Ao Ashi

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*this is a spoiler free review ;)*

I’ve recently come across Ao Ashi, a soccer manga, and I’ve been blown away by how good it is.
Art:the artist has his own unique style which is a breath of fresh air. U can tell that the artist is very good at sketching cuz even in a soccer match where there are at least 20 characters, the reader can still tell who’s who.

Plot: finally no more of the high school sports club troupe. The manga focuses on the Tokyo Esperion youth football club, which is associated with its own J-League team. Once u start reading it u ... get immersed in it and would find urself cheering for the MC or getting frustrated when the team face a challenge.

Character: The artist does such a good job portraying each character and showing each character’s personality. Each character gets a time to shine, tho of course the main focus remains on the MC. I rly like how the manga focuses on growing by facing ur own weaknesses rather than the typical growing by facing even stronger opponents kinda thing. The MC starts out as a forward, but there is a twist. Not gonna spoil it cuz that would be no fun hehe.

Overall: 10/10 would recommend. Even if you’re not a sports manga/anime fan, trust me you’ll love it cuz I’m not rly into sport manga either but I simply love this manga so much. Simply put manga is a masterpiece!!!

Tl:dr basically if u like haikyuu/diamond ace you will ABSOLUTELY LOVE Ao Ashi. This manga rly reminded me of the time I read Haikyuu and the excitement I felt then and even now.

The anime-manga pool has a surprising lack of soccer related series. Being a soccer fan, I am so relieved. Prior to this, I watched Captain Tsubasa and Days. CT was aimed at a much younger demographic and it could not interest me (no insult intended; i know its an og series with immense credibility). Days is plain pathetic and wrong.
Ao Ashi is a fresh breath in the sports genre. It is not bound by the highschool sports club cliche. That is far too overused. This series is all about club soccer with direct ties to the sports scene.
A young middle schooler, Ashito, whose ... skills in soccer outshine everyone in his small, no name town is noticed by a renowned coach, who grew up in the area. The coach, Fukuda, is impressed by his raw talents and invites him to a tryout in Tokyo. Ashito is a diehard lover of football and Fukuda gives him a glimpse of his dream; the dream to push Japanese football to the international level and with sufficient preparation, dominate the international leagues. The excited Ashito enters a whole new chapter of life, the chapter of hope, possibilities, struggle and fame.
The artwork is extremely good. We get a clean view of everything and the mangaka has a very nice way of portraying the action. We understand how the game is going on. The clear passes, the impact of charges, the tackles, the missed shots, everything stand out beautifully. The character designs are unique with different hairstyles, plenty of expressions and costumes.
The characters have been the best thing so far. Our hero is clearly inspired by Tsubasa. He used to carry his team back in his town and despite being somewhat selfish, he is painfully self aware. He has the skill of judging everyone's positions and knows his way in the field. He's a treasure trove of potential but has a lot of quirks holding him back. We get to see his incredible mental fortitude and his eagerness to keep playing. Despair, skills, injuries, nothing will stop him from pushing harder. The coach is a decorated player with incredible achievements. Due to a terrible injury, he had to retire prematurely and is now, steadily progressing towards his dream. We get the female lead, a very meticulous and resourceful girl who knows a lot about the sport and helps out greatly. For some reason, she takes a liking to Ashito. Then we get the huge amount of players, some of them shining in a surprisingly small amount of time.
Overall, the 29 chapters we fully packed with so many events. Faced paced yet never rushing, this manga has my full attention.

Ao ashi is a football manga about a suburban kid who goes to Tokyo to become a pro. The kid’s name is Aoi Ashito.

Story (7)
As you see, the plot sounds nothing original. But the presentation is fresh.
The kid is good but not overpowered.
Instead of shonen logic of “genius son of genius father” or “power of friendship” Ashito grows by practising football/soccer.
He is consistent, stubborn, a little slow to learn but hardworking.

Most football manga like in Inazuma XI, Captain Tsubasa and Days are pretty unrealistic. They are good, but aimed at kids.
This however is VERY realistic. We learn about football— training in Rondo, Passing>dribbling, vision ... is important, the role of CB vs FB,etc.
If you like football this is a must read!!


Art (8)
Art is clean, easy on the eyes. In sports manga it is very important for reader to SEE how the ball travelled and how the players moved. This is amazing in Ao Ashi. And the kids design looks good too.


