Days

Days (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Tsuyoshi Yasuda. It was serialized by Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from April 2013 to January 2021, with its chapters collected in 42 tankōbon volumes. In North America, the manga is licensed for English digital release by Kodansha USA. A 24-episode anime television series adaptation by MAPPA was broadcast from July to December 2016. By December 2020, the Days manga had over 10 million copies in circulation. In 2016, the manga won the 40th Kodansha Manga Awards for the shōnen category. Plot Days follows the struggles of Tsukushi Tsukamoto, a shy, clumsy and bullied teenager about to start high school. He decides to get into Seiseki High School so he can be with his neighbour and childhood friend Sayuri Tachibana, who is one year his senior. Just as he is bullied after visiting Sayuri at her work, Tsukushi is saved by Jin Kazama, who scares away the bullies by attacking them with nunchucks, and declares himself to be a vagrant and lost in town. Jin then asks Tsukushi if he likes football and asks him to join him the same night for a futsal match as his team is one player short. Tsukushi surprises Jin by showing up after running almost ten miles under the heavy rain and without one shoe, after another run-in with his bullies. Short, young and clumsy, Tsukushi plays incredibly bad but keeps running throughout the whole match despite having injured his foot, showing such an effort that it motivates his other teammates. After a final sprint, Tsukushi manages to score the decisive goal, smashing his head against the pole by doing it. He finds out later that Jin will also be a freshman at Seiseki, and decides to join the football club to play with him, unknowing that the football club in Seiseki is nationwide famous and looked after by students from all the country. He manages to make it to the team despite being incredibly frail, weak and clumsy thanks to his continuous efforts and amazing perseverance, and further he shows incredible ability in motivating the rest of the team to work as hard as possible.