Review: DAYS

Since this month marks the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, we'll be taking a look at a series of sports manga this month (which will almost certainly be safer than anything going on at the actual Olympics).  We'll start with a series about one of the most popular sports in Japan and across the world: soccer.

DAYS, by Tsuyoshi Yasuda.  First published in 2013 and first published in North America in 2017.

PLOT:

Tsukishi Tsukamoto is a shy, hapless kid with more bullies than friends.  Everything turns around when he's accepted into the prestigious Seiseki High School.  Not only will get to go to school with his childhood best friend Sayuri, but that's the day he meets Jin Kazama.  Kazama is everything Tsukishi isn't: handsome, atheletic, eccentric, popular with just about everyone he meets.  Yet right from the start Kazama sees potential in Tsukishi.  He sees a level of determination and endurance that has largely gone untapped, and Kazama encourages his new friend to go out for the soccer team.  Tsukishi is no natural-born athlete, but he's determined to run and practice until he's good enough to play alongside Kazama.

STORY:

You know what I appreciated most about Days?  It's that Tsukishi legitimately sucks at sports.  He's not strong, he's easily winded, and he's easily injured.  That's honestly kind of unusual for a sports manga, where seemingly every amateur is a secret sports savant.  He has to honestly work just to build up any sort of endurance and usually injures himself in the process (mostly because soccer equipment seems to have it out for his head, feet, or balls), and it's kind of inspirational because odds are good that's what it would be like if your average reader also decided to take up soccer one day.

Thank goodness he's got a level of endurance and duty that seems to endear him to the people he meets because otherwise Tsukishi is kind of a putz.  He's got a few problems, some outside of his control (like the pair of bullies that follow him around) and some of his own making (like the way he gets overly protective of his wheelchair-using single mother).  He keeps up a brave face and refuses to burden others with his problems, but it's pretty clear that the stress of this and his lack of friends does get to him.  

That's why the real heart of this story thus far isn't the sports but instead the friendship between Tsukishi and Kazama.  For reasons known only to himself, Kazama sees potential in this doofus and gives him the support he needs to start coming out of his shell.  It would be hopelessly cheesy and earnest if not for the fact that Kazama is kind of an oddball himself and a little more hands-off than your typical mentor type.  It's this thread of eccentricity and sincere loser-like qualities that gives Days its own unique charm.

ART:

Days has an artstyle that's perfectly fine, if not spectacular.  The character designs are OK, even if Tsukishi's face makes him look even younger and dorkier than he's meant to be.  The sports action is handled well, if not in a particularly dynamic sort of way.  It's the sort of middle-of-the-road art that is hard to say anything bad about, but isn't great enough to really stand out.

RATING:

Like Tsukishi, Days has the heart of an earnest yet determined dork and it's this quality that keeps it from becoming just another sports manga.  That being said, I'm not sure if it's enough to make the prospect of reading such a long series appealing to anyone who isn't already into soccer or sports manga in the first place.

This series is published by Kodansha.  This series is complete in Japan with 42 volumes available.  24 volumes have been released digitally and are currently in print.