Do Retry

When he refuses to stay down during a vicious beating, Aozora gets scouted by a yakuza boss affiliated with an underground boxing league. He soon finds himself in the ring with no training but a powerful secret weapon—his tenacity! But will it be enough to overcome his opponents' training and devastating techniques? He'll find out!

(Source: VIZ Media)

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Background

Do Retry was published digitally as an English simulpub through MANGA Plus. The volumes were published digitally by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint on December 24, 2024.

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Characters

Ookami, Aozora

Main

Ikuno

Supporting

Ookami, Yuhi

Supporting

Nijimura

Supporting

Kuroiwa

Supporting

Yuuka

Supporting

Ookami, Akari

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 30, 2024

Rammelbips

Mixed Feelings

Let me start by saying that I am a sucker for sports series. A lot of sports series that are considered mediocre, will be loved by me. On the one hand, this also goes for Do Retry. When I went into this series I expected the absolute worst, but I ended up enjoying it. But on the other hand, I can also confidently say that Do Retry is not good. And here is why.

Art: Let's start off with maybe the most important part of a series and well, it ain't pretty. The art feels static. Art feels rough, unrealistic and depressing. Bodies look like they ...

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Jun 11, 2023

CharlieRoseGold

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (6/19 eps)

Spoiler

Do Retry by Jun Kiarazaka is a thing of ethereal beauty, like a deer in the headlights of a car with no brake pedal. Do Retry is the funniest manga in Jump, and I'm not sure if it has ever successfully told a joke. Do Retry is hype as hell, and underwhelms with every blow. Do Retry is worth reading immediately.

On first blush, Kiarazaka's art is pretty rough. The protagonist, Aozora Okami, has very few distinguishing features from any other shonen boy. The art style is very reminiscent of that of Yusei Matsui, especially The Elusive Samurai. It is filled with bold outlines and deep ... shading, but doesn't have Matsui's knack for action composition, tone or raw beauty. It's just kind of... there.

Okami himself isn't very memorable from a character standpoint either. Okami has the same special boxing technique as Homer Simpson, where he can get punched very hard and stay standing. It's not a good sign that I had to reread all the way to chapter 5 to get the smallest handle on his name.

Past these usually important first steps, however, is where Do Retry really comes into it's own. And it's bonkers.

The tone of Do Retry vocillates wildly, between the life of tragedy and horror led by children in post war Japan, into a magical realist shonen boy boxing adventure. The US firebombs Showa one page, and only a page turn later Okami is harassing American GIs for chocolate in unfunny broken English. Two pages later, it's revealed his sister is dying from malnutrition.

The most jarring moments are when these clashing tones collide in the same panels; Do Retry's token try hard shonen protag boy meets a gang of happy go lucky, rough and tumble boxers. Instead of being mentors or even really established characters, they spend the rest of the chapter chasing after him and trying to kill him for no real reason. Once again, the tone isn't just off, it's nonexistent - a mild comedic slant on 50 grown men trying to rip a starving orphan to pieces for an extremely vague reason. A monetary reward? Status? Pride? Fun? I have no clue. It is very, very funny.

The real genius has emerged in its current arc. Okami is facing a boxer around his age, a clear narrative foil. Both are children struggling to thrive in an evil environment. Both are looking to protect their bland, woobified sisters. There is almost a conflict there!
But here's the rub. The antagonist's only power set is that he has a really big right arm. This kid, to Kiarazaka's credit, has the gangly proportions of a child in this age group. This decent proportion work makes it all the funnier when his right arm looks like it belongs to Kenshiro. Never before has a mangaka laid up a joke for an audience to kick perfectly into the end one quite so easily - yes, it's true, my right arm got a lot of work at that age too.

It's a horrible nightmare mess. No chapter has ever just worked, no moment of good isn't complicated by another baffling decision, chapter six (the most recent as of writing) has a double page spread so strangely drawn that I think I'll be thinking about it on my death bed. In short, I love Do Retry dearly. I read eagerly ever week, tell my friends all about it, and will fight on its behalf at every opportunity.

