Kurogane

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Kurogane was a manga that I chanced upon. I think it really is a shame that it isn’t very popular, as it contains many of the elements of a successful sports manga.

I really, really enjoyed reading this manga. It got me excited to see what would happen, and much like Haikyu! or Kuroko no Basket, the prospects of strong opponents, developing friendships and skills added to the story. The integration of a supernatural element was unusual, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There aren’t many drawbacks to Kurogane but the main one I would like to point out is the length. Because it is so short, I ... really hoped to feel satisfied at the end. The character development could have been more in depth if it were longer, but in the end, I really loved reading it.

Story: 9
Art: 8
Character: 7
Enjoyment: 10

story 7/10 the idea isnt really origional nor very special. Boy who isnt good at sports joins kendo club and proves to be very very talented for it. There are some problems but they are easily solved and all important matches are won.

art 9/10 yeah i really like this art style.

character 8/10 the characters arent really origional but they do behave according to their character and have some personal growht. New characters are introduced at a nice pace and they a look diffrent so you can remeber them.

enjoyment 9/10 i liked it but this is just because i like this sort of manga. If you ... read it you will most likely learn something about kendo and pass your time with something fun but it will not be the greatest manga you have ever read.

overall 8/10
i would reccomend this if you like this sort of story. Its not too long and its easy to read. If you have nothing else to do, do read this.

This manga is essentially a kendo version of Hikaru no Go. The protagonist, Kurogane, is chosen by a ghost named Sayuri to serve as her pupil and become the greatest swordsman in Japan. This is despite Kurogane knowing nothing about kendo and being incredibly weak physically. However, as is pretty standard for sports manga, he is strong willed and hardworking so he's able to grow really fast. He also has supernaturally great vision, which is enough on its own to make him strong enough to become a regular for the kendo club. As things progress, his amazing vision becomes less important, but it does pop ... up from time to time as his key to victory.

This manga is grounded but I wouldn't exactly call it realistic, even ignoring the ghost stuff. In terms of kendo, it greatly simplifies some things. For example, only after about 2/3s of the manga and a lot of actual victories does Kurogane learn that he's supposed to be predicting his opponents' actions. Other things are clearly exaggerated, such as some moves that basically involve creating optical illusions or jumping over the opponent's guard. Overall, I guess this keeps things interesting, but at the same time it feels kind of bizarre.

In terms of characters, the manga wasn't that great. Kurogane has a decent enough character arc in terms of growing into the type of person he admires. His clubmates, Ebana and Hazakura, had a fun dynamic, but were shallow as characters. Sayuri is amusing, though the deeper parts of her story weren't written very well. Everyone else was pretty half assed and just in general felt really haphazard. For example, about halfway through the manga the mangaka seems to have decided that there weren't enough girls in the manga so he introduces a girl's section to the kendo team. However, they never actually do any kendo. They just kind of hang around without any sort of plot significance whatsoever.

The ending to the manga is incomplete in typical axed manga fashion. The final match works really well thematically, but plot wise the manga ends in the middle of a tournament. After that there is a flashback that explains everything regarding Sayuri, and then a two-year time skip into an epilogue where everything is resolved perfectly. Well not everything. The romance subplot for some reason it seems to bring up just to emphasize that it hasn't reached a resolution. That felt pretty dumb, in that if it was just suddenly pushing things into an ending, it might as well have forced progress on that in as well.

The art in the manga isn't all that unique or especially high quality but it works well for a kendo manga. The designs similarly are really basic, but it's a grounded manga set in modern Japan so it is what it is.

tl;dr: An axed kendo manga that even before that was nothing special.