Characters (8)
This is the most important part of any manga. The kid— Aoi is likeable, has a poor family so we root for him. BUT he is a selfish Forward. Doesn’t like to pass initially, so I didn’t like that part. But that makes it more realistic.
The team camaraderie is on point. Good friends, just friends, jealous guys, wise coach, and a girl too. All characters are written well.


Enjoyment (9)
Very very enjoyable. I read 120 chapters in just 3 days. Pace is good. And story is unpredictable at times, which keeps it fresh.


Overall (8)
I highly recommend Ao Ashi to everyone!! If you are looking for a sports manga in high school setting, you’ll love it. It’s quite similar to Giant Kiling, which is amazing too.
Go try this out and tell me if you liked it😄

Thank you for reading.

*carefull spoiler content*

Ao Ashi is football manga that everyone want, that everyone want to know what kind of football when it comes to manga. it's literally tell us how youth player can become pro-player, how they journey is.

The story start with Aoi Ashito play football in middle school tournament. after that tournament he meet fukuda, Fukuda ask him what Aoi thinking in the last goal that he created what a scenario he build and he explain that sittuation the entire field condition. fukuda really impresive with that because Aoi build up the scenario around him and read the entire field, after that Fukuda introduce him ... self as a coach Tokyo Esperion Youth and ask Aoi tho join the selection of Tokyo Esperion F.C. up to that the story much focus on how build up Team Tokyo Esperion and Aoi to become Football Player.

The author/mangaka really make a great character they all got development pretty well.

at first i didn't extpect that they will be talk more to strategy and explanation, even they talk n-box,5 area field and etc. i really love this series, overall I really enjoy this series


Just read this if you football fans or not you will enjoy it.

As a complete football nerd this is everything I've ever wanted. Instead of having superpowers Ao Ashi is instead heavy on tactics and all the different intricacies of the beautiful game, which truly does the biggest sport in the world justice.

I think you need to have some interest in football since it is full of analyses of players and games which many won't grasp fully and truly enjoy the masterpiece that is Ao Ashi.

Although I said you need to understand football, this manga still does very well as a sports manga. Interesting characters, great development, intense and exhilarating games and moments and very relatable ... and realistic.

This is my first venture into sports genre, and Ao Ashi just sucked me into it like a blackhole. I've never watched a single football game, and never showed interest in the sport. I honestly thought I wouldn't like this series because I'm not a fan of sports in general but since it's getting an anime and is pretty popular too, I decided, why not give it a try? Just for experience. And now I can honestly say, Ao Ashi is now one of my favorite manga of all time.

Story (10/10) is pretty straightforward: we follow Ashito's journey as a youth football player in Esperion, ... a youth team, as he grows and develop his skills in order to become a professional player. But the story provides us more than just following Ashito's journey: we basically learned an overall idea about the sport football, how football is in Japan and how great this sport is. Football details and tactics is overflowing, professional football players are getting mentioned and described, insane plot twists and good dialogues. I'm hooked. They managed to make this series very fun, exciting and educational at the same time. The story definitely takes it's time to progress which is a very big plus to me, making it more realistic and relatable, and definitely paid of the wait.

Characters (10/10) The strongest elements of this manga is the major plot twists and awesome character developments. Ashito who started very poorly as a player, became a good player in a very satisfying and overwhelming way. He's now one of the most important player in their team, and now continuing to improve with the help of his captain and coaches, preparing himself more for the world stage together with his team Esperion. I fell in love with Ashito, I fell in love with all the characters. Well-written, lovable and memorable.

Art (10/10) I find Ao Ashi's art refreshing and clean. It's not overwhelmingly beautiful and edgy but there's something in the art that's making it so addicting. The atmosphere? The hint of a darkness in it? I don't know I can't explain. But one thing I'm sure is it's good and it is getting prettier as the story progress.

Also, one thing I noticed about the art too is how the author portrays the looks of the characters based on their progress, for example, Ashito started very skinny then at the later parts of the story, we can see how he gained muscles by constant training and with the help of his captain who trains him. Same with the other characters. The art is improving together with the story. I like it.

Enjoyment(10/10) I enjoyed it a lot I'm surprised too myself. This is my first time reading a sports manga and I'm glad Ao Ashi exceeded my expectations. Far exceeded to be honest. I even googled some football informations that said in the manga because I'm so interested.

Overall 10/10: Ao ashi is very good. It's excellent in my opinion. The more I read it, I can always expect a good dose of humour and thrill. I highly recommend this series and start reading it immediately. It's worth it, trust me.

