早乙女選手、ひたかくす

SAOTOME-SENSHU, HITAKAKUSU

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
10
RELEASE
October 21, 2019
CHAPTERS
124

DESCRIPTION

High-Schooler Tsukishima Satoru gets confessed to by local female High-School boxing-talent Saotome Yae. He rejects her initially because he does not want to impede her boxing career (and prevent getting beaten up by her fans).

Her female coach, Shioya hears about this and decides to install him as Saotome's trainer so that they can secretly date each other. This situation is also aided by his extensive boxing knowledge.

CAST

Yae Saotome
Satoru Tsukishima

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Yuseistar
73/100
Boxing. Muscle girls. Love.

Saotome-Senshu, Hitakakusu follows Yae Saotome, an upcoming female boxer who is in love with a certain boy at her school, Satoru Tsukishima. Saotome confesses to Satoru, who respectful declines as he thinks that them dating will come between Saotome and her boxing ventures. It's only when the boxing club's coach learns of Saotome's confession that she recruits Satoru to the boxing club in order for him to train Saotome while allowing the two to secretly date each other.

Story: (7/10)

It's a great coming of age story that follows 2 kids that don't know what love is or even how to successfully pilot a romantic relationship, discover the ins and outs of having a relationship and become closer and closer together. While the pacing of the very beginning of the manga is quite fast, it soon mellows out and paces itself really well.

The story is quite predictable but it doesn't take much of the excitement away from the romance between Satoru and Saotome. I found myself reading chapter after chapter, being encapsulated by the way that the manga blends sports with romance. It never gets dull or played out. Neither the boxing aspect nor the romance of the manga get dragged out for extended amount of time. At times, the sports theme in this manga makes you feel like your reading a true sports manga, the likes of Haikyu! or Ahiru no Sora. Just to hit you with a reminder that it's a romance. The balance between Saotome's boxing matches and Saotome's and Satoru's secret dates makes the story enjoyable to follow.

Characters: (5/10)

Outside the main characters Saotome and Satoru, the supporting cast is quite forgettable. The rest of the cast are mainly there to bolster the development of Saotome and Satoru. However, even though the other characters don't leave a lasting impression, the development of Saotome is well done. You get to experience this cold, tomboy looking character come out of her shell and show the others around her that she's still a girl, she still faces the same romantic problems that every other girl faces. With Satoru by her side, Saotome gets to experience a side of school, no, life that she's never experienced before. Love.

Art: (5/10)

The art in this manga is nothing to write home about either. It's definitely something that won't catch your eye or make a last impression on you for years to come... for the most part. For the majority of the series, the art itself is average. However, during Saotome's boxing matches or when displaying muscles, the art jumps up a notch. The impacts of punches, the movement of the boxer's swings, the well defined muscles, all of this gets brought to the foreground during boxing matches and really captivates the readers attention.

Enjoyment: (7/10)

I thoroughly enjoyed this manga. When it comes to romance series, I have a hard time getting into them if they are overly depressing or rely on one of those typical tropes for the female (Tsundere, Yandere, etc.). So, that's why I enjoyed this series. There are sad parts but they get eclipsed by the happy moments between all the characters. I loved seeing how Saotome's and Satoru's relationship progresses from the first chapter to the last, and even though the manga being a romance manga mainly, I enjoyed that the creator spent the necessary time to develop the sports aspect of the manga.

Verdict:

Would I recommend this manga? Yes. It's a cute coming of age story about a girl who's always focused on her craft (boxing), branch out and explore the world of romance. The story does a great job of mixing the major themes of boxing and romance. You get to see Satoru and Saotome progress further, their love of boxing and their love of one another. Even though the art and characters are a bit lacking, it all aides in developing the story between Satoru's and Saotome's love for their sport and one another.

