Like ALIVE, Tetsuwan Girl technically has nothing to do with Jiraishin, but again it is another work by Jiraishin's great mangaka Takahashi Tsutomu, so I am including some info about it here.

Tetsuwan Girl is Takahashi-sensei's most recent series; it started running in Morning magazine, a weekly mens magazine published by Kodansha, in February 2000. So far two manga volumes have been compiled with who knows how many more to come.

A story completely unlike anything he's done before, this one is, believe it or not, about baseball. Women's baseball. It's set in Japan in the late 1940s, not long after Japan has been defeated in the war, at a time when much change is happening. It follows one determined young woman, Tome, as she joins a women's baseball team called the Candys. The title, Tetsuwan Girl, means Iron Arm Girl, and Tome is just that -- a pitcher with one hell of a strong arm.

The art is of course stark and beautifully done, as one can only expect from Takahashi, and the story itself is quite interesting as Tome and her friends struggle against all the odds that are stacked against them -- being a woman and playing baseball is a hell of a lot harder in the 1940s than it is now.

I have to admit that although I buy Tetsuwan Girl and read it, I am not a huge fan of it and don't follow the story avidly because I really don't like baseball very much. :P But that's a personal bias; despite that, Tome-chan is a very cool character, and the story /is/ interesting. If you like baseball, and you like Takahashi-sensei's style, I do recommend you give this one a try.

In my next life..
I'd rather be an emotionless flower..
However short a life span..