Holiday Review #1: TEPPU!

 It's time for another round of Holiday Reviews and we're start this year off much in the same way that we ended the last one: with a review of a manga that had been requested so often and for so long for licensing that it had become something of a joke...until it was finally picked up and released this year.

TEPPU!, by Moare Ota.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

Natsuo Ishido is a born athlete.  Tall and strong, she's always been able to achieve at every sport she tries.  Then the new Brazilian exchange student Yuzuko convinces her to try the new mixed martial arts club.  For the first time in a long time, Natsuo feels genuinely challenged.  Maybe it's just the novelty of the sport.  Maybe it's just a desire to wipe that fulfilled smile off of Yuzuko's face.  Either way, Natsuo is determined to show them just what she can do with her fists.

STORY:

For ages I've heard people despair about how we never get any good girls' sports manga here in the US.  When we do, they tend to focus either on fanservice or drama and the girls themselves tend to be designed more for audience appeal than athleticism.  Teppu! was always held up as one of the rare exceptions to these trends, with its focus on MMA fighting and a female cast more concerned with their fighting prowess than their prettiness.  While some may still lament that Kodansha weren't willing to go so far as to put this into print, I can say with confidence that Teppu! lives up to the hype.

Natsuo is a bitch, and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible.  She is a legitimately talented athlete, far more than most of her peers...to the point that she's become bored, jaded, and arrogant.  She's unable (or unwilling) to admit to her frustration, much less her jealousy of those who still have enthusiasm for their sport of choice.  This stew of feelings has led her to hop from one sports club to another, leaving once she gets bored and leaving a lot of sore feelings in her wake.  This goes doubly true for the karate club, where clearly there was some major drama in the past between Natsuo and club leader Sanae that nobody quite yet wants to explain to the reader.

In short, she's kind of a mess and I love her for it.  She couldn't be any further removed from the sorts of protagonists we typically get in sports stories.  She's too experienced and talented to fit with the hapless nobodies who find friendship and purpose through a sport, and she's far too cynical to fit with 'be the greatest [insert sports/hobby here] ever!" crowd.  Sure, she has a competitive streak, but it's one fueled more by spite than sportsmanship.  It's so rare to see a female protagonist in a sports manga be this complex and unflattering and it's precisely those qualities that make her so fascinating.

Fortunately, her foils couldn't be any less different.  Yuzuko and her friend/amateur MMA fighter Lindsay are both lovable, eager dorks.  Natsuo's attempts at bullying roll right off their backs, and their goofiness belies the skill the both of them possess as fighters.  Sadly, we don't get to see just how these personalities will clash just yet - this volume is by and large a showcase for Natsuo - but I've seen enough to give me hope that these clashes will be as entertaining and fierce.

ART:

Ota's art remind me quite a bit of Masukazu Ishiguro or Kiyohiko Azuma.  The characters are built along similarly basic designs, but like them Ota is good at getting across their personalities through movement, posing, and subtle facial expressions.  Furthermore, the ladies aren't designs for sex appeal.  Natsuo and Sanae have strong jawlines, moderately stout builds, and hairstyles made for action over fashion.  While Yuzuko and Lindsay are more gracile and ostensibly cute, that same practicality is present in them too.  If anything, their cuteness only furthers the contrast between their unassuming look and their skills.

Ota doesn't slack off on the fighting either.  Their approach is frank but powerful, able to sell not just the speed and power behind each move.  The fights we've seen so far are fairly basic (be they training sessions, public demonstrations, or just personal scrabbles), but it's easy to visually follow each punch, kick, and bit of footwork.  It's not a flashy-looking manga, but like its cast there's a lot of skill just under the surface.

RATING:

Even if you couldn't care less about MMA fighting, you owe it to yourself to check out Teppu!.  It's a damn good character piece, a damn good sports series, and a series that deserves to find the audience that needs it.

This series is published by Kodansha.  It is complete in Japan with 8 volumes available.  4 volumes have been released digitally and are currently in print.

Our Holiday Review Giveaway is underway!  Just leave a comment here or on our BlueSky about your favorite manga of 2023 to potentially win a $25 Bookshop.org gift certificate!  Contest ends on midnight Christmas Day.