I don't think it will be too long until the bell is rung for Do Retry. Shonen as once gonzo and yet, somehow, formulaic as this one don't last for long in the hyper competitive pages of Jump. I'd love to be wrong and for it to run and run, but looking at its engagement numbers on social media, I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe it will be good to let it down easy, put it to sleep before it experiences any more of the torture it clearly feels living day to day. Like a beloved family pet, there comes a time where death is a mercy. But I hope that, once the towel gets thrown in the ring, Do Retry goes down swinging with an ending as dumb and tonally inconsistent as the rest of it. I will earnestly cheer for it as it misses every punch, because everyone loves an underdog.

tl;Dr it's great read it it's terrible

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Jul 17, 2023

RedTopHat

Not Recommended

Preliminary (11/19 eps)

Spoiler

Set in 1945/1946+, Do Retry emulates moments associated with Grave of the Fireflies, the violence of war and how that can change a child's outlook. Sadly, the manga doesn't attempt to follow up with this interesting idea of what it might be like to get involved in underground boxing for survival in the same way they treat that opening chapter, and instead devolves into the ridiculous with lacklustre fights, an unclear plot, and flat characters.

At first, Do Retry sets up an idea that permeates most shonen manga: what can a strong heart overcome? This question is interspersed with a firebombing of Japan in 1945. The ... first chapter takes a risk on the topic and the time frame. The manga sets up the idea that a strong heart cannot solve everything. Then, it spends the next several chapters instead saying, yeah it totally can.

Aozora is set up as a weak protagonist who gets by on that heart and determination, while his sister has the family's fighting strength. After his sister gets sick, Aozora tries to take care of her and, by the end of chapter 1, is invited to take part in underground boxing matches. The story sets clear stakes, creates a driven protagonist, and by chapter 2 begins to undo that setup. The protagonist is more concerned with "bad guys" than his sister's health. His reluctance for involvement screams plot contrivance rather than engaging in the post WW2 situation, a world where he has to fight to get food. And it gets worse from there.

The manga's characters blend into the absurd. One boy has an arm that is three times the size of his other arm. Characters stare down the barrel of a gun to no fear multiple times. And none seem to really develop as characters. The manga establishes some character motivations, but doesn’t challenge them with the sport itself. Sports manga thrive on diverse casts with different wants, needs, and beliefs. For example, Haikyū!! uses character’s backgrounds and experiences to increase the tension and importance of the fight. Do Retry, tries to do this, but fails spectacularly. The clash of the absurd character design and the plot muddle the ability to root for those Aozora must fight, to understand that regardless who wins, it comes at a cost.

At the centre of it all, Aozora just isn't that interesting. What seemed like a fluke win in the first chapter with his fighting the gang member, suddenly he just has a strong punch. He's thrown into the deep and succeeds several times.

Finally, the pacing of this manga is weak. A boxing manga should understand the value of the build toward a fight and the fight itself. For example, Hajime no Ippo weaves boxing training into the character's development. Ippo’s strength (physical fitness) is offset by his reluctance. The opening chapters explore opening him up to boxing while training and preparing the audience for the future. Do Retry tries to do everything immediately and suffers for it. It focuses more trying to make it funny that a child is being chased through the streets getting beaten up, rather than how dark this story set itself up to be.

There was the chance for something gripping with Do Retry, perhaps in another life as a seinen with the content and setting this manga used. Instead, it ends up lost within itself, unsure how to pace its story, while lacking a strong core cast or any reason to read.

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Poll: Do Retry Chapter 17 Discussion Red_Ranger_Wien - Sep 3, 2023	6 replies	by Supremestrawhat »» Jul 2, 2024 11:19 PM
Poll: Do Retry Chapter 19 Discussion Nidhoeggr - Sep 17, 2023	10 replies	by ALOC »» Sep 18, 2023 9:06 PM
Poll: Do Retry Chapter 18 Discussion ShiroiRyu - Sep 10, 2023	8 replies	by Nieznajomy43 »» Sep 11, 2023 3:36 PM
Poll: Do Retry Chapter 16 Discussion Red_Ranger_Wien - Aug 27, 2023	5 replies	by -DxP- »» Sep 8, 2023 3:22 PM
Poll: Do Retry Chapter 15 Discussion Red_Ranger_Wien - Aug 20, 2023	4 replies	by Nieznajomy43 »» Aug 21, 2023 3:22 AM

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