Reviews

After multiple readings of the author's mangas, I was still missing some pieces of the puzzle to complete the missing elements in my mind. I was already angry enough against Kurumada because of his crucial lack of originality towards these mangas. Apart from Saint Seiya, which I can understand the success because the qualities are there, his other mangas seem to me very bland because he tells the same thing every time.
And Ring ni Kakero?
Well... it's probably one of his worst mangas.
It's a big disappointment for me because I was expecting something really amazing since it's still his first success. It was not the case, it was a long purge to get to the last volume.
There are a lot of things wrong with it. Technically, everything is messed up. The narration is disastrous and the pacing is even more so. Most of the fights are dispatched in 5 pages, there is no attachment to the issues presented and the motivations of the characters are more than doubtful. There are still some good double pages, which shows a very pronounced inspiration on Ashita no Joe, but then ... it stops there. The dialogues are also ridiculous, but I have the impression that this is one of his trademarks. The background of the story is classic, but so badly told that in the end we don't really know what happened. On the sports side, it also started well with a nice boxing exhibition, but as usual, it drifts completely to completely surreal things, which makes us lose the serious side of the story. Finally, the story is much too long for what it wants to tell. The story could have stopped at volume 10 but it had to be extended to get somewhere, obviously.
I don't think there is any point in continuing this review. I feel like I'm reading a long and disjointed story, and that really disturbs me. I hope the next manga I read from him will give me more pleasure. Go ahead and read a good boxing manga instead.