It's high points were the beginning where it was an absurd gag manga and the end where it looped back and was an absurd gag manga again. The grand majority of it was a string of continually more absurd and ridiculous fights against absurdly ridiculous opponents and it's entirely awesome. It's important to keep in mind that there's an element of parody, but only to allow him to do things a million times more ridiculous than anything you'd accept in a straight series.

the one thing this manga excels in, more than any other, is visually interesting fights: interesting techniques (every sport in existence has it's root in a martial art, each deadlier than the last, and every type of animal can be controlled as a weapon).
The author makes all of those histories up btw.

Believe me its hilarious, well the drawing isnt like the typical modern manga but the its awesome.. Its like Cromatie High combine with City hunter .. And one thing I find interesting about this manga is about the history of ancient martial art detailed by the mangaka.. Well I dont know how accurate that is , atleast I know its been use by the ancient people.. On top of that, the character is lively..

Worth reading without a doubt, although I'm not sure if it is worth reading to the end (I loved the start, but once the chaps were in the 20's, it became a lot less interesting for me)
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So, for the first few volumes:
The dude who wrote this manga is a sharp, sharp guy. He tackles all sorts of really thorny issues (racism in Japan, the legacy of their brutal history, feelings of inferiority towards the US, etc.) - all sorts of things that Japanese, to this day, generally do their best to avoid (that whole 'don't lose face thing' doesn't help either, I guess). And yet this manga had a huge following, which goes to show just how deftly he wrote it. The author not only manages to build a story that merges great wit with moral investigations, but he also shows himself a very keen person at logic.

Take the school principal, with his one sentence: a perfect rhetorical ploy for silencing any kind of argument / investigation into his school and actions. These little details go a long way towards making the insane situations actually somewhat believable, which adds all the more to the fun.
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After the first few volumes though, the manga seems to become like many of its contemporaries (jojo, etc.) in having unending competitions that just aren't that interesting. At that point, it becomes, for me, something to speed read in order to skip the fights and just focus on the characters and humor, which would be OK except that the fighting really takes over, with no end in sight.

Anyhow, big thanks to sukiKim scans for introducing us to this gem of a manga and for all the others who have continued with the scanlations. I hope we'll be able to buy it at some point to show thanks to the mangaka too

... Last updated on December 25th, 2009, 7:01am