October featured manga: Girl got game

Girl got game by Shizuru Seino

The Story is absolutely hilarious; it’s not that easy for a girl to act like a boy. It's a bit like the movie She's the man.

From School Library Journal:
Adult/High School-Kyo is excited about attending Seisyu High School. The girls' uniforms are so cute that they're in all the magazines. But when the package arrives, she gets a shock: it's a boy's uniform. Seisyu is also famous for its men's basketball team, and Kyo's father wants her to live out his dream to play in the NBA. She just wants to be a normal girl, but she wants to make her dad happy, too, so she finds herself masquerading as a guy, living in the dorms with her teammates, and trying to figure out how to manage the shared bathroom situation. The novel is a winning combination of sports action, gender comedy, and school drama. Kyo has a contentious relationship with her roommate, Chiharu, who mocks her for being too short to play basketball and then gets flustered because he finds his "male" teammate attractive. Seino's characters are appealing, and her art is skillful and fluid. This is a fast, fun read-just the thing for downtime between school and practice.

This...is not one of my favorite manga series. It's actually one of the few series I've purchased where I wound up feeling disappointed (and found myself wishing I had more people I could borrow things from).

There are clever and entertaining parts to the story, but the school drama was average at best, the sports aspect wasn't played out a whole lot, and the gender comedy never seemed able to get beyond the rather trite "boys are stinky, boys are crude, I don't understand boys, watch me ape their mannerisms!" style.

ya, I've definitely heard mixed reviews on this one, but I still enjoyed it.

I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't read Hana Kimi and W Juliet right around the same time. I feel both these series handle the school drama and gender comedy aspects much better than Girl Got Game.

?4
Both series sound interesting. How many volumes are in each one? Which one did you like best?

Hana Kimi is 23 volumes long, and W Juliet is 14 volumes long. I like them both equally well, particularly since each one has a different thematic focus. Hana Kimi has a little bit of a sports theme, while W Juliet has a drama club/theater group theme.

How long is Girl got Game? My library carries up through volume 10 but I'm reluctant to start taking out another series unless that's all of them. I've never read Hana Kimi or W Juliet so I might like this one since I don't have anything to compare it to. I like the description in post 1 and it looks interesting.

>4 shadrach_anki: I'm pretty similar. This series was too closely spaced to Hana Kimi (a shoujo powerhouse) and W Juliet (another fun, earlier cross-dressing by Emura). Compared to them, Power!! just wasn't up to snuff.

>7 Jenson_AKA_DL: There's 10 volumes total. Honestly, I'd read either Hana Kimi or W Juliet first. ;)

>7 Jenson_AKA_DL:
Girl got game has 10 volumes. If you can get the series at the library it's even better for you. I love being able to read free books :D

>7 Jenson_AKA_DL:&8
I check if my library has either of those series but it doesn't :( I would have read Hana Kimi. Oh well...

>>>This...is not one of my favorite manga series. It's actually one of the few series I've purchased where I wound up feeling disappointed (and found myself wishing I had more people I could borrow things from).

This mirrors me exactly in all aspects. I only finished buying the series more so because I dislike having incomplete series on my shelves.
(One additional critique: bad pacing)

I always love a good gender-bender, and not that this series is bad, per se, but there are enough other english-licensed titles out there mining similar territory that simply excel above this, like Hana Kimi, Never Give Up (though which I guess I'll have to get the japanese tanks in order to finish the series), W Juliet, Tenshi Ja Nai,... (and not counting countless unlicensed gems)
For me, HanaKimi sits above the rest due to high consistency of quality in all aspects.

(Note: I at least enjoyed Girl Got Game ENOUGH to have allowed myself to spend the dosh on those last volumes, so to reiterate, I'm not dissin' the series, just saying that it's average)

I always wondered why they changed the title to this when it got licensed in North America, since the Japanese title is already in English.. and written in English ("POWER!!") .. but I suppose it's a more fitting title.

I also like Hana Kimi a lot better than this story, but that's because this is more of the slapstick variety... which I think is what the mangaka pretty much sells on. I had enough fun with it, though, if you can accept that this is a haha-in-your-face type. I figured that POWER!! was written mostly so that Kodansha could have a "dorm-life gender bender" of its own. XD;

On the other titles: I lurve W Juliet, but it was too episodic and dragged at times. Trying to see how W Juliet II pans out. I have a special place in my heart for Never Give Up just because Kiri and Tooya look their parts. And, if we're going to go for fun cross-dressing, Tokyo Crazy Paradise beats 'em all, lol.

Tokyo Crazy Paradise sooooooooooo needs to be licensed. (as the ultra-awesome Skip Beat! seems to be doing pretty well sales/chart-wise, here's hoping that Viz keeps the Nakamura-sensei ball rolling and dish out some bi-monthly TCP once the SB! volumes reach the JP releases)

For slapstick in a similar milieu, Ouran High School Host Club readily slaps POWER!! silly.

W... Juliet... II... so... slow... to... release... (no new chap in new TheHtY issue out at the end of the month. last chap appeared Aug.27,2009 and previous one another 8 months prior Dec.26,2008. And nope. No resolution for Makoto hinted at yet)
I guess Emura has been focusing mostly on her bi-weekly Kyou mo Ashita mo series these days.

As for the name change, some NA studio or publisher must have unrevealed dibs on a 'Power' named project (as an Amazon search doesn't bring up anything, and as far as my NA comic knowledge extends, I don't recall any titles by the name of Power.)

Hana-Kimi sounds good, I wish my library had it.

As for Ouran High School Host Club, it's ok but I thought that the anime was a bit weird.