To start off, this manga is a chill read. The first half, that is. But it transforms into something else, very subtly and very smoothly, in the second half. In the first half, it’s our everyday shounen manga covered in kendo as the center background. Then in the second half, this manga transforms into a seinen genre without discarding its shounen part. Doesn’t make it a mess, that transformation? No, it doesn’t.
The transformation from one genre to another is pretty difficult thing to do in a smooth manner, if not impossible. But changing from shounen to seinen smoothly is as possible as a teenager turns into an adult in a year. Shounen genre tends to focus on “what i want” vibe, with burning spirit and hard work. The first half of this manga does the same thing, but in a very relaxed way. Almost each and every character focuses on what they want to do (not specifically talking about Saya here) in everyday life setting.
Seinen genre, on the other hand, tends to focus on “what i have to do”. It’s an adult mentality where only an adult (doesnt matter his/her age) can relate. This genre tends to talk about the heavyness of duty, responsbility of choice and commitment.
In this manga, the first half and the second half was merged in a very smooth manner, by transforming the thing that the characters want to do into things that they have to do. It needs to be noted that this transformation wasn’t discarding an ounce of its shounen aspect. It’s very clear if we take a look on UmexUra battles and Tama’s finding of her reason to swing her shinai.
That transformation i wrote up there has consequence, obviously. And the consequence is character developments. This aspect is what makes this manga a treasure. Character development in this manga shone very brightly, and probably not even lose with other development cases from other animanga titles. These developments are pretty wide and deep, but one development that really worth to note down is Ishida’s. His development is very realistic, honest and touching.
There’s two sad thing that i want to note personally. One, this manga could still go further actually. Even the writer, Masahiro Totsuka sensei, already imagined what would happen after the Hiryuuki. But this manga stopped which was unfortunate.
Two, there’s a gap of story and style between the anime and the manga. I personally love the manga version as this version can handle the development smoother and more impactful. But that is that.
Try reading this, i hope you will enjoy it, and more than that, i hope it’ll have an impact to your life