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Dolphinman101
90/100
Great characters, pacing, development, and abs. It does leave you wanting more, but is a satisfying read nonetheless.
I thoroughly enjoyed this manga. It is very fluffy and wholesome with plenty of abs, while at the same time having a genuinely interesting story and characters, to the point where I couldn't put it down as soon as I started it. The first couple chapters are a little rough, but after about 20 the manga really starts going. None of the characters are absurdly wacky tropes, but rather all feel somewhat human and real. The titular character, Sataome, for example, seems to be the classic "looks cool, but is actually nervous" troupe popularized by komi-san, but as the series goes on, Sataome falls away from the archetype and becomes her own character. Compared to other manga of a similar nature, the pacing is perfect. The main couple develops believably and quickly and are fleshed out to a great extent. There is no filler, no meaningless melodrama, no(serious) love triangle, and no backwards development, every chapter has meaning and the characters never repeat plot points as they develop and grow. The thing that's amazing about the character development here, is that you don't notice it. As the main couple grows closer, they bring out the best in each other and slowly change as the series goes on. It didn't notice it very much my first read, but upon my reread I was able to see the characters at the beginning of their journey once again, and the distinction between them at the beginning and the end is night and day. There is, of course, some nice abs service for all my fellow men of culture out there, but it is not the focus. Often, the manga will choose character development over fanservice, which I preferred almost all the time. The series isn't predictable either, there are genuinely shocking and gripping moments during the story, ones that will make you gasp in disbelief as you are surprised at the outcome. Unlike a lot of romance manga, the main character here isn't generic or boring, but rather very interesting and fleshed out, something I was pleasantly surprised by. The one negative for this manga is the ending. The ending isn't bad per say, but simply sped up. The publishing company decided to axe the manga before the author was done completely finishing the story, and therefore forced the author to drastically speed up the pacing for the last 10 chapters. This was very disappointing the first read through given my love for the setting and characters, and makes the series feel like it could've been better. This series really leaves you wanting more. However, as an avid boxing, romance, and muscle girl fan this manga is one of my personal favorites and I recommend everyone to give it a try. (I did not write this with a critical eye, I am hyped after finishing it and it is 3 AM, a future review will be written under a more critical lens)
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ZenTea
80/100
The story of two boxers figuring out how to be in a relationship
This review is in honor of my good friend @HenwithTie, my beloved sweetheart, who suggested me this series in the first place. Honestly, my mind was racing between an opening line about my favourite type of girls and an opening line about girls with abs but, if I really think about it, neither openings are good ideas, so let's just get this over with.

Description

The series I'm talking about this time is called Saotome-Senshu, Hitakakusu, both written and illustrated by Naoki Mizuguchi sensei.

Tsukishima Satoru, our main character throughout this series, is a member of the boxing club at his local high school and, despite his best efforts, he can't seem to accomplish anything regarding boxing. On the contrary, Yae Saotome, a fellow member of the same club as Satoru, is a prodigy when it comes to boxing, and that is why, when Saotome confesses to Satoru, he initially refuses, fearing that he might bevome a burden to her boxing career, but ends up accepting in the end. When the coach finds out the two of them have started dating, she makes Satoru into Saotome's coach, as to aid them in their newlyfound love story.

The story is a fairly classic Coming of Age Slice of Life which distinguishes itself thanks to its sporty boxing trope, which is a really well-made part of the story: The panels depicting fighting scenes are drawn with a great eye for realism, which makes for pretty good scenes.

Despite the premise being mostly about sports, the manga has an overall fluffy and wholesome feeling to it, given mostly by the fact that neither of the two boxers have any idea how to deal with their love story.

The chapters themselves are not that long, spanning from 10 to 20 pages each. That being said, the series makes up for the short chapters by having a whole bunch of them, 124 to be precise.

Thoughts

I picked up this manga during a phase of mine where I only ever read RomCom SoL's and, if I hadn't done it at the time, I'd honestly read it again now. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing extraordinary, but it's easily able to make you smile, which is a wonderful thing in a manga like this.

There's obviously quite a bit of fanservice involving abs, but that's just to be exepected, and honestly is welcome.

The pacing of the manga is quite balanced, not too fast and not too slow, and both the love-story storyline and the boxing storyline come to a good and fulfilling close, a thing that's hard to find in these type of manga.

Comimg to a close, this manga is definetly a nice read for fellow sports manga enthusiasts to refresh themselves on something smile-inducing easy to read which deserves a fair 8 out of 10 rating from me.
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