Kokou no Hito is probably one of the most interesting manga I've read in a long time, in the sense that it completely defies any expectations you might have upon reading it for the first few volumes.

In the beginning, it seems like a decent but fairly standard shounen sports story; the main character is a lethargic loner who discovers an aptitude and passion for mountain climbing, he joins the school club, he has a rival, there's a cute sports club manager who seems interested in him, etc. There's nothing necessarily WRONG with it, and it's good enough to get you invested, but if that was all there was to Kokou no Hito, it'd be too milquetoast a story to get the critical acclaim it's received from its small cult following.

As it turns out, the manga goes completely off the rails around the end of volume 3/beginning of volume 4 and becomes a completely different type of story altogether. So far as I understand, this is essentially because Kokou no Hito was at first a collaboration, with Yoshiro Nabeda as writer and Shinichi Sakamoto as artist. Around that point of the story, Nabeda left the manga and Sakamoto had to finish the whole story by himself.

You might expect that the manga would crash and burn under these circumstances, since we usually expect that in these kinds of partnerships, the other party is out of his depth and will produce a directionless and frankly weak story. However, in this case, it's very clear that not only did Sakamoto rise up to the task beautifully, his ideas on where to take the story were far superior to anything Nabeda had written or could probably come up with.

Under his pen, Kokou no Hito came into its own and became much more like what you would expect a good seinen manga to be; the story became a far more lifelike and psychological character drama, showing the difficulties of Buntarou's choices and his struggle to become a "solo climber" in life as he is constantly beckoned by the outside world to come back again and again. This is a change that comes in VERY abruptly and feels about as unplanned as it probably was, but in a way, it ends up working out in the story's favor; it is ultimately a tale about life, and life is very unpredictable. A life lived in optimism and innocence and can change very abruptly. In fact, you could say that the manga grew up with its main character, which just makes the story more powerful.

Despite speaking very little, the main character has a surprising amount of charisma that makes you thoroughly invested in what's eventually going to become of him. Unlike a lot of manga where the main character is merely a bland template for the audience to project themselves onto, Mori is a fully realized character who carries the emotional weight of the manga on his shoulders; seeing him grow up, experience life, be tempted, fail, and change, is the heart of the manga.

The rest of the manga's cast isn't necessarily as compelling as Mori, but they pull their weight. The new characters created by Sakamoto are interesting, have their own goals and complexities, and bounce off Buntarou wonderfully, despite how little he speaks. The characters from the first few volumes who do show up again in the story feel so much more like real people than just the simple shounen archetypes they were beforehand, and Sakamoto takes them in completely unexpected directions that feel very genuine.

Of course, it must be mentioned how the art contributes a lot to all of this. In the beginning, the art showed promise, but was pretty rough in a lot of areas; some of the characters looked like they had parts of their skulls missing, the necks were overly long, and the proportions in general were just wonky and inconsistent. Around the same time as Sakamoto took over the manga, the art began to improve at a rapid pace; not only did the characters' designs become more consistent, the art became much more polished, realistic, detailed, and ambitious. It is honestly one of the most beautifully illustrated and aesthetically pleasing manga I've ever read, and it is amazing to see Sakamoto reach the heights of his artistic potential.

It also plays a very large role in Kokou no Hito's storyline, because of Sakamoto's decision to use visual metaphors to depict the characters' psychology and state of mind. Instead of merely telling us that Mori is conflicted, he chooses to draw Mori splitting in two and running in opposite directions, for example. All of these scenes are meticulously drawn and show a large amount of technical skill, which gives Kokou no Hito a distinct identity, increases the reader's engagement, and shows the incredibly strong artistic vision that the author obviously had.

As strong as Kokou no Hito is in many areas, I am remiss to give it a perfect score for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the way the narrative is eventually structured is interesting, but i'm not sure that it was the best way to go about it. Essentially the story becomes non-linear, in that it frequently skips ahead, shows us a little bit of the present, and then goes back again to fill in the blanks. It can leave one a little confused and wondering what exactly is going on when it first starts happening, but readers who are paying attention should be able to figure out what happens when and get the general gist of the story alright.

The more pressing issue is that towards the very end of the manga it feels like there's a bit too much skipped over; there's a specific period of the main character's life that really feels like it should have gotten a bit more time and attention than it did, since the changes that the main character goes through because of it are very big. while i still found the manga very compelling as this was happening, I couldn't help but feel that a bit more time to flesh out this particular period would have gone a long way towards making the manga even better.

Regardless, even with those problems, Kokou no Hito remains one of the most memorable and compelling manga I have ever read. Starting with volume 4 the manga has such an amazing vision, gripping character development, and gorgeous artwork that it's impossible not to be captivated. It is not a work that everyone will enjoy; it doesn't really pull any punches in its depiction of life, as life isn't always a basket of roses. It is in many ways, pretty depressing, and a dense story at that which requires more of a reader's attention than the average manga. But if you a want more challenging, experimental and adult coming-of-age story, you won't be disappointed. I would highly recommend reading it, even if you don't like sports manga, because this isn't your bargain-bin sports manga, it's a work that stands out and became something excellent.