Before the Best Dracula Manga Ever, Its Creator Released an Underrated Sports Adventure

The word “peak” is almost as overused by anime and manga fans as the Over 9000 meme, as people use the hyperbolic term to describe anything from a genuinely great series to the 12 new trashy isekai stories that are released every season. If you’ve followed any manga social media pages over the past few months, you’ve probably heard the term directed towards a seinen series about climbing. Well, ComicBook is here to tell you that, for once, the word peak has been used correctly, as Shin-ichi Sakamoto (creator of the incredible Dracula adaptation, #DRCL: Midnight Children) and Jirō Nitta’s sports seinen series, The Climber, is exactly that.

Sports seinen is a vastly underappreciated genre/demographic blend. Sports anime have drastically increased in popularity over the past decade, with the likes of Haikyuu! and Blue Lock becoming international phenomenons, and Hajime no Ippo remaining a benchmark of the genre. But seinen mangaka have a lot to offer the sports genre. Series like Aoashi, Ping Pong, and Medalist all have strong fan bases. But these are all centered around sports where the protagonists compete against other people. What happens then, when the only person a manga’s protagonist has to compete against is himself?

The Climber Is a Peak Sports Manga (Pun Intended)

Shin-ichi Sakamoto and Yoshio Nabeda’s The Climber manga, based on the titular novel by Jiro Natta, was first published in Weekly Young Jump in November 2007 and has only just received a print English translation (VIZ released the first volume in April 2025). But, through fan translations online, The Climber has gained a small but passionate fan base (myself included) who are strongly urging others to check out the series.

The Climber starts as a fairly generic sports series. Buntaro Mori is a high school transfer student who keeps to himself, skips class, and avoids any semblance of socialization. But, when he’s dared by the school bully, an avid climber named Miyamoto Hajime, to scale the school building, he falls in love with the feeling of reaching the top and sets out to solo climb a nearby mountain. As Buntaro has no experience, equipment, or anyone to rely on, his teacher, Onishi Masao, another passionate climber, vows to keep Buntaro safe in the sport, despite the latter just wanting to go it alone.

The above all sounds fairly boilerplate for a sports series, but after the first few chapters, the series quickly dives into something far more psychological and befitting of the seinen label. Without diving too far into spoilers, Buntaro is scarred by his past following an unfortunate event that he unfairly blames himself for, leading to his desire for isolation.

What makes The Climber so great is how brutally and honestly it dissects Buntaro as a character, as he (and we) learn more about what drives him to be alone and his real motivation to climb and reach the top. Buntaro doesn’t have a rival, as much as Miyamoto tries to be one. Embracing climbing’s nature as a solo sport, Buntaro’s biggest rival is himself, both on and off the wall.

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The Climber Author’s Story Is As Inspiring As Buntaro’s

The Climber manga started as a joint project between Sakamoto and Nabeda, but the latter left after the 30th chapter. Before The Climber, Sakamoto had only ever written failed generic Shonen series as he tried to chase the market, rather than what interested him as a writer. With his partner on The Climber gone, Sakamoto morphed the series from a by-the-numbers sports story into the manga fans love today, all because he thought it would be the last manga he’d ever write. For fans who have followed Sakamoto’s work in recent years, this may come as no surprise. His more recent and lauded #DRCL: Midnight Children, a bold, visceral, and inventive retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula but with amped-up horror and dark fantasy elements also gathered an avid following. With The Climber and even with #DRCL, it seems Sakamoto has yet to scale the peak of his career after all.

The art of The Climber is another reason to pick up this series. From the first chapter, the art is breathtaking, especially the striking landscape shots as Buntaro climbs local mountains with his classmates. But, after the creative shift, Sakamoto leaned heavier into the psychological aspects of the story and presented this through more abstract art. The Climber’s visuals become less about picturesque realism and more about embodying Buntaro’s fractured and guilt-stricken psyche as he’s left alone with his thoughts on the mountains. The Climber might not be the kind of sports series that makes you go out and start climbing, but it will leave you changed.