-Rebound
-Yuriko Nishiyama
-Tokyo Pop
Lately I have been picking up a few volume ones as they appear in a local used book store just to check out some different series that I wouldn’t usually have picked up. The shop is really good price wise, so I don’t mind buying stuff that I don’t think I’ll like too much because it won’t break the bank or anything. In regard to these volumes I thought I would start a new series just discussing the random stuff I pick up, so here’s the first one.
Rebound is a sequel to another Tokyopop series ‘Harlem Beat’, which I have also never read. The story in the first volume follows a high school basketball team from Tokyo as they travel to Sapporo for a national competition. As a sequel to another series most of the characters aren’t introduced in much detail and as such it kind of puts the reader in the back seat from the set out. It also refers back to other events from earlier, again taking away from the new story.
As far as the story of the first volume goes the team arrives in Sapporo and at their hotel where they immediately come to odds with another team who turns out to be their first round rivals. Coming close to blows in the hotel lobby the coaches manage to ease the teams a little and separate them. The following day the teams make peace and decide to have a slam dunk competition the night before their match. I felt that the background of the players from this other team was built far more successfully than the main characters, but sense that they may not appear for much longer in the series as they are just another team in the national competition which will probably disappear after it ends.
Would I buy more of this series? I probably won’t, or at least not unless I find some volumes of Harlem Beat first and read it over. As far as basketball manga go, Slam Dunk is the most popular and well-known as I would probably read it rather than these series. I think Rebound will just sit on my shelf as an odd one volume.
Turtle
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