Fly, Daddy, Fly

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NOT A REAL REVIEW

How far are you willing to go, to protect the things important to you?

Fly Daddy Fly follows the story of 47 year old sales man Suzuki Hajime. His once comfortable and peaceful life gets turned upside down, when his daughter gets brutally beaten by a high school boxing champion. With his ego now crushed, he sets himself the goal of beating the bully and taking revenge for his daughter. In this short story we follow his journey to that and growth. Altough it sometimes is a little bit to preachy, Fly daddy Fly has a really good dialogue that makes you ... understand the characters. It is in some form an underdog story, with the inclusion of a lot of outcasters such as Shunshin and his friends. Trough that lense, the manga includes themes of pride, rebirth and growth. But between that there was always this sentiment of forgiveness and healing. A lot of panels even without context are genuinelly inspirational. Towards the climax you could feel this sense of togetherness between the characters and their growth. And thats what at the end truly matters the most. In only 17 chapters it managed to say a lot and was enjoyable all the way trough. Once you are ready to suffer, thats when you can learn how to fly.

This manga starts off in a very stupid, forced and rushed way. Hajime Suzuki's daughter gets beaten up by a rich and unscrupulous student, who is also a professional boxer. In revenge, Hajime (a salaryman) decides to reasonably go to the bad boy's school to stab him. However, our clever protagonist goes to the wrong school, and takes an unrelated student hostage, threatening his group of friends. Instead of being scared of the man, or calling the police, the group decides to help him in his revenge: now the salaryman will be trained by Soon Shin, a Korean with experience in combat.

After this succession of ... incomprehensible events and stupid decisions, this manga surprises with a fairly competent development, especially considering how short it is. The training scenes give rise to good character development and exploration. Soon Shin is a young man who has been dealt a hard life, but as expected, he has a good heart and a soft side, and gradually develops a friendly relationship with Suzuki. As for our protagonist, we see him getting stronger little by little, showing progress not only in his physical condition, but also in his attitude towards the future combat. We have to admit that, although his goal was presented in a bad way, it's easy to empathize with a father willing to protect his daughter. Hajime's daughter is shown occasionally, and we can see how she copes with her condition after the abuse, also showing development. In addition, we can see how Suzuki's wife reacts to everything that happens.

Unfortunately, the ending is also somewhat stupid: there is a questionable plan pulled out of nowhere, and the reactions of the people were not the most reasonable either. The final battle could have been better, but at least it manages to close Suzuki's arc in a satisfactory way.

As for the art, even this aspect is better during the middle part than at the beginning. There are some unnecessarily grotesque or somewhat mediocrely drawed panels, but fortunately later on the drawing style becomes competent, especially in the training and fight scenes.

It would seem that this work has more flaws than virtues, however, I am not exaggerating when I say that it has one of the worst beginnings I’ve ever read. On the other hand, the revenge plot is not that great: it feels somewhat generic, and could have been developed on a less absurd basis. I think it is an average work, rather than a remarkable one. Anyways, this manga is recommended for readers who enjoy stories of self-improvement.