Holyland is different from general sports manga in the way that it takes martial arts to the streets. This includes all kinds of fighting styles from karate to kick-boxing and from wrestling to kendo. The colorful range of styles gives an opportunity for all the characters to represent their own one and therefore be relevant to the story.

-Story and characters
As the story follows Yuu's journey to become a better fighter and that way find a place for himself among the streets he makes multiple acquaintances - usually through beating them first. These associates sometimes become important allies to him or even teachers in order for him to master a new style. This might sound like a formulaic way of doing things and for the first part of the manga it kinda is but later it becomes much more natural and expansive.

The story fortunately manages to include other themes of the street life than fighting which makes the later parts much more realistic and ugly in a good way. As someone who has had experiences in that environment personally I was able to appreciate the way the manga portrays it as multi-dimensional and not inherently negative. This was done very well especially with the last arc and the amazing end conclusion.

-Art
The art style evolves noticeably through the run of the manga compared to it only being 182 chapters long. At the beginning I feel like it's going for a bit more psychological approach with the rough edges and inconsistent shapes. It's not necessarily bad but I find the later art far more fitting to the detailed fights and the manga is quite full of them.

The fights are probably the aspect the author wanted to polish most thoroughly and that certainly shows. Every exchange of fists and kicks has an explanation behind it that is based on actual information about the martial art techniques.

-Enjoyment
The series has a slightly generic start story-wise but the fights are very entertaining and detailed and are what carry the manga. Later parts even involve some well-written characters and drama so it's definitely an enjoyable experience as long as the excessive amount of violence is not a barrier.

Overall 9/10