Manga Review: Frogman

Title: Frogman
Author: Nylon
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Sports, Romance, Slice of life
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a guy who joined a swimming club so he can become a stronger person, get closer to a girl he likes and to learn how to swim. Despite the lackluster story idea, I find that the way that the author executes the plot to be excellent. I’m hoping that the story will eventually take off at some point with a competition or something but right now it’s going at it with a slow but well done pace.

Manga Review: Bamboo Blade

Title: Bamboo Blade
Author: Totsuka Masahiro, Igarashi Aguri
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Sports, Slice of life, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: S
Humor: A
Action: A

Impression: This is the story of two Kendo instructors that make a bet on which of their all girls’ Kendo team will win a face off against the other’s. The prize is a trophy that one of them won back in their high school years against all you can eat free sushi at the other one’s family sushi restaurant. Unfortunately for the guy who won the trophy in the first place, he still has to gather up the remaining remembers of his team before they can fight. The strength of this manga lies in its characters and jokes rather than the story which in IMHO is rather lackluster. It’s still a decent plot overall but I don’t think of it seriously at all and I read it for the great jokes it has. The Kendo scenes are actually quite well done but since I myself took up Kendo, I really have to wonder if the author intentionally made the characters so n00bish to the basics in Kendo just so that he could educate the readers a bit on the martial art. If he isn’t then I must have been better at it than I gave myself credit for.

Manga Review: Bamboo Blade B

Title: Bamboo Blade B
Author: Totsuka Masahiro, Sutajio Neko
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Sports, Slice of Life, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is a spin-off based on the main story starring a really tall first year middle school girl who hates kendo because she’s lousy at it. All the clubs in her school want her to join because of her height and the Kendo club is no exception. The club is going through a change though as the school has decided to unite the girls’ club and the boys’ club into one big one but as a result one of the instructors have to leave. Again, the story is very lackluster and the characters and jokes just don’t live up to the level of the original manga. Spin-offs rarely contribute anything or live up to the main manga so I really have to wonder why exactly they have these spin-offs in the first place.