Rough (manga)

Rough (ラフ) is a romantic comedy swimming manga by Mitsuru Adachi. It was published by Shogakukan in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1987 to 1989, and collected in 12 tankōbon volumes. The series was adapted into a live action film in 2006, released in Japan by Toho.

The story is about high school student Keisuke Yamato, a 100 m freestyle swimmer, and Ami Ninomiya, the diver he falls in love with. Their families own rival confectionery stores, and Ami hates Keisuke's family because she believes her grandfather was driven to an early death because of the Yamato "horned owl" manju, which outsold her family's owl manju because it had ears, making it larger.

Characters

 * Keisuke Yamato (大和 圭介)
 * Portrayed by: Mokomichi Hayami
 * The son of a Japanese confectionery store owner and a member of Eisen Private High School's swimming club. In junior high school, he won third place in the national 100 m freestyle championship three years running. Because he isn't satisfied with third place, he switches to the breaststroke at the beginning of high school. However, his coach convinces him to switch back to the 100 m and 200 m freestyle. His main problem is with his starts, but he improves after studying how Nakanishi swims.


 * Ami Ninomiya (二ノ宮 亜美)
 * Portrayed by: Masami Nagasawa
 * The daughter of a Japanese confectionery store owner and a member of the diving team in Eisen's swimming club. She has the ability to see other people's strong points and is kind to everyone except Keisuke. She sends New Year's cards to Keisuke inscribed with the word "murderer". In contrast to the heroines of many of Adachi's other series, Ami is relatively normal and gets average grades. Ami was a gymnast in junior high school, but switched to diving in high school. She was born on March 4.


 * Hiroki Nakanishi (仲西 弘樹)
 * Portrayed by: Tsuyoshi Abe
 * A college student and holder of the Japanese records in the 100 m and 200 m freestyle. He is a childhood friend of Ami, and wishes to become more than just a friend. Ami's father tries to arrange a marriage between Hiroki and Ami, both to cut off her growing relationship with Keisuke and to get the financial backing of the Nakanishi family. He is the youngest of three brothers.


 * Kaori Koyanagi (小柳 かおり)
 * Portrayed by: Yui Ichikawa
 * A member of the diving team in Misugi Academy's swimming club, and current winner of 2nd place in the inter-high competitions. She has a very quick temper, and is very self-conscious of her less-developed body. In junior high school, when Keisuke mistakenly went into the girls' locker room at a swim meet and saw her naked from behind, he mistook her for a boy and told her she needed to put some more muscle. She is an intense rival to Ami, both in diving competitions and trying to interfere with her relationship with Keisuke. Yūji Serizawa is her boyfriend.


 * Kazuaki Seki (関 和明)
 * A member of the Eisen swim team. Tried to play basketball when entering high school to attract girls, but is cleary a better fighter than a player (probably the best fighter in the group, alongside Keisuke and Ogata). While on his way to watch Ami diving, the swimming coach tests him for the team, and he passes despite the test being rigged to be harder than normal. Keisuke comes out of his slump after being made to tutor him in swimming, which forces him to focus on his on technique. He is ranked 3rd Dan in karate.


 * Kyōtarō Kitano (北野 京太郎)
 * A member of the Eisen swim team, specializing in the butterfly. He attended the same junior high school as Ami. While he is very large and strong, he is very gentle and gets excellent grades. He ranks first in the school on the final exams his first year of high school. He is ranked second in the marathon, after Ogata.


 * Takeshi Ogata (緒方 剛)
 * Portrayed by: Takuya Ishida
 * Cleanup hitter on Eisen's baseball team. He attended the same junior high school as Ami, and she considers him a good friend. Has a short-temper and tends to resort to violence a lot, but it's actually pretty clever and considerate with people he likes. In junior high, he promised to beat up anyone who asked Ami out on a date, and he followed through several times, even sending a few to the hospital. After doing poorly as a pitcher because of an elbow injury, he switches to third baseman. He is also ranked first in the intra-school marathon, and is regarded by his friends as a natural-born athlete, who can do well in any sport he tries. He moves back to his hometown during the summer of his second year in order to be closer to his ailing mother. In his departure scene, Keisuke tells him: "If baseball was an one-man sport, you´d be in Koshien(National Tournament) every year."


 * Masaru Kume (久米 勝)
 * Portrayed by: Ren Mori
 * A member of the Eisen track team, specializing in the shot put. He has a good self-image, and puts a lot of passion into life. He is sometimes competes with Ogata at attracting the attention of girls. His appearance and physique is similar to Kōtarō Matsudaira from Adachi's series Touch.


