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Dear Boys Basketball Manga to End in 2 More Chapters

The November issue of Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine revealed on Tuesday that Hiroki Yagami is ending his Dear Boys Act 3 manga after two chapters. If there are no delays, Kodansha will publish the last chapter in December. The manga states that Dear Boys Act 3 is the conclusion to the 23-year-long Dear Boys storyline.

Yagami's original Dear Boys manga focuses on Kazuhiko Aikawa, a transfer student to Mizuho High School. A lack of players and a coach quitting due to conflict with a student leaving the team has left the Mizuho High School basketball team gutted. Aikawa joins, and brings the team back to competitive shape through his love of the game. Eventually, the manga shares its focus between the Mizuho High School team and the teams and players of other schools.

Yagami launched the first manga in the series in 1989, and ended it in 1997. He followed this with the Dear Boys: The Early Days prequel manga from February to May 1997. He launched a sequel manga, Dear Boys Act II, in 1997, and ended it in 2008. He launched Dear Boys Act 3 in December 2008. Dear Boys Act II won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen manga in 2007. Yagami launched and serialized all of the Dear Boys manga in Monthly Shonen Magazine. Kodansha published Dear Boys Act 3's 19th compiled book volume on June 17.

The manga inspired a 26-episode television anime series, which premiered in Japan in 2003. Bandai Entertainment released the anime (retitled as Hoop Days) in English in 2005.

Source: The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web