Preview the paragraph 2.8 of the comic book Analysis - The composition of the pairs of tables :
Mitsuru Adachi has created with " H2 " [1] his work more representative, showing off a mature style in terms of graphics and being able to synthesize his favored subjects in a context which, thanks to the presence of a prominent sporting challenge on the baseball diamond, he sees an overlap of events and tight drumming.
The games are described in detail and draw the reader by making live adrenaline, tension and passion that is almost palpable and concrete. Characters and situations so as to allow the reader to live kidnapped and remain in a sense "feel there" make sure that a first reading made with the heat, "H2" is classified in the genre of sports cartoons.
In fact, although the baseball the backbone of the story, can not be overlooked that sport, as the vicissitudes of love and affection in the comic, it makes sense because it describes a stage in the road to maturity Hiro Kunimi and towards a vision of life that has its roots in Zen.
During " H2 " Mitsuru Adachi have a way to introduce explicitly the theme of Zen three pairs of tables where the sweet Hikari is struggling with the discipline of archery. In the second volume we see for the first time while practicing archery, serious and focused in his traditional dress. At the beginning of the cartoon characters attend the first top, then Hikari is taking its first steps in this discipline and has not yet been able to cure his training and understand that archery is not a sport but a spiritual practice in which meditation plays a central role.
" An essential element in the exercise of archery and the other arts that are practiced in Japan and probably also in other Far Eastern countries is the fact they do not pursue any practical purpose and did not even propose a purely aesthetic pleasure, but they represent a placement of conscience and should serve to bring it closer to ultimate reality. Thus, the archery is not practiced only to hit the target, the sword s'impugna to break down the opponent, the dancer does not dance to perform only certain rhythmic movements of the body, but primarily because consciousness resonates in harmony to ' unconscious. " [2]
" This is not a school of art skills, or a manual operation, is an experience of being . [3] The result
shoot Hikari convincing because it manages to hit the target but in reality you can see a flaw in implementation, namely the fragility of his meditation. She breaks down and makes a jump for joy when they see where the arrow is stuck that body, forgetting that archery is a ceremony made of typical gestures that are repeated with lightness and elegance, and demonstrating that its concentration was all directed at the target while the physical meditation that should lead to hit a target "spiritual" was absent.
" for archery in the traditional sense, which he estimated as art and honored as the heritage, the Japanese do not mean a sport, but for Strange as it may seem, a ritual. And so for 'art' of archery he does not mean a skill sport more or less fully achieved through a predominantly physical exercise but a skills acquired through spiritual exercises and aims to hit a target spiritual well then, that the 'archer, after all, takes aim, and perhaps come to understand himself . [4]
The lack of meditation is also emphasized by the particular composition of the two tables. In the first (p. 125) we see the preparation of the shot and focus on the target and we must turn the page to see the result. The fact that this result is required hidden until it turns the page indicates that there is tension in the soul of the girl, there is anxiety and the desire to find out where the arrow will go. Lack the confidence, transportation and abandonment is alive and all the attention paid to material results.
In the twelfth volume are the second pair of tables devoted to the subject of archery. The two boards are made in the same way as those analyzed just before the second volume. Again the preparation of the shot is on the first page while the result is kept secret and only revealed on the next page. Despite
Hikari has grown and she has gained his experience as archer this time not only the arrow does not even reach the outer circles of the target and it sticks in the wall but she betrays an anxiety that clashes with exaggerated art made of calm and concentration.
The failure of the shot is not due to unfamiliarity with bow and arrows, but tried a disturbance just before talking about first kisses (the first kiss between Hikari and Hideo at the time of the averages and the recent first kiss given by mistake by the Hiro Haruka Koga's manager) with his childhood friend Hiro. Mitsuru Adachi in this case uses the pair of tables to reveal how upset the girl. It suggests that maybe it's Hikari regretted having chosen instead of Hiro Hideo boyfriend but does not tell us explicitly, let us uncertain to interpret the two pages zen.