 * Coach Furuya (古屋先生)
 * Portrayed by: Norito Yashima
 * A coach of the Eisen swimming club, in charge of the swimming races (100 m and 200 m freestyle, butterfly, and so on).


 * Coach Sakiyama (咲山先生)
 * Portrayed by: Maki Tamaru
 * A coach of the Eisen swimming club, in charge of the diving team.


 * Yūji Serizawa (芹沢 裕司)
 * Holder of first place in the 100 m and 200 m freestyle inter-high records and Keisuke's rival since junior high competitions. Serizawa is arrogant and plans to beat Hiroki Nakanishi's records, but he's been unable to get past a plateau in his times, which scares him. Kaori Koyanagi is his girlfriend.


 * Kōsuke Yamato (大和 康介)
 * Keisuke's father and owner of the Yamato confectionery shop, which he inherited from his father. Like many fathers in Adachi's other series, he is generally useless, but has a discerning eye when it comes to between Ami and Keisuke's relationship.


 * Ami's father (亜美の父親)
 * Portrayed by: Yutaka Matsushige
 * Owner of the Ninomiya confectionery shop. He deeply resents the Yamato shop, and has expanded his own shop to better compete. Every night before going to bed, he yells, "Die, Yamatos!" on his veranda. Keisuke is initially introduced to him as "Keisuke Yamada" to hide that he's the son of the rival Yamato family, and Ninomiya takes a liking to Keisuke. He is a 3rd Dan in judo.


 * Keisuke (けいすけ or 鶏助)
 * A chick bought to commemorate a date between Keisuke Yamato and Ami Ninomiya. By the end of the series, it grows into a rooster. The chick was named by Ami's roommate, who wasn't aware of Ami's hated of Yamato family and Keisuke in particular. When written in kanji, the kei (鶏) can be read as "chicken" and suke (助) as "rescued", so its name can mean "rescued chicken". Keisuke appears on the spine of the bunkoban editions of the Rough manga.


 * Narita (成田)
 * The leader of the delinquent gang at Eisen Private High School. He has had trouble remembering names since he was little. When he first appears, he tells the new students to call him senpai to show the proper respect to seniors. While he has a menacing appearance, he often helps people out when they need it. He makes a cameo appearance in Adachi's more recent work, Cross Game, where he is a boxing club member who is interested in Aoba Tsukishima but the story is completely unrelated.


 * Gramps Ōba (大場のじいさん)
 * Master of an aikido dojo and old friend of both the Yamato and Ninomiya families. When the feud broke out between Keisuke's and Ami's parents and they were too busy competing with each other, he watched the two children. Unbeknownst to the parents, Keisuke and Ami became good friends while they were young, though neither remembers knowing the other when they were young. After they grew older, Ōba decided to keep an eye on them.

Other film characters

 * Reiko Kinoshita (木下 理恵子)
 * Portrayed by: Mai Takahashi


 * Midori Shōji (東海林 緑)
 * Portrayed by: Manami Kurose


 * Shigeko Shōji (東海林 茂子)
 * Portrayed by: Eriko Watanabe


 * Haruko Tanuma (田沼 春子)
 * Portrayed by: Natsu Andō


 * Isamu Wataru (渡 いさむ)
 * Portrayed by: Yū Tokui


 * Female students
 * Portrayed by: Ayaka Ikezaka, Yūko Masumoto

Sources:

Live-action film
A live-action film based on Rough was released in Japan on 26 August 2006 by Toho. It follows the same basic story, though in a somewhat condensed form.

Staff

 * Director: Kentarō Ōtani
 * Screenplay: Arisa Kaneko
 * Music: Takayuki Hattori
 * Theme song: Guarana (ガラナ), performed by Sukima Switch
 * Insert songs: Touching the Future (ふれて未来を), Full-Powered Boys (全力少年), Kanade (奏), all performed by Sukima Switch
 * Special insert song: Forever with You (君といつまでも), performed by Yūzō Kayama
 * Development Assistance: Yūji Yamagata, Shiho Kawauchi, Tomomi Sakaguchi
 * Production Supervisor: Hideyuki Honma
 * Planning: Genki Kawamura
 * Producers: Kazunari Yamanaka, Osamu Kubota
 * Line Producer: Kōji Maeda
 * Casting Producer: Shiro Kido
 * Production: Toho
 * Distribution: Toho

Sources: