Embers, the new soccer manga by Kei Kurumazaki and Sotaro Nishi (former BLUE LOCK assistant) launched today with Chapter 1 on Shonen Jump+ and MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA, also revealing a trailer. The story follows Noboru Haitani, a brawler who has never been defeated and who seems bored in his school life. However, he then enters the soccer world and everything changes. The first chapter introduces the main character and is titled “Noboru Haitani.”
The school staff of Noboru’s school seems to have given up on him at the beginning, despite Noboru seemingly not instigating incidents on his own and just being targeted instead. Luckily for him, his teacher Oshimi decides to give him a new way to stave off boredom – soccer.
Noboru seems like a common sports shonen MC, with his personality reminding me a bit of Eijun from Diamond of the Ace a bit. He is easily irritated and straightforward, although he is still a brawler. When his teacher asks him for a 1-on-1, he instantly thinks it’s going to be a fight despite the man being around 60 years old. He is also easily manipulated into accepting a challenge, as just being called a coward made him accept the soccer challenge.
He then remains stubborn despite losing every time, with his teacher using this to train him in soccer basics by asking him to improve step by step before the following challenge. Eventually, we learn that despite not being able to take the ball away from the old teacher, Noboru Haitani has an insane talent for soccer, as revealed in a cool panel comparing him to a wall.
Eventually, his brawler friends end up helping him get the necessary number of players for a real match, helping him move along towards his soon-to-be dream. Much to my expectations, this had him face one of the first crazily talented forward of the series in their match against Aoba, Yuga Takami. Despite getting blown out, he manages to keep the best striker at bay until the very last minute.
The art looks really good, especially the dynamic soccer scenes and the most important panels highlighting the main characters. The match motivates Noboru to try out a soccer team for real in high school, and we can look forward to him joining Yuga (much like Hinata and Tobio joined after their match) based on the color page. Their school is called Kosei University Affiliated High School.
While largely predictable, I still found the Embers Chapter 1 very enjoyable. The story is simple and the art looks good, so I am looking forward to seeing actual soccer matches and if they will be more soccer-focused rather than going the shonen battle-style like BLUE LOCK (which has been proven to work and sell well). You can watch the manga trailer for Embers below.
The chapter is available on MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA and the Shonen Jump+ app.
©Kei Kurumazaki, Sotaro Nishi, Shueisha
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