[Contains a bit of spoilers]

When I first read this, I thought they over presented football. What I mean is the ability of Ashito (and Ren) to see and remember everyone in the field and use that ability to their advantage. But you know what amazed me the most? That the author EXPLAINED, yes. explained, that although they are just few, there are people in real life that can actually do that. And he also said, that not all viewers can see it during matches specially those on TV but IT is there. It is truly happening in real life. And I was like, WOW... I ... mean, it's honestly amazing to know that there are true people with that kind of ability and uses it in an actual game.

The author also said that players, no matter what sport, are born to play a specific position, the position where they are truly meant to be. Where they will truly shine as a player and had a chance to become pro. I mean, fck yeah! im so happy cuz that's exactly what happened to me in basketball! knowing what position im supposed to be helped me a lot to improve and effectively use my skills. And that very moment, it convinced me that Ao Ashi is a masterpiece.

Ao Ashi also showed how every players in the field play and how important they are to the teams success. You can't play football alone. That's true. Communication is very important. Very true. You can't be friends with everyone, very very true.

I love this series man. It's very relatable and realistic, and fcking cool. Dialogues? Superb. Characters & character development? Superb. Football details and execution? Superb. Storyline/plot, superb. I also like that this series shows the upside and downsides of everything.

Art is very good. Unique and gorgeous. It is also improving great together with the story that it emphasizes the growth of everyone.

Best football manga for me. 10/10🔥

(This review is devoid of spoilers.)
Well! This is easily one of the most interesting stories I've read .The psychological ascepts of players are really nicely drawn and explained in the panels(being a manga it helped a lot).Ashito,a street smart player doesn't know the comeptive world of football as he mostly played for his school's and local club matches so he doesn't know what are tactics in the first place nor he is interested in them but that slowly changes when
he gets selected by Tokyo's top football club 'Esperion Fc'.The hardships,pain and self-doubts all lead to improvement of Ashito and his teamates , everything has ... a meaning. Those who can endure the battlefield only have the chance to secure their goals and move forward.
[The story is ongoing and I hope we get a really good conclusion but before that 300+chapters are welcome:)]

Personally, I've always felt like football has been a bit over-represented in the manga/anime scene. Its prevalence is only really one step down from the three B's (basketball, baseball and boxing) that seem to take up around half of all manga/anime sports series on their own. And, considering how common it is, I've been surprised at how many areas of the game have been left kinda untapped by the industry. Fortunately, Ao Ashi is here to shake things up with an incredibly refreshing take on the sport.

Our main protagonist, Aoi, is obsessed with scoring, not unlike the average child when they first get into a ... sport. In itself, that isn't particularly unique, but I think the degree to which the series is critical of that obsession does stand out. It takes him to areas of the sport that don't typically get a lot of focus in sports manga, due to being less flashy and conventionally "cool", and I appreciate that it gives those areas the attention I feel they deserve.

I also have a great appreciation for how messy things are at times. In a team of young teenagers, it can take a long time for people to sync up and figure each other out, especially if they don't get along particularly well. Ao Ashi depicts that in a way that feels very true-to-life, with people misunderstanding each other, fighting, and generally just not being very nice, both on and off the pitch. It's also a long-running problem that is gradually being worked through, rather than a moment of drama that everyone spontaneously gets over together, which is how I most commonly see it depicted in manga.

And even when people are understanding each other and communicating effectively, they're still generally having to be pretty direct about it. Like... shouting instructions to each other. Too often in manga do I see all the players coordinating perfectly all the time without ever really needing to say anything to each other, and that's one of the hardest things to suspend my disbelief around. I think that degree of unity only really works in a story if it's been properly built up to and we've seen enough of the hurdles along the way, and Ao Ashi encapsulates that perfectly. All the difficulties make those few moments of perfect communication so much more meaningful.

Ao Ashi is a very refreshing series that enjoys challenging its characters to take them to greater heights, and I love it for that. For now, I have it sitting at an 8/10, but I would not be surprised if it were to impress me even more, further down the line. I highly recommend this series to anyone who feels that sports manga have gotten a little stale.

