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Kokou no Hito  
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Description
From Stiletto Heels:

On his first day of transferring to a new high school, a loner named Mori Buntarou, is cajoled by a classmate into climbing the school building. Despite knowing that one misstep could send him spiraling to his death, he moves forward, and upon finally reaching the top, Mori experiences a sense of fulfillment. That feeling, which seems to be telling him, "You're alive!" gives birth to an adrenaline for rock-climbing.


From volume 4 on, Sakamoto Shinichi has done both story and art.

Type
Manga

Related Series
N/A

Associated Names
孤高の人
孤高之人
고고한 사람
Ascension
Koko no Hito
The Climber

Groups Scanlating
Bakana Haven
Easy Going Scans
Franky-Family Scanlations
New Evol Team
More...

Latest Release(s)
v.17 c.163-170 (v2) by Easy Going Scans (267d ago)
v.17 c.163-170 (end) by Easy Going Scans (272d ago)
v.16 c.159-162 by Easy Going Scans (322d ago)
Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin
17 Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?
Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter
N/A

User Reviews
N/A

Forum

User Rating
Average: 8.6 / 10.0 (328 votes)
Bayesian Average: 8.45 / 10.0
10
 36% (117 votes)
9+
 28% (91 votes)
8+
 19% (61 votes)
7+
 9% (31 votes)
6+
 3% (10 votes)
5+
 2% (5 votes)
4+
 1% (2 votes)
3+
 1% (4 votes)
2+
 0% (0 votes)
1+
 2% (7 votes)

Last Updated
November 5th 2012, 12:12pm PST

Sponsored Links
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Genre

Categories

Category Recommendations (beta!)

Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year
2007

Original Publisher

Serialized In (magazine)
Weekly Young Jump (Shueisha)

Licensed (in English)
No

English Publisher
N/A

Activity Stats (vs. other series)
Weekly Pos #569 increased(+35)
Monthly Pos #828 increased(+271)
3 Month Pos #1353 increased(+3)
6 Month Pos #1337 increased(+120)

List Stats
On 1083 reading lists
On 645 wish lists
On 393 completed lists
On 52 unfinished lists
On 216 custom lists

Note: You must be logged in to update information on this page.

Forum Posts
The real Katou Buntaro's biography! 743 days, 19 hours, 40 minutes ago
Lastest chapter discussion 868 days, 13 hours, 6 minutes ago

Click to view the forum

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User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]
 

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mediocre   
Rating: N/A
by kreatur
December 5th, 2012, 6:00am
This is a good manga, however what drags it down is the 90% focus on climbing.

This puts it in a low niche where few people would really enjoy it, those people being climbers. I can understand a manga like this since i can compare its sports density to similar mangas with other sports. But if you're not really into, say, martial arts like we have with Gekiryuuchi, you'll soon get bored of the countless explanations and just skip pages to the story and character development parts. And here lies the problem with Kokou no Hito, these parts are too thin and really not interesting. Like another commenter said, you don't attach to the characters, you don't care. There were a couple exceptions in the beginning of the manga, but soon the author lost interest, killed the characters or just made them disappear with time skips and with no explanation, while skipping further development for the nice views of mountains. I got bored of mountains. It's true i read this in one go, but this way one can see the flaws easier. Really, entire consecutive chapters with views of mountains and delirious ramblings get to you after you've experienced it ten times before.

This is the reason why this manga will never get big, it focuses too much on some parts and too little on others. By the end of it i didn't like any of the characters. I also finished Veritas yesterday and those guys killing each other everywhere were a lot more likeable chars than the ones we have here. Those guys in a fantasy manga had better personalities than everyone here.

One might argue that people in Kokou no Hito are real and that's why they live and act so crappy. But the problem is not with the tragedy in their lives as is with the way they react to it. Let's take two examples:
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
Yuki gets from being a cute and intelligent high school girl to a stealing whore in just a few years. Plausible, i'm not saying it can't happen, but the chances are low and i, as a reader, need an explanation as to how things got here. I need to understand what i read, not just eat the facts. Also, even in that state she would show a bit of remorse, which does not happen. Returning the money later was just a scheme to get more from Miyamoto. And this is how we get to my second example.

Miyamoto is not that bright and doesn't seem to know anything other than climbing. But what he does know, he does it good - kind of how the mangaka makes a manga all about the thing he knows best, climbing. He's also very ambitious and has actual plans to realize his dreams, he gathers money to get to France. Bam! A couple years pass and Yuki becomes a whore while Miyamoto becomes a failure with no real reason. Yuki tells us he never went to France because that's his nature, a slacker that keeps saying he'll do things "Tomorrow". He got into drinking and debt. How in the hell did these things happen? There's no way a change like this is possible, the Miyamoto from highschool and the drunk Miyamoto have completely different personalities, same with Yuki.


Well, these things make you lose interest in the manga since it's stopped being realistic. As a non-climbing-die-hard-fan you only get left with the pretty pictures.
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Decent   
Rating: 8.0 / 10.0
by YukikoKudo
November 22nd, 2012, 10:58am
This is a solid manga. My main criticisms are:
1) main character was hard to relate to, so you don't feel like you have a connection to him. However, I think that was the goal.
2) Weird abstractions. There was a lot of symbolism in some parts of the manga, but at times, I found it confusing. Like the main character was like.. a miniature-sized godzilla, and I couldn't understand why.

