Shine Tomorrow!! vol. 01 ch. 01 (Manga)
806-HIT COMBO!
Well, ladies and gents, you’re in for a treat now. That’s right, we’re giving you yet another manga by Koji Takahashi, the genius behind Osu!! Karate Bu! This one’s got the full title “Super Combat Legend: Shine Tomorrow” (or Cho Kakuto Densetsu: Ashita Kagayake, in Japanese, and yes there are some clear influences of Ashita no Joe in it), and it tells the story of middle school girl Tachibana Misaki, as she goes from bullied kid to women’s MMA legend!
We here at HnG believe that manliness isn’t exclusive to the Y chromosome; some of you may have heard us bat around the term wo-MANLY before. And ladies and gents, I believe this manga fits the term wo-MANLY to a tee. Now it may have a slow start, but I promise you, once the MMA theme starts picking up, the fights get more and more brutal and the story more serious. Also if any of you are still uncertain about Karate Bu because of the artwork in the beginning of the series, give this manga a glance; this is more similar to Koji’s artwork in the later part of Karate Bu, so that’s what you’ve got to look forward to!
I’d also like to make a plug for this series’ realism; some of you may have heard of a new anime out there called “Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai”. If you haven’t seen it, good on you, but it’s about women’s wrestling, and it’s outright fanservice-centered unrealistic shit (from the little I saw of it so I could make a fair comparison). Meanwhile the fighters in this series actually have the body shape of athletes rather than porn stars, and their moves are meant to deal damage (like real fighters should), not to show excessive cleavage and cameltoe (like that other tripe). So props to Koji for actually writing a solid fighting story with a dominantly female cast!
And with that said, I’d like to thank, as usual, Katatonia (who was once an MMA fighter himself) for the translation check/proofreading, and kazuhiko1412 for the editing! Now what are you waiting for? I’ve given you more than enough reasons to check this out! Go download this and leave your first impressions in the comments below!
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We’re looking for a few good men! Editors, timers, and J->E transcribers, to be exact!
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Wunderbar! Seeing as it is by ze same champion who authored “Osu”, this deserves a look. Hopefully more girls will join the Motherland of (Wo) Manliness.
Definitely checking this out! Also… Katatonia was an MMA fighter?!
“Now it may have a slow start, but I promise you, once the MMA theme starts picking up, the fights get more and more brutal and the story more serious”
Arrgh and this looked so good. Why does it have to go the road of all shounen manga?
Well I’ll let you be the judge of it once we get to that part. To me it’s really distinct from shonen and maybe that description didn’t do it justice… But Koji is one of the few manga artists I know who can make the “villains” really relateable and sympathizable. And I use “villains” in the loosest sense of the word because most of them are just tournament opponents.