramatic and all, but it pretty much dooms kakeru(?) to runner-up status for the entire manga

since no matter what he does he can't surpass his brother at soccer anymore. Short of leading Japan to the world cup or something crazy which obviously won't happen anytime soon. If at all

and even if he gets that girl he likes it's only because his bro died. He was the one she liked

[incube]

not sure I like the setup for the main character. Seems kind of short-sighted. Dead brother and heart transplant is dramatic and all, but it pretty much dooms kakeru(?) to runner-up status for the entire manga

since no matter what he does he can't surpass his brother at soccer anymore. Short of leading Japan to the world cup or something crazy which obviously won't happen anytime soon. If at all

and even if he gets that girl he likes it's only because his bro died. He was the one she liked

His brother dies? Around wich chapter did that happen and that seven girl loves kakeru back or it is something like school rumble :(

[jpwong]

His brother dies? Around wich chapter did that happen

They reveal it in chapter 7, though it's pretty easy to guess what's going to happen in chapter 6.

[Sun Shine]

A new chapter seems to be scanlated weekly now which is good!! Always helps for sports stories to have interesting characters!! Hope Seven develops into a love interest for Kakeru. I didn't like all the heart transplant thing and I hope it doesn't have a great part to play in the story further down the line, it would have been nicer for Kakeru just to relive the memories that he had of his bro.

[fallschirmjager]

Just finished catching up, last time I looked it they only had 18 chapters online.

Really enjoying this manga, I too hope Nana goes for Kakeru. I'm still curious to what her secret is, what happened abroad?

Also, anyone know of any similar mangas to this out of curiosity?