At a certain point you realise you're not following the protagonist. I really enjoy Yu as a character but he's not the main character, at all -- he's a tool, a lens of projection for other characters. Obviously his coach is one of those characters, but everyone he encounters and fights treats him like a level in a game. It's interesting to see a shounen staple portrayed like this: I wouldn't say it's a reversal, or a deconstruction, but there's definitely genre awareness here. I think the story is pretty grown up, for all that it's about absurd boxing violence.

As of ch.76.
If Saitmama was depressed. This read has a really cool story structure where instead of following a protagonist, we're basically following the coach's obsession through the lens of the 'Final Boss' MC. Yu's opponents are all fully fleshed out, and (usually) not what they appear on the tin, which adds a lot of conflict for the reader about who to actually root for (like a hard-work vs. natural talent match-up, where the MC is effectively the villain).
Obviously it goes cartoony/out of the realm of possibility, and a certain character becomes almost comical evil past a certain point, but it is still a great read.

... Last updated on July 5th, 2021, 7:28am

This is how you tell a story in a way that keeps the reader on the edge of your seat and simultaneously weaves different storylines, each at their own pace, until they become intertwined.

This is NOT your normal sports shounen that you know from WSJ that always follows the same formula. The Boxer is something else. It‘s about the unique personalities and circumstances of its three main characters, but also its rich and diverse support cast, that each have their own little stories.

People who complain how the fights in the first ~30 chapters are „predictable“ since it‘s always the same outcome, don‘t understand this manhwa at all.

For anyone who keeps an open mind, does not expect a classic sports manga and wants to experience an amazing story with multiple storylines and lots of build-up that will eventually pay off big time: read The Boxer!

This is a unique experience that you don‘t get in other sports manga/manhwa.

... Last updated on January 30th, 2021, 11:54am