Pacing was bonkers though... Just like...Moby Dick!

To be fair to Melville he was getting paid by the word count, as was common practice at the time. Cue every author who could get away with it (Dumas is a notable example) padding their shit six ways to Sunday with filler...

Not that modern authors ever did that, nosirree.

For the audience, too, once the white whale is harpooned, they lose interest. So you want to hold off on that as long as you can keep their attention. (If you're serialized).

Pacing was bonkers though... Just like...Moby Dick!

To be fair to Melville he was getting paid by the word count, as was common practice at the time. Cue every author who could get away with it (Dumas is a notable example) padding their shit six ways to Sunday with filler...

Not that modern authors ever did that, nosirree.

Ehhh, Melville was consumed by that book. His other works, adventure tales, sure the pay and word count mattered. But Moby Dick was insanely experimental and something of a flop. An obsessive work that conceptualized good and evil in the entire universe. Really off putting, like Infinite Jest or Xenosaga.

I gotta not read Teppu though, makes me want to train low stakes mma. Is that possible without permanent head trauma?

last edited at Aug 27, 2018 11:04PM

Weird out of nowhere bonus chapter, but I'm glad to see the characters once again XP

NO WAY! I was sure Teppu had been completely scanlated since long ago... but, as it turns out, there were some short stories missing!!!

That makes me so happy. <3 Hehe, I love this manga to bits -- and now I have new pages to read.

Anyone knows if there are more shorties like this one that we should expect in the future?

Ah, the delicious pain of getting a bonus chapter only to be reminded of the fact that the manga still ended too damn soon.

So, I binged this. I actually really like it. It's quite a change from what I normally read. The characters aren't unreasonably busty and the clothes don't magically tear everywhere except the most important places, and it's completely female centered.. Frankly, it's done with a lot of taste and consideration for the sport and those who take it seriously. Of course, there's drama thrown in, but the characters are all engaging, even the secondary ones. They all feel like real people with their own goals and personalities. Watching them all put their hearts into it for various reasons is fun, even if I'm not much into MMA.

My only complaint is that the ending seems a little incomplete. Natsuo has a resolution of sorts, bu Mawatari had no development at all through the whole manga. It's almost like she should have been the main character, where we would slowly be given her tragic back story and reasons for the way she is and why she fought. In that case Natsuo would've been the slightly insane and disturbing, but skilled, antagonist that Yuzuko had to defeat before the final boss (the big tournament). It's an interesting thought.

Anyway, I absolutely love Natsuo's character, and would welcome seeing more. That evil smirk she always wears and the complexes she has.. She's doesn't have a "good" personality, obviously, but with her realization at the end, I'd love to see where she goes from there, as she continues to do MMA. And her best friend, Kei, was adorable, and provided a wonderful counterpoint and had a somewhat humanizing effect on Natsuo..

All the other girls at the girl were interesting, and I liked seeing all their quirks and differences. This actually got me excited for more. Would love to see the big tournament itself, especially with Natsuo sneakily in as a reserve. Anyway, it was a great ride!

Oh and I know it wasn't even really a thing in the story, but chapter 12 when Natsuo calls the Round Girls sexy, and then later calls Honma Mitsuki pretty, well, kinda makes you hope for some yuri at some point. Though obviously for Natsuo it's more about the fighting and the masochism than romance, so I could see her being bi, okay no matter the gender, but anyway, that's just speculation..

Selene posted:

My only complaint is that the ending seems a little incomplete.

Because it is. Author went on hiatus because of his health and ended up cutting series short, because he wasn't confident he'll be able to continue it. It was clearly meant to be running for much longer and there's plenty of things that were set up and never delivered. So yes, I agree the ending feels lackluster, because it wasn't supposed to be the end.

Ahh, I figured it was something like that. For all that though, it wasn't a BAD ending.

I really like how Natsuo was drawn too...

Selene posted:

For all that though, it wasn't a BAD ending.

I agree. Also I really liked Natsuo as character too. In fact I related to her a lot. The reason she ended up the way she did made a lot of sense as well. And yea, I agree her relationship with Kei was pretty good and even shippable. About Natsuo feeling more like antagonist. I feel like that was kinda the point. Normally it would be Yuzuko that is the protagonist, but the twist on story was that it was told from perspective of the "bad" character. Honestly, I think it made for much more interesting read. Making Yuzuko your classic underdog with sad backstory would be really boring and cliche. Also we never really get to that, but the implication was that Yuzuko was kinda insane. She'd pretty much do anything to reach her goal and there was nothing that could discourage her from trying. Her persistence and positive thinking was so unshakable, it was disturbing.