Shounen Bench by Kishimoto Masashi

[Suzaku]

Baseball is indeed Japan's national sport, it's the most popular sport in Japan by a wide margin. And Kishimoto himself is a big fan and used to play.


For people who want a bit more info, the one-shots for "Top of the Super Legend" project are:

#1. "Bench" by Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto)
- A hot-blooded baseball manga, described as ground-breaking.

#2. "Bankara-san ga Tōru" by Hideaki Sorachi (Gintama)
- A story about a legendary banchō (leader of a juvenile gang). The title, "Here Comes Mister Uncivilized", seems to be a spoof of an old 70s shōjo series called, "Here Comes Miss Civilized" (Haikara-san ga Tōru).

#3. "Moon Walker LTD." by Takeshi Konomi (Prince of Tennis)
- Described as an unprecedented action story. The Ltd. in the title would seem to imply that Moon Walker is a company.

#4. "Pō" by Kyosuke Usuta (Flute Blower! Jaguar)
- A story about Pō, a children's kung fu school.

#5. "SUCCEED" by Osamu Akimoto (Kochikame)
- A story about a girl who lives in a peaceful village.

#6. "KINTOKI: Kanameshi no Toki" by Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball)
- A young man named Toki has a certain dream. The subtitle, roughly "Toki's Kaname Family Values", seems to be a pun on kaname (monetary value), shi (family) and Kanameshi ("the Kaneme Family").

 

[conn-man]

Think we'll get some spoilers before the chapter comes out?

 

[Drmke]

Think we'll get some spoilers before the chapter comes out?

Honestly, I doubt it. It's just a oneshot, a oneshot by a famous author but still a oneshot nonetheless.

 

[conn-man]

Yeah I feel it. nice avatar btw, adventure time is one of my favs.

 

[Sevenheadedmirror]

Does the manga world need another baseball series?

Does the Hollywood world need another football movie? It's their favorite sport there, one has to avoid deal with it.

 

[matsemann08]

Bench will be released next week by mangastream, alongside the new Naruto chapter

 

[Rosebunse]

I feel bad for Kishi. The guy has been stuck writing Naruto for how long? He needs to do something different just so he doesn't loose it and, like, freak out in his office. Think about it, writing and drawing basically the same thing over and over for over 10 years. Over and over...but baseball is fun. Kinda...not really, but power to the man.

 

[Bugzee]

Interesting switch by Kishi...

Of all the different kinds of sports to choose from...he chose to focus on Baseball. He likes it? Good for him.

Well, I'll be looking forward to reading the one-shot once it becomes available. I hope Kishi focuses on the fun and adventurous-side of the game...(even though I personally don't see anything interesting or exciting about Baseball itself. :P) and not sway towards...8D you know what I'm talking about...if not. Oh well.

Would've been awesome to see an Ice Hockey manga from Kishi IMHO.

Is the fat kid the main character?

 

[cepillon]

Spoiler By OHANA

ベンチ

ABCDチーム。の話。
Dチームは落ちこぼれ組。でも野球大好き。
試合に出るには、せめてCチームに入らないと。。。
Dチームの仕事は買い出し、玉拾い。Dチームに最近デブの転校生ツトムが入ってきた。
ツトムは野球の為みんなの為に買い出し、玉拾いはするけど、これはDチームの仕事じゃない。
ABは、これを面白くない。
もう一人の主人公、王。王は名前はジャイアンツみたいだけど、阪神ファン。
変な魔球練習したり。。ツトムには最初変に映ってた。

ツトムが言った言葉にイラつき先輩は
太った新入りに教えてやれ！元Aチームのエース王！
ここで、ツトムは王が元エースで、もう一球でも本気投げしたら肩をおかしくなることを知る。

先輩はツトム呼び出し、トイレでフルボッコにしよう～と
そこに王が登場。野球で勝負せい！！

ツトムと王は作戦会議。
そして、王はツトムがどんな子か思い出し、写真を見せる。（ツトムはけっこう凄い子、ある日打てなくなって落ちこぼれに）
王は貯金箱壊して眼鏡をツトムに買ってやる。
ツトムが打てなくなったのは、眼が悪くなったから。

試合当日。（ピッチャーとキャッチャーしかいない。）
左腕で投げる王。しかもフォームも綺麗！
みんなビックリ
状況から3ボール2ストライクなのかな？次で1塁出ちゃうからだと思うけど。
ここで勝負！右手にかえて投げる。王。　右はお前にくれちゃるよ！！
バッターアウト！
ここから反撃。ツトムが打つ！！ホームラン！！！

