Nov 11, 2017
Yamashita Kazuo, a middle-aged man leading a boring life, once stumbled upon a street fight in a dark alley. He meets there a certain individual, who after a quick exchange of punches easily defeats his opponent. Kazuo didn’t realize that he just met a man, who would change his life forever. That man was Tokita Ouma - a fighter, who just signed up as a participant in Kengan tournaments - big scale events, where martial artists from all over the world beat the living shit of each other, and Yamashita Kazuo just became his manager.
When it comes to the plot, this manga doesn’t have
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much to offer, it’s just a one big TOURNAMENT ARC!!! and the things that matter the most are the constant fistfights. These tournaments are a true goldmine for gamblers since betting on a fighter, believed to win, is a commonplace and huge amounts of money are being thrown around all the time. Each contestant is a representative of a company, for which their manager works, and relationships between certain companies are often used as an emotional background to give battles some weight. These fights are 1vs1 duels, and because usage of any weapons is prohibited, it makes a great opportunity to show off many different styles of fighting. Karate, Judo, Sumo, Wrestling, you’ll find here every martial art under the sun, and even more, because the author certainly doesn’t lack creativity, and he does an excelent job at making every duel feel fresh. Every bout is drastically different from the previous one, but they all share one feature - they are all unbelievably brutal. Here the amazing artstyle comes to play. Everything is drawn with massive amount of detail, so that you can very easily feel the impact of each blow and its consequences. Each contender is an absolute monster, so scenes showing body parts being completely demolished after taking one punch aren’t a rarity. With some scenes it’s easy to tell that the author has clearly drawn inspiration from series such as for example Grappler Baki. It’s also worth mentioning that in spite of such variety in characters, it’s pretty hard to predict the results of most squabbles.
Characters are here pretty distinctive, everyone has an original design, and all relevant contestants have their backstory, so no one feels like they’re purposless. Our main heroes are also an interesting couple. Tokita is a typical badass MC, he doesn’t care how strong you could be, and he’ll do everything in his power to defeat you. Tokita is your new god, and he’s fresh out of mercy.
Kazuo plays a role of a comedy relief character, since he’s usually the source of all the jokes. It’s not unusual to see him accidentaly get into various dangerous situations and unwillingly makes his life a bit more intense.
To summarize, this manga isn’t an outstanding masterpiece, and it doesn’t try to become that. It’s just a mindless, but compelling story about ripped men beating each other up to the point of unconsiousness, and even more. I reccomend this series especially to people that like ceaseless action, martial arts, and brutal battles with their usage. If that sounds like your type of story, then you’ll feel like a fish in the sea :>
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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