Review: DICK FIGHT ISLAND

 Look, I'm not above cashing in on social media trends around here, especially if it means righting a wrong from last year's Holiday Reviews at the same time.

DICK FIGHT ISLAND (Hachinin no Senshi), by Reibun Ike.  First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2021.

PLOT:

On the faraway islands of Pulau Yang Indah, eight strapping young warriors are gathering for a sacred tournament held every four years.  Their battles are waged not with weapons, but instead with sex.  The combatants use their bodies and elaborate penile armor to expose their opponents, make them come first, until only one is left to become king of the islands.  Harto is one of those eight young men, having spent the last few years far away at college.  Harto is up against a bevy of hot, well-built men but he hopes to use a secret technique learned abroad to help him win.

STORY:

Dick Fight Island has gotten a lot of attention since its release, even from those who might not otherwise pick up a BL manga.  I'm sure that its attention-grabbing name did a lot of the work, but there's plenty of good stuff to be found here beyond that title.

Honestly, I'm impressed with how much story Ike comfortably fits within this single volume.  Within the framework of the tournament, she deftly juggles Harto's own arc with the relationship between the various pairs of opponents, Harto's foreign boyfriend Matthew, Harto's dad (and his own relationship) and fills in any gaps with little bits of world-building, most of which is inserted quite organically.  All of it is paced just right, being neither too rushed nor too leisurely, and while there is plenty of smut it never overtakes the story entirely.

She also strikes the perfect tone.  It's not an outright comedy, as all the romantic drama and tournament jockeying is treated as seriously as anything.  Yet there's also an undercurrent of cheekiness, as if Ike knows she's getting away with something.  She knows that this whole premise is kind of ridiculous but she's having fun with it, and her writing invites the reader to do the same in an almost irresistible fashion.

ART:

It also helps that Ike's art is legitimately handsome.  Her men tend to be tall and strapping, although the eight warriors themselves range in size and build from "twink" to "brick shithouse."  She clearly had lots of fun coming up with their unique (and skimpy) battle costumes, especially when it came to designing all the various, sinuous forms of penis armor.  

She also clearly had lots of fun with all the sexy stuff.  There are indeed plenty of dicks in Dick Fight Island and the only thing censoring any of them is a single, skinny strip of screentone.  It certainly does little to inhibit all the various ways that people can touch, rub, and lick them during the course of the story, although Ike has enough restraint to not take things to hentai levels of fluid and excess.  

PRESENTATION:

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the title choices.  The original translates to merely "The 8 Warriors," which is truthful but boring.  Whomever at SuBLime decided that this manga needed a better, punchier, more direct title deserves a raise.  Its bluntness piques curiosity and demands your attention.  It is proof that sometimes taking liberties with a translation works in favor of a manga, not against it.

RATING:

Dick Fight Island was indeed worth the wait.  It's a beautifully crafted balance of story and smut, delivered with a wink and a nudge and art to match.  Even those who don't normally go for manga about hot guys banging have enjoyed it, and that onto itself is proof of its quality.

This series is published by Viz via their SuBLime imprint.  This series is ongoing with 2 volumes available.  Both volumes have been published and are currently in print.