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The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Whatever Live” board (Nandemo Jikkyo G) blew up over a post pointing out that manga artist Adachi Mitsuru has written enough hit series to field an entire baseball lineup using nothing but his major works. Beyond “Nine,” “Hiatari Ryoukou!” (“Nice Weather!”), and “Rough,” there’s also “Cross Game,” which even got a live-action adaptation — drawing fresh attention to just how long Adachi’s career has spanned, from the 1970s all the way to today. The thread also debated how hard it is to tell the art styles of “Touch,” “Miyuki,” and “Hiatari Ryoukou!” apart, along with the mixed reputations of “Rough” and “Nijiiro Togarashi” (“Rainbow Chili Pepper”). Riding the momentum, other posters jumped in with their own lineups built from the works of Urasawa Naoki and Toriyama Akira.
What people said
2 (2B) Hiatari Ryoukou! (Nice Weather!)
3 (RF) Rough
Rough was decent, honestly — swimming (lol) was just a bad choice of subject matter.
Nijiiro Togarashi, though, that one's beyond saving.
Rough sold like crazy and plenty of people call it Adachi's best work
Once you get used to it you can tell — it's not just the hairstyles, the art style itself shifts subtly too.
The real challenge is Touch (early), Miyuki (mid), and Hiatari Ryoukou! (late) — those overlapped in serialization almost completely, and even Adachi himself barely differentiated them.
Well, still better than telling Kurumada's protagonists apart (referring to Saint Seiya creator Kurumada Masami, notorious for drawing near-identical leads)
1 (CF) Happy!
2 (SS) Billy Bat
3 (3B) Master Keaton
4 (1B) 20th Century Boys
5 (RF) Monster
6 (C) Pineapple Army
7 (LF) Asadora!
8 (2B) The Last Manga Class
9 (P) Pluto
Manager: Yawara!
Manager's Assistant: Mujirushi -MUJIRUSHI- (a play on "no-brand")
Bench: Master Keaton Remaster
Too many of these peter out down the stretch — feels like this team blows the pennant every single year
(CF) Cashman
(SS) Sand Land
(P) Dragon Ball
(C) Dr. Slump
(2B) Kajika
(1B) Neko Majin
(3B) Akkuman
(LF) Jaco the Galactic Patrolman
(RF) Cowa!
Honestly the bench is thin on this one
Outside of the battery (pitcher and catcher), it's rough going honestly
Cross Game, no contest — not even a micron of doubt
Adachi Mitsuru was the first manga artist in Japanese history to top 100 million copies in combined sales across his works — that milestone hit while Nijiiro Togarashi was still running
He was asked for a slightly racy rom-com and slipped in his own personal kink — "the ideal girlfriend is a stepsister with no blood relation" — and it blew up way bigger than expected. I get the feeling even he was thrown off by it, because the back half really reads like he's writing it unsure of where to go.
2 (2B) The Ultimate Superhuman, Aa~ru
3 (RF) Mobile Police Patlabor
4 (1B) Jajauma Groomin' UP!
5 (LF) Dis×Comi
6 (3B) Chronicle of the Pale Dusk
7 (SS) Daughter of Pangea: KUNIE
8 (C) Birdy the Mighty: Evolution
9 (P) Birdy the Mighty
Props for working across so many genres, but yeah, he couldn't quite carry 9 series
The Koshien series he did with Yamasaki Juzo is kind of dark, or heavy — it keeps that vibe from early Nine going the whole way through.
Hira Hira-kun – Wakadaishou is a lot brighter though, I'd recommend that one
Honestly I think MIX has a bit more going for it, since it fully commits to being a kind of career-summary, greatest-hits piece instead.
Finally, someone brought up Cross Game.
Alright, you're forgiven.
Say whatever you want after that
Yep, Shoujo Comic — it ran alongside Kaze to Ki no Uta ("The Poem of Wind and Trees"), which was being serialized there at the same time
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
Adachi Mitsuru debuted in the 1970s and has an enormous body of serialized work, headlined by “Touch” and “H2,” alongside “Miyuki,” “Hiatari Ryoukou!,” “Rough,” “Nijiiro Togarashi,” “Cross Game,” and “MIX.” As noted in reply #48, he also holds the distinction of being the first manga artist in Japan to surpass 100 million copies in combined sales of his own works, a milestone reached while Nijiiro Togarashi was still running. Riding the lineup gimmick, posters in the thread also built rosters out of the works of Urasawa Naoki and Toriyama Akira, turning the thread from a joke about one artist into something of a springboard for comparing “which manga artists have enough hits to field a full lineup.” At the same time, opinions split on individual works — over the reputations of “Rough” and “Nijiiro Togarashi,” and over the bittersweet ending of “Miyuki.” Note that part of the thread involved some back-and-forth sniping from one poster insisting that “you have no right to weigh in without mentioning Cross Game”; posts amounting to personal insults have been excluded from this writeup.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Good News] Turns Out Adachi Mitsuru Has Drawn Enough to Field a Baseball Lineup“.
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