試合はどうなったかわからないけど、多分Dチームが勝った。
相手チームをフォローする王
お前らもデブに負けないように　もっと投げェ！もっと振れェ！
野球好きなんだろ？
一緒にツトムが打ったホームランボール探してくれ！！大切なボールなんだ。

ボールには王の夢がかいてある。
終わり。サーセイ★
青春マンガって感じで面白かったよ。
ツトムはナルトの土影のクロツチ？だっけあんな感じのデブ。
王は、ナルトにはいないキャラかな。

 

[HPTR Fangirl]

Bench Spoiler Translation:

Credits: takL
Source: NF

spoiler translation

Spoiler: translation

Bench

Its about (school baseball)teams, A B C and D. The team D are a group of rejects/poor players. But they love baseball.
To take part in games, you gotta be in the team C, at least.
The works for the team D are chores like shopping and doing ball boys (for the other teams).
Recently a fat transfer student Tsutom joined the team D.
Tsutom doesnt mind shopping or collecting balls for the love of baseball and all 'but thats not the duty of team D'
Team A n B aren't pleased with this.

Another main character is O. Although the name sounds like Giants (ohana refering to the jp baseball team Giants and its legendary batter mr O ), he is a tigers fan. for his attempts to make a diabolical pitch and such... At first O seemed weird to tsutom.

The senior players are irritated by tsutoms words.
Let the fat rookie have it! Go, O, the former ace of team A!
Here tsutom learns that O was a former ace pitcher and that if he seriously pitched even for A ball, hed break the shoulder.

The gang call for tsutom intending to beat him up in the gents. There O comes in and says 'play the game and baseball!'.

Tsutom and O have a strategy meeting.
and O recalls what sort of kid tsutom was and shows the pic. (tsutomu used to be quite a talented kid but one day he couldn’t make a hit and became a failure.)
O breaks his piggy bank to buy tsutom a pair of glasses. Tsutomu's batting got poor because his eyesight failed.

On the day of the game. (there are just a pitcher and a catcher.)
O pitches with his left arm, and besides the form is beautiful.
Everyone is in awe.
(in this context, the count here is 2 balls 2 strikes? I guess, as they get on first base next.)
Now make or mar! Changing hands, O pitches with the right hand. ‘i give the right one for you!!
Batter Out!
Now (Ds) counterattack. tsutom is at bat. Homerun!!!

(Unconfirmed in the manga but perhaps team D wins the game in the end)
O peps the opponent team up.
'You too, dont fall behind the fatty, pitch moore! swing moore!'
'You love baseball dont ya?'
'Look for teh ball tsutom hit with me!! it means a lot to me.'

on tha ball Os dream is written

 

[TwEeD]

Baseball player get's glasses and begins to play extremely good? Sounds awfully a lot as the movie 'Major League' to my ears..

 

[mangakey]

This is rather disappointing. But then again you cant please everyone and I've just never been a fan of baseball.

 

[arsene.lupin]

Heiji-sama post the cover.

Bunch! (Masashi Kishimoto) :

 

[Saint Markus]

i like the idea that Kishi is trying something different other than doing the same sh*t over and over just to please some "idiots" out here who want to see the same sh*t done over again, but more "creatively".

"Bench" looks promising for a one-shot and i hope Kishi does other one shots that hopefully get picked up. the "Yakuza" based story looks interesting and probably would be more seinen than shounen.

you know what, f**k Naruto. there i said it.

 

[daman246]

so whos the protagonist better not be the fat guy lol

 

[candy]

in my opinion they all have weird noses...there like buttons!!

 

[Suzaku]

It's a classic manga/anime style. It's sort of a tradition for mangaka to draw faces in similar ways to the artists that inspired them the most.

For example, if you look at the works that influence Kishimoto, you can see where his artistic style comes from. Same for his brother, Seishi. Doraemon, Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, Ninku, and AKIRA are all things that Masashi has noted as being influences on his work.

 

[Bugzee]

Well, I don't see anything particularly appealing/interesting from reading the spoiler. Mmm. That's not really fair though, it's a one-shot in the end. I'll just wait for MS to release it before anything else atm. ^^

 

[daman246]

chapters out on mangastream looks reall awesome
im amazed how kishi pulled this out i see this manga becoming shounen weekly in about 1year good oneshot,hope to see it

 

[zidane]

Are you serious? I barely made it through typesetting that crap. Felt like Kishimoto was forced to make it with a gun up his temple. Horrible cliché story, with no climax at all (which is even more lame considering this is a short-story) and bad drawings.

It was a waste of my time to work on it, really...