Cross Manage

Cross Manage is a typical sports series about a not-so-typical sport. The manga takes its time to teach the reader many of the rules and manners without it being boring. While most characters are merely caricatures, it is clever to have the main character be the manager because his job is to bring out the best out of the team. Tsunenori Sakurai, once a talented football player who had to give up his dreams of going pro due to a knee injury, becomes the manager of the female lacrosse high school team. Observant and clever, he slowly assists each individual player and transforms them into anactual team. I like how Sakurai genuinely cares about them and really moves their hearts. This manga uses several typical tropes of sports, but administers them in a decent way. Using these tropes ends up being a double edged sword. It is good because it is easy to distinguish each individual character of the large cast due to the 12-women teams. The bad part is that most characters end up with almost no depth of personality since there is no time to flesh out such large groups. Another bad consequence of the usage of traditional ideas is that they lead to predictable outcomes. The short length (5 volumes) may be a blessing in disguise. Many sports manga overstay their welcome due to their popularity and tend to become dull and repetitive over time. Cross Manage has a clear beginning, middle, and end. For people who dislike neverending stories, this is a divine gift.