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.
