I'm with Convalescence in that it seems pretty generic, but I still find it funny and can't put it down. The fan service is there, but not overdone, until about chapter 300. Then it gets really ecchi, like reeeally ecchi. The art style is more akin to a hentai doujin than a shounen manga with enough almost-nudity to back it up. A lot of it. Miu grew about 2 cup sizes in 10 chapters. I don't know what brought on the change, but it kind of detracts from the rest of the manga.

Didn't expect too much from this series at first, but now I'm hooked. The tension just kept on increasing, but I'm starting to feel that the pace is slowly dying down. But that might be because I'm reading a couple other manga at the same time (that are either on par or better than this series).

Anyways, this series reminds me a lot about Dragon Ball/DBZ to a certain extent.Not as mystical, but the super human-ness kind of puts it in the general area (great fight scenes, cliche but funny plots). Could do without the ecchi though. I don't feel like it really helps it out too much...

That's true, mangas are all about effort and talent.
Maybe it's all because of cultural aspects of oriental people.

Just to coment the statement below, trainning hours means nothing if you dont have the best trainning method, just like in studies.
I know people who study 10 hours and do less than people who do it 2 hours.
It's not only a matter of talent and effort, of course, it's also a matter of the way you do your trainning/study.

I can see how various people think that this manga is repetitive.
That being said however its a manga about martial arts ie. fighting...lots of it.

To fully enjoy this managa however, you probally need some kind of backstory in martial arts. I have been a martial artist myself for 6 years. It doesnt feel repetive to me in anyway because many martial arts are frequently introduced, as well as different types of fighters. Ranging from a little girl to a 7 foot 16 year old, each with there own fighting style. I find each martial art introduced extremly interesting while most may just breeze over it without noticing.

Each managa has a targeted audience and this one is geared to martial artists. Unless you have a prior understanding of martial arts you wont get 100% out of this manga

kiron, you're absolutely right
japanese mangas overemphasize effort over talent way too much
but on a scale, talent will always outweigh effort
(for example: japanese athletes put in more practice hours than athletes from the united states and other nations.. but we haven't seen them in the world cup, we don't see them win in the olympics.. in fact, all we know them for is their electronics and anime)
but i think you're wrong about a few things
one: kenichi DOES have talent. he masters the fundamentals of hapkido and judo in 1 week after not taking a single martial arts in his entire life. under real standards, anybody who could do something like that would be considered a "genius"
two: kenichi is not a wimp. in the beginning of the manga he punches some thugs even though he knew he was gonna get ****** up (to protect miu). he has a lot more balls compared to other protaganists in sports mangas (like ippo from hajime no ippo, who doesn't even try to fight back when some kids talk **** about his parents... seriously wut kind of role models are these mangakas showing to kids -_-)
going back to the manga.. the plot had a lot of potential, but the artwork pretty much prevented it from becoming great

... Last updated on August 22nd, 2009, 2:43am

I hate it when a manga overemphasizes the importance of hard work by creating a gutless talentless wimp, giving him a good work ethic and having him develop into a genius. Reality check:Most people work hard, even the talented individuals, therefore its hard to get ahead with no talent at all, and if you have no talent then you need to use shady techniques or tactics to make up for any and all deficiencies. In mangas like these the threats aren't real enough. You could easily have a prodigy struggle with an older more experienced antagonist or several older more experienced antagonists. Honesty justice courage and drive are all important to varying degrees but talent isn't something so easily discarded.

This one is surely a good one. But the story is quite straight forward. Sometime I hope It'd be more complex. But put aside that fact, this manga is great and recommend for relaxing.

This manga is really good, the marital art is not like made up stuff its based on real martial arts. pretty sick, i take karate 3rd degree black and my friend takes caporia we find this very interesting. EXTREMLY FUNNY, lol especially his sensei's jks.

... Last updated on November 25th, 2008, 6:16pm

i was just going through few mangas and stumbled upon this at one point highly ovelooked manga.

But you gotta give it to those two translators who did something impossible and unimaginable.

After sept 15 from chap 161 to today chap 274 ....thts 114 chaps in 2 months

This manga belongs to these to these two peolpe's hardwork and of course loads of scanlators who take there time to clean and typeset this manga.

I wish somebody does the same to my fav mangas as well but what they have done should be aplauded.

watched the anime, once it was over i read a bit of the manga. caught up the the scans (a while ago- was like chap130 or something) and i waited for a while then in the past few days caught up again (chap155). and its SOOO good.

seriously i enjoy this manga, its so entertaining. people say it gets repetitive,
ie meeting new opponents getting stronger. etc.
so what?? how else are you going to keep going with the same story? and if you do concede the point that it gets SLIGHTLY repetitive, it makes it no less enjoyable. and tbh it is still very unpredictable. which is a pleasant surprise.

dont be scared by all the chapters, every thing is entertaining. especially if your like me and enjoy fighting. even if the author makes up some stuff; usually he draws inspiration from rare, exotic, and interesting forms of martial arts. ie: capoeira, shinak pilac(butchered the spelling, too lazy to look it up)
but they are extremely interesting to look up for a few min after reading a chapter.

not only that but this manga is funny as shit. seriously.

edit: i am bowing to Nerieru-scans release schedule

... Last updated on November 15th, 2008, 6:10pm