Apr 14, 2024
Giving my thoughts as of the most recent chapter (19). This is definitely one of the mangas I look forward to reading the most every week.
The story takes a fairly generic protagonist in Haku Yaesaki, someone who has no aims or ambitions, who has always been one to imitate others and not be his own person. He doesn't really care where life takes him. Over time, his character completely changes once he gets exposed to golf. He becomes passionate, driven, and ambitious. He has a desire to improve his skills and use himself as a role model to follow. This change works very well
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with a sport like golf. You see him practice at the range for hours and hours honing his shots. It brings out the kind of animalistic nature that you'd expect from someone aiming to be the very best in a given sport. The story makes you interested in seeing Yaesaki's journey to become better and better at golf through his hard effort. Although he does have some genetic qualities, such as long arms and being ambidextrous, that boosts his golf skills; his success is still largely determined by the constant practice he puts into golf. It hammers home the idea that strong consistency is one of the best ways to improve in anything.
Golf itself is explored a lot after a few chapters and you get to see the thought processes behind different shots, holes, use of golf clubs etc once Yaesaki is decent enough to play on an actual golf course. It is great how it highlights the difference in skill between amateurs and those who have been practicing for years, showing that golf is truly something you need to dedicate a lot of time to be good at. In this regard, the story has a lot of promise; there are many aspects of golf that will likely be shown in future chapters.
The art is amazing. You can see the emotion, strength, and speed behind all the golf shots. Even for facial expressions, the artist nails showing what the characters are feeling. The golf courses look fantastic too and are very immersive.
The main downside would be that most of the side characters haven't been fleshed out too much (which is understandable given only 19 chapters have been released so far). Only Oga and Oliver have been given the most attention. I personally quite like Oga's character. She is cool/distant and takes a while to open up to others. Her whole life has revolved around golf since she was young, which creates a nice contrast between her and Yaesaki; both are passionate about golf but for different reasons. Similar to Yaesaki, you can see her truly strive to improve and be the best. This makes the dynamic between them quite competitive, which is good to read. They are like rivals who are on good terms with each other, which may open up to future romantic developments in the future if the story continues for a long time.
Overall, I highly recommend this as something to read. I barely had any interest in golf prior but reading this has made me a lot more interested. It is therefore good for anyone even if you're not that interested in sports. Anyone that likes something competitive, with tension, where the mc is constantly improving in skill, and the art is great - you will enjoy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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