Harlem Beat

Harlem Beat
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Tōru Naruse
GenreSports
Manga
Written byYuriko Nishiyama [ja]
Published byKodansha
English publisher
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Magazine
Original run1994 – 2000
Volumes29

Harlem Beat is a Japanese manga series created by Yuriko Nishiyama [ja]. It details the struggles of young Nate Torres to go from a benchwarmer to a street-ball player. The story's scope expands as he makes friends and eventually becomes a member of his high school basketball team. It was compiled into 29 tankōbon volumes.

In North America, it was published by Tokyopop. The manga goes up to 9 volumes under the name Harlem Beat, while what were volumes 12+ in Japan were published under the series title Rebound, with the Rebound volumes renumbered beginning at 1. As of August 31, 2009, the Rebound volumes are out of print. The Japanese Harlem Beat Volumes 10 and 11 were never translated by Mixx/Tokyopop.

Jason Thompson stated that it was the author's "most popular manga". According to Thompson the work "assumes that the reader knows basketball."

Plot

Creation and conception

Initially Nishiyama planned for the series to be only about street basketball, but later added a school-based team.

Nishiyama had made multiple submissions to show her editors that she had the aptitude to maintain a manga series in a weekly magazine. She stated that initially Harlem Beat did not sell well and that she attended meetings with her editor on how to rectify this, but that sales improved in a manner she described as a "kamikaze"; she stated that working on the manga became "overwhelming" as merchandising occurred.

English version

Thompson stated it was "the first serious sports manga published in America." Some editing of nudity and self-insert references as well as changes of character names are in the English version. Thompson argued "the Americanization and changed names don't hurt the story that much".

The English publication did not include volumes 10 and 11; a summary of volumes 10 and 11 was included in Volume 12.

The English version refers to basketball players who were prominent in the 1990s.

Thompson stated this in regards to the atmosphere of the English version: "the mixing of Japanese and Western names gives it the feeling that it could take place in any big city."

Characters

There is a PlayStation game Harlem Beat: You're the One published by Konami in Japan in 1999. There are also some novels.

Reception

According to Nishiyama, there were members of the public who believed Harlem Beat was "a bit too "earnest" for its own good".

References

  1. ↑ "Harlem Beat Volume 1." (Archive) Tokyopop. Retrieved on September 11, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Rebound Volume 1 Tokyopop. Retrieved on September 11, 2009. For the character information, click the tab "Character Info"
  3. ↑ "TOKYOPOP Inc. Out of Print Titles." Tokyopop. 2 Archived 2009-09-04 at the Wayback Machine." Retrieved on September 10, 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Thompson, Jason (2012-02-02). "Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Harlem Beat". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  5. ↑ Nishiyama, Yuriko (December 11, 2007). "Goodbye Seniors! Goodbye Johnan Basketball Club!". Rebound!. Vol. 18. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. p. 126. ISBN 9781595326232.
  6. 1 2 Nishiyama, Yuriko (December 11, 2007). "Sayonara, Rebound!". Rebound!. Vol. 18. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. pp. 210–211. ISBN 9781595326232. - The page refers to the series as Rebound without distinguishing the earlier volumes from the later ones.
  7. ↑ Nishiyama, Yuriko (December 11, 2007). "Sayonara, Nate!". Rebound!. Vol. 18. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. p. 168. ISBN 9781595326232.
  8. ↑ Nishiyama, Yuriko (December 11, 2007). "Goodbye Kyle! Goodbye Mizzy!". Rebound!. Vol. 18. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. p. 146. ISBN 9781595326232.
  9. ↑ Nishiyama, Yuriko (December 11, 2007). "Goodbye Shurman! Goodbye Kim!". Rebound!. Vol. 18. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. p. 86. ISBN 9781595326232.
  10. ↑ Nishiyama, Yuriko (December 11, 2007). "Goodbye Kobayashi! Goodbye Sawamura!". Rebound!. Vol. 18. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. p. 66. ISBN 9781595326232.