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Happy! (sports manga)
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Wikipedia article
'Happy!' is a Japanese sports manga written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was serialized in 'Big Comic Spirits' from 1993 until 1999, with the chapters collected into 23 'tankbon' volumes by Shogakukan. The story follows a teenage heroine who embarks on a career as a professional tennis player to repay an enormous debt incurred by her brother to yakuza loan sharks, with the threat that if she fails, they will force her into a life of prostitution at a soapland. The series was adapted into two television movies in 2006.
Characters
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: The heroine of the story, Miyuki is a tennis prodigy, capable of beating one of the top tennis players in Japan even when out of practice. She has a pure heart and is devoted to her family above all else, but her desperation and the schemes of those around her quickly give her a terrible reputation as a "bad girl of tennis". She lost the Cinderella Cup to her rival Choko.
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: Miyuki's brother, who disappears right after the start of the manga, but his ill-considered business schemes are what create the huge debt that Miyuki must pay off. He feels guilty about causing the deaths of their parents and his get-rich-quick schemes are an attempt to make up for the poverty he inflicted on his siblings.
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: The Yakuza debt collector who shadows Miyuki and her career was himself once an aspiring athlete and is alternately threatening, supportive and discouraging. He hopes she can succeed and drags his feet when his superiors pressure him not to give her a chance, but he regularly points out the almost certain futility of what she's doing.
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: A promising young tennis star who is Miyuki's first opponent and becomes a fervent advocate of the prodigy after losing to her. Kaku is a lesbian who is at least somewhat in love with Miyuki and this is used to spread malicious rumours that Miyuki has seduced Kaku.
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: The son of one of the grande dames of Japanese tennis, he went to school with Miyuki and she turns to him for assistance in getting her tennis career started. He is thoroughly under the thumb of his tyrannical mother however and this limits the assistance he will give her. He is a good tennis player but his mother decides he lacks the potential to be the best and forbids him to pursue a professional career in tennis.
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: Keiichiro's mother, who was once the champion of Japan. She is rich, vain, callous and vengeful, hating Miyuki for being the daughter of the man she could not get. However she agrees to sponsor and train Miyuki in order to use her to embarrass the rival Ryugasaki family. Miyuki's bad reputation starts with Utako's teaching Miyuki a very unsportsmanlike maneuver on the tennis courts and insisting that Miyuki use it to humiliate her opponent.
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: The daughter of Hanae Ryugasaki, Utako's rival from Kyoto, Choko is also Miyuki's unscrupulous arch-rival who delights in sabotaging Miyuki with cruel practical jokes and scurrilous rumours. She portrays herself as a cute and innocent victim of Miyuki's wickedness.
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: Miyuki's rather lecherous tennis coach. He used to train big-name tennis players but was banned from the sport for life when he was accused of rigging a game. Nonetheless, he is apparently an exceptional coach and was personally hired by Madame Ohtori to coach Miyuki.
Live-action drama
* Saki Aibu as 'Miyuki Umino'
* Hiroyuki Miyasako as 'Junji Sakurada'
* Junnosuke Taguchi as 'Keiichiro Ootori'
* Mao Kobayashi as 'Chouko Ryuugasaki'
* Jun Natsukawa as 'Kikuko Kaku'
* Yoshiyuki Morishita as 'Momotarou Yamaguchi'
* Nagisa Katahira as 'Utako Ootori'
* Baku Numata as 'Katsuragi'
* YosiYosi Arakawa as 'Ieyasu Umino'
* Sho Aikawa as 'Kyouhei Wanibuchi'
* Eri Watanabe as 'Hanae Ryuugasaki'
Manga
Volume list
Reception
In 2020, Mark Sammut of 'Comic Book Resources' called 'Happy!' Urasawa's "most depressing manga ever" and wrote that it "strikes a middle-ground between the author's more conventional earlier work and the character studies that would come to define his greatest projects." He further stated that, while still quite good, it can be a tiring read as some great moments are "dragged down by shallow antagonists, an overly long storyline, a focus on idol culture that never quite jells with the sports setting, and a series of matches that grow progressively duller."
References
Buy Happy! (sports manga) now from Amazon
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