Shinji Mizushima - Works

Works

Mizushima is known as an avid Hawks fan, and the title character of Abu-san spends his entire career playing for the Nankai Hawks team. Mizushima depicts real baseball players, coaches, and managers in many of his manga, and the events taking place within his manga often mirror those of the real Japanese baseball world, with his fictitious characters interacting with real existing players. However, non-Japanese baseball players ceased to appear in his works authored during or after the 1990s (with notable exceptions such as Rodney Pedraza and Bobby Valentine, who make very brief appearances), after a non-Japanese player's agent demanded payment for using his client's name and image without permission. Because a single game can sometimes take months of serializations to complete, in certain scenes, Mizushima unknowingly changes the batting order and handedness of less important players. Another staple error in Mizushima's manga is consistency in the type of batting helmet used (the helmet covers the left ear for right-handed hitters, and the right ear of left-handed hitters).