Embers

Manga got axed and literally no one is surprised. Embers is a standard high school football manga about a delinquent finding his love for the game and his journey throughout his career. Despite the lack of team sports animanga, Embers somehow found a way to lack any originality. The main character and his journey takes a lot from Sakuragi from Slam Dunk, with his playstyle being a more overexaggerated version of Ashito from Aoi Ashi. The premise and the school the MC eventually goes to is also inspired by Aoi Ashi, and the protagonist's relationship with his eventual duo being ripped off from Haikyuu. Embers hasno sense of originality, so what did the author do to make it stand out? MAKE THINGS EDGY. Characters in the series are always either depicted as clouded with black aura/mist, have their faces blacked out but with a glowing eye glare, or being compared to a ruthless predator. The panels and art play into this, as scenes tend to turn darker and make things seem edgier and serious than it should. The series also lacks from not-so-good writing syndome. The first couple chapters are rushed and every match follows the formula of "Just wait until the MC gets here!". Many character interactions and development happen off screen, in fact, a good amount of the characters in this series get off-screened. Despite football being a team sport, the manga only shows off 3 players from the main team. Most likely because those 3 players were the only ones the author was able to make interesting. Overall, Embers is nothing special. It suffers from a lack of good writing and heavily depends on edgy and overexaggerated artwork in order to keep the reader engaged. It lacks any sense of identity aside from being the "edgy football manga".