Considering the general level of popularity with Free!, it’s no surprise that there might be a similar title or two gaining more attention. Masahiro Hirakata put out the Best Blue one-shot in March 2014 and it looks like time was spent figuring out how to grow it into its own full series. That series is coming up in the North American version of Weekly Shonen Jump as they’ll be bringing out the first three chapters in English beginning with the July 13th digital installment of the magazine under the Jump Start program. Tying it into the summer certainly builds on the overall idea.
Hirakata’s no stranger to manga in general as his previous series is Shinmai Fukei Kiruko-san, which ran from 2012 to 2013 with three volumes to its name.
Plot concept: Kagura Mio is the manager of her high school swim team. Three of the first year boys on her team, though, spend all their time bickering and mocking her idea of “teamwork.” Then a fourth boy joins the team, who supports her idea of competing as a medley relay team. Each of the boys is extremely skilled in one of the four strokes—backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestroke—but three of them insist that they are “sharks” and won’t swim together. Will she be able to get these skilled swimmers to work together as a team?
