Holyland is the exact mix of good concepts, good ideas, good execution with bad execution, incoherences and cliché concepts. [Please read the whole review to understand my point].
And remember that the score below it’s just a useless number.

The Holyland bases are the same of every average shounen nekketsu, a kid who wants to become stronger in order to protect something while he opens up a path among an unknown and dangerous world. Concepts that have been repeated a hundred times, with subversions of the demography or soulless structures. So does Holyland have something to offer?

Still before I answer this question I’m going to talk about the aspects I like and don’t like.

First I´m going to get rid of this. Holyland has the worst narration I´ve seen In any entertainment medium. The author interrupts the fights to talk about some movement or a martial art, these explanations always are big wall texts that occupy at least half a panel, even sometimes he uses this phrase ‘’I the author…’’ which not only breaks the immersion that the manga could generate also slows down the plot, it’s an abrupt change in the rhythm of the story. Sometimes it doesn’t even give any relevant information making it feel like a filler.

This is accompanied by the unnecessary turns that the story has, makes it feel vague without course. It’s a dead point, yes, it establishes relationships, themes and characters but when is going to start working them? In the first forty or fifty chapters all the elements that are going to be important in the final stretch are already established. I think the manga could reduce the amount of chapters and all would fit better.
A bigger problem than this is that during the first seventy chapters the plot turns around the same structure and conflict; Yuu, the protagonist, finds an obstacle that seems insuperable, this situation always turns into a fight, he breaks down and destroys, gets up with the help of his friends, overcoming his situation and getting blinded again by anger and violence.

The more a structure is repeated less weight and impact it will have on a story.

And that pattern is not a problem exclusive of the argument, the characters suffer the same thing. I’m going to divide them into 3 sections: support, antagonistic and protagonist’s ones.

The support characters are the worst developed. They only appear during 3 or 4 chapters to be part of a concrete event and get discarded, disappearing when the writer doesn’t need them anymore.
The antagonists are not saved either, they are all the same, so damn situational that they become incapable of acquiring other characteristics, after they lost to Yuu they disappear. Except for these two- but don’t get me wrong they’re even worse- after more than 150 chapters of not knowing nothing about them, they get re-introduced to save the protagonists a senseless convenience.

Fortunately the protagonist group surpassed my expectations, their conflicts are credible, and making me not just empathize with them. Moreover some of them are well developed and can establish the message of the work. However in every flock there is a black sheep and Shougo is the black sheep of Holyland.

An empty Shell of the classic rival and friend of the protagonist. His oppositions against Yuu are just an excuse to create situations that make the plot go forward leaving notable conveniences around this. His weakness complex or the dojo plot are so irrelevant because they don’t end in anything. His internal dispute about his father searching for the meaning of being strong is so rushed that it doesn’t allow to explain anything at all. In addition it’s incongruent, because he was plunged into a terrible addiction. Addiction that he overcomes in a question of minutes, saving the protagonist; this is something that’s a pity since his conflicts are the ones that the work needs, raw and realistic ones.

Holyland’s Biggest Problem

The streets, that urban place that each one of us has step in, step out or witness them. A place full of emotions as well of dangers.

The works aren’t bad ones for having bad messages, they are bad when they obviate the consequences of the actions and events they create. Holyland wants to talk about friendship, moral codes, human values and self-improvement, something I admire taking in consideration the media of MMA (mixed martial arts) and even shounen mangas I´ve read.

But how do I take a scenario seriously where the protagonist is searched for and recognized by half of the city, has humiliated the boss of several gangs and is indescribable heartless but he never gets any consequence besides physical damage? Both Yuu and Izawa are awesome fighters but I don’t believe that any thug didn’t follow them to their houses or tried to harm any person of their near circle.

Besides the final stretch, the only moment where this happens is when Shin gets beat up by a gang. Yes, it’s something crude and realistic at the moment. But this moment of reflection doesn’t generate any change in him or in the rest of characters. Yuu is afraid of the next time, but the script just generates another situation where he becomes mentally blind up by anger. Returning to the same point where the plot started.

It doesn’t matter how much respect and love you find in the streets, even if you find a path for yourself there, there will always will be that imminent danger in the alleys.

THE FINAL STRETCH

I make a new point in respect to that last paragraph, now I’m going to talk about the chapter 88 onwards.

The Holyland final stretch is the vision that the manga should have taken since the beginning. First of all it starts taking into account the problems of the environment, weapons, drugs, injuries, incurable wounds (except Yuu’s elbows popping) and horrible circumstances that take place in the life of the protagonists. Leaving behind that repetitive structure as well as opening a path to treat the true message of Holyland because this never was a story of martial marts but a story about how to find ourselves across the escapism.

The characters begin to question their future, their security and search for a life purpose. Some of them decide to take a step out on the streets, some get ‘’graduated’’ from these, and others began to submerge in that infinity darkness that lives in the alleys.

Even taking this into consideration, Holyland ends being an ‘’okay’’ manga with interesting topics, loose writing and a comeback in the final arc. However I prefer to introduce a different vision.

During my whole life I’ve been establishing my own stance in respect to the purpose of art. If I had to give it an explanation It would be: ‘’Give rise to sensations and emotions”. That’s why I don´t mind if It has faults or mistakes, I can’t find myself in a picky standards. A work doesn´t need to be flawless to be great, to reduce our vision to a critic’s standards is something so superficial that it does not allow us to appreciate any passion and effort in the tales that we witness. Life isn’t perfect so why should art be?

Obviously that doesn’t mean that I’m going to accept any garbage stories, I have my own way of viewing art that’s why I like to express myself about the things I don’t like.

At the end of all, the works that we’re going to remember are those ones that made us cry, laugh, stand up or have a lump in our throat. That´s why I always will remember Holyland, as a tale where I can escape, discover myself, accept my wounds and return from where I came from.