This manga is an excellent story; our mangaka writes such a powerful story, that, despite our (not hero) protagonist, his amorality, and his lack of any self control (or even better, preservation), one can hardly let it be, once started. The fighting is first rate, and is well worth it. The scenes of rape and violence are, indeed, quite difficult to get over, and I would prefer not to have had to read those, but, despite my aversion for them, these make the story what it is. As disturbing as that may be.

I quite agree with Isara that it is very draining. But I must be quite the masochist, because some of my favorite stories are the draining ones... (I might add that I do love a "pump" manga, but which leaves the bigger impression, I might ask? Pain, or pleasure... [Pleasure only leaves a bigger impression when it's through an addictant. Sorry. =| ])

Redeption? What are you talking about? I didn't see anything like that. Ryo is still going down. Where the hell did you stop reading?
And about "superpowers", I admit that part in China was meabe little off (stoping hearts, kung-fu-movies-like training) but still not impossible.

I had a hard time getting into the heads of the leads and never fully managed to buy into the setting but i still enjoyed the nihilistic and Byronic voice of Shamo. Most reviewers agreed with me that the narrative straight out resolved itself after a certain point and that utter nonsense entered the manga after the instruction of Yan. "Shounen feeling" fantasy battles became commonplace and they couldn´t be more out of place here. The art still stayed strong and convinced me to keep going for a bit but even the fights became boring to look at. Worst of all is that Ryo became another man entirely and the utterly baffling musical chair game of lead characters finally burned me out as drama turned into melodrama. Even the creators started to sue each other! I would have given the manga a 7,5/10 if it ended with the Sugawara arc and a short epilogue so you now know when to stop.
Holyland (8/10) offers a way moire believable take on underground fighting and All Rounder Meguru (10/10) is the best MMA manga ever so i would recommend to start with them.

... Last updated on February 10th, 2016, 6:39am

It's pretty serious and violent. And I dunno if I've been reading too much yaoi or something, but it strikes me as REALLY GAY.

As I am one of the fairer sex, I feel like I should complain about the fact that all the female characters are sex objects except for this reporter chick who's kind of a cold, calculating bitch. But somehow it kind of works.

There's one last thing I'd like to point out -- almost every major character has hallucinations. I don't know if this is just a martial arts thing, but whenever they do something athletic, all of a sudden they're floating in galaxies, or talking to imaginary versions of people. I dunno, if this kind of crap happened to me while I was boxing, I'd probably just get KO'd right then and there.

... Last updated on January 9th, 2009, 1:38pm

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting a downfall of the main character in terms of his life in general. But it's good that it was a hellavuh twist.

The artwork is pretty good, the hand drawn action is pretty fluid and easy to understand (especially since too much movement in a small panel can be super confusing). Ryo was an all-out motherfvcking bastard who would seriously do anything to WIN, which is why the sinister artwork, the character portrayal, and all of their actions make total sense. Ryo really isn't anyone's friend, not even his sister. It's a complete package. Typical of a fighting manga, there are lots of fighting tournaments, but you get used it (if you're not a martial arts genre fan like me) because there are a LOT of memorable enemies that Ryo make along the way.

Other than that it was amazing.

I haven't seen the main character for more than 20 chapters.From a seinen manga with a brutal main protagonist,this turned supernatural, and then the main character is missing and the plot gets also far worse.I don't recall any manga that the main protagonist,where the whole story focuses around him puff disappears.

This manga was only good because Ryo Narushima had a cool attitude and now that he is gone the manga is gone down the drain as well.

... Last updated on February 5th, 2011, 4:32am

its quite good if you like martial arts/seinen manga.


... Last updated on July 24th, 2009, 7:10am

Dark, violent, and the artwork is insane. It don't get much better than this.

that i really appreciate. i reccommend it to anyone who likes seinen.

if i had to describe it, I'd say it's a twisted (and gory) take on an underdog story.

i personally find these stories to be a huge cliche but this manga definitely takes the genre in a different direction.