May 18, 2011
Curling sports manga? More like a manga that's as enjoyable as Ranma 1/2.
I haven't finished reading this manga when I reviewed it and judging by the length (Manga Fox has 3 of the volumes released and the info says it only reached up to volume 4) it's highly unlikely that the manga even comes close to being rated as good as Ranma was but there's a lot of similar things you might enjoy coming into this series.
I won't spoil most of it but let's just say like the sports event in Ranma, there are tons of quirky characterizations in this manga. It doesn't get as
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over the top as Ranma and it seems toned down compared to many sports manga but at the same time the fanservice seems toned up and is largely responsible for making the humor work.
Mix all these in and you basically have an unknown manga leave memorable moments simply for having that great mix of chemistry between characters and quirky situations resulting in a very cute setting that arguably gets you pumped up about the subject matter.
Definitely a manga you want to at least finish the first volume before making your judgement to ignore or completely read up on.
If there's one downside to all the quirkiness is that maybe the characters come off too unrealistic to be believable. Not that Ranma wasn't known for this but since we're talking characterizations that aren't as rarely used as gender transformation my review may over-inflate the characters. At the same time, many of the quirky characters here are definitely not designed in such a way that are often portrayed for comedy.
Another refreshing thing about this manga is that the premise lends it so that the main character is neither a newbie genius nor someone who is the catalyst for their decisions. The Manga Fox synopsis does a great job of setting the mood but really until you finish the first volume it's hard to gauge an initial expectation from this manga unless you really are coming in expecting a Ranma-like manga already.
All in all, the 6 isn't fair because if this were a longer series I might rate this as a 9 or 10 depending on the subplots and the character development but at the same time the length, the theme and probably the speed at which scenes jump around combined with my having not completely finished the manga all leads to a rating of 6 in a "just to be safe" manner in case the finale of the manga disappoints.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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