Do Retry was an interesting series. It was set in a post-World War II Japan with a sick sister and rough brother who gets pulled into underground boxing tournaments to try to raise money to help his sister.
The series followed Aozora as he tried to raise the money for his sick sister by boxing. The series progressively gets better as it goes on as Aozora learns to be a better boxer. It was an interesting, and grittier sports / boxing manga.
All that said, when it was clear the series was being canceled - the way it ended was...less than stellar. Aozora's father was a Japanese soldier in World War II. And disappeared.
But, then is discovered to be living in the wilderness for reasons, hiding from all of his problems.
And then Aozora finds him using his underground criminal friends to help. And then they box. And Aozora kind of wins, kind of. Mostly makes his Dad realize he needs to go home and stop hiding from reality.
And then it just...ends there with the sister becoming quickly better. Surviving. And then a time jump to modern times where Aozora is merely a dying grandfather whose life story encourages his young adult grandson to be more motivated to folow his dreams.
It's...okay. Early chapters were a little rough, but the middle chapters really hung on & hit its stride.
TL;DR - This boxing manga series gets better & better until the Dad is revealed and...eh, it ends. And the timejump was unnecessary.
June 26, 2023 - #Jump Reading List:
Akane-baneshi
Blue Box
Do Retry
Fabricant 100
Ice-Head Gill*
Martial Master Asumi
Mashle
Me & Roboco
Mission: Yozakura Family
My Hero Academia
Sakamoto Days
Spy X Family
Witch Watch
Akane-Banashi - Wow! Hikaru's performance is going over incredibly well. Her ability to transition between characters and completely change her voice is incredible.
And...it's all to beat Akane. I love how Akane is driving her & the two of them are going to have such an amazing rivalry.
Love it.
Also, I had to grab this screenshot. It captures the chapter & Hikaru / Akane's interactions so well.
June 11, 2023 - #Jump Reading List:
Akane-baneshi
Blue Box
Do Retry
Fabricant 100
Mashle
Me & Roboco
Mission: Yozakura Family
One Piece
Sakamoto Days
Spy X Family
Witch Watch
Akane-Banashi - Phew. Kaichi finished up and did a fantastic job earning high marks. While others seemed confused by it, Akane got it. Kaichi kept the audience in mind the entire time & it worked very well.
Hikaru is up next and she's already told Akane that her goal is to beat her. Period. Can't wait to see how she does next chapter!
One Piece - We finish the end of the Reverie story and my goodness. It's wild. And this evil monarch character in addition to plots to basically control the entire world by quelling all the things...is now obsessed with Vivi. That's not good.
May 21, 2023 - #Jump Reading List:
Akane-baneshi
Blue Box
Do Retry
Fabricant 100
Jiangshi X
Mashle
Me & Roboco
Mission: Yozakura Family
My Hero Academia
Nue's Exorcist
One Piece
Sakamoto Days
Tenmaku Cinema
Witch Watch
Akane-Banashi - The next stage of our competitive #rakugo tournament begins. The first competitor is fierce, but you learn through the chapter how things are scored.
There's weighting taken into account from streamers, people in person, and the judges. It's a wild system set up by Master Ikken, but it...actually sounds fair. It's just really hard to know how to tailor your performance to the scoring system with so many factors in play.
But, this will be interesting. Second performer is up next week and they should be great.
Blue Box - We see how Chinatsu spends her New Years with her grandparents.
After being asked by her Grandfather if she has a special someone in her life, her mind goes to Taiki and we get a bunch of flashbacks from the series so far.
Then the chapter ends with her Grandma telling her that her Grandpa confessed his love by saying that she was the person he wanted to see first thing when she got up. Which is...how Taiki & Chinatsu see each other now.
Do Retry - Solid chapter. Our hero gets his card to be allowed to participate while giving us a well done boxing match. His tenacity is unrivaled and willingness to just get...pummeled until he psyches out his opponent.
But, we also get a clear reminder that this is underground, organized crime. And dangerous.
Fabricant 100 - Okay, wow. This one got...a lot more violent and graphically so at times than I was expecting. 100 gets beaten up a bit by 91 who had been enhanced by Fabricant 1. This led to Fabricant 100 having a flashback to the day they were created / born.
And the scene is horrifying with a flaming, but alive, body of 100.
Again, a lot more graphically violent than the series had been to date in the past few chapters during this current arc.
Jiangshi X - The stakes are raised in Jiangshi X. They found their way to a safe house, but we learn more about the Princess. She is the reincarnated form of previous ones and only she holds the key to releasing the most powerful, evil Jiangshi from history.
So, she says if it looks like she'll get captured, she'll kill herself before allowing them to use her to free the monsters. That will then send her spirit onto the next, new person who becomes the key.
Mashle: Magic and Muscles - Mash is trying to get in close to Innocent Zero. But each attempt gets thwarted. Mash goes back and forth trying. He's okay and has been able to take the brunt of the attack to protect everyone else, but he just can't get in close enough.
Suddenly - a collection of former rivals / enemies arrive on the scene at the end of the chapter to help. They're going to try to distract Innocent Zero so Mash can get in close.
In some cases, the whole "enemies now come to help you out" trope falls flat, but for me - it works here.
A core part of Mash's character is that him working without magic & keeping up with everyone; protecting even his enemies; displaying love / compassion - these keep impacting everyone around him. It has been central to both his character and the entire story to date.
So, his enemies coming to help him save the world is a natural progression that I'm here for.
Mission: Yozakura Family - They meet their oldest aunt, who still looks like a child. Hifumi wants to fight her...like a lot in order to get their stamp & because she feels like Alpha likes their aunt more than her.
May 14, 2023 - #Jump Reading List:
Akane-baneshi
Beat and Motion
Blue Box
Do Retry
Fabricant 100
Mashle
Me & Roboco
Mission: Yozakura Family
My Hero Academia
Nue's Exorcist*
One Piece
Sakamoto Days
Spy X Family
Tenmaku Cinema
Witch Watch
Fabricant 100 - Wow. So we get into the mind of Fabricant 1, who is the oldest of all the fabricants and wants to create the perfect person. They're obsessed with it. So, they're making...their own fabricants, it seems.
It was not fully clear. But the chapter ends with 100 decapitating a group of soldiers that 1 had around them.
Mashle: Magic and Muscles - Innocent Zero fully reveals their new, "god-like" form. They use long, dramatic words to tell the people to bow before their might.
Mash then deadpan asks IZ to use smaller words.
The chapter ends with Innocent Zero acting like they can stop anything, even as Mash keeps deflecting everything thrown at him.
Then again, IZ says its over at the end of the chapter. So, we know it isn't.
Nue's Exorcist - Okay, so first chapter of a new series. It kicks off by introducing us to Gokuro Yajima who sees spirits. Also, his Dad was murdered by a spirit.
Then he meets Nue - a spirit who hangs around in a school classroom playing video games / playing manga. She has some ulterior motive, I'm sure, but she is tied to the school and offers powers to Gokuro to defeat some problematic spirits in the school.
Eventually he says yes. And the chapter ends with the premise set.
One Piece - So, we're getting a flashback story from Sabo about what happened at Sacred Marijoa. Sabo says they completed their main goals, but now it's time to tell what really happened to King Cobra and Vivi.
Can't wait to see this.
Even if it means likely a few weeks of side story without the Straw Hat crew.