Sun-Ken Rock

Since I have just finished reading the manga a few hours ago, I thought to myself, "why not make a review about it"? I read the majority of Sun Ken Rock a while ago and stopped reading it for some reason. It was only today that I decided on finishing the remaining arc.

Here's my one line impression of Sun Ken Rock

Imagine if a doujin artist who happens to be Bob Ross make a GTA seinen manga adaptation.

That, for me, was Sun Ken Rock.

I'll put a disclaimer here that unless you're of legal age, don't read this manga. Besides the butts and the tiddies, there are themes here that a lot of readers(especially females and kids) may find uncomfortable.

Let's start with a little backstory on how Sun Ken Rock came to be:

Apparently, the author(Boichi) started out as a doujinshi artist. When he was under the publisher Young King, they pitched the idea of making a manga about gangsters to him and an opportunity arose.

I read his doujinshis and I can definitely see the resemblance in art style. Makes me kind of wonder what the world would be like if Jorori finally decides on becoming a proper mangaka.

Sun Ken Rock reminded me when I played GTA back in the day. Of course, the premises of both are vastly different, but the concept is there. It evoked some bit of nostalgia in me.

This manga showcases one of the most fantastic art quality I've ever seen. Boichi is indeed a respectable man in terms of how well he can draw his panels. Not to mention, how consistent his art style is and he even made 2-4 spinoffs over the course of sun Ken Rock.

Who needs colored panels when you have the power to sculpt fine art using just lines?

Sun Ken Rock is riddled with double paged spreads that leave me absolutely mind blown every time. These double page spreads consist of Ken Kitano throwing a sick punch to an unsuspecting ugly bastard(which was mildly satisfying), landscape drawings that are detailed asf, ugly bastards drawn with overwhelming detail(the wrinkles in their faces make up for good drawing material), and Ken Kitano just being a badass in general (and also tiddy shots that would rival a renaissance painting).

It's also worth mentioning that all the fight scenes were fantastically executed. You can actually feel the punch thrown to the enemy. A scene where Kitano bludgeons an enemy felt surreal that I felt my spine tingling.

When you know that the artist had 1000 gigabytes worth of poses and gesture photo references he took with his staff in his computer, it makes you appreciate him more for his effort. Some mangakas just look for a photo using google search and call it a day, even not drawing the scene at all when it warrants to be shown.

Of course, the way the fight scenes were executed are nowhere near real life. But just the sheer campiness of Boichi's idea made every fight just as entertaining as a Jackie Chan fight.

A problem I've had with the Tokyo Ghoul manga is how the artist drew some of the panels in the manga's fight scenes. Don't get me wrong, the artist did everything else very well. It's just that when you do your art too much, it becomes incomprehensible and it just takes me out of the experience. Plus, how ghouls fight with their kagune isn't something that we can visualize on the get-go, unlike a dragon ball fight.

But none of that was present in Sun Ken Rock. It all goes to show that in the end, the most entertaining fight scenes will always be raw fistfights. Might as well read Baki at this point.

As one prefaces it, I can nut to every panel

In terms of character design, it's a mixed bag for me.
Boichi draws the male characters the best especially the star of the show, Ken Kitano. Whenever a badass panel of him shirtless comes up, I'd be screaming hell yeah! in my room. I don't care if my parents think I'm schizophrenic or something... I'm hype! It's like Boichi always treats Ken like his own son. Some silly scenes here and there but when Ken gets serious, expect Boichi use 100% of his power.

It's also worth mentioning the side characters. The founding male members of his gang also had cool character designs. The art style of everyone else is equally treated with utmost care. Just... The details he puts even in the villains are so good that I can honestly forgive him for drawing these abominations.

There were also panels that are likened to caricatures, mostly comedic skits. This dichotomy that Boichi decided on makes up with the comedic effect. But considering that I read this in 2021 and the manga was made back in 2006, some of the scenes did not age well. Don't get me wrong, some of them were funny. Nonetheless, it is the epitome of mid 2000's comedy in anime and I am a late bloomer.

But the females tho... It may be an aesthetic clash exclusively limited to younglings like me, but I just find the female cast low-key unaesthetic. With the exception of how Boichi drew Yumin in the last chapters, everything else before that was Boichi just rubbing sticks together. The only time I see this style repeatedly used in anime form is from a lot of 90s anime.

I will admit, Sun Ken Rock's style was different from the works made at that time. Wolf guy is also a thing with fantastic art but I hate the artist for making me sit through 30 chapters of endless suffering. This is appealing to some people, but for me, this is the sole reason why I couldn't care less about the females.

They also lack dynamic facial expressions. I find them too stiff. The contrariety of Boichi doing the males and the sceneries magnificently and the females being drawn through a 1990's filter did not sit well with me at all. I mentioned before how Boichi can be consistent with his style. It's the same for the females, sarcastically speaking.

