And i could yell "Fuck you Japan Animation Studios for not animating this manga" and i couldn't yell enough. This is by far one of the best sports manga i've ever readed.
Being a Karateka myself and having a good toll of semi-pro fighting under my belt, i need to throw it down for this. Being other manga too conceptual and soft, and other examples such as Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi or Grappler Baki being too "unreal" for me, this hits the spot right on.
The art style grows from being rough to actually pretty stylish and the concepts or martial arts, specially karate are well reflected and translated to paper, with a plot who can go up to the ranks of Hajime no Ippo in terms of realism. This could be the Hajime no Ippo of karate and kickboxing but this manga has something more rawish and realistic than the always winning Ippo. Minoru comes to face several losses and there's one point on he reflecting on leaving pro fighting.
The plot revolves around Minoru Kohinata, a young gymnast who gets driven out of his dormitory because of his close friendship with Misaki Nana, an idol-like, olypmic class fellow gymnast. During a ganging-up by his fellow sportsmen, Ryuji Mutou comes to his aid and saves him, only to knock his lights of and (forcedly) joining him to the Kaburagi-ryu school of Karate.
Minoru begins to love karate, and it's soon joined by his fellow karateka into professional competition using his vast knowledge in gymnastics in his techniques.
Art Style: Yasushi Baba is keen on using a more realistic style of art for depicting stuff. The manga is keen on using a lot of fanservice (spicy shots of the girls, mild nudity and cosplay stuff) but also uses resources such as photography and stuff. There's not much color paging aside the manga covers.
Plot and Development: It switches of being a college comedy to a professional kickboxing manga halfway, usually depicting how the MMA and kickboxing business works. There's some flat characters around but the key ones are deep and well developed, with nurtured and well-written backgrounds. There's a lot of crude (sometimes even vulgar) and adult humor, such as Pedro Barbosa being a gay rapist in rehabilitation or things relating a more B-side Japan, such as a Aloysha, a transexual who falls for Minoru's trainer or some of the cast being almost forced to take part in a porn movie, but also depicts a good story about developing martial artists struggling to keep a style alive against more modern MMA brands, while trying to mantain themselves.
Pacing: This one's a bitch. Sometimes there's chains of 3 or 4 fights, covering entire manga volumes and there's a lot of fooling around and daily life stuff right next to them. Sometimes it can kill the mood but it's really good if you want to get a glimpse of japanese adult life.
What could make you skim this one?: If you're looking for a exact Hajime no Ippo clone, then you may be disappointed in Minoru's losses and stuff. If you're looking for a some sort of fantasy martial arts shonen like Kenichi or Baki, they you'll be dissapointed since it's focus it's more sports like.
But if you're looking for a well developed, nicely excecuted manga about combat sports and stuff with a more seinen twist, then this is for you.
