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Seeing as I'm an Martial Arts manga fan, MMA fan, Martial Arts fan, Karate fan, Wrestling fan, Pro Wrestling fan, Realistic Fighting fan, AND Combat Sports fan, I can honestly say that Garouden is my favorite manga series of all time. I'm starting to feel that EVERYTHING in this series is catered just for my tastes, and with that, I gave a 10 on everything (except art, which I gave a 9) because I'm definitely the target fanbase of this series and pretty much everything I wanted in a martial arts manga is seen here, and it's done a lot more realistically (despite manga exaggeration) ... compared to other martial arts mangas.

In a way, the settings of the whole series felt like it was the 90s Japan in MMA, as it remained being dominated by traditional martial artists like karatekas and pro wrestlers who do both works and shoots. There's also a ton of real life martial arts and MMA references in the series, and hardcore fans of either one will be able to see what are those.

Anyway, one of the main reasons I love the series is how it illustrates martial arts a lot more realistically than most other series, and that there are no true heroes, just martial artists each with their own ambition and desire to fight and win.

Another is the story, especially how it addresses the various philosophical aspects of martial arts, on tradition and on change, on how sport and competition situations differs from the street. A bit of history in this too regarding the early days of MMA in Japan, with the "style VS style" aspect and how pro wrestlers do shoots in their shows. The story's credit goes to the original author of "Garouden" which originally started as a novel by Baku Yumemaru (as the manga is illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki, the author of the Baki the Grappler series)

But in general, if you're a fan of any of the things I want (as mentioned on the first paragraph), give this series a read, as there's a good chance you'll love it, especially now that nearly all the volumes are scanlated in this ongoing series.

Be sure to give it a chance, as early on, the art is quite primitive and unrefined, but that only goes on up to the 3rd volume or so, as the art improves significantly by the Crybaby Sakura/GREAT Tatsumi arc. The action and the story is top-notch, especially considering it's a martial arts manga based from a novel.

And as a side note, be sure to check out the Japanese PS2 game of Garouden (called Garouden Breakblow) and its sequel (called Garouden Breakblow : Fist or Twist, which are now my favorite fighting games of all time.