At face value, Rikudou is a solid read that is comfortably an 8/10 manga with explosive, well-drawn fights and plenty of character drama (both internal and external) to carry the plot along between the highlights. Unfortunately, if you start paying attention this facade breaks down quickly to reveal that Rikudou functions primarily on the rule-of-cool with a healthy side of edginess to keep readers engaged. Let me elaborate:
- The fights might look cool but they're also very messy, poorly explained, and quite difficult to follow. Compared to the gold standard of Hajime no Ippo, the fights in Rikudou are borderline incomprehensible.
- Character motivations generally don't have much logic to them, usually just having characters proclaim one-liners at the end of chapters without any build-up. With the exception of the core cast, the arcs of characters are very two-dimensional and feel forced in a way that services the plot rather than having genuine character development.
- The plot is borderline non-existent, in the sense that it's just Riku taking fights to progress to his goal (the OPBF championship belt) and not much else. There should've been a healthy character-driven subplot with Riku and the people supporting him, but unfortunately (as mentioned) the character work in Rikudou is shoddy at best and having Riku be a distressed lone-wolf the whole time is certainly the edgier option that can look cool on the page but doesn't help the story at all.
- Between the fights, characters, and the plot, the pacing is somehow really slow and really fast, in that barely anything happens for a reason, so you have lots of things happening but also nothing meaningful happening.
- And as for the edginess, I can only describe it as being unnecessary. Some standout examples are; Riku's friend Naeshiro touching herself while thinking about him without any follow-up in future chapters (the romance stays the same afterwards), a side-character being a lesbian and sexually assaulting Naeshiro (but with negligible impact on the plot or characters afterwards), Riku kills a fellow boxer in the ring and feels sad for about 3 chapters before getting on with it, and numerous sexually explicit scenes that attempt to colour characters as villains but don't succeed because those characters are given no context whatsoever.
The reason why I'm bashing on Rikudou this much is because these downsides aren't that obvious and only really contribute to the manga feeling 'off' and 'empty' as you read it, and even I didn't think I would score Rikudou this low until I actually thought about it.
If you've read a lot of series and are looking for more depth, I would recommend skipping Rikudou.
On the other hand, if you're looking for an entertaining read that isn't too complex, then Rikudou should satisfy.
Art - 8/10
Characters - 6/10
Story - 6/10
Pacing - 5/10
Overall - 6/10
