I saw a news story yesterday on Comic Natalie about the ninth issue of Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine featuring an interview with former pro tennis player Shuzo Matsuoka conducted by Baby Steps manga author Hikaru Katsuki.
Kodansha recently started releasing digital editions of its manga magazines so I figured I would try to get a copy of that particular issue, which I managed to do through the Japanese iBooks store. (It’s also available through Amazon Japan’s Kindle store, ebookjapan and other Japanese e-book sellers – it was just easier for me to obtain through iBooks.)
The two-page Katsuki/Matsuoka interview precedes that issue’s chapter of Baby Steps. I guess I could attempt to translate the interview but that might take a while since I know very little Japanese.
Four other sports series have chapters in the same Weekly Shonen Magazine issue: The Knight in the Area (soccer), Hajime no Ippo (boxing), Ahiru no Sora (basketball), and DAYS (soccer). [Note: The digital editions of the magazine do not have Ippo chapters in them.] Ace of the Diamond (baseball) ended its first part a few weeks ago and the next two issues – 10 and 11 – will have special stories for that series.