Story and Art by Adachi Mitsuru
Copyright © 1987-1991, Adachi Mitsuru

Ah, love stories. The mainstay of shoujo manga. What makes a good love story? Tension, of course! Usually it is tension between the leads in the story. You almost always know who is intended for whom. The initial tension usually comes from the characters being frustrated as other forces in the story conspire pull them away from each other.
Frequently, there will be a love-triangle. Sometimes this is complicated by adding more sides to the polygon. Sometimes the reader can no longer tell who is supposed to end up with whom. The reader may have no idea who to sympathize with—if anyone.
In SLOW STEP we are given a story that uses quite a few of the above-mentioned tricks of the trade. It keeps us guessing. That, and its pacing, are perhaps its strongest points.
To give a brief synopsis of the story would be difficult because of its pacing. Instead, let me describe each of the main characters:

	•	Nakazato Minatsu — The main character of this story. Minatsu is the lead pitcher on the high school's softball team. She is extremely down to earth and practical. Almost nothing phases her for long. She is the object of affection of at least Akiba Shuu. Her strength as the ace pitcher is rather daunting to her teammates, who flinch whenever they have to catch one of her throws. The coach, Yamazakura-sensei, seems to coerce Sawamura Ayako on to the team simply to have someone to play against Minatsu. Early on Minatsu is forced to use a disguise to hide out from punks trying to teach her a lesson. However, her disguise has complications in the form of Kadomatsu Naota. Now she has to lead sort of a double life, going out with the two boxing rivals.
	•	Akiba Shuu — Long time friend of Minatsu. He obviously has his eye on her. But Minatsu considers him a bit too irresponsible to be any sort of romantic interest—at least she thinks so early on. Shuu is in the boxing club and is an expert dodger. He has no real taste for pain in the ring and will feign injuries to get out of having to compete. When Shuu becomes concerned that his rival, Naota, may be getting close to Minatsu, Shuu drops his act and becomes serious about his sport. Shuu's plight is perhaps one of the more annoying parts of the story because his motives are the most obvious but in some ways the most frustrated.
	•	Kadomatsu Naota — Lives in the same apartment building as Minatsu. His family is in America while he is in Japan alone. He is puzzled by this thing all the other teenagers seem to understand or take for granted—love. The story opens with him and Minatsu in an elevator where he seems to be confessing his love for her. She is totally puzzled as he walks out of the elevator saying "no...that is not it..." Later, Naota tells Minatsu that he is looking for the girl that he can love. Unfortunately for Minatsu, Naota believes he has found this person: Sudou Maria. This is the name Minatsu has given as the girl she was disguised as. When he recited his lines to "Maria" she very plainly called him a fool and walked off. This so affected him that he pines away for her. Minatsu, feeling concerned for him before his next fight (with Shuu), disguises herself as this girl just so he can go out with her.
	•	Yamazakura Kango — The hentai school teacher who is the softball team's coach. Everyone knows the reason he likes to coach the softball team is to look at the girls. He seems to be especially concerned about Minatsu, in that a number of things that he does are for her benefit. He has a daughter, Chika, except that she is not really his daughter. He is raising Chika since his sister has passed away. Yamazakura-sensei used to be a welterweight boxing champion. When this fact is discovered by the school principal, Yamazakura-sensei is coerced into coaching the school's ailing boxing club (in addition to coaching the female softball team, which he finds more preferable.)
	•	Sawamura Ayako — The sukeban in our story. A very quiet, very tough girl. She makes an impression early when one of her kohai was accidentally hit by Minatsu's empty lunch box (that Shuu had "borrowed.") She wants an eye for an eye, and slaps Minatsu. Shortly after we find out that it was Shuu who was the source of this trouble, and Minatsu holds Shuu so that Ayako can hit him. Later on, during softball practice, Ayako is hit accidentally by Minatsu's long drive. Ayako calls it even for the slap earlier. Ayako is not on the softball team, yet we find her hanging out a lot wherever Yamazakura-sensei is coaching—both at the softball diamond and at the boxing club. She even makes him lunch since he seems to be unable to fend for himself. Yamazakura-sensei uses this to his advantage and gets Ayako to join the softball team by losing a bet with him on being able to hit one of Minatsu's pitches. If Ayako had won the bet Yamazakura-sensei would have had to go out on a date with her.

The art is well drawn. This story was written after Adachi's style was established. It is a lot lighter in many ways than his masterpiece TOUCH. He even inserts himself in the story itself so the characters can interact with him in a limited fashion. There are numerous small, visual gags littered throughout the pages as well. These episodes and cameos serve as a nice vehicle for humor, but they seem to interfere somewhat with the character of the story.
The language is quite simple with copious furigana for the beginning reader. As a whole, it is worth reading. If you are tiring of all of the current stories involving sports, love and some strange bits of humor, stroll back and pick up SLOW STEP by Adachi. It is an easy read, albeit frustrating from time to time.

Flower Comics, Published by Shogakukan
7 volumes, completed
182 ~ 170 black/white pages each
Vol. 1: ISBN4-09-132521-1 (¥360)
Vol. 2: ISBN4-09-132522-X (¥360)
Vol. 3: ISBN4-09-132523-8 (¥360)
Vol. 4: ISBN4-09-132524-6 (¥370)
Vol. 5: ISBN4-09-132525-4 (¥370)
Vol. 6: ISBN4-09-132526-2 (¥390)
Vol. 7: ISBN4-09-132527-0 (¥390)
Available now in Japan
Where to buy