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.

No one can defend the awful story continuity and awkward starts and stops to story arcs, but I still consider Shamo to be an amazing manga. It's a bit unclear how the author and artist ended up fracturing and suing each other but it obviously affected the quality of the story. That said, Shamo still works as a fascinating character piece on a character that would be a villain in any other story.

Ryo is evil but he's broken person who I feel has surprising depth. His inability to do good despite his occasionally good intentions combined with his inferiority complex that makes him impossible to help, makes a character that rides the line on whether he is sympathetic. Later parts of the story get incredibly surreal which may throw audiences off. Additionally, there is no end goal in later volumes, nothing that the main character is working towards. Some arcs are so anti-climatic that they end in what seems like a 2 minutes when they were built up for 50 chapters. It's very strange storytelling but I think it works because I learned something new about Ryo's character with every arc.

The artwork is fantastic and the artist really knows how to express body movement. Even as a trainwreck, its absolutely unique.

Honestly started of great! the potential was so vast and about halfway it just collapsed and never went anywhere. i you read all the volumes, you'll feel like you should have never started this manga - you shouldnt be able to flog a dead horse... but they did... utterly and bitterly dispointed! At least KSKM had the decency of starting out as a shonen/gag manga! This became somewhat of a joke and didnt respect the readers!

This isn't a manga you read to feel good about. This isn't a manga where the heroes win. This is an escapist fantasy. Read this if you want to blow off some steam and read how one man can be the least responsible parent murdering rapist piece of shit imaginable. Without going into spoiler territory, this manga is rage-fuel up to the very end. It builds rage, creates tension and delivers before repeating. It keeps you interested in how it'll deliver. And then it doesn't, it just ends.
If you're searching for a protagonist you can root for, go away, if you want a world you'd like to live in, find some other manga, if you're in need of likeable characters, tough shit, and if you like your story threads tied up nicely, you're out of luck.

Final Rating: Read it, don't finish it.

Tanaka Akio next time please have the decency to just abandon the series, just drop it, this didn't deserve such a low quality development and sub-par bullshit of an ending, if what you are working is just a work of self hate for what you are making at the moment then just stop, this is an insult to everybody, giving Ryo a girlfriend out of nowhere, weakening him in such a stupid manner making him fight a fucking ballet dancer as his "nemesis" and then have his final opponents be a retarded giant with twin-tails and a stupid big sword is just demeaning, you are shaming this manga, and that end, that end is a joke.

This manga was a solid 10 before the tragedy happened and the author decided to make this some kind of vendetta against his own work. 10 for the main story, but 4 for the latrine that is the rest of this manga.

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, 7:39am

Judging by the art, you expect something great from the first chapters. The story also looks mature.
Taking chapters ten by ten you would find great writing in each batch, but together they're unfortunately a mess.

The Sugawara arc is the best and it's still barely mediocre. The main char doesn't seem to have any redeeming traits or a proper motivation towards why he does what he does.

Once the Sugawara arc is done, you can consider this manga ended, cause what follows is bad bad bad, bad as in you're thinking why you're still punishing yourself by still reading. It's like the author erased the first volumes from his mind and started again from the same spot. For example, our "hero" at one point gets past karate and even learns some new type of martial arts that should put him at the top of the food chain if he wasn't there already just by his strong karate. Pass a couple volumes and he gets beat up in plain street fights, he's weaker than in volume 4.

These kind of things are not plausible but they happen often and where they count most to pull the manga down.

Good art, great fighting scenes, poor story.

... Last updated on July 7th, 2013, 9:04am

RYO IS EVIL ARROGANT COCKY ANGRY STUBBORN everything that is not your typical lead Ryo is perhaps the greatest character written out he has so much depth and goes through so much that it would be impossible for someone to actually be a good person when all was said and done Ryo is on a different level from the akiras gokus narutos ichigos luffys kuronos he isnt in the same category because he is so well written out his character is more real he has no qualms or regrets about what he has done and never plans on it Ryo is a beast what has happened to him and what he does is what makes Ryo RYO

I don't know any byronic heroes like Ryu. I like his character so much I can't describe in words. He changed from a good to evil and soon back to good. I hope he will be saved by his friends (or sister). And I hope there will be no romance (moemi... seriosly? -.-)

And also there's a reason monkey china thing was forgotten just google it.

... Last updated on September 1st, 2012, 5:46am

This woulda been good if the main wasnt such a douche.I never seen a protagonist that's so unlikeable in my life. Maybe the problem is that the author never really care to explain any of his motive.