Then it all goes horribly wrong. Tripping over his gi causes our hero to collide violently with the ring girl's boobs. Seconds later her foot collides violently with his face and Kensaku wakes up to find himself a laughing stock.
Things don't get any better the next day. Not only is he dumped by his enraged girlfriend but his new homeroom teacher looks awfully familiar...
As you can probably guess from the manga cover, the relationship between Kenasku and the high-kicking Nanae Asato may get off to a bad start but gradually evolves into something that, in the UK at least, would probably result in a court case.
Initially Kensaku is more interested in working out how Asato-Sensei keeps kicking his ass while Nanae sees a pupil who needs guidance and is willing to put in a bit of effort with him. This involves cajoling him into joining the karate club and knocking him on his arse on a regular basis.
Meanwhile ex-girlfriend Akane Ninomiya has realised that maybe she was a bit hasty in dumping Kensaku and starts trying to win him back. Since this is a martial arts manga, part of it includes teaching him some of her freestyle wrestling moves. She also has a Cunning Plan to get Kensaku back in her arms. Unfortunately this backfires spectacularly due to being deeply stupid.
I rather enjoyed this one. The artwork is decent, the setup is sufficiently interesting to hold my attention and having a romantic comedy that occasionally fits in street-fights is probably something only the Japanese could come up with. The one big gripe is....
Well I'll get back to that in a minute or so.
Smaller grips would be: Teenage protagonists in Manga tend to come in two flavours - Nice-guy doormat and Cocky Asshole and Kensaku is definitely tending towards the latter. Having said that, he quickly discovers that he's not quite the fighter he thinks he is.
The other peeve is another one common to manga and pretty much any other medium devoted to relationships and could be solved with a simple "Hey. You know that thing that pissed you off? That wasn't supposed to happen and here's why."
Kensaku Onodera, teenage martial-arts prodigy. Self-confidence clearly not an issue.
Bit of a dick, truth be told, and although he is almost as badass as he thinks he is, he is about to run into several characters who can clean his clock.
Akane Ninomiya. Ok, so maybe not that devoted.
Kenasku's devoted girlfriend
In true manga fashion, she's a bit on the temperamental side and is with Kensaku for all the wrong reasons. The news that Kensaku isn't that interested in getting her back...does not go down well.
The leggy Nanae Asato, Kensaku's new Teacher.
A bit of a ditz but means well. However, pissing her off will result in a roundhouse to the face.
Youichi Oonishi. Kensaku's mate and probably the most sensible chap in the entire manga.
As far as I can tell, also the only character with no martial arts background whatsoever.
Having set things up, volume two moves up a gear and introduces a few new elements.
Who is this girl and why has she shown up looking for a fight with Kensaku?
We are also introduced to, respectively, Asato-sensei's father and Kensaku's mother.
Which sets up a storyline about why exactly Kensaku and Nanae are so good at applied violence and why Kensaku can sometimes read his opponents moves before they happen.
Not wanting to be left out, after an attempt to get Asato-sensei out of the way ends in humiliation Akane takes up her wrestling training again with a possible eye to a rematch.
So things are starting to develop, I'm curious to see where it's all going...
And the manga comes to a grinding halt inside a chapter. No warning, no wrap-up just "That's it. Bye"
Argh!
I'm not going to claim that B-Reaction was ever going to be a classic but I was enjoying it, genuinely thought it had some potential, and I am somewhat peeved that we'll likely never get to see what happened next.
If you can cope with that, this is worth reading and if all else fails having each chapter named after a Van Halen song is an idea I heartily approve of.
And now some more pics. I make no apology for Asato-sensei being in most of them.
Asato providing the traditional fanservice.
Nanae and Kensaku meet for the first time.
So maybe picking a fight with Kensaku was not such a good idea since
he can apparently turn into the frigging Hulk.
I can't help feeling the UK education crisis would be eased if teachers were allowed to do this.
More effective than bloody detention anyway.
Akane demonstrates yet again why Japanese schoolgirls are not to be messed with.
You think maybe these two don't like each other?
Ah, that Greco-Roman classic the "I will show off your knickers" hold.
And doesn't Akane look pleased with herself here?
So Asato-Sensei doesn't just know how to kick.
That's all folks.
wow cool comics strip.gotta grab that copy,i know some cool websites like yesasia.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it and thanks for commenting.
DeleteShame that manga never went further, really.