Hikari's behavior brings to mind a passage from the book " Zen and the art of flower arranging " of Gusty Herrigel:
" not enough to get to work as we will go to afternoon tea . Arrange flowers is not a hobby or a distraction. E 'need to prepare for meditation and concentration, must begin in the morning to make every act calmly and without haste, so that every action expresses inner balance and harmony. This attitude of mind has become so spontaneous and natural to permeate the very life. In the art of composition with flowers "action interior "must go hand in hand with the outer action. Only in this way this art can express the totality of Heaven, Man and Earth. The moment when you composite is not separate from the rest of the day, it goes from morning until evening. However, it is easy to follow the invisible path of flowers from sunrise to sunset! " [5]
Finally in the twenty-second volume of Hikari consistency pays off and on page 157-158 we can enjoy a fine shot. Already on page 157 we see that the arrow sticks, a sign that has failed the desire to see the result with apprehension and curiosity material of the shot. In the last vignette of page 157 the arrow and the target profile are framed, as if to indicate a gap of Hikari from the result of the shot material and an 'abstract' to the spiritual result.
turning the page is repeated, however, the surprise effect seen in the two previous cases and it turns out that the arrow has reached the middle along with others. The eagerness of the result is not proper to Hikari but his teacher praised in the sequence that does not seem to be anything ... As often happens Adachi zen can not be serious to the end ...
What about this set of pairs of tables? Besides the fact that they are worthy of note for the subject matter and how they are set, make it clear that he thought the Adachi zen when he wrote " H2. One can imagine that this philosophy, so well discussed and illustrated with a superficial summary but not in the three pairs of tables just analyzed, in an implicit return in the last volume, as we witness the final showdown between Hiro and Hideo.
E 'possible to compare the attitude of Hiro during his final run with the thoughts of three very different characters, Hideo Tachibana, and Yanagi Haruka Koga. Hideo
loses because he can not "empty" and charge the challenge of a meaning quite foreign and distant, that is, love for Hikari. To refute the ball thrown by Hideo Hiro means defeating his rival in love, beat in more than sentimental (and more) than in the sport. He wants to win the challenge because she hopes that Hikari is forever his.
Even a minor character, Yanagi, it is deleted when it has to stop. He has in mind the difficult relationship with his father and the dream (which he regarded as impossible) to turn pro. Finally
Haruka Koga, number one fan of Hiro Kunimi manager and his team fought to the end of the game turns her first thought Hikari's mother died early in the course of the story. The first thing he does when the game is turned to the bottom of the bench where, as usual at the beginning of each race, Hiro has hung a picture of her to feel close.
These three characters are so different approaches to the game of baseball, but more likely to deviate than the game itself. Each of them has its particular reasons and distracted away and could not live the game with a purity of spirit.
A Hiro rather not go to his head none of this. Not for insensitivity, because he was very shaken following the death of the woman who was very attached to him and that was a sort of second mother in childhood. Not even because he has abandoned his love for Hikari: Just think of what has remembered and looked in the stands during the game. Before the latest launch, however, fails to realize that Hideo is in love with, but did not deny it and delete it aside.
before the last launch Hiro realizes that baseball does not mean to contend Hikari, remember with sadness to think of his mother or professionalism. The latest launch is different: there is nothing to distract and to weigh it down. There are only the ball, a glove that will launch and land the Koshien, the legendary stage where you play the national finals of the Japanese baseball student. Hiro "wakes up" and throws the ball just because it's the most natural thing that can conceive. Suspended between heaven and the playing field, oblivious to what surrounds him, his arm moves forward simply to celebrate a ceremony of baseball that makes him feel free and satisfied.
[1] Mitsuru Adachi, H2 No 1-34, trans. com. Emilio Martini, Star Comics, Perugia, 2001-2004 [1992-1999]
[2] T. Daisetz Suzuki, "Introduction", trans. com. Gabriella Bemporad, in Eugen Herrigel, Zen and the archery , Adelphi, Milano, 2001 [1953], p.. 11.
[3] Gusty Herrigel, Zen and the art of flower arranging , trans. com. Lucia Corradini, Se, Milan, 1993 [1958], p.. 35.
[4] Eugen Herrigel, Zen and the archery , trans. com. Gabriella Bemporad, Adelphi, Milano, 2001 [1953], p.. 17.
[5] Gusty Herrigel, op. cit. , p.. 23.
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