Gothic Sports

Gothic Sports is a comic in manga style of German illustrator Anike Hage. The work deals with the creation of an unusual football team at a high school and can be classified into the genre drama.

Action

The sports-loving 16 -year-old Anya changes from the secondary school to the Lucrece High School, promoting particularly athletic talent and is home to many renowned teams. Anya meets in her class Luise, called Loo, her childhood friend again and befriends the outsider Filiz. But otherwise it is hardly terminal. In the basketball team it is not included because the team manager Marie does not like them. Even in football it is not happy because the coach as a girl nothing trusts her and she can just watch.

Therefore, she decides together with Loo, Filiz and Juliet, which was also ignored by the coach to start his own football team. After Filiz has designed for them jerseys in Gothic design, they also get the necessary attention and soon have enough players together. However Among them is Leon, the Anya hates because he has killed in the elementary school by mistake her hamster. In addition, the team includes the spirited Kevin, the dissimilar twins Alexia and Hannes, Ellis, Delia and Olga.

Thus, the team may be permanent, they must now also a game against the school team made ​​. When that happens, the team will be officially approved, by the Director. About the autumn holidays now all go to a practice camp in the Bavarian mountains.

Formation

Anike Hage chose the venue school because they still went to school at the time of formation and was able to directly write from my own experience. However, none of the characters corresponds to a person in their circle of acquaintances, all are fictitious. In addition, they also wanted action in the story and she even plays football, formerly also in school teams, they chose this sport.

The drawings were made with pencil, crayons, screen foil and without a computer. Often used for backgrounds Wolfenbüttel, hometown of the illustrator, as a model. For the first volume Anike Hage took eight months.

Style and design

The characters are slim designed, with big eyes and small noses. The contours are soft. Even full-page illustrations occur and some color pages. Theme of the work are next to the football also everyday school problems such as bullying.

Publications

The comic appears at Tokyopop since February 2006. In March 2010, the fifth volume appeared. Tokyopop recommends the comic from 13 years. In November 2007, a calendar with designs from the comic appeared. There also were driven more merchandise such as stationery and t- shirts. Together with Jamba brings Tokyopop Manga to 2009 for mobile phones out.

Since 2006, published in three volumes at Soleil Productions in France, from 2007 the Comic by Tokyopop has also been published in English in the United States. A publication is planned in Spain.

The company eBookJapan published all three previously published volumes as a Japanese -language e-books for download under the title Gothic Sports - Kessei! Goth Loli · Soccer- bu (ゴシック·スポーツ~结成 ゴスロリ·サッカー 部~ ~ Goshikku Supōtsu Kessei Gosu Rori · Sakkā -bu, dt " Gothic Sports -! Establishment [ a ] Goth [ ic ] Loli [ ta! ] Football Club [ s] ").

Reception

In 2007, the comic book the Sondermann Prize in the category Manga - self-published (National) and the AnimaniA Award Best Manga National.

According to cultural mirror the series is one of the most popular and successful German comics in the manga style. Anike Hage combine Japanese narrative style with a gambling in everyday German life action. The stories are familiar to most readers and told with wit and empathy for the characters. The drawings are elegant and sleek and the jerseys original. With a football comic for young girls Anike Hage was something extraordinary success.

The journal AnimaniA writes of a " round reading fun, enjoyable reading speed and lovable characters. " The reader can identify with the characters and situations, if he still goes to school or not. The drawings were successful overall, especially the colored artwork will be highlighted. Patterns, colors and shapes harmonized and always had a cheeky and youthful. In addition, not only the jerseys had turned out in the Gothic style, but also the everyday clothes could be seen. Together with the effective panel layout would this a coherent overall picture.