This will be my first review ever, so please bear with it. The review has only some details from the first volume, not really spoilers.After i have read all the comments about the realism of this manga, I thought why not, I'll give it a try. A couple of chapters in and I'm already disappointed in it. **People should have mentioned that it is only realistic in terms of techniques and martial arts (maybe) and not really realistic in terms of characters and story.
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First, the main character starts out as a ** college ** student in a ** College ** . However not one character in the entire first volume seems to behave as a university student. All of the characters seem to be in the middle of puberty and high school. I don't know how to describe it well, but it just doesn't feel right the way everyone is acting. The setting might have worked in high school, but in college it really fails especially since they are supposedly martial artists (something like a 24 years old college judo club member picking a fight just seems wrong.) The main character didn't really help. when he sees karate practice he has this dreamy kid look and text bubbles writes "so cool" .
Second, apparently all martial artists or sports people are complete a**holes in this manga. In the first 2 volumes alone we have fights going by judo/karate/taekwondo/kendo and even gymnastics clubs. Now don't get me wrong, I started reading this manga expecting villain martial artists, but not in the stupid way it is presented here. The entire judo club fighting the college karate "kid" like some middle school delinquents. The "gymnastics" club bullying the main character, and my martial art is better than yours kid mentality, Sigh 。。。。。。
The biggest disappointment is that it is labeled Seinen when it has shonnen written all over the characters. From the i want to be strong main character to the nice girl/friend that cares about him.
There you have it, if you can get over the fact that the guys in the manga are supposedly 20+ years old martial artists with children's brains and delinquent behavior, then you might enjoy it. After all the art is good and just think of them as highschool kids and look at the manga as a shonnen. But for me who was looking for a senien realistic martial arts story, this is definitely is not it. I'll give it a 6 for being an average shonnen manga.