Saotome Senshu, Hitakakusu

Manga about a gifted female high school boxer who conceals her relationship with boy who is a gifted trainer but an awful boxer.

Manga artist Naoki Mizuguchi’s previous series was a comedy about a failing manga artist so I was surprised with this book. That’s not to say this manga doesn’t have funny moments, but the emphasis is on how cute the protagonist Saotome is. Saotome herself is drawn with a very muscular figure and the gap between her boxing strength and her desire to be more girly feeds into her tsudere appeal.

I would usually be apposed to this kind of manga but I liked Mizuguchi’s other work and the fan service in this manga is mostly of Saotome’s 6-pack abs so I didn’t bother me. This series is muscle fetish friendly, I suppose.

~dakazu