Title:
Crimson Hero, Book OnePublisher’s rating:
T for TeensGenre:
SportsPublisher's Website:
www.viz.comAnime:
Sound bite:
An aspiring volleyball player struggles to play the game she loves, even though that means leaving her family and working in a boys’ dorm.My rating:
Fine for everyone, despite a bit of mild innuendo in the beginning.Kid Reviews:
More details:
Plot Summary:
Nobara Sumiyoshi is a tomboy who wants only one thing: to play volleyball. Her stiffly formal mother (she calls her daughter “Miss Nobara”) wants Nobara to take over the family business, running a traditional restaurant, but Nobara is anything but ladylike, and she knows it. In fact, on her first day at her new high school, Nobara causes a stir when she goes to the ladies’ room and is mistaken for a boy. Another boy grabs her, and when she insists she’s a girl, he gropes her breasts and she slugs him.
Nobara learns that the girls’ volleyball team has been eliminated, because of lack of enthusiasm and a request from an influential donor—her own mother. Fed up, she runs away and goes to her aunt Momoko, the school nurse, for help. Her aunt gets her a job as house mother in the volleyball dorm, which houses four boys—but if she can start the girls’ team again, the girls will live there too.
Of course Yushino, the boy she punched, is one of the dorm residents, and another, Haibuki, is particularly nice to her. Nobara is hopeless at cooking and cleaning, and the boys first get angry and then pitch in to help. When Nobara protests, she accidentally dumps a pot of hot food on Yushino’s arm, putting him off the volleyball court for two weeks. While she’s treating Yushino, Momoko explains that Nobara left a pampered life because of her love of volleyball, and he begins to sympathize a bit.
Nobara tries to start up a new girls’ volleyball team, but she gets sick and passes out while she is handing out flyers. Her mother arrives to take her back home, but she refuses to go and the boys back her up.
Haibuki reveals that Nobara was his first crush; she remembers him encouraging her at her junior high volleyball games but didn’t recognize him because he has grown so tall since then. After Nobara leaves the room, the boys chat about how Haibuki is a playboy who rarely reveals his feelings, and is dating a girl who used to be on the volleyball team.
Nobara continues to try to persuade the girls to form a team, but Yui, the former captain, tells her it’s not worth it. The boys’ team is very strong, and they start feeling threatened by Nobara. Someone doctors her flyer to read “losers.” Furious, Nobara tells the other girls “Stop taking their insults” and storms off to confront the captain of the boys’ team. She challenges him to a game, to show girls aren’t losers.
Meanwhile, Haibuki, who is smooth with the girls, is off with his girlfriend, telling her she should go back to playing volleyball.
Character and morality:
Nobara shows many of the appealing traits of shoujo heroines: she’s independent, determined, and willing to work hard to attain her goals. She is not boy-crazy and in fact states repeatedly that she doesn’t like boys.
Although she resents her family’s demands on her, and ultimately runs away, Nobara honors her mother’s request to present herself to the patrons of the restaurant.
The boys seem selfish and spoiled at first but as the book goes on they begin to respect Nobara for her determination.
Violence:
Mild and mostly for comic effect. Nobara slugs Yushino after he gropes her. The boys literally throw Nobara out of their practice when she asks to join the team.
Sexuality/body functions:
Nobara is mistaken for a boy when she goes to the ladies’ room. Yushino grabs her, then gropes her breasts. This infuriates Nobara, who insists over and over that she hates boys—she only likes volleyball.
Nobara’s aunt, who is a nurse at her high school, is seen in a sexy top embracing one of the high school boys. Later, when Nobara visits her, she is entertaining a man while clad in a lacy slip and robe, and she insinuates that she knows the principal very, very well.
Nobara seems to be very innocent and thus is casual about living with boys; she hangs her teddy-bear panties on the line with their clothes, and she walks in on Yushino when he is bathing to give him more shampoo. He gets upset but she brushes this off, saying “A naked guy’s no big deal. What’s the difference between my dad and any other guy?” This injures his pride.
Language:
The word “crap” is used once.
Substances:
Nobara’s aunt smokes cigarettes. In an extra sequence at the end, the author denigrates herself for drinking beer and playing video games on the weekend, while the earnest younger women are playing volleyball.
