Neru: Way of the Martial Artist: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes (Patreon)

Manga Details

• Author: Minya Hiraga
• Author’s other works: All he’s done
• Run dates: Jul 5, 2021 to Nov 15, 2021
• Chapters/Volumes: 18/3

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Neruma Isami is a high school kid living in the woods with his grandpa, a great martial artist who left him one day. All Neru has left of him is a how-to book of martial arts. One day he is discovered and fought by Akebi, a strong and pretty girl who invites him to her dojo.
  • Once there, Neru is elated to find more kids his age who like martial arts. He shows off his skills including his POWERFUL FLAT FEET but is defeated in a duel by Akebi’s twin brother Jokuro. Jokuro says that he’ll only fight Neru again if he gets the top scores on the entrance exam to their MARTIAL ARTS HIGH SCHOOL
  • Neru fails to come in first but it’s cool because it turns out that his grandpa also attended the school and was the best student ever, and Jokuro says he’ll fight Neru again if he matches that.
  • 
    
  • While at the school, Neru meets Kaname, who is a great archer but is written very poorly so she immediately gets a crush on him.
  • After Kaname’s brother kicks him out of the dorms because she forced him to look at her bra, Neru is sent to live in a shack with a depressed guy who fights with acupuncture named Satomi Ryuzen

Ryuzen did the best ever on the hunter exam but got really sad when he almost killed someone.

• The two meet an evil nonbinary classmate who’s scary cuz they’re into gay bdsm. They use correct pronouns for one whole chapter.
• 
  
• Depression senpai and Neru fight transphobia kun and random strong guy. Depression senpai punches gay panic kun in the chest, putting them to sleep.
• Neru’s fucking mom shows up and it turns out she’s a business lady and he’s fake Elon Musk’s son set to inherit a billion dollas but Neru doesn’t want a billion dollas he wants to do martial arts with his feet
• 5 years pass and it’s really confusing I think Neru runs against horses or something. Anyway Neru fights Akebi in a final showdown and it’s over
• Characters
  • Neruma Isami
    • Trying to be good at fight things
    • Highschool student
    • Bad at grades
    • Powerful flat feet
    • Heir to a huge company ok mr privilege
  • Sassy grandpa
    • Blind
    • I don’t think he was blind I just think he wasn’t drawn with eyes to make him seem more mysterious
    • Apparently also went to their school and was the best student ever?
  • Akebi Haiba
    • Martial artist
    • Sexualized from get go
    • Has male twin
    • The only strong woman
  • Jokuro
    • Main rival
    • Akebi’s brother
    • Very badass
  • Kaname kozomiya
    • Tsundere
    • Love interest
    • An example of the author failing to write women
  • Satomi Ryzuen
    • Weeb
    • Likes porno
      • OR DOES HE
    • Slob
    • Average shonen jump reader am I right listeners bazinga
  • Yoshiyuki Enkoji
    • Ninja guy
    • Hisoka of the series
    • Reminds me of the b ag dude from double taisei
    • Nonbinary for like one chapter
    • The source of gay panic for this series
      • Especially cuz he’s into gay BDSM damn that’s really freaky
    • Has a split tongue
    • Calls guys “darling” and “honey” which is, again, terrifying if I’m homophobic

Why it failed

• A lot of white space
• I’m having trouble following some of the action, like the kick is he kicking him multiple times or a swinging kick?
• This dialog is not good
• Art feels like mid 2000s style
• He’s an outcast for wanting to do martial arts…isn’t that a common club in japan?
• Nothing made me want to keep reading this, chapter 1 was insanely bloated and uninteresting
• I feel there's a cultural gap for this series so it's hard to understand what's fully going on
• second chapter feels like nothing really happens for the last few pages it def could have combined with chapter 3
• e n t e r a n c e e x a m
• I feel I kind of half introduces characters and then acts like we know who they are
• The series doesn’t really show strong women - sexist
• Overall this feels like a theme of a larger idea, the idea of martial arts school just feels kind of banal and could have been an element in a more interesting world
• That last battle went on way too long

What it did well

• The woodblock style drawing in the first color page is nice
• Gotta love sassy grandpa
• Art improves chapter 2 with the skeleton was legit p cool
• The writing def improves
• The arrow scene was cool
• 
  

Where it could have gone

• actually discuss the techniques
• Don’t have an entrance exam in like chapter 4
• Make the plot move faster
• Show off the mirroring techniques thing more tha was really cool
• Imagine if he coulr mirror techniques but he had to use his feet
• Show more normal school stuff, play up that whole smart when moving thing

Misc Thoughts

• - as someone flat-footed I understand the power I possess and promise to only use for good
• Jordan was right about weapons using material arts
• The frog metaphor seemed random?
• The really blatant copy-paste of a flashback panel makes me appreciate how Oda always redraws them

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Twolf: I forgot I read this manga
  • Kirbymon: Everything is flatter than Neru’s feet
  • Genericman: Wrong generation for martial arts degree
  • Tucker: Recording tomorrow?!? Uhhhh….it’s probably bad?
  • Dylan: “Martial Arts” with a foot fetish
  • David: Everybody was only kung fu fi ghting
  • David: Like rice balls with only salt
• Flop or not
  • Flop read Ayashaman which is kinda this idea but more interesting
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about

Shoutouts

• Props to Jordan for making the opening and ending theme, being a great co-host, and helping with editing
• Props to Mer Liel for the awesome cover art, you can find her online at liel_mer and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor
• Thanks to Tucker for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research.
• Thanks to Nicole for helping with social media
• Thanks to Luke for being our community producer
• Thank you GenericMan for providing us with a really awesome shonen jump sheet with all series ever featured in the magazine with chapters, authors, run dates, etc
• Jordan thanks David for editing
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