Shamo

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The series is quite unhinged in an explicit manner, much like its sadomasochistic cousin, Ichi the Killer. It presents a cocktail of brutal violence, graphic injuries, as well as sexual assault/rape, drug use, and disturbing psychological imagery. This serves as both a warning to readers and an invitation to be disturbed. I believe these tags are not superficial but are more substantial.

Whether it's gore or rape, each can be used effectively in a story if executed well to communicate the intended emotions. Shamo avoids using such elements for mere titillation.

Shamo follows Ryou Narushima, who, in a visceral breakdown, kills his parents. He is then sent ... to a delinquent correctional facility for rehabilitation. The series sheds light on the lowest points Ryou experiences.

While there is a strand of empathy for Ryou, the series critiques social family hierarchy and Japanese social mannerisms without portraying Ryou as a hero or glamorizing him. Instead, it highlights the self-destructive path he's on. The manga acknowledges that Ryou continues to make vile choices, further condemning himself.

However, the series repeats arcs about Ryou's character, featuring isolated, self-contained arcs that aren't referenced afterward. This is problematic and leaves the feeling of these arcs being unnecessary distractions.

The fights in Shamo are psychological, emphasizing mind games. Ryou's preferred method is a scrappy survivalist style, reflecting his mentality to win and survive, whether for positive or negative outcomes, discarding honor. This also outlines the evolution of martial arts, initially about survival, shifting to a cleaner, more honorable, sport-focused version.

Shamo stands out as a poignant psychological work, exploring the inner shadow of a person suppressed in a Jungian way, warped over time. When it emerges, it does so in a desperate and violent expression, with violence becoming Ryou's sole means of expressing himself through vile acts.

While cynical, there is a sort of neutrality in the sobering way the story shows Ryou.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about Shamo. At first, i wasn't very sure about reading this manga but I decided to do anyway , hoping it would turn out to be something like Holyland. But I really couldn't connect with it, specially witht the main character Ryo. Despite that I realized how good it is while I figured that the story was not about redemption of a hero but rise of a villain. It started to remind me of a classic movie named Raging Bull whitch also featured the same main character. I started to enjoy the story and everything was going great ... until vol 13. If the manga have ended with the vol 13, I would have put shamo in my top favourite manga list. I genuinely believe the story that was told from vol 1 to vol 10 was great and it could have been one of the most unique takes for a main chracter in manga history. But unfortunately after vol 13 the manga started to fell off. The creators just decided to experiment with ideas and bring the story to new arcs that just felt unfinished. A lot of issues weren't cleared throughout the story, furthermore it got just worse with vol 20 when the manga were just filled with unexplained, experimental arcs. It seems the creators just wanted to raise sells by making more issues but they didn't know how to.
Im leaving this 5 duo to great art and the first volumes

Shamo is a really hard sell for me. You get this duality in story writing where, on one side, you feel like he's meant to be completely ostracized and despised as a human being, where even the possibility of pitying Ryo is depreciated. He's shown to be self-righteous and delusional in his mental gymnastics of having murdered his parents, yet, on the other side, the author wants us to feel for Ryo even if he shows no real emotional evolution in his character arc, there is no progress in repentance or his internal processing of guilt. The reader is served fac-simile redemption moments with no ... substance behind them. The manga lacks, overall, real realism (forgive the oxymoron) and offers fake realism: for a manga that wants to present a really difficult character with very adult themes and alleged gray POVs, it sticks an awful lot to black and white perspectives with very little to attenuate the abrasive shallowness of its takes. It reads like a straightedge straight-A student's fantasy of what living a morally challenging life is like.
It's funny because Shamo references 2 other works that own up to their concepts better than it does:
- Musashi/Vagabond: more nuanced and detailed about the guilt and mental struggle to live with murder in pursuit of strength and ego.
- Baki: more bonkers and nutso ridiculous macho power-creeping villainous characters, committed to the silliness and the exaggeration.

It may be why it's so frustrating since it tries to tackle a lot and comes close to developing interesting story points, however it do so very mildly or 180s the wrong way.

[light spoilers]
The series is reset completely at random intervals, with the last arcs being ridiculously uninteresting, out of place and mis-paced. You forget Ryo's presence in the story, following either a DBZ-trope shonen villain OR an infuriatingly "lore invalidating" duo, reminiscent of a bad Ichi the Killer ripoff, as they negate any pre-established boundary in the series and are allowed to pull the dumbest manoeuvres unchecked by the reality of Shamo's universe.
The Toma arc is set up with a nice premise and its "ruining a hero" mandate is enticing for a story about a tormented villain archetype, however I feel like it didn't pay out as it should have -- we're left with an abrupt end without a real grasp on the consequences of the arc, its lacking the fallen saviour complex POV.
The end scene as a concept is good in my opinion for its mundane qualities, it solidifies this "realist" aspect the manga had been struggling to bring forth the whole time.

Art's good for the most part.

Still enjoyed the first half because I have goblin brain syndrome and fighting scenes tickle its fancy + it happens in a restrained environment and that also hits my special spot.