Ao Ashi

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*this is a spoiler free review ;)*

I’ve recently come across Ao Ashi, a soccer manga, and I’ve been blown away by how good it is.
Art:the artist has his own unique style which is a breath of fresh air. U can tell that the artist is very good at sketching cuz even in a soccer match where there are at least 20 characters, the reader can still tell who’s who.

Plot: finally no more of the high school sports club troupe. The manga focuses on the Tokyo Esperion youth football club, which is associated with its own J-League team. Once u start reading it u ... get immersed in it and would find urself cheering for the MC or getting frustrated when the team face a challenge.

Character: The artist does such a good job portraying each character and showing each character’s personality. Each character gets a time to shine, tho of course the main focus remains on the MC. I rly like how the manga focuses on growing by facing ur own weaknesses rather than the typical growing by facing even stronger opponents kinda thing. The MC starts out as a forward, but there is a twist. Not gonna spoil it cuz that would be no fun hehe.

Overall: 10/10 would recommend. Even if you’re not a sports manga/anime fan, trust me you’ll love it cuz I’m not rly into sport manga either but I simply love this manga so much. Simply put manga is a masterpiece!!!

Tl:dr basically if u like haikyuu/diamond ace you will ABSOLUTELY LOVE Ao Ashi. This manga rly reminded me of the time I read Haikyuu and the excitement I felt then and even now.

The anime-manga pool has a surprising lack of soccer related series. Being a soccer fan, I am so relieved. Prior to this, I watched Captain Tsubasa and Days. CT was aimed at a much younger demographic and it could not interest me (no insult intended; i know its an og series with immense credibility). Days is plain pathetic and wrong.
Ao Ashi is a fresh breath in the sports genre. It is not bound by the highschool sports club cliche. That is far too overused. This series is all about club soccer with direct ties to the sports scene.
A young middle schooler, Ashito, whose ... skills in soccer outshine everyone in his small, no name town is noticed by a renowned coach, who grew up in the area. The coach, Fukuda, is impressed by his raw talents and invites him to a tryout in Tokyo. Ashito is a diehard lover of football and Fukuda gives him a glimpse of his dream; the dream to push Japanese football to the international level and with sufficient preparation, dominate the international leagues. The excited Ashito enters a whole new chapter of life, the chapter of hope, possibilities, struggle and fame.
The artwork is extremely good. We get a clean view of everything and the mangaka has a very nice way of portraying the action. We understand how the game is going on. The clear passes, the impact of charges, the tackles, the missed shots, everything stand out beautifully. The character designs are unique with different hairstyles, plenty of expressions and costumes.
The characters have been the best thing so far. Our hero is clearly inspired by Tsubasa. He used to carry his team back in his town and despite being somewhat selfish, he is painfully self aware. He has the skill of judging everyone's positions and knows his way in the field. He's a treasure trove of potential but has a lot of quirks holding him back. We get to see his incredible mental fortitude and his eagerness to keep playing. Despair, skills, injuries, nothing will stop him from pushing harder. The coach is a decorated player with incredible achievements. Due to a terrible injury, he had to retire prematurely and is now, steadily progressing towards his dream. We get the female lead, a very meticulous and resourceful girl who knows a lot about the sport and helps out greatly. For some reason, she takes a liking to Ashito. Then we get the huge amount of players, some of them shining in a surprisingly small amount of time.
Overall, the 29 chapters we fully packed with so many events. Faced paced yet never rushing, this manga has my full attention.

Plot: (6/10)
Football, aoi the mc wants to become Van Basten and he gets a call up from a youth squad of tokyo, he joins the team he becomes friends with his teamates but turns out the manager wanted him to become roberto carlos so they change him position to the left back and the plot moves on covering a part of the season with the small youth team and then eventually he will move on to the bigger youth team.
The Pacing is bad its way too slow at times and fast in others, it takes time to establish the characters and opposing teams at the ... start and then quickly removes them and doesnt give time to develop the new ones but still gives time to develop the random one match characters from other teams

Art: (7/10)
the art is unique and a welcomed change from the regular manga art

characters: (5/10)
-The protagonists basically luffy that plays football+ he is a dick from time to time (that happens around chapter 300 if my memory is correct)
-The side characters of the first 100 chapters get replaced as aoi gets promoted on the bigger team and their replacements are never fleshed out other than one guy who was constantly being a dick to aoi but this eventually gets resolved and turns out he has a sad backstory. i know in real football a footballer will change teams but in the story it just doesnt work especially when the few characters kept from before dont get much screentime and the new ones dont

Overall: (6/10)
at the start its great for the first 100sth chapters but it starts falling off later

Edit: checking back on this review it was terrible i removed some of the idiotic arguements and corrected some of the points i made its not that good but at least its not circus lvl anymore