All Rounder Meguru

All Rounder Meguru does a great job at what it sets out to do: make a realistic mma (shooto) series. The main character is a high school students who lives a normal life, who happens to practice mma after school. He isn’t some martial arts genius, he isn’t born with insane punching power, and he doesn’t have an in-humane work ethic.. Hell he doesn’t even have a speciality. He lacks most martial arts manga tropes that would serve to disconnect him from reality. This allows us as the audience dive deep into his journey. All Rounder Meguru does not have a very distinct artstyle, and sometimes characters are hard to tell apart. The manga refuses to include anything that would suspend disbelief, like fancy hairstyles or exaggerated personalities. This can be seen both as a strength and a detriment, as it pushes you more into the view of realism, but also lacks the staying power in your mind. Where the art style does shine is in the fights. The author clearly has a strong understanding of real life mma, as the characters always use realistic and grounded movements and techniques, which makes the fights flow better between panels. There were very few times where I got confused with how someone ended up in a certain position, and when that did happen it was usually on purpose to demonstrate a high level (yet real) transition or technique. Also, thanks to the grounded style of the manga, the exciting moments don’t have to be the characters doing some secret clan explosive technique. Whether it’s a well timed sweep, a beautiful takedown, or a great striking sequence, the moments that would make a viewer excited in a real life mma match carry over into the manga, meaning that there is very little required suspension of disbelief. This also rewards us as readers, after watching the main character work hard, seeing the things he did in practice used in the ring. The characters in this manga also go through very real struggles, Meguru, our protagonist, has no idea what his goal really is. He doesn’t have a typical martial arts manga “dream to become the strongest,” as in the real world that dream just isn’t really practical. They play with a more typical manga protagonist with Takashi (the secondary protagonist), giving him a tragic backstory and making him fall into other tropes, but at every turn he is beaten down by real life into becoming more of a normal, realistic person. What this manga does well, it does really well. It gives you an insight to what a high schooler who has a hobby’s life is like, as he struggles his way through the mma world while trying to understand himself. The character design leaves a bit to be asked for, and most characters aren’t very memorable, but overall it is a enjoyable experience, especially if you love martial arts.

From start to finish it's a masterpiece. If you've done any amount of Muay Thai, BJJ, Boxing, or Wrestling this is the manga for you. The art is also super realistic and fluid, really helps you imagine the tweens between each frame drawn. The characters are likable and full. No random melodrama or dark backstories. Real people in the real world. I personally enjoyed the entire series from beginning to end, even the extra 5 chapters. The stories are fun and realistic. It ends well too. Most importantly it stays realistic in its depiction of MMA as well as its characters.

A realistic take on the MMA sport. All-rounder meguru (ARM) is about a Boy named meguru without Ambition. He is a decent grappler, decent boxer, decent Karate expert, Decent martial artist. You could call him... AN ALL ROUNDER. He meets his childhood friend a man who is filled with ambition. They both meet in an amateur contest once again. While Takeshi keeps going forward wanting to be the very best like no one ever was. Meguru continues doing MMA for fun. So these 2 just sorta have this push and pull momentum going with each other. All-rounder Meguru was more tame than i was expecting. After readingthrough Eden Its an endless world. You'd expect more graphic nudity and violence. There is very little of that. The story aren't just wildly different but ARM is much more grounded. Instead of opting for an over the top spectacle. ARM grounds itself, and succeeds with surprising success. Now the strong points of ARM would probably be the supporting cast, The action and the pay off. The supporting characters are very dynamic. Feeling like they have there own place in the world, rather than being stepping stones for the main character. This does bring some issues to the pacing. But is largely controlled. The action on top of it is very exciting. Especially in regards to the boxing and grappling. There is something really satisfying watching a rear choke, going into a triangle choke, going into a leg choke, going into a back choke, going into an arm bar etc. Its just insane seeing all the techniques play out. The action is very satisfying and the author clearly understands what the audience wants to see. Another thing is the pay off. After all the fighting there is a satisfying crack with each end making the fight significantly more exciting. In regards to the bad though there is a decent amount. I don't know who started it but screw you man. When i'm watching a fight go down the last thing i need is 2 chapters of back story of how badly the other guy wants to win. Its one thing to add a few panels giving motivation and explaining character moves. But when you dedicate entire chapters to it. You slam the breaks on the pacing. All rounder Meguru is no exception to this rule. Another issue i had was Meguru himself. Even though the cast is very dynamic the main character is very dull. The reason for that is basically is that he has no ambition. He's doing MMA for fun. Granted there is this likable characteristic from this but that doesn't change the fact that Meguru likes a lot of charisma that the other characters have. Takeshi, His rival is so much more interesting and i would've loved to see more of him even though he is already a major part of the story. The Female fighters is also a decent sized portion in this series. The odd part about it though is that the female fighting seems to be more violent than the male MMA fights. Kind of odd but maybe its the author's way of showing Female MMA's can just be as brutal. The romance, comedy didn't really land for me albeit a conclusion was welcomed. The ending was good as well. Did i want more? sure. But thats more in regards to wanting more of a good series in general. TLDR: Strong cast, entertaining action with good ending. Rather than saying this series has bad parts its more like it has good parts just that it never really reaches the heights of top tier series. Arguable the most consistent good series I've read to date. 7/10