Moreover, seeing the fact that Boichi also did this in Wallman, Origin and Dr. stone is kind of grating.

An exception is the nudity. As a degenerate, I do appreciate it if someone gives a fuck about body proportions. In my opinion, Boichi did that in Sun Ken Rock really well. I figured that they needed some chunk because I thought they were too anorexic for their own good. But aside from that, I have no problems about it.

Now that I've already established the strongest suit of Sun Ken Rock, let's move onto the characters and the story.

A lot can agree with me that the characters were slightly slovenly written even in the end. Boichi tries to tackle the characters and their backgrounds throughout the manga to some degree which is commendable... It was how he delivers on their circumstances that I believed was sloppy. It didn't have any sort of emotional impact that would make me feel strongly towards them. The characters told with the worst background were the females, but with what I mentioned about Boichi's inconsistent writing plus their lack of facial expressions made me not give a shit about them.

But in a manga with a theme like this, who needs well written characters? I realized this 40 chapters in and after that I started to enjoy the manga.

The only characters that were decently written though were Kitano, Tae soo and the vietnamese guy.

Kitano was the then-ultra virgin who had the most vanilla outlook in life, compared to the other main characters. You can't hate Ken for who he is; He simply fights for the people he cared the most. He fights for a noble cause. Funnily enough, he still simps and remains faithful to the girl he's fallen in love.

Tae soo is also a decently written character. He reminds me of Khun Aguero Agnis from Tower of God(very weird analogy but bear with it). He had the outlook of doing even the most deplorable methods to reach an end goal for the sake of their friend. Khun even used underhanded tactics so it could benefit Bam and so did Tae soo with his unyielding loyalty towards Ken.

All in all, the characters weren't the most interesting bunch in the world. A key to enjoying Boichi's works is to not take everything too seriously.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

We're going to talk about the plot because there's a lot to say about it.

From what I can remember, the whole manga is split between 5 arcs. The first ones encompass the SKR's rise to power and the last ones were how Ken finally settled his issues with the devil he has despised all this time.

A thing I noticed in this manga is the fact that in the grand scheme of things, it's not a complicated plot. There'll be cases where flashbacks add some intricacy to the storyline, but don't expect it to be Fate franchise levels of buildup.

However, there were dialogues where it gets too philosophical and in the process, it tries to be more than what it inherently is. In other words, Boichi can get carried away with the character dialogues sometimes. Things get too irrelevant to the storyline.

That in itself is a little pretentious to be honest. This is another reason why I hated school days. It's a hentai that tries to be an anime.

Examples are in Ken and Tae soo's conversations. I kind of get their perspective on why the SKR team was built in the first place and how they viewed everyone else, but I honestly didn't need to know that. In the end, Plot armor will always be delivered to Ken in a gold platter.

Some people will disagree with me and may argue that there's nothing wrong about it. Also, I'm not saying that it needed more action. I'm already satisfied with that. There's just too much dialogue sometimes.

Might as well skip everything and I'd still understand most of the manga.

In my opinion, the Casino arc was the best among all the arcs. Simply put, it's just a video game where the player has to go to each floor and defeat the bad guys. But it was in this arc that Ken finally attained power; from zero to hero. Coupled with spectacularly choreographed fight scenes, I still remember being hype reading it.

The 2nd last arc was also good since Boichi it was the vietnamese superhuman's return but it didn't reach the caliber the Casino arc managed to reach.

The weirdest one was when Ken became a manager of a debuting idol group. I have no idea why Boichi thought of this as a good idea. Ken was a righteous and fairly intelligent dude throughout the manga. But in this one, he was just straight out dumb as hell. Not to mention, this thing with the girls and the corporate ugly bastards was mildly disturbing (also fueling my hatred of ugly bastards). Whether or not this is based on real events, I don't wanna know.

There was honestly no point in establishing this arc at all.

In the final arc, everything was going to be settled with Ken's declaration of war with the main antagonist. Tae soo proved his unyielding loyalty to Ken after he took the L upon the aftermath of the Sun Ken Rock gang's dissolution.

FINAL WARNING: If I somehow managed to convince you to read the manga, don't read my rant in the [spoiler]. Just come back if you already finished the manga.

In the first part of my review, you can tell that I have much to say about Boichi as an artist, but much more to rant about his writing skills. Don't get me wrong. The manga as a whole(with asterisks) is a hard 9 as I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the main cast despite of how borderline average they were written.

I also don't need to repeat myself of how awesome the art was.

Readers that are looking for a Shounen with a bit of hentai(as I've mentioned in my one line impression of the manga) will definitely find Sun Ken Rock an awesome read.

P.S. To those who are wondering why I gave it a 6.5, don't ask the internet and just read the manga.