Do Retry: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes (Patreon)

Manga Details

• Jun Kirarazaka
  • Notable people they were an assistant for
    • Yusei Matsui (Assassination Classroom)
    • Daijiro Nonoue (The Last Saiyuki)
  • Other works
    • Bone Collection (2020, 2 vols, Weekly Shonen Jump)
      • Shonen Flop episode 10. A sort of absurdist yokai-battling adventure where a spirited young boy pulls bone weaponry from the chest of his yokai beloved to fight villains. A good bad manga.
        • Read Bone Collection here
• Publishing
  • Run Dates:
    • 7th May 2023 to 17th September 2023
  • Series it replaced
• Ginka & Glüna by Shinpei Watanabe (4 vols, flop, SHONEN FLOP EPISODE 79)
• Series that replaced it
  • Two on Ice by Elck Itsumo (0+ vols, ongoing)
• Series that started at the same time as it
  • Tenmaku Cinema by Yuuto Tsukuda & Shun Saeki (3 vols, flop, SHONEN FLOP EPISODE 90)
  • Kill Blue by Tadatoshi Fujimaki (2+ vols, ongoing)
  • Nue’s Exorcist by Kota Kawae (2+ vols, ongoing)
• Chapters/Volumes:
  • 19 chapters/2 volumes (unconfirmed if it’ll be stretched to three somehow, vol.2 releases on recording day, will update this)

About the Manga

• Plot
  • It’s the 40’s in Japan and Aozora Okami’s dad is a boxer who never gives up thanks to his “strong heart.” Until he had to go to war. After Japan loses and their mother is killed in a bombing raid, Aozora is left to look after his sister Akari who contracts TB. Since they’re now orphans, the kids are unable to afford medical treatment, so Aozora runs to the wreckage of their house to find something to pawn. Just then he is discovered by the Shuei gang, who beat the shit out of him and steal his mother’s wedding dress. Aozora tracks them down to take it back, and they beat the shit out of him but he just keeps getting back up and finally lands a right hook on one of the bad guys. Just then a gunshot goes off, fired by their boss Yuka, a woman with an eyepatch. She sees potential in Aozora so shows him that she sponsors boxing matches and wants him to compete before giving him enough money to get his sister healthcare. Unfortunately she needs extended treatment which is way more than he can afford, so he goes back to Yuka. She tells him to join their fighting ring and introduces him to Kuroiwa who we find out later is one of the five brights which would’ve mattered if the series went on for more than 19 chapters.
  • 
    
  • Aozora first has to fight a yakuza guy to steal his membership card to get into the gang or something? Then he meets his first opponent: Ikuno Izumi, a Yakuza bodyguard who beats up his own little sister and has one arm that’s way way beefier than the other one. Aozora defeats him and he joins their gang so his gang doesn’t kill him. Aozora’s next match is against Nijimura, a creepy guy who shoots up heroin in front of him, which as we all know, makes you stronger and better at fighting. Nijimura reveals that he was in Aozora’s dad’s company, and that his dad actually killed everyone except for him. Nijimura deserted to escape and wants revenge. Aozora can’t do anything against him because he doesn’t have any special moves. So Izumi and his sister sneak into Yuka’s room and steal a book on techniques written by Aozora’s dad. This allows Aozora to defeat Nijimura who tells him where he last saw Aozora’s dad while getting shot a billion times for cheating with drugs. Aozora and Yuka ride the train to his last known location where Yuka reveals that his father Yuhi is her Step brother. They were stuck living in her parents’ rich house until Yuka decided she wanted to leave, so Yuhi fought off a ton of their adult bodyguards but was unable to stop Yuka’s mom from stabbing her in the eye with a piece of bamboo.
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  • Aozora and Yuka then discover Yuhi, who has become so full of guilt that he thinks no one should ever do anything and everyone should give up. He’s not even going to see his daughter who is currently dying of TB because oh what’s the point? Aozora challenges him to a boxing match to prove that having a strong heart matters. On the day of the match Yuhi appears and splits the ocean with his fist because he’s basically boxing Jesus now. After a stupid match Aozora punches him in the face and he realizes that maybe you should’ve give up on literally everything and goes back to see his daughter. Thankfully she was able to hold on a few more months until the US developed medicine for TB and she got better. Flash forward to modern day and Aozora’s grandson Taiga is working for a really shitty company when he learns that his grandpa died. Taiga wanted to be a cobbler but gave that up for financial security but when he’s shown a video of Aozora encouraging his cobbling he decides to quit his job and devote his life to making shoes. Also he vapes.
  • 
    
