Manga Review: Cloth Road

Title: Cloth Road
Author: Okama, Hideyuki Kurata
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Seinen, Sci-fi, Adventure
Art: S
Originality: S
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is set in a world where fashion, of all things, has been turned into a gladiator-like sport where the fighters where these high tech clothes sewn with threads made of nanotech material. This story follows two long lost twin siblings who meet each other as the brother’s mentor falls ill and he now has to find a way get the money they need through the fashion battles. It falls upon the sister to use the clothes that the brother designs to win a match and get the money and though he is reluctant at first, he decides go through with it and save his mentor. I’ll give this a lot points for its amazing setting and the unique characters but it does take its time in moving the plot in favor of focusing on the details rather than moving the plot. I won’t say that’s a bad thing but I would have given the action an A score if it didn’t take half a year’s worth of chapters to get started on the adventure bits and the main plotline. I get that this story is meant to be very character-centric and the authors have done an excellent job with everyone here but there’s a lot of potential right there in the world the story’s set in and I’m not just talking about the fashion fights but the actual world too. However, in spite of the slow moving story, it’s still a very promising manga that’s really worth checking out.