"The Baseball team is here..to fuck you up!"

A really fun manga by the author of Rokudenashi Blues, Rookies is one of those stories where despite being a spokon (technically) it is not really about baseball, but rather is a story of mutual trust and how to gain it with baseball as a vehicle for this to happen.

Not to say this doesn't focus on sports, or that other sports series don't do the same thing - sports with the purpose of growth - because they do, and there is a lot of focus on Rookies baseball matches but the former delinquents could have pursued any other sport, be either football, basket, or karate. Other than the genius Aniya or Mikoshiba, they might or might not pursue baseball as a profession later, but that isn't the point. The point is how to motivate young students who felt they weren't understood, and how you do not attempt to change, judge them, or kick them out, but rather try to understand them because they are human too - just very young and bored.

The main character of Rookies is not a player, but rather, their coach. Kawato is a very interesting and positive teacher (someone who some would call a 'static' character as his development is completed by the time the series starts, and even then, I think he grows alongside his students). He doesn't know anything about baseball, a total rookie, and he is also new to this school due to an incident that happened on his past. He is relatively new to teaching too - in a school where most professors are jaded, cynic and downright mean to their students, someone who actually cares for the people he teaches was met with distrust and then eventually gratitude by the students. Despite being a good dude overall, he is kind of rash and unpredictable, and it sometimes doesn't end up well for him, but in times where his students need someone to stand up for them, he will be there for them. He even changes some of the fellow professors.

As the baseball players are usually an ensemble cast, a lot of them tend to be forgettable - it is a common theme in sports manga, not just in rookies, some people shine more than others just like real life - but the stars are definitely the genius Aniya who regains his passion, the hilarious Hiratsuka, Wakana and super fast and charming Sekikawa, and even the unsure Mikoshiba who end up having one of the best moments in the series.

However, there are some things that should be noticed - I think that the treatment of injuries was treated quite poorly, especially for young players, and it is one of the things where Kawato was arguably in the wrong here. I wish we had seen more of the teachers, especially as the latest ones have an old relationship with the protagonist, as Kawato's treatment of his students helped flip the baseball club reputation around, there was no reason for them to be as hostile to the students at the end of it.

Overall, I really liked the message of Rookies, sometimes all you need to switch your life around is someone who believes in you, and that's Kawato does for his students.