Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows how badly I’ve wanted a volleyball manga to read. After the end of
Crimson Hero, I was left with a massive hole in my volleyball-obsessed life. /wrist Fortunately, though, I made the most epic discovery at the beginning of this year’s season: Shoujo Fight, a fairly new seinen series from Yoko Nihonbashi. It gets off to a relatively slow start, but it ultimately makes the most of its unique characters and epic volleyball action. If you won’t take my word for it, consider the fact that Production I.G. is creating an anime DVD to be bundled with the next volume of the manga. They wouldn’t bother animating any old crap, now would they?
The premise is what truly sets the series above similar sports series. Neri is neither a genius, nor a hard worker, and she’s barely good enough to be on her team. She’s apathetic and doesn’t even really want to play, but after a run-in with a teammate, she’s forced to. Another incident results in further trouble for her to get out of. Will her childhood friend Shigeru inadvertently mess things up for her even more? Or is everything that happens not even his fault – perhaps the fault of something deeper in her past?
tl;dr: Neri could be a srs bsnss volleyball player but first she has a lot of junk to work through, half of which is pretty much her own fault. And this makes for some epic character development and drama, neither of which bog down the volleyball action. Her interactions with Shigeru and her brother are interesting, especially in light of what’s happened to them. The minor characters, too, are fun yet believable, especially Odagiri-chan, whom I ♥. As of chapter 8, the most recent chapter scanlated according to my sources, things are taking a major shift as Neri transfers to a new school. The social and emotional results of this will certainly be a blast to watch is things keep up.
The series is ridiculously far from a dramafest, however, thanks to some amazing humor subtly worked in. Volleyball sight gags in particular are abundant; this, however, may be a bit of a bad thing for readers who don’t know much about the sport. For example, one scene features a volleyball net made out of barbed wire. Though it’s still funny to non-fans/players, it’s even more funny if you understand the sport’s rules about touching the net. (During play, contacting the net with any body part or article of clothing, including hair or your uniform, is illegal and results in a loss of rally – in other words, the other team gets a point. Get why the barbed wire net’s so insanely epic now?) There’s even a Japanese volleyball-related pun that appears at multiple points in the series to make things even harder for readers, but it’s well worth the confusion.
The most off-putting thing about the series is probably its overall style. The art style in particular is bizarrely reminiscent of an American webcomic, which may startle readers who don’t see much of that style. It’s a good sort of odd, though – the style usually serves the volleyball action well, and the character designs are awesome. (Shigeru’s glasses FTW. ♥) And though the rest of the story is told in a slightly more typical seinen manner, there’s an odd lack of perverted humor. Aside from one hilarious pantyshot (and one spandexshot for Neri-chan) the series is unusually clean. This makes it a good series for innocent, shoujo-loving Crimson Hero refugees looking for a sweet escape.
All in all, Shoujo Fight (dubbed Girl Fight by some scanlators) is an addicting series. Like many of my favorite series, it has ridiculously lovable characters combined with epic action. Its character development and drama are slightly intense than in other sports series I’ve read, but there’s enough humor to keep the emotions nicely balanced. If this keeps up, it’ll be a shining example of how to do a sports series right for decades to come. Don’t be fooled by the simplistic art style or the lack of fanservice – this series’ appeal is more than skin-deep.
CJ’s Rating: 9 out of 10 California rolls
CJ
stardragon
alexkun
Crisu
Janette
rakuen42
Dave
This looks really cool…my eyes don’t like reading scanlations but if an anime is made, or this comes over here, I’ll definitely check it out.
*blinkblink* Crimson Hero ended? When?
According to my sources, it ended at 12 volumes, but I can try to confirm that.
Great post.
I’ve yet to check this out, but I’m an ardent fan of her previous work G Senjou Heaven’s Door. (only 2 volumes out of 3 is scanslated)
It’s basically a manga about manga. Only more personal and not as shonen-esque/commercial as the Deathnote duo’s new ongoing series Bakuman.
In fact I would even say her story flow, characterization, etc is more slightly remniscient of Shoujo titles…kinda like Ai Yazawa’s (NANA anyone?) works. Though much more grounded and not as dramatic.
I also dig her art. It strikes a great balance being both shoujo but decidedly less garish and more grounded in reality. The thick lines are refreshing because they feel more like older manga styles of the past but with a modern, sincere sheen free of any sort of fan-service obligations or genre/magazine trappings.
I flipped through a chapter of G Senjou and liked what I saw. I suppose I should continue it. ^_^;
Her style is a bit more shoujo-ish than I expected, and that’s certainly not a bad thing, ne? Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up with any melodrama, though. I think the bits early on with Neri’s remembrance of her sister kinda borderlined on melodrama a bit.
Her art style is so perfect for the sport of volleyball. <3 As a player, I can attest to that. XD