RRR

A manga that captivated me enough to read 70 chapters in an afternoon.
STORY (10) CHARACTERS (9) ART (10)

//Summary
RRR is a seinen, shounen-like, drama boxing manga. Rikitarou is RRR's protagonist--a 27 year old aspiring rockstar. After a tragedy happens relating to his sister, Riki takes on the responsibility of raising his sister's son.

Before Riki choose to take in his nephew, his life was a constant endeavor to get a record deal. The synopsis on this MAL page isn't accurate, because Riki wasn't a "...failed musician". He eventually gets a record deal, but on one exception; get in shape.

Rikitarou does "Boxercising" to get his workout in. He joined a boxing gym that had a previous world title boxer, Ooishi. Ooishi realizes Riki's strengths and begins training Riki to become a professional boxer, even though Riki is almost too old to train.

//Art
The art is fantastic. The panels are filled with grit, dirt, blood, hair, and bruises. Seeing through the eyes of Riki when he's in a state of unconsciousness and brawling through the match is a visual we rarely see in manga. Tunneled vision, thinking only in primal thoughts.

The scenery was surprisingly good. It's art is almost incomparable to other sports manga and boxing. The artist didn't sacrifice a moment in any panel. There's no exaggeration of anything in the environments in RRR.

//Characters
The character progression throughout RRR is outstanding and I could really feel the tension between characters. The growth of a fighter going through the ranks of the Japanese boxing world was portrayed on a gradual and realistic scale.

The fear, anxiety, joy, despair, psychological, and physical strain you would feel in the boxing profession is chilling, and that's what kept me so interested in RRR. What it took for his friends to become the Japanese title holder for their weight class, and how you relied on yourself, relied on the effort you put in to hone your skill, and the reasons you've trained.

//Final thoughts
The reason I give RRR a 9.5 instead of a 10; the last ark was ridiculous, and I honesty laughed when I read it, "Are you serious?". Besides the ending ark, the last chapter was great and served to reground the series back to its humble, charming, simple roots. ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED MANGAS!

First of all, since this is my review it's probably not going to be very deep or anything so don't expect a Roger Ebert level review incoming. This is just some losers thoughts about a manga that he read.
Secondly I'd like to mention that the only reason I started reading this was because there weren't any new Hajime no Ippo chapters at the moment and I thought this would be good filler for the mean time. I tried to judge it as fairly as I could while reading but HNI sets a pretty high standard for boxing manga.

STORY: 6/10
The biggest problem with the manga is the ending. About 50 chapters in you realize that the manga is progressing at a considerably low pace. This is good because boxing stories need time slowly showing the character develop his abilities. The very bad thing about this is that the manga is only 106 chapters long. So if it took our main character (Rikitarou Iwamaki) 60 chapters to get to his debut match, it would be downright silly to think that he could become the Japanese champ in the remaining 40. The final fight in the manga is obviously very rushed as it skips many of his not so important fights and training sequences - something that so far had been the main source of intense sensations. The ending itself is very anticlimactic and dull, especially for a boxing manga.
This is a real shame since the first half was very promising. Riki was put in a very stressful situation and seeing a person who up until now was characterized by being very easy-going and evasive of his problems slowly develop a sense of responsibility was very intriguing.
The worst part is that it probably isn't even the fault of the artist. Sadly a lot of great and underrated manga just have to rush out an ending because they don't have the funds to continue through with a project. This seems to be the case with RRR (or the mangaka just got lazy).


ART: 7
The art is okay I guess. The mix of realistic bodies and simple shounen style faces doesn't look good. But still,overall it looks pretty good.

That's all folks.


CHARACTERS: 4.5-
The characters in this manga are... not very good. Almost everybody except for the main character is a regular cookie-cutter manga stereotype that you'd expect from some awful B-rate manga. The villain, Asahina, has a big ego and treats people badly. His whole character ark is that he does a lot of bad things. Aozora (Riki's Nephew) is just annoying. He constantly does illogical, cringeworthy things. The author tries to develop him into a likeable character and fails horribly. There are some characters that do sometimes have something interesting to say or do but almost only when interacting with Riki. Riki himself is a great character and the biggest redeeming factor in this manga... up until the end of course when he suddenly starts acting the complete opposite of his character. He starts putting his own ambitions ahead of Aozora's, something that at this point we know he'd never do.
HNI(and Holyland to some extent) show that boxing manga can only be as great as its characters. It's amazing how I could still enjoy this manga as much as I did with such lazy writing. Speaking of which...

ENJOYMENT: 7.5+
Might be hard to believe considering how much I just "shat" on it but I actually did have a very good time reading this manga. Riki's character just emits such enthusiasm that it's hard not to be invested in the story. I was capable of reading through 10 chapters in a row an still have the appetite for more. That might not seem like a lot to some but I can't even read through a single chapter of some Dragon Ball volumes without catching agonizing boredom. The fight scenes might get a bit silly but it contains action that might give you an adrenaline overdose. I'm a fan of any fictional media of boxing at all, Rocky is my favorite movie after all. I love underdog stories. I was totally hooked the whole time until the end came around. I flipped through the last few chapters as quickly as I could.


OVERALL: 5/7
In conclusion, if you are a fan of HNI or other boxing manga I recommend this to you because it will be a satisfying read for the most part. If you don't much care for them and are looking for a great seinen drama don't get your hopes up.

While this is a manga thats undoutbably mediocre at everything it does, i cant help but feel satisfied with it. The characterization outside of the main character and 1.5 other characters is terrible, there are only 5 notable fighters in this series that centers around boxing, the fights themselves are nothing special, there are many boring plotlines, and the art is 'fine'. But there is just such a soul to this manga. Its not a boxing manga in the traditional sense but moreso a story about a man who happens to box, just as a means to an end, and theres something heartwarming in that. Its short, some would say rushed (the main villain isnt revealed until 60 chapters into thsi 106 chapter long manga...) but its a swift, enjoyable read at the very least. Looking back on it the events feel all but incconsequential, but i cant argue against the fun i had reading it, helped by the perfectly wholesome ending at the end that wraps everything up in a neat bow. I wish the story had more meat on it, but as a lean character-driven story about boxing, it more then suffices.