Kara Dennison
November 28, 2023 
This week, a new sports manga joins the pages of Shonen Jump! With Ice-Head Gill getting the axe and The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins put to bed, Green Green Greens has stepped into one of the mag’s empty slots. And it’s fresh—just one chapter in, so a great time to jump on board!
So what’s this manga about? What’s its pedigree? And will it be a good fit for your Sunday manga reading list? Read on and find out!
From a Sports Manga Veteran
Green Green Greens hails from manga author Kento Terasaka. And if you’ve never heard of him, all you need to know is that he comes from serious sports manga stock! Terasaka started as an assistant to Tadatoshi Fujimaki, the creator of Kuroko’s Basketball. With this new manga, assistant and mentor now share space in the same volume, as Terasaka’s new title runs adjacent to Fujimaki’s Kill Blue.
So far, Terasaka has two other manga two his name, both about rugby. Ringo ran as a four-chapter miniseries in 2016. Then, in 2019, Beast Children began its 27-chapter run. The series follows Sakura, who dreams of playing rugby like his late hero Onotora “The Beast” Itsuki. Finding a new sport to be passionate about also happens to be the theme of the author’s latest title.
Beginning at the End
Green Green Greens begins with its protagonist, Haku Yaesaki, in the midst of a pro golfing tournament. We then flash back to his high school years… so while we know where he’s headed, we’re going to spend most of our time finding out how he got there. And, as we find out, he was once a directionless baseball enjoyer who discovers golf through classmate Nadeshiko.
Does knowing Haku is going pro “spoil” anything? Of course not. Anyone who’s worked hard to get somewhere knows that there are lots of hits and misses along the way. While this is his eventual trajectory, we still know nothing about his path… or the kind of person he’ll become once he’s gone pro.
New Values
In the early pages of Green Green Greens, we see Haku converting nearly everything into terms of currency. He rates baseball star Shohei Ohtani in terms of how much he’s worth, and golfer Tiger Woods in terms of how much his worn-out 8 iron sells for. But Nadeshiko, who plans to become a pro golfer, is there to set him straight on the merits of hard work and dedication. And she notices something about him, too: his golf swings are ridiculously good for a newbie.
With one chapter out and more to come, this looks to be an interesting story. How will Haku grow and change on his path? How long can he rely on his savant skills? Will he and Nadeshiko start getting along for real? We’ll find out!
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