Ao Ashi

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I'll start of with the preface that there is no official translation to this manga yet and some of the scans early on are a little rough.
With that done all i can do about this manga is to gush at how amazing I have found this, as a big football fan I had been reading many football mangas hoping for something to grab a hold of me. Having started reading this when it was a lot more obscure I was immediately amazed at the raw emotion that this manga could display. The development of the protagonist and the cast around him is amazing, the connections ... they form and the matches just keep getting better as we progress. The human elements alongside the football tactical parts all add to the experience.
I highly recommend anyone that is questioning whether they want to read this to give it a shot, ignore all stupid comparisons and try to just engulf yourself within the story and enjoy it to its fullest. This is one of my favourite manga of all time because its such a myself-coded series. 10/10

(This review is as of chapter ~280, because I wanted to get some thoughts down about Espereon vs Seiran and I don't really see my opinions changing much once I've caught up.)

Ao Ashi is probably the ballsiest sports manga/anime out there. The twist (you know what I'm talking about) is iconic and the main turning point of the manga, but I've never seen anything like it. Such a monumental fuck-you as soon as the show begins to hit its stride is pretty much out of the question for most stories, but somehow Ao Ashi makes it so integral that it seems like it wouldn't exist ... without it.

I'd like to preface that I am a sucker for sports shows. Ace of the Diamond is one of my all time favourite animes and Ao Ashi is now pretty close behind it, and the two definitely have their similarities. Alot of sports-based manga are incredibly timid. The reason why I've dropped titles like Days and Haikyuu is because of the author's defiance to have their team lose at important moments. Losses are (in my eyes) some of the most important character building moments available, and to turn your back on that can only make it more difficult to create investment and growth for the team that the audience watches.

Although Daiya and Ao Ashi definitely have some elements of plot armour (which at some points can be unavoidable), I never felt like the team was invincible or that there was some sort of safety in losing situations just because they were main characters. This, as well as the characters' personal losses and ups and downs, creates that element of thrill and excitement which is so hard to find outside of these shonen sports or battle shows.

I also feel that Ao Ashi excels at creating characters. The most obvious evidence of well-written character growth is Akutsu, who literally goes from the least to the most likeable character in the span of one arc - but other characters like Tachibana or even non-players like Hana have levels of depth and struggle which makes them feel real and relatable, which makes this cutthroat world of football seem that little bit more realistic. Another highlight was Taira - although his actual presence in the manga is fairly negligible, I felt that his ending alone was enough to remind us of the other side of the coin in the club, those who simply aren't lucky, and living on through Aoi just shows me how close the main character was to that and just how imminent the danger really is.

My most recent boners have come mainly from this Espereon vs Seiran match, which definitely has its place among some of my favourite arcs ever. Akutsu's backstory drop, Aoi and Ren's rivalry, the manager mind-battle, Aoi's 'grasp' and even the mangaka's football knowledge (N-box??) just made for an absolute rollercoaster with an unbelievable amount of highlights (u better believe I screenshotted those) and the manga honestly could have ended after this with no real complaints from me. My only worry from now is that it never lives up to this same energy, but I also think I need a breather after that anyway.

I guess we'll see after I inevitably binge the rest of this tomorrow

Plot: (6/10)
Football, aoi the mc wants to become Van Basten and he gets a call up from a youth squad of tokyo, he joins the team he becomes friends with his teamates but turns out the manager wanted him to become roberto carlos so they change him position to the left back and the plot moves on covering a part of the season with the small youth team and then eventually he will move on to the bigger youth team.
The Pacing is bad its way too slow at times and fast in others, it takes time to establish the characters and opposing teams at the ... start and then quickly removes them and doesnt give time to develop the new ones but still gives time to develop the random one match characters from other teams

Art: (7/10)
the art is unique and a welcomed change from the regular manga art

characters: (5/10)
-The protagonists basically luffy that plays football+ he is a dick from time to time (that happens around chapter 300 if my memory is correct)
-The side characters of the first 100 chapters get replaced as aoi gets promoted on the bigger team and their replacements are never fleshed out other than one guy who was constantly being a dick to aoi but this eventually gets resolved and turns out he has a sad backstory. i know in real football a footballer will change teams but in the story it just doesnt work especially when the few characters kept from before dont get much screentime and the new ones dont

Overall: (6/10)
at the start its great for the first 100sth chapters but it starts falling off later

Edit: checking back on this review it was terrible i removed some of the idiotic arguements and corrected some of the points i made its not that good but at least its not circus lvl anymore