Nov 26, 2021
"Fly High!" is pretty average, and there's not much more to say. I got excited when I saw a one-shot manga about a girl who plays volleyball, but the fact that the manga ended up focusing more on her relationship (which was kinda weird) with her coach was disappointing.
Story: 4/10 (decent)
Story? What story? Asuka, a member of her school's girls' volleyball team, spends time undergoing extra training under the supervision of her coach, Nagano, a university student. Asuka admires Nagano and kind of has a crush on him, and he seems to have a special connection with her, as well, but that's
...
about it. There isn't really much plot in this, even though that's kind of expected since it's just a one-shot. Sure, Asuka gets a bit better at serve reception and Nagano starts being a bit nicer to her, but nothing really HAPPENS.
Art: 6/10 (fair)
The art was one of this manga's stronger points. The volleyball scenes were super intense and pretty fast-paced, which I liked, and the actions of the players were drawn relatively realistically and fluidly, which is, unfortunately, pretty rare in shoujo sports manga. The character designs weren't super unique, though, and they were just average. Asuka's appearance was a nice mix of cute and strong, and Nagano wasn't exceptionally attractive, but I could definitely see his appeal.
Character: 5/10 (mediocre)
Asuka was fine as a character, but it kind of annoyed me that so much of her motivation was related to "catching up" to Nagano rather than improving for her own sake. It's OK to be inspired by someone, but it doesn't make sense to be involved in sports if you're not doing it for yourself, and it's a troublesome trope in sports manga that the female athlete characters' motivations are, quite commonly, related to a man that they are following or trying to "catch up" to. Asuka's determination was nice to see, though, and made the manga interesting to read, even though I already knew what the results of the matches would be, but it was good that she never gave up, even when she was hopelessly outmatched. I still thought it was weird that she had a crush on a guy 5 years older than her. That guy, Nagano, was a pretty bland and boring character, and there's not much to say about him except for the fact that his actions toward Asuka were kind of creepy and weird. He didn't really flirt with her or anything, but he was always so close to her and the way they acted together would've been fine if they were closer in age. 5 years is just a pretty big age gap, especially when it's a high school student and a university student. That's a pretty big gap and for Nagano to be the way he is with Asuka is just weird.
Enjoyment: 6/10 (fair)
"Fly High!" is one of those manga that are great for passing the time and keeping you interested when you've got nothing else to do. It's interesting and enjoyable enough to keep you reading until the end, but it's not worth re-reading or really getting into. I enjoyed it, but that's about as far as my feelings for this manga go.
Overall: 5/10 (mediocre)
This manga and Asuka, especially, had potential. There could have been (and probably should have been) more focus on how Nagano taught Asuka and what she learned from him, and how his teachings helped her improve, rather than their feelings about each other. I would have liked a more in-depth backstory for the two of them, and you can never say no to more volleyball action. Also, the age gap was weird, but despite these shortcomings, "Fly High!" did what it intended to do and did it decently, and the art was pretty good, so it doesn't deserve a really bad score, but it didn't do anything more than expected, so it doesn't deserve anything higher than "mediocre." It might be worth reading for someone trying to read as many female-led sports manga as possible (that's the reason I read it), but that's honestly about it. Not awesome, not terrible, just mediocre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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