To start off with its positives:
As you'd expect from my first sentence, the martial arts display is simply fantastic. While the art style isn't anything groundbreaking (though, I think it's good and consistent for the most part) the fights are amazingly well drawn as well as symbolic imagery for the fights to add even more visual variety (see Minoru's fight vs Ojima with Ojima's vision of the ring as a war zone.) Poses are very strong and the contact of hits have extreme impact which increases the satisfaction.
The characters aren't the most complex but a lot of them I found entertaining. Last thing I'd call them is flat, save for a few that I'll get into when I talk about the negatives. My favorite characters have to be Kaoru, Minami and Muuto. Kaoru is a total snarky jokester who has fun with his fights to the point where he names his moves. Minami is probably the most pure with his passion for the karate fighting sport with the most legitimately funny actions throughout the manga. And Muuto is a crude and blunt brute who has the more brutal moments in the manga so he's good for a power fantasy. A lot of the characters DO change and are thankfully consistent at the same time for the kind of story its trying to tell.
The negatives:
While I would call a story of its length simple and kind of easy to follow, it has a lot of flaws. But its biggest crime is that it is horribly unfocused. Lots of plot threads and grudges pretty much go nowhere. The worst part is that they were the main source of tension for the story after they were introduced which makes the ending infuriating because it takes away any satisfying conclusion for the characters involved in these in conflicts. Ibuki Kengo probably has it the worst as he has arguably the most important plot thread that gets glossed over. It doesn't help that he isn't really an interesting character from a personality standpoint. Same with Ryuu Oosugi who's a more interesting character than Ibuki but his conflict gets swept aside in a similar fashion. The series has some unnecessary characters to the main karate group like Alyosha who isn't that interesting of a character then disappears. Pedro is a pretty annoying character. I mostly tolerate him from a martial arts point of view to show off BJJ moves and defenses against them. Even though he's the main character, Minoru is probably the blandest character of the entire manga. His fights are entertaining, but he isn't all that entertaining on his own. He's... too vanilla for this kind of story I feel. He really does feel like a shounen protagonist than a seinen one. I actually would prefer Minami to be the main protagonist of the story because I feel he has progressed the most outside of his fighting skill.
This is probably just a personal critique, but the manga's story and atmosphere could've been more consistent. What I mean is that at the very beginning (before vol.8 specifically), the tone in the high school setting is ridiculously chaotic and could've had its own crazy rules like other balls-to-the-walls bonkers martial arts manga. While I don't mind the more grounded and realistic tone and atmosphere from vol.8 and onward(I mean, it's where the best fights come from), I can't help but feel there was a drastic and somewhat off putting tonal shift. I honestly missed the pre-volume 8 tone and would be down to read all the conflicts and shenanigans with the other clubs. Overall, I would've loved to see the world of the high school known for its sports expanded upon.
Overall, I loved this manga but a lot of its short comings can't keep me from calling it more than just entertaining. If you're a karate (mainly the full-contact version) or a martial arts nut, I highly recommend this manga as a fun karate MMA slobberknocker!
