Review contains a few spoilers

"Rikudou" by Toshimitsu Matsubara is a Dark Seinen manga about the sport of boxing. However, it is more than just a sports manga, as it also takes us through the journey of the main character "Riku Azami" to fulfill a promise he made to himself since young as well as the many obstacles and tragedies in life he has to overcome.
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Short summary of the start of the manga:

Spoiler, click to view

We start off with the deuteragonist "Kyousuke Tokorozawa", who is a Yakuza member, forcefully breaking open the door of Riku's family's apartment to collect debt. But as the door breaks, Tokorozawa sees a lifeless body hanging, who happens to be Riku's dad. He had taken his own life after being unable to pay off the debts. Furthermore, Tokorozawa is speechless at the sight of little Riku punching his dad's body, saying it's payback for all the times he had been hit and abused by his dad before. Suddenly Tokorozawa punches Riku in the face, resulting in Riku bleeding, and then says that this is what a jab is. Riku is bleeding from his nose but unfazed, and he listens carefully to Tokorozawa's instructions on how to throw a jab. Fast forward, Riku is picked up by his mother and he expresses his desire to live with her, to which she is uninterested but ultimately agrees. Riku then enters the apartment to see a member of the Yakuza injecting himself with a needle, and the mother begs for drugs to use, hinting that she is an addict. Riku shouts at the Yakuza member to stop abusing his mother and the Yakuza rages, trying to kill Riku, however Riku kills the Yakuza member in self defence using the jab punch that Tokorozawa had taught him. The mother is then arrested and Riku is brought to an orphanage. Riku tries adapting to the new enviroment and a teacher "Ehara" helps the boy with all her heart and he starts opening up. But Riku's actions come to haunt him as Riku and Ehara are suddenly kidnapped by Yakuza for killing one of their mates and the teacher is assaulted by one of the Yakuza as Riku watches helplessly full of tears. Tokorozawa ends up saving the both of them and Ehara disappears as Riku vows to become stronger to protect those important to him. He then is brought to a boxing gym from Tokorozawa's former coach "Baba" and his journey starts here.

"Rikudou" explores multiple themes:

• Trauma & Abuse from a young age and how it affects a child socially and mentally

• Moral Ambiguity as most characters in the manga are criminal or corrupt, blurring the lines between right & wrong

• Self discovery — Riku's journey is not just about becoming stronger, but also about finding meaning beyond his early life trauma and understanding his own emotions and interests

And the one I will elaborate further on:

• Violence as a language and identity

-> From the start of his boxing career, Riku has used Boxing as a means of escaping the world as he spent a lot of time in the gym with Coach Baba to refine his skills and become stronger. He places Boxing as a top priority in his life, leading to him not being a sociable human or being able to communicate well & experience feelings that "normal" humans would. Riku is known and described by those around him as a "Killer", forming an invisible wall between him and the rest of his classmates and peers. Matter of fact, in the first two volumes we see Riku communicate more through physical violence than words. He only knows pain, and that is what he finds in the sport of Boxing: hurting others and being hurt. Boxing becomes an escape from reality and an identity, as Riku once says that he fears becoming "nothing" if he stops improving as a boxer. As Riku's career goes on, he starts learning about things such as emotions and bonds throughout his career fights and slowly starts discovering who he really is & finding out what emotions he really feels. And that is not the case for only Riku, as there are multiple characters in the manga that express their frustrations and wishes through their fists and come to understand things through punches better than with words.

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Art:
"Rikudou" is one of the best manga when it comes to double-page spreads.
You can feel what the characters are feeling through their facial expressions, and the details to the muscles and enviroment are simply brilliant. I'll show some examples below:

_____ Personal Opinion:

In my opinion, Rikudou is one of the best sports manga out there. It's different in the aspect of being a Dark Seinen opposed to the usual Shounen we see in sports manga. It doesn't just show the protagonist's journey to success in his career, but it reflects on the deep past and trauma of each character. The whole cast is interesting in their own categories and they are all lovable. My favourite characters are: Riku Azami, Seiji Kamishiro, Yuki Naeshiro, Shinji Baba & Yuichi Mihara. I love how close to reality the manga is, as it explores a lot of emotions as well as issues of today such as trauma, lack of emotional understanding, hatred, love, passion, setting priorities, discipline and sacrifice. It also displays that characters cannot easily change, it takes time and effort, which makes it feel more "real". I also LOVE the dynamic and the story between Riku and Yuki and how they live most of their life together, learning to love and understand each other little by little, leading to them realizing how each of them is so important to the other. The fights are pure adrenaline and just so beautifully drawn that it's addicting, so much so that I binged the whole manga in about 3 days.

The only problem that I have is that the ending feels a bit rushed, the author could have taken about 10 additional chapters to make the ending feel "naturally" paced.
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All in all, I can say for myself that I really enjoyed reading "Rikudou", and if you are a fan of Seinen sports manga then I definitely recommend this!