Karate Shoukoushi Monogatari

This is a sequel story, a follow up to a manga which had a less than satisfactory ending. It seems to try and rectify this, but ultimately fails to do so. I can recommend this to fans of the original as it offers some fan service and is not unfun to read, but if you are expecting a proper conclusion you wont find it here.

SPOILER WARNING

The story is told from the perspectives of 2 new characters Takeru and Meo. Young men who are both martial artists with prestigious relatives in martial arts and tragic backstories. The thai Meo, seems to be obsessed with the Japanese Takeru and combined with his cross dressing early on it seemed as though they were going to make him a homosexual and play this off as comic relief not unlike Pedro from the original series, however, this never goes anywhere. In general the new cast is woefully underdeveloped. Takerus love interest, Izumi Touko, never shows any chemistry with him and I suppose we are meant to accept that they end up together on the basis that he is the main character and that she has big boobies alone? Speaking of new characters, the author seems to forget that Izumis bodyguard(?) Minoo even exists part way through the story...

While the new characters are underdeveloped the scenes with the old cast are enjoyable (Although making Mutou both an mma and a boxing champion is incredibly obnoxious even by the previous karate wank standards set by the franchise). This begs the question as to why the new characters were even introduced to begin with? Meo being the younger brother of Samart does have some reason to be in the story, but why introduce Takeru exactly? Perhaps the author realized this at some point, which is why we never even get to see the final fight between Takeru and Meo? But to add insult to injury we miss out on Minorus fight with Ibuki as well, talk about an anti climax. Further to this, the fights that we do see are marred by obnoxious metaphor owing to Takerus uncanny ability to visualize what his opponent is feeling. The original series had this as well, but it was never this egregious and in this new manga it really detracts from the enjoyment of the martial arts in my opinion.

Overall the humor of the original is still in tact in this sequel and it certainly is still enjoyably to read, but the project feels massively rushed. The fact that it is much shorter than the original does not lend itself well to the inclusion of all of these new characters many of whom we are barely even introduced to before they are brushed off to the sidelines.