I'M SO SAD IT'S OVER!! I MEAN... I don't know what I'm supposed to do now!! Where can i find a manga like this??!?! It's pretty rare now'a'days you know!!
I can't explain how glad I am that I decided to read this manga! It was worth every minute of every second of my time and I'm so surprised by the negative comments written here. Since I love this manga so much, I'll take the time to put some detail into this just to get other to read it too.
Art: Beautiful from beginning to end, very detailed.
Characters: Some of the best character's I've ever seen and some of the best friendships I've ever witnessed. The amount of hard work, persistence, trust and fragility they all had made this manga into a total gem. The amazing part is that they didn't even start off all that great. Throughout the story, they develop incredible strength mentally and physically and as a reader, even I felt proud of them when they overcame obstacles and sad when they struggled. I laughed when they laughed, cheered them on when they were giving it their all and felt my heart break when they hit rock bottom in their life. I don't think I've ever respected a character as much as I have with Nobara though. Theb best thing about her is that she's strong but she's also very fragile. She cries when it's something very important but she NEVER gives up. When she falls, she always stands up again and it's just refreshing how realistic the mangaka has created her to be. She's incredible. Absolutely amazing and the very definition of "a diamond in the rough." I loved all the characters in this manga. All in all, great characters, brilliant character development.
Plot: I definitely underestimated the plot for this. As I mentioned earlier, I'm very glad I decided to read it because to be honest I hesitated a little. Sports/Romance manga's are tough, I mean, There will be either too much of one or the other and I expected a bunch of whining girls and overly confident boys but this definitely took me by surprise. It had the perfect balance of sports/romance/drama and slice of life. Definitely slice of life. It was very realistic and spot on. I would know because I used to play volleyball and the team work, the crying, the hard work, the frustration, the audience, the cheering, the injuries are all spot on. I think I love this manga a tad more than others because I've felt it all too.
Romance: Can't.get.enough.of.it! I LOVE how it's not so sloppy or overly dramatic or overly innocent. The relationship between Nobato and Yuushin goes beyond any relationship I've seen in other manga's. The amount of trust and support they had for each other is truly worth seeing. Just by having each other, they were able to go through the hardest of times. What i found really awesome though was that they didn't just go "omg you're hot, I'm totally in love with you" they built it first. They're friends, comrades, lovers, supporters and dreamers. All of that together. I'm just really glad there's a perfect amount of romance in this manga. If it was all sports and just a hint of romance, I don't think I would've kept reading! Great couple, great connection.
Ending:
I wish I could've seen them play during the spring tournament, that would've been awesome too but the ending was wrapped up pretty nicely.
All in all, I give it a 10/10. Please give it a read, I guarantee you won't regret it.
Well, that's said, I think I'll go play some volleyball again.