Kamishiro Yuu, a young boy, is bullied but he refuses to back down, so he practises some boxing moves and then… Defends himself with these skills. It would be nice if this was the end of all his problems but it's not. Yuu is desperate. Without single friend, he is chased by street gangs because he took down in self-defence some of their members. What now? Suicide... Maybe, but is he brave enought for such thing? Maybe... Just maybe... The right answer is somewhere in the streets. In these very streets where (at least for Yuu) danger lurks behind every corner. Yes, this frightening place may be... his Holyland.

Almost all adults keeps thinking that kids at the age of eight or so are completely harmless. But in fact, even these little kids can get pretty violent when they're fighting between themselves. Reasons for this little fights are various... Some kids just likes fighting, some are refusing to back down before their bullies, others are these very bullies and so on and so on. Most of these violent kids realizes that violence isn't actually a nice thing. These petty fights are part of almost anybody's childhood. It's somewhat natural to fight at least once in your child years, but so is completely natural to grew up from this very violence. However, some kids just can't separate themselves from it.

Holyland is martial-arts realistic story with strong emphasis on psychological state of main character. The plot is good, characters are somewhat sympathetic, detailed explanations of martial-arts are interesting and make sense, reflections about life are kind of intriguing, drawings are nice. It's not perfect but It's definitely worth of anybody's time.

It's an exciting, edge of the seat, action packed manga. The fights are realistic, well made. And the plot is just awesome.

the 10 rating isn't fair for this manga, it deserves more....

Starts off great and gives in to typical battle manga aspects pretty quickly, but it still remains its own; it's a thrilling and powerful read. I only wasn't 100% content with the ending, but it's still decent closure. Reccomended.

I got a bit bored when I first read this a few years ago. The first few volumes have quite a bit of exposition about martial arts and such. The info dumps kinda slow the series down. But get past that and this series is excellent. It's not a typical martial arts manga as it's also about a group of damaged people who try to find their 'holyland' so they can recover from the traumas of their past and existential ennui.

Really, this series is excellent.

... Last updated on May 27th, 2012, 6:38am

what can i say except wow its great the character development to the intrigue, the only really big fault i can find in the series is that it is´nt longer, cause i really wanna know what happens next. until now i only had 3 series i had ever given 9 to and now its four and i am wondering if it should´nt be higher.

so far this manga is amazing...i want to rate it now but i never rate a manga until i've actually completed it. if you are looking a for good action or martial arts manga, or just a good seinen you have found it.

Some faster Translator needs to pick up this manga, I read until he latest chapter and i have to say its brilliant. Cant wait to find out what happens next.

It has some great fight scenes and a good sense of a character growing stronger by actually learning things. But at the same time, it follows the extremely tired, extremely shounen trope of "Unbelievable... he's so intuitively good at this thing because he's the main character. His potential is incredible. If he learns to harness this potential... I'm afraid of what might happen. Good thing he's on our side......." I'm not totally against the trope, but in a series going for gritty realism, it feels out of place. Also it gets kind of ridiculous with the mc saying he has nowhere to go if he doesn't get in random fights on the street, when he could literally just go back to his parents' house and go to school and be a normal person. Oh wait, he can't do that because he thinks his parents give him a weird look. He also repeatedly finds himself in a situation where he's about to get thrashed by a mob of thugs and is saved by deus ex machina. It's alright one time, but then it happens multiple times after that. It's entertaining and has some good fight scenes, but it's also dumb and starts to get old after so many chapters. The characters are pretty lacking in personality as well. But the violence is well done and mostly based on real technique, which is cool. Overall I'd rather read Hajime no Ippo if I'm looking for something about an underdog fighter.

I loved this manga--the dark moments, the fighting, the uncertainty, all of it. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but it was interesting enough that I read all 18 volumes in one sitting (I started reading it a while back, dropped it, and then decided to restart it last night). Character growth is great, and I enjoyed the occasional narrative explaining things. It was fairly realistic as well, especially on points such as the asphalt and the importance of hand protection. Every manga has its flaws, but I'd be hard-pressed to point out any specific flaw that particularly bothered me.

Concerning the ending: some people have said they were not satisfied with it, but I personally thought it was great. I've always thought that it'd be difficult to determine how open-ended an ending should be, so I think the mangaka did a great job. TBH, by now I'm satisfied with anything that doesn't scream "axed!" though.

the character development, the fighting scenes, the blood, the crazy look in his eyes!!! I just don't know how to express how amazing this manga is. I was never bored at any point and I was always excited to find out what was going to happen next! I have to say that I am so happy that I found this manga and I hope to find more like it! the best part is that there is no frilly annoying romance scenes! its all pure fighting like a manga in the fighting genre should be!