Real Bout High School, Volume 1
Reviewed by: Jade

The first chapter into Reiji Saiga and Sora Inoue’s hit manga, Real Bout High School, certainly shows what the manga is really about. If you like unnecessary yet beautiful fight scenes, a manly teenaged boy with an insatiable stomach, and above-average chests on high school girls, Real Bout High School is for you.

            Real Bout High School settles on several characters who attend Daimon High School, a high school overpopulated with martial art-related clubs. There’s the most popular tomboy in school, Ryoko Mitsurugi, a talented Kendo Club member with a complex about her height. Although she is an excellent fighter handling a samurai spirit, Ryoko finds that beating them all—“them” meaning, evil-doers, jealous chicks, and random fighters—isn’t always a one-person job. After Ryoko’s best friend, the meek and un-fighting Hitomi, is attacked on the street, Ryoko manages to beat up several punks before one holds Hitomi hostage. Enter Shizuma Kusunagi, another outstanding fighter and walking stomach, who becomes Hitomi’s unlikely savior—if he had eaten, that is.

            The conversation and meal following the butt-kicking leads Ryoko and Hitomi to form an unlikely and largely unwanted relationship with the rough stranger. Ironically, another fight ends their Mc-Meal-and-Dining, where Shizuma actually saves Ryoko and Hitomi from a perverted general with handcuffs. A chapter and a tournament later, Shizuma transfers to Ryoko’s school, introducing the K-Fight Tournament, the new mediator between the overwhelming clubs.

            The story at this point proves to be fast-moving, almost making the story have no build-up towards its fight scenes. The key word here is “almost”. Throughout the rest of the volume, latter fight sequences prove to be climatic, but disappointingly, end with a corny character poise. I speculate the first fight scenes of the manga were meant to stimulate interest and desensitize the reader to the reality of fighting. I mean, getting pummeled by a kendo stick isn’t exactly painless.

            While the fight scenes take up the majority of the manga, there are moments of short-lived “slowness” where regular dialogue between the characters and thought bubbles uncover their personalities. The personalities in the manga are almost as clashing as Daimon High’s clubs, but those same personalities also help to explain certain people or particular events for the story to progress and the characters to grow. Both interesting and dull personalities emerge as the story deepens, making the manga even more fascinating.

            Shizuma’s active and rough-kid nature makes the plot the most interesting, lighting Ryoko’s laid-back and somewhat vain personality. Daisaku, Shizuma’s sweet-natured side-kick, is the male equivalent to Hitomi. Both Daisaku and Hitomi serve to explain circumstances to their best friends and broaden Ryoko’s and Shizuma’s personalities by predicting their behaviors. Besides just the usual characters in a high school story—over-zealous Principal Todo, busty Nurse Hishinuma, and embittered teacher, Mister Saotome—there are minor yet important characters in the story that move it along. These characters include Tatsuya, Ryoko’s love interest; Azumi Kiribayashi, Ryoko’s ever-smiling rival; Daichikoga, a sophomore fighter with an old face; and Natsumi Fujishima, the student announcer of all events. They move the story along while keeping the speedy flow of the manga intact.

            One aspect about the manga that makes it a good read is its consistency. The dialogue, the movements, the layout, the reading flow—they’re all consistent throughout the manga. There are no awkward transitional scenes. The artwork looks like the same artist drew it. Even the personalities in the manga—from the first introduction to their thoughts and stances in their fight scenes—are true to the individual’s nature. The consistency for every panel of each page proves how much effort the manga-ka placed in Real Bout High School.

              In all honesty, the good points rack up on Real Bout High School. It has everything anyone would want in a manga: beautiful artwork, fights, busty cute girls, fights, muscular boys, fights, and loads and loads of humor. It is easy to join in the monotone fun without getting lost in a sea of unknown characters and clumsy dialogue. There isn’t much I can hold against the manga.

            I suppose the only down points would be the constant barrage of (covered) busts and revealed panties in most scenes. But then again, since when were above-average chests and panties down points?