Review contains a few spoilers Rikudou by Toshimitsu Matsubara is a Dark Seinen manga about the sport of boxing. However it is more than just a sports manga as it also takes us through the journey of the main character Riku Azami to fulfill a promise he made to himself since young as well as the many obstacles and tragedies in life he has to overcome. Short summary of the start of the manga: Rikudou explores multiple themes: Trauma Abuse from a young age and how it affects a child socially and mentally Moral Ambiguity as most characters in the manga are criminal or corrupt blurring the lines between right wrong Self discovery Rikus journey is not just about becoming stronger but also about finding meaning beyond his early life trauma and understanding his own emotions and interests And the one I will elaborate further on: Violence as a language and identity From the start of his boxing career Riku has used Boxing as a means of escaping the world as he spent a lot of time in the gym with Coach Baba to refine his skills and become stronger. He places Boxing as a top priority in his life leading to him not being a sociable human or being able to communicate well experience feelings that normal humans would. Riku is known and described by those around him as a Killer forming an invisible wall between him and the rest of his classmates and peers. Matter of fact in the first two volumes we see Riku communicate more through physical violence than words. He only knows pain and that is what he finds in the sport of Boxing: hurting others and being hurt. Boxing becomes an escape from reality and an identity as Riku once says that he fears becoming nothing if he stops improving as a boxer. As Rikus career goes on he starts learning about things such as emotions and bonds throughout his career fights and slowly starts discovering who he really is finding out what emotions he really feels. And that is not the case for only Riku as there are multiple characters in the manga that express their frustrations and wishes through their fists and come to understand things through punches better than with words. https://files.catbox.moe/zqf2ud.jpg Art: Rikudou is one of the best manga when it comes to doublepage spreads. You can feel what the characters are feeling through their facial expressions and the details to the muscles and enviroment are simply brilliant. Ill show some examples below: https://files.catbox.moe/vkp451.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/als0pd.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/z9mb2e.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/dzvk7f.jpg Personal Opinion: In my opinion Rikudou is one of the best sports manga out there. Its different in the aspect of being a Dark Seinen opposed to the usual Shounen we see in sports manga. It doesnt just show the protagonists journey to success in his career but it reflects on the deep past and trauma of each character. The whole cast is interesting in their own categories and they are all lovable. My favourite characters are: Riku Azami Seiji Kamishiro Yuki Naeshiro Shinji Baba Yuichi Mihara. I love how close to reality the manga is as it explores a lot of emotions as well as issues of today such as trauma lack of emotional understanding hatred love passion setting priorities discipline and sacrifice. It also displays that characters cannot easily change it takes time and effort which makes it feel more real. I also LOVE the dynamic and the story between Riku and Yuki and how they live most of their life together learning to love and understand each other little by little leading to them realizing how each of them is so important to the other. The fights are pure adrenaline and just so beautifully drawn that its addicting so much so that I binged the whole manga in about 3 days. The only problem that I have is that the ending feels a bit rushed the author could have taken about 10 additional chapters to make the ending feel naturally paced. All in all I can say for myself that I really enjoyed reading Rikudou and if you are a fan of Seinen sports manga then I definitely recommend this https://files.catbox.moe/4povml.jpg