This review doesn't contain any spoiler.
Ao Ashi is about a countryside boy named Ashito who is called to take on an exam in a youth club of tokyo named Esperion.Ao Ashi is one of the rare football manga which is realistic enough.And also we know there is a lack of good football manga compared to Basketball or Baseball etc.Ao Ashi has made me cry,made me happy,made me thrilled.The main character Ashito is constantly developing character.His character development has amazed me to a great extent.Other characters also get some good development but of course not to a extent that Ashito got.Ao Ashito shows every kind of ... problem a player faces while playing pro football.Injury,racism,family problem etc are grearly portrayed in this manga.You will get to know how youth club works to produce great youth players.Matches are based on tactics which is very realistic.They also mentions some great players and football clubs.The artstyle is very refreshing.Character designing is also good.Story was fast paced so it was a great read.Story was never rushed also.You will be invested in the story as soon as you start reading.
Till now I have rated this series 9/10 because it feels like it lacks something to get a perfect 10/10.Still the manga is not finished and maybe it isn't even halfway through.But it certainly is my most favourite football manga and I hope to see more realistic football manga like this(not some cliche high school football though).Matches were quite exciting but not many of the matches are shown in this manga.They only priotorizes the big matches which is actually a good thing to me because the story progressed much further.Ao Ashi also shows friendship,trust,family etc.It got a little bit of romance also but not mainly focused.
It didn't took me long to catch up to the latest chapter but it was really a great read.If you love football and finding a manga which shows football from youth club perspective which is greatly tied to league system then Ao Ashi is greatly recommended.

Story: To be honest, I'm not a huge soccer/football fan. Like I played a bit as a kid, was never really good but I enjoy watching it. I get the rules. And to be honest, you don't have to know much about the game. As long as you played a sport before, you'll get all the sports stuff (maybe not ALL, but 95%). I was very impressed with the pacing and development of the manga. I mean, this is a real show on how great pacing can be for a manga. It's perfect in that sense. You feel you get somewhere by the end of ... every chapter. You can see growth in all the characters and it doesn't feel like the MC is "powering" up way too fast. It's good. Really good.

Art: The art can be a bit much at times. I'm never really lost or anything, but sometimes the artist is trying to draw an action scene and the art is hard to follow. But it's good nonetheless.

Character: The characters are really good. It's actually what makes the manga so well-received (IMO). It's not a situation where someone is an ass, and then they are revealed to be a nice guy. Nah, they're an ass period. And they stay like that, and it takes a lot for them to change because that's who they are. Even with all these very different characters working together, they all act as though they should. They don't stray far from who they are being portrayed to be and it's so great to not have the author bend characters around the plot. It's very well written in that sense.

Enjoyment: Honestly, I can't get enough. Like I said, I'm not a huge soccer/football fan, but I want to see these characters through and know where they end up.

In the end, I really do recommend it. Sometimes I feel like the love story should be a bit more fast paced because I don't get enough of it (sorry, I love a good love story) but besides that, I think this is a great story.

TL;DR: While not perfect I think Ao Ashi provides enough individuality mixed with good execution of your standard sports manga tropes to be a must read for anyone who is a fan of the genre while also serves as a great, easy-to-follow introduction for anyone looking to get into it.




As a fan of the genre, two of my biggest issues with sports manga is generally how formulaic they are as well as how hard to follow the action tends to be.
This manga does an exceptional job at handling both of these issues.

Drawing motion is seemingly one of the ... harder things to do, but something everyone drawing action has to do. Where sports manga tend to deviate though is in the numbers. You won't find detailed eleven on eleven fighting in Dragonball or One Piece, however for every manga about a team sport this is a common occurrence. Naturally drawing a "fight" between 20 people as opposed to two people is a lot harder, so one of my main gripes tends to be that the whole scale picture gets sort of fuzzy when things are moving fast.
Ao Ashi uses almost exclusively an eagle eye's perspective for all of the large motion scenes, along with some of the cast usually explaining the tactics and maneuvers during the scene makes for an extremely accessible and easy to follow disposition. You won't get lost in the build up of blurry scenes, so when the climax finally hits you won't feel lost in how you got there.

Similarly Ao Ashi takes, what-you-would-not-expect-to-be-very-unique-decision-but-sadly-is, a different approach to the setting namely NOT having the setting be in high school.
This does such an immense difference for the suspense and pacing of the story. No more, are the times of set tournament brackets where it's win or go home and your Spin The Wheel options are: Win by demolition, Win as the underdog, Lose in heart breaking fashion or Lose due to injury.
While it is an incredibly sad fact that so many great premises are ruined by the chains of the high school genre, that does not take away from how fresh Ao Ashi felt in regards to the setting.
While the matches themselves are still obviously formulaic, thankfully the over arcing plot is not (at least not compared to most recent sports manga). Needless to say, the outcome of the games is still set to a fifty/fifty of win/loss but where the difference appears is in the consequences of said fifty/fifty. Because the result of a specific game won't affect whether the story continues or not (i.e. getting knocked out of nationals of whatever sport your high school story is set in) the suspense rises since it's not as obvious which games our main cast will win.