It really makes you appreciate mountaineering though. Very interesting manga. Especially since I had a friend who recently went to Patagonia for a mountaineering trip. =)
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Gahhh!! Too depressing..   
Rating: N/A
by Sapphiresky
April 16th, 2012, 6:32pm
I started reading it and though it didn't seem interesting, I couldn't stop reading. But I had to stop around vol 3-4. Too sad, I couldn't take it anymore... I'm sorry guys you'll just have to go on without me...
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Absolutely amazing but Characters are unrealistic.   
Rating: N/A
by addnine
February 24th, 2012, 10:12am
I love this manga. Not many sports/outdoorsman manga can capture the surreal beauty of nature on black and white comics. The mangaka's drawings are very capturing and allows you to feel what each character is going through. Although it's art is great, many parts of the story are unrealistic. The main things that get me is the characters. I don't understand the main character's old high school friends turned out the way they did. There is no way someone changes that much for no reason. They definitely had many options to choose. I think the author just wanted to exaggerate the trait of the main character where he says "I make everything worse, where ever I go and thats why I should be alone". To me, thats the only thing that I won't accept.
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AMAZING.   
Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
by Phooeyish
August 5th, 2011, 5:36pm
I just finished reading all the scanlated chapters, and WOW, there's so much to talk about that I don't know where to begin. Kokou no Hito is a manga that's definitely in a league of it's own. The art is breathtaking and the storyline intense, as it focuses not only on the physical difficulties that Mori encounters when he climbs, but also the psychological horrors.

I did have my doubts at first, as the story does start off as a seemingly typical shonen sports manga, but was pleasantly surprised by the maturity and depth that soon developed. And then when it began to progress into more darker themes and Mori began to sink into his loner depression, I thought that it might end up as one of those stories where the protagonist goes mental and psychotic and the manga ends up as one big overwhelming mess of insanity. However, it did eventually take a turn for the better when it settled down and established a lighter tone in the story.

All I can really say, I guess, is that this manga is truly one of a kind. Even though I found myself horrified and disturbed by a lot of what happens in the middle of the story and really just wanted to put the manga down, I was simply unable to stop myself from reading. I got hooked and couldn't let go.

I think the best part of the manga is that the mangaka does a great job in making this much more then a typical sports manga, by accurately portraying the consequences of what happens when humans are pushed into life-and-death situations (where your survival is literally dependent on your teammates' deaths) as well as the insanity that can also happen as a result. I would definitely recommend this to people that enjoy realistic, action-packed, and intense stories.

... Last updated on November 14th, 2011, 4:47pm
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Amazing   
Rating: N/A
by PepperPia
April 10th, 2011, 2:34pm
I only started recently but have been reading it constantly, and its amazing but horrible at the same time. The main character is really good and I like the way it started with his school and then the whole manga changes and gets alot darker. It's so strong and really sad, but in a way that just makes me speechless really. EDIT: I actually stopped reading this for a while cause it just made me really sad and I would keep on thinking about it, so I don't try to read it one go now, just take it slowly.

... Last updated on October 3rd, 2011, 1:47pm
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My current favorite   
Rating: 10.0 / 10.0
by Roflkopt3r
February 2nd, 2011, 9:16am
Kokou no Hito currently is my #1 favorite and a clean 10/10. It exceeds most other Seinen in depth of storytelling and characters by far and combines it with brilliant arts which make it also enjoyable to look at and re-read.

It contains so much symbolism and complex storytelling in different time lines as well of insertion of symbols/dreams/imaginations at a time, and yet remains neatly arranged and not too difficult to follow each line of action. The protagonist's character developement is good and doesn't follow the typical flat patterns of allmost all Shonen and many Seinen, yet remains perfectly comprehensible while keeping the reader constantly thinking.
The story is dark and dramatic, and yet giving glimmers of light at the right times. I love how it never turns too far to one side - it's neither becoming absolutely depressive nor a put-on good mood everything will be fine-lollypop story (ok, actually it's keeping really far away from that side).

Climbing is used so well as a mirror of psyche and humanity, and yet remains awesome for itself, too, especially due to the brilliant arts and detailled drawings of mountains, weather and characters with their clothing and tools. It also seemed absolutely convincing to me in the authors' deep knowledge of climbing and mountaineering.
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unique yet strange   
Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
by dieend
January 11th, 2011, 9:41am
This manga is really on his own world, I think.
The art, no doubt really a great one.
The story, it's not so focused yet so blur, and it is really walk on his own path. When I think the story go to make the main character keep walking straight the light and struggling all of the obstacles. But he instead went back to darkness. And the darkness that needed by the light, maybe. The biggest minus point I think is, it is kind of hard to differ which one is hallucination and which one is the realita. So I am a kind of missing some story of what is going on.

But the art is really good
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Truly a masterpiece!   
Rating: N/A
by kami0001
December 29th, 2010, 5:10pm
This manga is truly a masterpiece due to the detail artwork plus a rather unique and quite strange protagonist. The protagonist, unlike other shounen or seinen manga's protagonists, has no purpose or aim in life. He just wants to be alone without any one to bother him. He is what we called "social outcast" yet because of that, this manga is quite different than other regular manga out there.
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Sports. Fool.   
Rating: 8.0 / 10.0
by meosnelsity
December 16th, 2010, 2:32pm
All sports are self-oriented, dumbass. Thus, they are not useful except to oneself. It's a mere self-accomplishment. Someone who finds it useful by seeing other doing it is just self-explanatory. Anyway, the artist had lived some stupid life there and expressed it in the story. Perhaps, he's trying to teach something implicitly.

update: style has changed in recent chapters; at first, it was great, but now all that symbols are keep popping up here and there. Pace has slowed down to the extreme. I had to deduct 1 point from my previous rating.

update2: seems like the trail of symbolism has ended. The author has abandoned manga-like fictional flavor to complete realistic-looking story. I don't know how many phases this manga is undergoing, but now the story seems to be, surprisingly, already almost at the end phase.

... Last updated on April 3rd, 2011, 10:01pm
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