It’s only as real as you believe it is.

Overview

Viz Media’s Real series offers a lot deep character development that I see missing from a lot of other Manga titles that I’ve been reading lately and Vol 8 is no different.  This time the story focuses heavily on Hisanobu and Nomiya.  Returning back to their own lives after the reality of their loss to The Dreams has strong affects on some of the team members and they struggle to find their place amongst the Tigers, their friends, and the rest of the world.

Highlights

Seeing Hisanobu struggle with his physical therapy sessions offers a very real feeling of the triumph of the human spirit.  His attempts at living a new life without legs is an awkward and tense struggle.  It is at times heartbreaking to witness his failed trials, but when he did finally succeed, I was cheering.  Seeing his relationships with the other rehab members develop into more than petty rivalry makes the already great tale this volume weaves even better.

 Nomiya’s heavy portion of this volume is completely different than Takahashi’s but just as memorable. Nomiya lost some direction in his life after the moving company he previously worked for went bankrupt.  As he struggles to find a new job, he realizes how out of place he is within the current work force.  After seeing an advertisement for tryouts to the Tokyo Lightnings basketball team, he begins to see a new path open up before him and begins to work to travel it.  Inoue does a great job showing the fierce determination that Nomiya has toward obtaining his new found purpose and that is definitely a highlight of this volume.

Most of the players on the wheelchair basketball team aren’t, in fact, bound to a wheel chair.  This idea throws me off when I see them in chairs during one scene and running around the next.  Because of this, I’m unsure whether some scenes are taking place in present day or if they’re flashbacks to a pre-chair state.  With that said, there were some minor issues created by these switches but they didn’t distract from the large amount of dramatic events that this volume offered.

Overall

Real is a very unique story telling experience that delivers great drama along with a unique premise.  Real Vol 8 does a great job of introducing some great new elements while offering a lot of deeper moments for two of the series' main characters.  The main story doesn’t move much in this volume, but they’ve set up enough new plot pieces to keep readers looking forward to the next few books in the series.  

ComicsOnline gives Takehiko Inoue’s Real Vol 8 4 out 5 wheelchair wonders.

Buy Real Volume 8 at Amazon.com now.

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