At the end of volume 11 of Ao Ashi, Ashito was very surprised to learn that he was joining Team A. Will the young player have the level of the main team?
Entry to the Greats
If you will not find in this volume twelve of Ao Ashi the stress of a match, it does not mean that nothing happens, quite the contrary. First of all, there are the training sessions of the promoted with their new team. Indeed, after their victory against Musashino, coach Fukuda announced to Ashito, Ōtom, Kuroda and Togashi that they were joining the A team. This is far from easy because each mistake generates a lot of stress: everyone wonders if he is at the level. Everything goes faster and according to the assistant coaches the promoted almost always go down. Team A is more hierarchical and selective. The incumbents do not train with the substitutes. They don't even seem to talk to each other. The promoted can only practice with the reserve team but struggle to follow their level during the first passes. 
Some suffer more than others. Ashito wants to take up the challenge right away and doesn't plan to go down. For its new partners, this attitude passes for arrogance. Nevertheless, he was noticed from the beginning. The coach even gives him recognition for his efforts… Or is it a test to show him how much he still has to learn? In Ao Ashi, the coach exerts great influence. Always respectful of authority Ashito thanks his coach of the B team because it is thanks to him that he was able to rise. Lacking self-confidence, teens are looking for role models. There are not only coaches but also an admired player. Even future champion Harushisa Kuribayashi needed feedback from his coach and accepted a delegation. The coach of the A team Tarsuya Fukuda wants to let him breathe to avoid an injury and offer him to take advantage of the opportunities of beautiful matches to come in the youth team. Not only are they on the same team but Ashito and Kuribayashi have similar evolutions: they will have to prove themselves. Yugo Kobayashi transforms his series. Ao Ashi leaves the series exclusively focused on Ashito to present different figures.
Off the field
For the promoted, even the food is better in the A team as evidenced by a trip with their new teammates. Surprisingly, references to diet are numerous in Ao Ashi. Teenagers very often meet in restaurants or discuss cooking, dietetics. A friend, Hana Ichijō, cooks for Ashito because she wants to become a nutritionist. By imitation, Anri feeds athletes. Could a manga about cooking be another Yûgo Kobayashi project? Ao Ashi mostly becomes a more intimate series when leaving the field. Writer and cartoonist Yugo Kobayashi shows us the private lives of young players. They see very little of their parents. Ashito thinks of his mother and hopes to finally be able to send money but we never see her. Indeed, young people live among themselves in a boarding school. Ashito has a crush on it and for once it's not football. Unfortunately he progresses much more in defense than in social relations. To illustrate this romantic part, the designer of Ao Ashi pushes his previous essays to the maximum. When Hana Hichijō talks about her favorite player, she transforms into a cat with enamored eyes. 
Two girls in Ao Ashi bring an outside look to the group. The blonde Hana Ichijō is the coach's sister. She had a favorite player but, as he was injured, she decided to take Ashito under her wing. The brunette Anri Kaido is a wealthy heiress who takes advantage of her family's sponsorship of the club to later become a coach. She observes and comments on all the matches. Everything changes for Ashito in this volume of Ao Ashi. Like all the promoted in the A team, he has lost his bearings but loves this feeling because he sees it as a space to progress. The arrival in the A team is not a n culmination but the real departure. Looking forward to the next match in the next volume of Ao Ashi still at Mangetsu. Find the chronicle of Ashito's passage as a defender and another well-known series, One Piece.
