Teppu

Teppuu is story about a tall delinquent high school girl (Natsuo) that is an absolute genius at fighting. Her overwhelming talents and strengths sometimes seem more of a curse than a blessing at times which caused her to have a strained relationship with her brother.

I have no experience with martial arts but from what I heard the technical aspects of fighting in the series are legit and the writer certainly knows what he is talking about when presenting those concepts. The writer also have great skill when depicting movement on par with the insane motions depicted in BAKI. For these reasons all the fights depicted in the manga always feel grounded and immersive. Actions and decisions in fights always follow a plan and never felt random or some protagonist plot armor BS.

What I love about Teppu is how fighting is not the central theme of the series unlike most sports series. And it is also not about the cliched finding passion in fighting and going to nationals... yey... stuff. Fighting is presented as a personality trait of Natsuo, her violent gift and her curse. Her immense natural talent in fighting makes her bored and indifferent towards her own gift, added the fact this 'gift' of hers caused such a rift in the relationship with her brother. She does not care about fighting because it is too easy and in a way also hates it because of how it affected her life.

But then she meets someone that is the total opposite of her in EVERY single way (Yuzuko). A girl that has no natural talent in fighting, absolutely loves fighting, made good relationships through fighting and is short. This antithesis of her own self disgust her; in her mind she cannot stand how this person contradicts all her beliefs about fighting. The majority of the series focus on this interesting love-hate relationship between this tall edgy delinquent and this small energetic girl that fights for fun.

Teppuu is a series with amazing potential to tell character driven drama or even romance about a girl making genuine connections and happiness from the very thing that she has despised about herself. I was so invested with the relationship of Natsuo and Yuzuko as I really enjoyed the interesting contrasting dynamic of these characters. There were also other interesting side characters but they were given too little time and development to be interesting which is due to the seemingly rushed ending of the series.

The series unfortunately ended at its most interesting. Natsuo just started to discover a newfound thrill in fighting and is at her first steps at making a new friend and rival. As much as I loved this series, it hung me up and left me standing. Not faulting anyone or anything, the writer probably have some pressure with the distributor or whatever I don't know. But I just cannot stop thinking about the possibilities and potential for this series because its setting is just so good. Oh what the hell, I'ma go read some Teppuu fanfic now to satisfy this void. Despite its lackluster 'ending' I still recommend it.