
Links go to search results. Availability varies by region.
ι€ηΌδΌ
238
25
On Hiatus
Jun 26, 1996 to Oct 12, 2010
7.5/10
Average Review Score
100%
Recommend It
2
Reviews Worldwide
Garouden is the manga adaptation of the famous Martial Arts franchise of the same name, if you are a Baki the Grappler enjoyer you probably has heard of this series due to them having the same Artist and Martial Arts enthusiast, Keisuke Itagaki, and well, you wouldn't be wrong if you guessed that both of these manga are extremely similar to each other, to the point that nowadays, Garouden has been retconned to be part of the same universe as Baki, the series also suffers from the same issues and problems i have with Baki so it's similarities aren't that great of a thing. The Art:Itagaki's art style is very "peculiar" and odd looking, for some it can look ugly, gross, unappealling, etc, but i really like he's artstyle, i'd even say it's one of my favorite art styles in the manga industry, the over-the-top expressions and the easy to follow action scenes are extremely satisfying and easy to get through, the art has an certain fluidity to it, you can also see a lot of the artists evolution through out the years, since the series started in the mid 90s and only "concluded" in the early 2010s. 9/10 Characters: Tanba Bunshichi is the main character, and he is alright, not great just alright, he is a cocky dojo crasher who only lives for fighting, he also doesn't really care about honor or any traditions since he isn't above using dirty tricks to win street brawls, but much like in Baki the side-characters are the ones that steal the show, but in Garouden this is taken to a even further extent because there are entire story arcs that Tanba is barely even a side-character or isn't even present, like in Tatsumi's arc or the "Fist and Twist Tournament arc" where the Wrestler Hiroshi Nagata is pretty much the main character, the main "Villain" if you even could call him that is Shozan Matsuo and he is build up to be one of the Strongest Men in the world but a fight with him never happens so he doesn't really do much aside from Organizing the Tournament. 5.5/10 Story: Well not much to be said here since what moves the story are the fights which don't have much writing except for the Martial Arts stuff and characters reading their opponents, the best story arc by far though is Tatsumi's arc, where we actually get some clever writing and some emotional stakes it is short but it serves as a pretty good backstory for the character, the following arc is the Tournament, where Grapplers and Strikers test their skills to prove who's the strongest of them all, it is very similar to the Maximum Tournament in Baki the problem here is that the battles are extremely short, lasting for only 1 chapter, 2 if you are lucky, which is very small in comparison to the Maximum Tournament which had fights last for at least 3 chapters, most fights are extremely one-sided and predictable too, the moment the 2 fighters get revealed you can already tell who'll win, and this becomes very frustrating after nearly 100 chapters of just that, the final arc is nothing to write home about, since it never actually got a conclusion, the manga "ends" before it could do that. 6/10 The "Ending" It seems the Garouden manga was always on and off about chapter releases since Itagaki was working on his own manga he probably couldn't keep up with it, so volume releases were basically more than a year apart from each other, so the manga kinda was in a hiatus until it was confirmed it ended and wouldn't be receiving anymore chapters, the manga basically ends on a big cliffhanger. Overall Enjoyment This a pretty fun Fighting Manga if you turn your brain off, it has it's problems but they aren't that big of a deal, if you like Baki or Tough you'll probably have a blast with Garouden, it also has a pretty cheap but decent 3D fighter for the Ps2 so you can enjoy some even more Garouden content. 7/10
The central plot revolves around a man named Bunshichi Tanba, a dojo-crasher who seeks stronger fighters to prove his strength to himself. While traveling to several schools and challenging the best each had to offer, Tanba came to the FAW (a gym that trains pro-wrestlers) and is pitted against T. Kajiwara. Tanba is defeated and humiliated after realizing that he is not strong enough and disappears for 3 years. Upon his return, he has become nearly unbeatable.
Garouden is my favorite martial arts manga ever, even though i love grappler baki, the last sagas really took a tool on me, Baki dou and Baki dou 2 are really a turn off for the fans, but that is not the subject here ! Garouden is one hell of a ride if you are a martial arts fan, praticioner ou just someone who enjoy combat sports, i am a martial artist since 12 years old, and series like hajime no ippo and baki, especially baki, made me dive into that and train in many styles, and Garouden only made that flame for fighitng insideme burn even more. The story follows Tanba, who is a karateka and also a dojo crasher, he jumps into a wrestling gym that belongs to the FAW, which ends up to be the greatest wrestling federation in Japan, run by the man himself The Great Tatsumi, who is based on the real life wrestling legend Antonio Inoki, there Tanba ends up beating beaten by a wrestler that later becames a fan favorite in the federation, after the lost, Tanba dissapears for 3 years, training around and learning new methods, implementing wrestling techniques to his main karate style. Later he ends up meeting the karate demon Shozan Matsuo, based on the legend of karate, founder of kyokushin styles, Masutatsu Oyama (the style of karate i trained btw XD), when hearing about Tanba, Shozan also creates a interest on the boy, and there the story goes, no spoilers here go read it ! And now i will to a technical review for you to see if that is worth the read. Before i put the points on, it is really worth it XD, the story is nice, but not that dense or elaborated, there are no plot holes or "author forgot" moments, but, there are no super interesting plot twists or stuff like that, the main thing here are the fights, they are realistic, but surreal at the same time, there are no energy blasts, astral projections or weird techniques like some of the Baki ones, even though, there are a lot of superb throws and strikes, but it is nice to see and you know it haha. A great positive point for the series is that every character gets they spotlight, and the protagonist has to grow alongside everyone, he is not super milestone ahead of the others, from the beginning there are real treats, and then there is the major positive point for me, they show how someone who is blindfolded by their style will always be wrecked but strong fighters, like karatekas who got twisted by wrestlers and jujutsu specialists that got crashed by karatekas, the ones who train eveything are the strongest, the ones who refine their styles, who are flexible, like bruce lee used to say, we cant stick just to one style, we got to mix it up and make it functional. With that in mind, the major and pretty much only negative point for me, is the fact the story never got a endiing, it is on hiatus since the last chapter, every previous arc was finished, but the last one "the terror of Gozo murase" barely started and the manga ended, sadly we propably will never know how did it end, but it is still worth it, give it a chance guys, i am sure you will LOVE it, i know i did, see ya !