Martial arts is a genre that I love dearly in this medium, but sadly is one that I find boringly traversed these days. In my eyes, most are defined by a gimmick that quickly wears out or overstays its welcome and becomes erratic. Really, only a handful of releasing series in the past decade had decent competency, namely OPM, Reiri, Batuque and Hinomaru Sumo and a few Bakis. Unsurprisingly, there's been a shift in the genre's landscape compared to a couple of decades ago. There tends to be more focus on hype characters/moments and gimmicks, like the battle royale format or isekai, which mostly comes off as cheap and monotonous in my eyes. This isn't where I raise a pitchfork and demand a return to traditional values, though. There are series that fit this described mold somewhat, yet possess refreshing value. Tsuyoshi being the fore front runner.
As a simple analogy, Tsuyoshi reads off like a cynical blend of OPM and Baki.
The impervious, ordinary-looking protagonist. I blame a certain manwha for spreading this trope like wildfire in god-knows how many manwha and manhua, often reducing it to "aura farming" and fast power development for easy dopamine. Obviously, there's no merit in criticizing brain-rot for being brain-rot and I enjoy it as much as the average 16 year-old Indian. But there's not much thematic presence in how this trope is typically done OPM, however, did it extremely well in its comedic relief with Saitama indifferently one-shotting monsters but also presenting the consequential emotional isolation of being the strongest. Tsuyoshi does this and adds even richer characterization.
Tsuyoshi wears his heart on his sleeve. He's one of the strongest characters in the series and emotionally and mentally the weakest. Martial arts mangaka generally follow two lines of writing or some variant in regards to their protagonists; a weak underdog rising and coming up on top or a strong individual with some lofty goal. The point being that the protagonists possess or develop an iron-clad mental fortitude that applies beyond fighting and to our mundane lives. Tsuyoshi, however, does not. 300 chapters thus far, and he has, does and likely for the foreseeable future will have a child's emotional and mental intelligence.
Tsuyoshi mocks the genre. The cookie-cutter martial arts, or general action shounen, protagonist's strength and character development grow in tandem, while Tsuyoshi stagnates. His romantic endeavors have failed thrice in a row, his estranged family relationships grow further estranged, he loses his legal identity as a result of political strife, he's extremely inept at the single thing he's passionate about, all his circumstances eventually result in unwanted conflict. All of these consequences of his strength. It's mockingly comical how, rather than gaining, Tsuyoshi continuously finds himself in deeper loss because of his power, both in the material and character sense. And ironically, this anti-genre approach is what makes Tsuyoshi a worthy inheritor of my favorite golden-age martial arts series, in its originality by breaking away from the mold. The most important aspect of any martial arts series that I value is subversion. There's no point in fights if the audience already knows the outcome, lest you're doing parlays. And subverting other areas of writing benefits this, which I find is Tsuyoshi's brilliance.
Going on a brief tangent, Baki remains my all-time favorite martial arts series. For pure-blooded martial arts series, I find it very rare to find one that imposes its side characters as fully-functional rather than vehicles for the protagonist's development and fight scenes. Certainly, there's Baki's longevity to credit, but Itagaki's proficient in imbuing his characters with their own martials art philosophies and personalities that make every interaction, both mundane and exciting, charming and ridiculous. Maruyama writes in a lesser, but similar vein. Tsuyoshi possesses both comical charm that doesn't wring out the same gimmick and bears characters with circumstances that aren't solely external vehicles. Teru being one such great instance, exemplified by his fall-from-grace, his ascent, another fall-from-grace and another ascent but with very different and interesting circumstances and characterization in each scenario.
The characters gravitate to Tsuyoshi for his strength with interesting motives that pave way to exciting conflicts, which instill him and others with characterization. The China/Japan vs Russia arc being another great example. It transformed the overpowered protagonist bit into a Cold War reenactment. Although not nearly as ludicrous as Baki, Tsuyoshi maintains a ridiculous plot at times, but the progression is sensible and keeps the audience excited. It doesn't rely on a tired out gimmick to retain entertainment value, Tsuyoshi draws from its characters, plot progression and fights to continue interest. The gimmicks don't tire themselves out, either. Maruyama surprisingly retained the simp gimmick's comedic value longer than I expected, but also wrote it into Tsuyoshi's character development as of late. Same application with Teru's one-sided bromance. It's extremely satisfying to see a mangaka competent in keeping his sources of entertainment refreshing for over 300 chapters at this point in time.
Refreshing martial arts manga are a scarcity these days and Tsuyoshi is the golden child among them. Maruyama has proved great competency in making an original mold out of the overpowered protagonist trope. He maintains a great balance between sensibility and ludicrous, gimmicks and somber characterization, and exciting plot progressions throughout 300 chapters thus far. In today's martial arts landscape riddled with one-trick gimmicks, Tsuyoshi traverses it as my number one favorite manga at the moment. Perhaps others may find it ridiculous or generic, but I believe that there's well-thought out writing behind it that continues to keep me immersed.
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