Teppuu offers an interesting look into the talent vs hard work conflict in life. Almost like, and unlike, Blue Period, it tapps into the emotions of what it's like to go through life with pure talent on your side.

Through the art of beating the shit out of each other, aka, MMA

While the art itself isn't the most impressive thing in manga's endless catalogue, it makes up for it in how it panels action scenes. A lot of mangaka struggle to draw action scenes, but for this mangaka, they have a solid grasp on it while being able to show the actions these athletes take to do grabs and throws.

At first, the action scenes don't really get your heart rushing at the start. You're caught off guard by its deception of violence, but most of the manga is actually setting you up on the basics of MMA.
Because then it leads you to volumes 6 to 8.
Where the action hits you full force

Now, to address that talent vs hard work, we go to Natsuo and Yuzuko.
Natsuo feels alone because of her athletic talents. She wants to be someone who works hard, climbs up the ranks, and takes down her rivals with a smile on her face. But she never seems to find someone on the same level as her.
As a result, she's endlessly bored and wonders what life would have been like without her talents.

Then she meets Yuzuko, who is her dream personified—someone with zero talent but a lot of hard work under her belt. It doesn't matter if the training is boring or repetitive; she is still going to have that blazing smile.

This presents some interesting frameworks later in the story that I won't spoil, such as how people react to Yuzuko and Natuso's personal struggles.

Which gives a freaking awesome battle at the end

Volume 8, the final volume, is only this fight, giving you the feeling that you have been waiting 20 years for this encounter. The mangaka must have put everything he had into creating such a great battle between these two; despite how little they actually get to be together, you can taste their pure rivalry.

Sadly, it ends with the reality that this manga isn't all that long. It feels like it could be a lot longer, with a lot more fighters for both of these two to face. While Natuso's arc feels complete, you're left wondering more about Yuzuko and what she's seeking in all of this.
I would have loved to see things from her perspective as Natsuo trains her way up in this tournament called the G-Girl, which declares the winner as the strongest woman in the world.
Writing that out and how the story builds it up excites me again.

There's also this element of tension in the female MMA of actually getting the sport to air and such on TV. From what I learned from a friend and the manga itself, despite how good the female athletes are, it's still tough to have viewership. Therefore, they must pull off staged stuff or a unique story to get things heated up for people to tune in. This is an element that gets expanded on with the final fight because everyone, no matter the gender, gets so caught in it that I wanted to see the effects this had.

But I won't get to see any of that because it ends right when things are getting so good.

It's disappointing.

But I am glad that this manga still exists. These ideas have gotten me so excited that I want to get into female MMA!
And if that's what the mangaka wanted me to feel at the end, I'm happy for that at least.