A good lazy read. it's light on plot and full of fun action scenes. you won't get much out of it but sometimes that's just what you need. It does end abruptly but you don't feel like your missing too much since it kind of just promises that it's all the same after that.

I've read 11 chapters of SWOT, but had to stop because it was going no where.
If you are looking for a manga with lots of cool fighting scenes, this is for you.
If you are also seeking for something more substantial, say, a good plot line with some depth. This is not it for you. The plot is flat. Fights after fights. Fight because it is the only way to survive, but nothing admirable or sentimental about it. No real goal-- I don't count reaching the teppai or whatever a real goal. No absolute enemy; in a way it's episodic: each fight has a new enemy gang. I feel exhausted after reading it becaus there's no break at all from the fighting. The main character is very strong physically and also very smart-- he always win the fight 'somehow.' His main reason for fighting is to study in peace. It then somehow revolved into fighting to save friends. Kinda weird and poorly transitioned.

Art is nice. Very shounen.

I don't intend to read anymore of this, but who knows, it might get better.

... Last updated on March 15th, 2013, 3:46pm

as most everyone else says, i think it focused too much on fitting into the "fighting manga genre" and not enough on the quirkiness of the characters in the story - with a little better story board this manga could've been epic (essentially the prologue "chapter 0" was both the best chapter and a microcosm of the story as a whole)

I found this series really amusing. The first three chapters were really promising, but after that the series just gets ridiculous. By chapter 5 I couldn't look at this series seriously anymore and I ended up looking at this manga more as a parody. When I stopped dwelling on everything that just seemed wrong in the manga and respected it for its outlandishness, I found it to be really funny. I also love the characters and the mangaka’s drawing style. Overall, it was a fun read.

So... who is the editor that allowed to the mangaka to change the main plot of the manga??
seriously, the mangaka ruined the manga in some point ¬¬
i was really into it,an idiotic genius boy, who can fight, and who wants to be an astronaut...
but somewhere...somehow... he throw an Kamehameha...
seriously... this is stupid, even for an magazine that allows an manga of superhuman ninjas.

As many said, it started great.
The character was fun (a nerd that is insanely strong but only wants to study so he beats everyone that bothers him.)
It was interesting because it was a somewhat realistic setting, if you put aside the usual "highschool gangs" with military hierarchy we see in every damn highschool manga.
The hero was unusual, the story interesting. Then out of absolutly nowhere, powers start appearing... just like that... poof... And from there things went downhill.
Religious/cult things were added, the new kind of powers that we never saw used once before in the manga seems to be something every one suddently has. Of course the hero has the "opposite power" as in a negative state of that power than only two people in the world (including him) have and of course it's the strongest there is of all powers... Come on... How cliché is that.
The hero forgot his aim and while it was his drive first, it's now just a weak excuse for the mangaka to add the usual "trainings", new ennemies, and constant one on one fights.
Too bad. It could have been a decent read if the mangaka didn't try to add all that super power cr*p to appeal to a broader audience. He was walking his own path and had something original, but he succumbed to join in the nearby bigger, faster standard shonen highway and got run over by the big guys that rule over it (Naruto, OP etc).

... Last updated on December 13th, 2010, 12:59pm

This manga began fine. I mean a studious kid that can beat people up. I was like hey, this might be interesting. But now... well.. it is just getting ridiculous. I said it's Medaka Box v2, why? Well because it is Medaka Box v2. Everything starts off normal, but as it progresses, the level of stupidity and insanity increases. We have people with absurd abilities, which happen to be students by the way, just trying to kill each other like it's a normal everyday thing. I mean c'mon... seriously? Give me something that's worth believing. I've already read a series that had students killing each other. It's called Tenjo Tenge, but at least the art there was nice to look at. Anyways, if you're into the ridiculous and semi-random story where students try to kill each other, this manga is for you. If you're not... then well... stay away.

... Last updated on December 9th, 2010, 6:06pm

I read the oneshot, it was a fun read.
The first few chapter were okay, not as good as the oneshot, but still okay. Then, it gets into this whole "resolve-supernatural powers" crap. WHYYYY? Why did you have to go into the whole "people with supernatural-powers who fight each other" theme. It was fine without the supernatural tag --- augh, I'm so irritated. I can even get something to read that is somewhat original </rant.>

Which leaves me to rank it as 5/10, I'll probably keep it on my reading list to see if it'll get any better, but the way that it's going, probably not .

After reading the one-shot I thought that this might be an OK read.. but I didn't even get through the first chapter of the serialization before stopping. The main character went from somewhat interesting to completely absurd, the same is true for the side characters.

Take a look at the one-shot. Leave the serial alone.

... Last updated on October 21st, 2010, 8:36am

The whole nerd-who-kicks-ass-so-he-can-go-back-to-studying setup could have worked pretty well in a gag manga. Honestly, when I first read the description I thought this *was* going to be a gag manga. It's not, though. So what is it? I'm still trying to figure that out...

Most shounen action manga can be divided into two types: 1) Outright fantasy stuff that either takes place in another world entirely or has the main character travel to/be exposed to some other world and 2) Real-world fighting stuff that at least pretends to be vaguely based on actual martial arts. It's true that the latter can still get pretty unrealistic but it tends to at least be bound by certain common-sense rules about how our universe works.

At first glace SWOT seems to be the latter type, but as you read more it abandons any and all connection to reality. The students who are fighting each other (something being encouraged by the school for some super-secret and likely stupid reason that will probably be hinted at but never actually told for hundreds of chapters) all seem to have completely supernatural abilities that are never explained and nobody seems to think that it's weird. Furthermore these abilities are not the result of any kind of ancient secret martial arts training but rather are simply manifestations of their "resolve" (yes, that's what they call it). Rather than using these superhuman abilities for something interesting all of the students seem content only using them to beat each other up at school.

It's funny that the main character himself changes just as rapidly and randomly. While at first he makes a big deal about not wanting to fight he seems to abandon that principle rather quickly and becomes something of a fighting maniac. I think we're still supposed to think he's a nerd because he wears glasses or something, though.

The whole thing reads like a bad doujinshi with no sense of direction. Frankly, I am amazed this was serialized in Jump. Jump can rightfully be criticized for being too conservative and slow to adapt but I thought they at least had standards. This series doesn't seem to know what it wants to be or where it's going.

At least the art is decent.