Black-Box

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The years passed, and Tsutomu Takahashi has improved like a good wine. He is an author used to offer us mangas of very high level, either in the drawing or in the storytelling, no matter the target and the genre he works on. I consider him a genius author.

And, once again, he offers us a powerful work, very intense and very interesting from a narrative point of view. Indeed, this time the author offers us a personal interpretation of the classic sports manga, a little less politically oriented than before in his previous mangas, but we can feel in his story that he wanted to ... produce a real work around boxing.

By the way, I think he succeeded in his attempt. Thanks to his recognizable line, he sublimated the sport manga to bring it to another level. As far as the drawing is concerned, we feel very strongly the impact of the blows, and the determination of the characters to fight thanks to marked features and worked body and facial expressions.
On the background of family history and difficult social situation, this is how Tsutomu Takahashi interpreted his vision of boxing and the ring. The character explores his sport as if his life depended on it and the ring serves as an outlet for him to emancipate himself from his past and his fears.

Black-Box is a really nice story, pleasant to read despite its intensity and its fast pace. Anyway, I don't think it's the best manga to start his bibliography. I recommend you another manga a little bit shorter like Zankyou to get used to his drawing style or even Skyhigh, because Black-Box is a sport manga everything but ordinary. It's a good thing if you ever decide to add this manga to your reading path.

A boxing manga by Tsutomu Takahashi. The manga itself isn't too long and it primarily focuses on the two lead protagonists whom are rivals. Their relationship is the most captivating part of it all. Both boxers are very talented however the mangaka purposely chose not to propel them into international stardom for the story's sake. Takahashi's art is unique as usual however the only negative aspect of his art style is his disability or laziness regarding backgrounds, he relies a lot on filtering real life images to avoid drawing buildings which in my book is a -1 point. the entire manga can be ... read in just 1 day.