In the new neighborhoods that sprung up in the countryside on the outskirts of Tokyo is Shinsei High School. Among the students is the young and restless Shingo Tamai, a first year student. At the beginning of the school year he presents the new coach of the soccer team, Tenpei Matsuki, whom was also a former goalkeeper of the Japanese national football and bronze medal winner at the Olympic Games in Mexico. Matsuki intends to build a team that can compete at the highest levels. His intense workouts originally seems too much for many members of the team, including Shingo. He decides to boycott the team's "official" Matsuki team and creates his own. After a first victory, he is always defeated by that of Matsuki, which begins to be seen by Shingo as an invincible enemy. Subsequently, the two will be able to clarify their conflicting relationship and Shingo will eventually become the captain of the only school team coached by Matsuki. (Source: Wikipedia)

This installment of Chikuma Bunko's "contemporary manga" series is curated by Natsume Fusanosuke and contains excerpts and stand alone short works that represents the greatest action and sports manga of the 1960's-70's 1. **Zashiki Warashi** (ざしきわらし) \[Sanpei Shirato\] 2. **Tachimochi Umanosuke** (太刀持右馬之介) \[Hiroshi Hirata\] 3. **Kyojin no Hoshi** (巨人の星) \[Ikki Kajiwara & Noboru Kawasaki\] 4. **Ashita no Joe** (あしたのジョー) \[Asao Takamori & Tetsuya Chiba\] 5. **Karate Baka Ichidai** (空手バカ一代) \[Ikki Kajiwara & Jirou Tsunoda\] 6. **Otokogumi** (男組) \[Tetsu Kariya & Ryoichi Ikegami\] 7. **Juukyoden** (柔俠伝) \[Baron Yoshimoto\] 8. **Nikudan Jidai** (肉弾時代) \[Kazuhiko Miyaya\] 9. **Tomo yo Isoge** (友よ急げ) \[Akihiro Takadera\]

Musou Daisuke is a tough young man who goes to Tokyo with great ambition. After both success and failure, he eventually becomes the Japanese version of "Godfather."

Chuuji Akagi has just transferred to a new school and soon discovers it's overrun by a youth gang. Akagi has a strong sense of justice and fights the gang leader through various sports in order to protect the school. As he wins, he slowly begins to reform the school.

A milestone in Japanese manga, "Ashita no Joe" celebrates the 55th anniversary of its serialization. Hina's father, enraged by Hina's indifferent attitude toward her post-high school career decision, disappears, leaving behind all the volumes of "Ashita no Joe" for some reason. When Hina picked up the book, which had a retro Showa-era feel to it, she was immediately moved to tears. On the advice of her father's friend Kenkichi, she determined that the key to his disappearance lay in a place associated with the original work. Hina decides to visit the "sacred places" of the original work...

The year is 1961. Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants, in a critical situation due to an injury during a game, had a sudden flash of insight that enabled him to read the thoughts of the opposing pitcher. He remembered he had a similar experience in junior high school. He tried various methods, but the ability of the future sight worked only once in five. After much anguish, he consulted with Coach Arakawa, who taught him to trigger his ability by putting himself in an unstable state with the one-legged hitting method. From then on, Ou mass-produced home runs using the one-legged batting technique to become the undisputed No. 3 hitter of the Giants and win multiple home run crowns.

During winter vacation, Hideo accompanied his brother Yusuke on a whaling ship to the Southern Ocean. There, they were attacked by a scorpion monster. Hideo launched an electric harpoon to drive off the monster and allowed their ship to escape. A few days later, Dr. Carl Schmidt came from Germany and revealed the true identity of the monster on TV. The monster, named Sasora by the scientists, was a red scorpion modified for military use by Dr. Von Schmidt's brother during World War II. However, just as he was about to carry out his plan, the FBI destroyed his laboratory in the Amazon, and the red scorpion disappeared into the jungle. Dr. Carl speculated that the red scorpion was exposed to radiation from a nuclear test in the Amazon and became a giant. He apologized on behalf of his late brother, but then came the news that Sasora was on its way to Tokyo!

One day, at the Giants' Tamagawa ground, Egawa was throwing a simulated game in front of Manager Nagashima, when suddenly a stranger stepped into the box and mowed down Egawa's pitches. His name is Hono Mizuki. He was a player who had to move from one school to another due to his short temper getting into fights, so he never caught the eye of any scouts despite his outstanding ability. Osamu Sawada, a freelance talent scout, was asked by Manager Nagashima to investigate. He tested Mizuki first against Hyuma Hoshi, and then Mitsuru Hanagata and Hosaku Samon both had trouble hitting Mizuki's pitches, showing that he had pro-level stuff. Mizuki's competitive spirit is reignited. Mizuki and his best friend set their sights on joining the ranks of pro baseball together. (Source: Amazon.jp, translated) *Note: Release date information are based on the tankoubon volumes.*