Real Volume 7 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnobles.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Kiyoharu “Vince” Togawa started playing wheelchair basketball after cancer took his leg.  Once known as a natural athlete, smart student, and all-around popular guy, Hisanobu Takahashi is now a paraplegic.  Tomomi Nomiya is a high school dropout dealing with the guilt of paralyzing a young woman in a traffic accident.  Tragedy will bring these three different young men together, uniting them by their love of basketball. 

In Real, Vol. 7, Vince’s Tokyo Tigers take on the Chofu Dreams in the Tokyo Wheelchair Basketball Tournament.  Before the tournament begins, Coach Yasuda makes Vince (who took his nickname from NBA baller Vince Carter) an offer to join the Dreams, a much superior team to the Tigers.  Meanwhile, Nomiya’s plan for redemption gets a setback, and the Tigers get a new addition, a grieving young man named Ryo Mizushima who misses his friends.

THE LOWDOWN:  He is a manga-ka not lacking for praise from critics and fans, but Takehiko Inoue is most deserving.  Chapter 37, which opens this seventh volume of Real, introduces a new character, Ryo Mizushima.  Inoue’s mastery of creating and developing characters and his skill at character drama are affirmed in how he unveils Ryo’s conflicts, struggles, and inner turmoil, while the larger drama of the Tokyo Tigers plays out in a grueling, physical basketball game.  Is Takehiko Inoue a master comic book creator?  Get Real; the question doesn’t even need to be asked.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for great comic books want to get Real.

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