あだち充 Adachi Mitsuru - his works: from 1980-present

Adachi Mitsuru is one of the most influential manga creator in Japan.

Born in 1952, he debuted in the early 70s and continues with many works, that had changed the way people see and defined sports manga (manga means ‘Japanese comics’).

Sports is a popular genre among Japanese Shonen manga (Shonen means boys or comics that targeted young male). Adachi’s work has create a new kind of sports manga: they are stories about coming of age of high school students who are very often engaged in a sports club. The story happens in suburban Tokyo, where everyday lives of these young people are depicted, in an overall lighthearted comedy tone with heart wrenching drama, enriched with excitement of the competition of the sports. In many occasions baseball and the Japanese high school baseball tournaments are chosen as the backdrop of he story. The story, the vissual and the script of Adachi’s story, will very often make you feel touched. The characters are wonderfully portrayed, that you can feel that they are real, that they have unique personalities and you will feel happy or sad for them. it’s almost like you had witnessed their growing-up.

Adachi is a master in love stories, he is a huge baseball fan and he has great sense of humour. He loves breaking the fourth wall and make fun of himself and his characters.

Adachi, now at his age of 66 (2018), has always been active in the industry and producing works that are outstanding and popular. He is one of the very few manga artists today that has kept his popularity since the early 80s, by continuously drawing what he likes and is good at, for almost 40 years now. His fans are of two to three generations, from teenagers to their parents, whom many of them are over 40 years of age now. 

Adachi is the first manga artist who had reached the success of having 100 million copies of comic books sold in Japan. (and not to mention the many foreign language versions of his works sold in other countries). Adachi is also the first person reached the record of having 200 million copies sold. He was awarded with Shogakukan Manga Awards in year 1982 (Touch), and 2008 (Cross Game).

Adachi, a manga artist with a very unique writing style and being highly praised as a ‘true story teller’, that many would probably agree, that not even 1 person can imitate what he does, in Japan, a country where there are thousands and thousands of Manga artists succeeded. Internationally, he is popular among countries where his works are officially translated and published. For example, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, French, and Italian. However, there are very limited work of Adachi available in English. The only ones published are his short series: Short program, and his long series: Cross Game.