King Bottom

A manga about a horny teenager who’s the victim of bullies. It leads to him joining the gymnastics club and discovering his natural talent for it.

I personally didn’t like this one very much. You have a pretty orthodox sports narrative about a bullied kid that discovers a natural talent for a sport(in this case gymnastics) similar to Hajime no Ippo. But he’s also a pervy scumbag who was peeping on the female gymnasts with his friends. They’re caught in the act of voyeurism by their bullies who threaten to leak evidence to the rest of the school and that leads to them being forced to try vaulting. It’s here where our protagonist shows off his natural ability to jump high. Afterwords the bullies leak the photo of them peeping and they’re ostracized in school. He’s invited to join the gymnastics team by the very girl they were spying on, who is completely oblivious and naive about his horny nature.

Eventually he starts competing and building his skills as a gymnast. There’s even a reveal that his bully is the brother of the lady coach and was a former gymnast who quit. At the end, photos of the nice girl are leaked throughout the school and the horny teen is blamed for the act. He’s forced out from the team but he’s come to love gymnastics and in the end his innocence is proven.

My biggest problem with this series is the voyeurism. Why do we need to keep perpetuating the concept that peeping as a thing male teenagers do? The act of voyeurism is treated lightheartedly and that really annoyed me. Also the teen would constantly rub one out so he could enter ‘Sage Time’ and become super focused. It’s really tasteless humor and when paired with the peeping it just made me cringe.

This manga really wasn’t for me.

~dakazu