Characters are generally just solid, most of them follow your standard tropes for sports manga with a few exceptions. Mainly a few of the side characters show ideas we tend to not find in these types of stories. Notably, characters who find out that hard work isn't always enough and just-because-he's-a-dick-doesn't-mean-he-will-lose. I realize I come off rather negative here, but overall I considered characters to be a strong point. The trope-y ones are done well enough that they're enjoyable despite their one dimension-ness and the more unique characters actually have some solid depth to them, with relatable flaws or otherwise realistic shades.

My main gripes with Ao Ashi have come towards the latter chapters (as of writing this, chapters 230~260) where the pacing has fallen off a cliff with dragged out matches where characters take turn pulling out new superpowers to trump one another for plot conveniences sake. Something that sadly has become a staple of the genre, but I'm hopeful the author will bring us back to his earlier style of pacing where this wasn't as prevalent.

Nonetheless, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading Ao Ashi on a weekly basis and despite it's current slump I intent to keep reading it with hopes that it will return to it's style of the first brilliant 200 chapters.

Before I really begin wanted to mention that there are many discussions around the topic of Blue Lock vs. Ao Ashi, which one is better and so on. I don't think we should compare them. They are both football/sports manga, yes, but they tackle the theme of wanting to become the best in a completely different way, and both are completely fine. Both are great manga, I personally just like Ao Ashi's approach more.

Well then, let's start with the real review.

Story 9/10:
Ao Ashi is about Aoi Ashito, a football fanatic, that wants to make it to the big stage, so he can support his rather ... poor family and especially so he can pay back his mother for everything she has done for him. That's why Aoi decides to move from the small city of Ehime to Tokyo, where he joins the Tokyo City Esperion's youth team. There he learns all the basics of football from a new and overcomes his struggles by finding realistic solutions by training extremely hard and utilizing his personal abilities and innate talent. That's also what makes this manga so good in my opinion. Aoi doesn't just try harder and then suddenly get's better, because he had a morale boost. No, getting better is a long, hard and jarring process that recquires much devotion. The solutions in what ways Aoi has to improve and how he trains make so much sense and the tactics involved are easily understandable.
The one thing I didn't enjoy about the story and found a bit annoying (and why I didn't give the story a 10/10) is the romance part, which gladly doesn't play that big of a role, but felt kind of unnecessary to me.

Art 8/10:
The art is nothing to special, especially not in the beginning (It get's better though). However I think the dynamic panelling and the depiction of movement is first class. Sometimes I have a hard time imagining very dynamic scenes in manga and understanding what's really happening, but that was not the case with Ao Ashi. While the art itself isn't outstanding, it is very much enjoyable.

Characters 9/10:
If you look at my profile, you can see that Akutsu Nagisa is in my top 10 favorite characters. I think that shows how great I think at least he is.
Not all of the characters in Ao Ashi are exceptionally well written and deep, conflicting characters (some I think are OK are Takeshima, Asari, Kuroda, Yuuma, Ootomo and Tachibana), but then there are some that really make you feel with them and think about their actions and why they do what they do. The best characters, in my opinion, are Aoi, Akutsu, Kuribayashi, Fukuda and Togashi. Especially those all have motivations that lead them and act very much understandably. You learn more about them as the story goes on and grow really attached, as the character drama really unvolves.
Also Akutsu, Fukuda and Togashi are just the biggest badasses and it's epic to watch them.

Enjoyment 10/10:
This rating might be very subjective, because I myself have played football for a long time and always wanted a great football manga I could relate to. That's why Ao Ashi's realism hits just the right spot for me. The games are extremely fun to read through, the character drama is interesting, the goals do make sense (as opposed to every goal in Blue Lock haha) and overall every chapter is just fun to read through.

Overall 9/10:
I don't think Ao Ashi is a 10/10 yet, but it's also not finished, so that might change. I think it is the best sports manga I have read (Haikyuu coming in as a close 2nd) and deserves so much more attention. If you like football and enjoy sports manga, definitely give this one a read, it doesn't get much better.

Aoashi is a fantastic manga that is sure to captivate and thrill any reader who picks it up. With its stunning artwork, compelling characters, and exciting storylines, this manga truly deserves a 10/10 rating.

