User:Scchan/Baggataway (manga)

Baggataway (バガタウェイ) is a Lacrosse manga by Iroha Kohinata. It is first serialized in Mag Garden's Monthly Comic Blade in November 2008. The series is currently ongoing with three published tankōbon. It was the featured manga title of the month on September 2009 volume of Monthly Comic Blade, and was featured in prominent Japanese geek blog. Chinese version is published by Tong Li Publishing with 2 volumes released.

The manga includes basic introduction about the play, techniques, terminology, history, and rules of Lacrosse (specifically women rules).

Plot
The story begins with rural island born heroine Shizuku Utsugi moving to city to attend the Chikushi High school, and joins the school's women lacrosse team after encounters at the school and the dormitory. There Utsugi meets with two other new female students - the timid yet flexible and intelligent Fumi Nanase, and blunt Nina Kisaragi - who both become her dormitory mates and teammates. Blessed with athleticism from helping her mother's Ramen business, Utsugi quickly develops into a very talented Lacrosse player.

Volume 1 concentrates in introducing the main characters and introduction of Lacrosse terminology and rules. The club has recruited enough members to have its first match on Volume 2, and Volume 3 focuses on more matches and the development of the main character as a Lacrosse player.

Characters
Shizuku Utsugi (空木雫) Nickname Sora. She is the main character of the manga. She grows up in rural islands and worked in her mother's Ramen store until her mother demanded her to go to mainland study under the promise "to do her teenage youth".

Nina Kisaragi (木皿儀二奈) A tomboy that come directly from the middle school section of the Chikushi school. She joins the Lacrosse team because she is a fan of the Women Lacrosse team captain.

Fumi Nanase (七瀬文) Nickname Bun. A polite girl that runs into the Lacrosse team recruitment, and somehow winds up in the same dormitory with Shizuku and Nina. In the end, she joins the club.

Touko Shihatsu (四極燈子) The captain of the Lacrosse club. She is popular in school for her coolness and top notch grades.

Reception
The work is positively endorsed by Kodansha Manga Award winning creator Ishikawa Masayuki - the creator of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture. The work has also been showcased in AkibaOS - a private Akihabara promotion site.

The work has been promoted as one of the first Lacrosse focused sports title. That is against a field dominated by baseball (e.g. various Mitsuru Adachi works), association football (e.g. Captain Tsubasa), and tennis (e.g. Prince of Tennis) titles.

Manga
Currently three Tankōbon volumes have already released: