https://i.ur.com/5tKQf94.png Its been a really long time since Ive reviewed anything but Id like to get back into it I have a lot of favourites that I have a lot of thoughts on. This review doesnt contain any major unmarked spoilers in the Introduction or Critical Review section but the analysis contains some. Introduction 400https://i.ur.com/7CPxoq5.png Boys on the Run is Kengo Hanazawa known for I Am a Heros second manga beginning serialisation the same year as his first manga Ressentiment ended. Although Hanazawa is one of my favourite mangakas Ressentiment is easily his weakest manga and aside from some themes on artificial intelligence and technological advancement is basically a cesspool of the lowest parts of otaku culture makes me wonder of his time as an assistant on Ichi the Killer rubbed off a bit on him lmao. While it tries to provide a sort of sympathetic angle to the main character Takuro Sakamoto he is a truly pathetic guy drowning in loneliness who needed desperately to be saved who instead ended up being fed off of by everyone around him. Hes almost impossible to root for. Although people may consider somebody like him a parasite many people were leeching off of him too. It ended up painting a very cynical and misanthropic picture of society and it had an extremely rushed ending like pretty much every other Hanazawa manga I hope Under Ninja doesnt share the same fate which left you very unsatisfied and feeling pretty down. Boys on the Run to me is the AntiRessentiment. Toshiyuki Tanishi is probably one of the most pathetic unlucky gross and weak main characters Ive ever seen but also one of the most likeable and inspirational and one of the only characters I could feel myself genuinely rooting for with every fibre of my being. His journey is very humbling and he is one of the biggest and greatest underdogs and someone a lot of guys can relate to especially teenagers and young adults. Despite this there are a lot of universal takeaways from his story which are relevant to everybody especially now in a generation that seems oddly more aimless and disconnected than ever before which I will try to unpack and give my thoughts on in this review. Critical Review Reading this is one of the most visceral experiences Ive ever had with any media. If you cant handle really awkward and cringeworthy moments this is NOT the manga for you. Pretty much every chapter will have you wince in pain the secondhand embarrassment is palpable and youll wonder how he can even find it in him to keep going. He gets pushed around by everybody and lets misfortune come his way. When confronted with anything head on he stutters and then he runs. https://i.ur.com/cU2oapd.png Based on the ratings I can tell this wasnt really well recieved over here. In Japan it mustve been at least a bit popular given that it spawned a Jdrama and a movie adaptation starring popular band Ging Nang BOYZ frontman Kazunobu Mineta as Tanishi. They also made a song for the movie with a great music videohttps://www..com/watch?v=gGLMEjELQF0 which Ill talk more about later. The song is fire it captures the essence of the manga very well. Personally for me I absolutely loved this manga I wouldnt go so far as to call it underrated I can understand a lot of the low ratings for this one but Id say it is underseen and should be talked about more. Subtlety goes out the window and Hanazawa and Tanishi go balls out sometimes literally. The manga is like a train wreck that starts failing upwards. Both the comedy and the romance in the manga are written very well imo no manga has been able to get such a raw reaction out of me so consistently. You get very invested in Tanishi and his relationships and it feels very raw and messy in a good way. The entire cast of characters is great the standouts being Tanishi and Hana Ooiwa who appears later on and has a fairly well done portrayal of being deaf and disability in general by manga standards. Everybody is realistic. They all feel like people youd meet in real life from the womanising corporate bully Takahiro Aoyama to The synopsis is a little misleading though. Technically yeah this is a story about how and why a guy goes from a worker at a deadend job to becoming a boxer but if you go in expecting a boxing manga youll be disappointed. He hardly does any actual boxing and more attempts to use his skills in real world situations. One major downside for some would be the art... it starts pretty amateurish but noticeably improves by the end his evolution as an artist especially present in his following manga I Am a Hero. Hanazawa has a very distinct way of drawing faces which hasnt evolved much even in his current as of writing this serialisation of Under Ninja. They look a little ugly but are very expressive and Id argue they are much more realistic than most manga or anime artstyles perfect for the kinds of stories he tells. Honestly when reading it for the first time I felt a little underwhelmed by the ending I felt like it didnt give me the huge sense of satisfaction that I was expecting. Looking back though I realised I misunderstood the core of the story. I dont have any problems with it and its definitely Hanazawas only well written ending. Ill be going more indepth into it and the mangas themes in the next section. Thoughts and Analysis: A Boy on the Run Spoilers https://i.ur.com/AxBA8P1.png Tanishi and Takuro from Ressentiment are very similar characters circumstantially. Both are pathetic both are horny and really desperate for sex despite having terrible luck with women being overweight and conventionally unattractive though Takuros ugliness defies conventions both are awkward and struggle with everyday social interactions both are working deadend jobs and both are put in a situation that seems very hopeless. Tanishi however changes. Tanishi is insecure and selfcentered failing to understand what people around him truly want. He spends his days jealous of assholes who have more than him and cursing lifes unfairness. Nice guys come last kinda mentality. He wants money he wants women and he wants people to respect him. He loses his girlfriend to a dickhead. He gets beat up by everybody and their mum. He tries to fight but he is too selfabsorbed and overconfident to win. He doesnt understand how to get what he wants. https://i.ur.com/qo8BAbp.png He wallows in shallow selfpity even shaving his head to look like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. It is only in his first fight with Aoyama where he has a truly humbling experience. He fails miserably and quits his job. He runs. But this time the loss is so humiliating he finds the resolve to try and better himself. Through boxing. https://i.ur.com/EopINkD.png If mangakas are the Gods of their manga Hanazawa is not a benelovent one. In fact he might be one of the most cruel and sadistic ones. You can definitely sense a bit of projecting in his manga with most of his protagonists being seemingly selfinserts especially Hideo in I Am a Hero but while some might take issue with this it makes his manga much more interesting to dissect imo. Tanishi is seemingly the unluckiest of his protagonists. He gets dragged through hell and back but not without reason. He needs to be humbled. Throughout the manga he goes through every form of hardship humanly possible stubbornly clinging to his pride and hoping things will get better. And very slowly his mindset began to change. He enters and loses more fights but he grows more and more with each one. https://i.ur.com/9sRnqTS.png Eventually he is forced to swallow his pride and in the most humiliating way possible for the sake of the girl he loves. Ironically in only his underpants and a cape it is the first time in the manga he looks like a real hero. The girl Hana Ooiwa is initially is boxing coach and she is deaf. Her disability reinforces the mangas theme of lifes unfairness while offering a parallel to Tanishi. She got dealt a very bad hand in life but she embraces it learning to live with her disability while making the most of things. She doesnt sugarcoat reality but accepts it for what it is and adapts. She has an abusive deadbeat husband Gen who sleeps with other women an exboxer. Eventually he agrees to divorce Hana if Tanishi who is very out of shape can beat him in a fight. What ensues is a brutal raw and awkward match which is very undignified and touch to watch but most importantly Tanishi does not give up. He keeps going and going and going getting up again and again no matter how bloodied and bruised he gets. With Hanas advice he eventually lands a knockout punch. And in the ending he finally commits a truly selfless act. Tanishi has started to get involved with Shuumai Shishido the son of the exboxer. At this point Shuu is a budding Tanishi. Constantly humiliated by bullies he feels alienated and disillusioned with everybody. He is jealous of the bullies being favoured by everybody else the same way Tanishi felt at the start of the story. On a bring your parents to school day with no parents showing up for him he creates a homemade bomb to throw in his classroom to try to get back at the world. To prevent Shuu from leading the kind of life he did he takes the fall for him by bursting into the classroom and catching the bomb before it detonates. It is in this final chapter excluding the short epilogue the story comes full circle. The manga opens with a panel of sunflowers one facing the opposite direction with the question Why am I running?. The one sunflower turned away illustrates the feeling of alienation and disconnect that both Tanishi and Shuumai felt at their respective points in time. The sunflower visual motif is very intentional imo appearing multiple times throughout the story as well. Its meaning is best explained by Tanishi himself in a rare glimpse of his childhood. https://i.ur.com/BEswA0I.png https://i.ur.com/iP52nnk.png Once more it appears as the final panel of the manga before the epilogue. Ema small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshippers write prayers or wishes to hang them at shrines are hung around the classroom. One kids says my dream is to become a cool doctor like Chopper One Piece one wishes I hope I can drive safely and another I hope I win the lottery. Amongst these simple and childish but earnest dreams Shuumai drew the three sunflowers basically identical to the opening panel. Having just been saved by two people who he could finally call family he cries. The second page of the first chapter is a panel of Tanishi in front of an ocean mural well running for no apparent reason. He is running aimlessly away from people wallowing in selfpity cursing lifes unfairness while refusing to do anything about it. https://i.ur.com/oM6MN3B.jpeg It is at this same mural running away where he first meets Hana. A very fleeting and coincidental encounter that changes the course of his life. In the final chapter he is once again running in front of the mural. This time he is no longer running away. He is running with Hana hand in hand on his way to save Shuumai. He is no longer on the run. He is running forward into his future. He then goes to prison for five years. Why? Apparently the fathers of the other children in the classroom misunderstood what was happening and pinned him down causing the bomb to detonate without any casualties. The final and weirdly out of place and meanspirited fuck you to Tanishi or at least thats how I first saw it. Now I view it differently. I think initially my reservations were because I looked at him from a emotional and relatable lens rather than an objective and critical one. He gets his comeuppance for acting as he did as an asshole and such a drastic consequence cements his evolution as a character. Although that mightve previously made somebody like him cry out in lifes unfairness he takes it. He took on such a heavy burden selflessly no longer insecurely chasing sex and shallow desires. When he exits prison Hana and Shuu are waiting to see him. Shuu is now a fairly successful professional boxer he too running forward into his future. Tanishi has finally found his cause. He has found people he truly cares for who he would do anything for no matter the cost to himself. He has found his family. He has found his purpose. A Generation on the Run https://i.ur.com/AkAySza.jpeg Like Tanishi this is a generation on the run. Many people especially teenagers and young adults are drifting about aimlessly disconnected from one another. So many people are lonely have self doubt or low self esteem and some people have simply been dealt a bad hand. The way I see it this manga is Hanazawas call to tackle things head on and live for and understand others. You cant wait for something or someone to fix you you need to do it yourself. Tanishis journey is almost almost comically arduous brutal and painful but in the end he humbles himself takes things into his own hands and finds his purpose. It took a lot for him to come to this realisation. Such a seemingly pathetic guy can affect so many peoples lives. In his own strange way Toshiyuki Tanishi is a hero. There are some screenshots from the Ging Nang BOYZ music video which really sum up the themes of the series imo. In it random people on the street are interviewed about their hopes dreams wishes and everyday thoughts and feelings. Some wishes are grander than others some are more childish but more importantly they are the real and very human wishes and thoughts of a drifting generation. Kind of resembles the ema in the final chapter I think intentionally but they carry an air of sadness to them. You are left finishing the video wondering how many of these people achieved their dreams. https://i.ur.com/59aAqQx.jpeg Although life is sometimes unfair you have to accept it. Stop running away. Turn around and run head on. Never give up. When you fail try again. Dont be selfcentered. Nobody is truly alone. No matter who you are no matter how pathetic ugly and helpless you are with the right mindset you can find people to help you. Let them into your life. Act for other people. Dont act as if you are already dead. You are alive. https://i.ur.com/Wpcv2oi.png Conclusion While nowhere near perfect Boys on the Run is one of the most memorable manga Ive ever read and definitely one of my alltime favourites. I really love this story and while it might not land with everybody Id recommend it especially if you can in any way relate to Tanishi. A valuable message and a painful passionate messy raw and most importantly real story. https://i.ur.com/nUMAOrS.png