One of the standout features of Aoashi is the quality of its artwork. The illustrations are detailed and intricate, with each panel expertly crafted to convey the emotions and actions of the characters. The use of color is also exceptional, with vibrant and eye-catching hues that enhance the overall reading experience.

In terms of its characters, Aoashi does not disappoint. The main protagonists are relatable and multifaceted, with complex personalities that make them ... feel like real people rather than just two-dimensional caricatures. Their relationships with each other are also well-developed and nuanced, adding an extra layer of depth to the story.

And speaking of the story, it is truly gripping from start to finish. The pacing is expertly handled, with just the right amount of action, suspense, and drama to keep readers on the edge of their seats. The sports theme of the manga adds an extra level of excitement, with intense and high-stakes soccer matches that are sure to get readers' hearts pumping.

Overall, Aoashi is a must-read for anyone who loves manga. With its stunning artwork, compelling characters, and thrilling storyline, it is a true masterpiece that deserves a 10/10 rating.

Ao Ashi is the only Football manga that i really like. It has a very standard plot but it is executed so well that it easily overcomes its limitations. The characters are well thought but nothing spectacular, the story is fairly predictable and there is little originality to the manga. However, Ao Ashi is a manga that is very much greater than the sum of its parts.

Pros: The football knowledge in this manga is great, but is easily explained and enjoyable to understand. This is one of the standout aspects of this manga, actually making me appreciate football more. It is much more of ... a realistic take on football, without any superpowers or special moves. I especially like the focus on the fundamental skills of football instead of each character being only good at one thing. As a person who does not like watching any sports, this got me invested in the matches.

The characters designs are especially enjoyable to look at. All of them have fairly diverse designs: varying in height, eyes, hairstyles and general looks. They are not lazy designs that simply change the character hairstyles so you can tell which character is which. Each character is well thought out in design.

Cons: As i mentioned, in terms of originality and story there is little that stands out from other manga.

My Biggest con has to be the fact that everyone, apart from the players, seems to know exactly what to problems is and how to fix it. It's as if everyone knows better than the actual footballers. This is mainly a problem for one of the characters: the daughter of an important sponsor of the football club. Even though she is not a football player, we get to listen to her explain what the problem facing the players are and how to fix them. Every time a player is doing something wrong or has a problem, we cut to her and she starts explaining things. She is also pretty much a blank character who has no personality other than liking football; in other words she is a stand in for the author, explaining things and setting up story points. She is also almost always right and knows best. I really do not like this character.

As well as this there is another character who is always right and always knows best. His actions and manipulations seem to be praised rather than being seen as exploitive. These types of character are unlikable and simply a hindrance to the story.

My final con is mostly personal preference, but i like to see characters in sports manga take more losses than what happens here. At the moment, the matches often seem very one side with a couple of missteps. Once the players break through a confrontation they almost always score. The matches are fairly clean and without any random factors, which makes for a much more predictable match. The randomness and constant changing situations needs to be felt more to make it more entertaining.

If you don't know much about soccer, probably you will like it more. It's just more than soccer.

So, here's the thing about spokons that I don't like: They only focus on their respective sport. Only that. Just that. The sport is the only thing that exists in the world. Those who practice a sport know that isn't true, there is more about than that.

Ao Ashi is about a kid who plays soccer and he's kinda bad but also kinda good, and then he's improving throughout the time he's playing. Nothing new about that, right?

However, Ao Ashi goes beyond the sport. Everybody knows how racist Japan ... is, right? Do you know how difficult is for black Japanese people? Especially in sports? Japanese people always think they are foreigners. It's awful. Are you aware of how awful is being an Asian person in European soccer? It's horrible. Well, some characters have been through that in the manga. It's pretty harsh to see. I cried during a particular background story about racism. There were kids involved! It's hard to read.

Moreover, sometimes the manga explains some specific aspects of soccer. What's the difference between Japanese and European soccer? How do youth clubs work? What are the foundations for a young player to succeed? Among others.

That's what I love about Ao Ashi. I don't remember a manga or anime talking about racism or xenophobia like that. It's so weird. The mangaka knows how hostile the soccer environment is. Not everything is nice. Sometimes you struggle, even worse if you are a foreigner or far away from the city.

Don't get me wrong. The manga's main topic is soccer of course. And you will see our main character playing soccer and practicing mostly. But those times when the manga goes beyond that are what I love about Ao Ashi.

Give it a try. You won't regret it.