• Characters
  • Aozora Okami
    • Little japanese boy
    • Filled with TENACITY
    • Kinda reminds me of Gon how he never will go down
  • Ikuno aka Big arm guy
    • Got a big arm
    • Defeat means friendship
    • Super protective of sister
      • No he absolutely is not. Fuck Ikuno.
    • He has a weird gimmick but sticks around
  • Yuka Okami
    • The boss
    • Weirdly caring
    • Mcs step aunt
  • Yuhi Okami
    • Dad

Why it failed

• The art is…bland
• Getting a little yikes from being set in WW2 era japan
• This kinda reminds me of best children with the weird dad master thing
• Big we live in a society
• This writing is really bad
• It’s just slow pased, like I feel chapter 1-2 should have been combined
• It's weird they just ignore anything about the toll on his body like he instantly heals every day
• The art style is weird like the faces are anime style but then the body is more realistic
• It feels a little too happy to Lucky with the first fight and how the guy lost but it's still ok cause momy took care of it
• I dislike how the mc finds a book that tells him what to do vs figuring it out on his own
• Holy fuck they have a drug adict and actively show them doing drug
• The last fight was complete nonsense

What it did well

• Some of the imagery is cool, the execution scene in chapter 3 went hard
• It does a good job actively nesting boxing info during the fight
• It really grows on you
• Wow they really didn't fuck around with the dad murdering people

Where it could have gone

• Imagine if the genders were swapped and it was about female boxing
• Actually flesh out his sister, it's technically his motivation but she barley shows up
• Make this a senien I think the concept is fine but it doesn’t feel like a WSJ manga

Misc Thoughts

• Isn’t the start of this the same as daredevil
• The art kinda feels Greek inspired like look at Hercules
• Essentially the MC gets his ass kicked so much he learned to mitgiate it like how the protag of eyeshield was forced to run so many errands he managed to get super good at running
• It really just goes weirdly supernatural at the end
• Maxy Bee thoughts:
• The Bombing of Tokyo occurred across the 9th and 10th of March 1945, resulting in over 100,000 civilian deaths, 1,000,000 people rendered homeless, and the same amount injured, with some 16 square miles of Tokyo destroyed. A war crime, a horrific wound upon Japan, and reportedly the most destructive bombing in human history. Our protagonist survived that.
• Tuberculosis (Kekkaku) was such a prevalent and dangerous threat within Japan that by the 1950s it was known as their national disease, a leading cause of death accounting for 15% of all deaths in 1950.
• Before the bombing, Aozora made money helping (poorly) at a munitions factory, a fairly common bit of enforced work under the emperor during world war two for civilians, but not one that stops them BEING CIVILIANS.
• The Shuei gang in chapter 1 are part of a long-standing tradition in Shueisha-published manga of inserting the company name into various groups, gangs, organisations, businesses, and so on and so forth. Once you know about it you spot it everywhere.
• Neon signs, such as Aozora sees in the red-light district in chapter 4, have been around since roughly 1910. I thought it was an anachronism, but nope! Realism!
• I’ve seen fitness folk claim online that you can gain about an inch of muscle on your arms over a week, though maybe digging for your life increases that. How would I even test that? Come on, get serious.

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Community
    • Tucker: Interesting set-up KO’ed after one round
    • Maxybee: ‘D’oh! Retry’, am I right? Okay.
    • AuraPaladin: Boxing manga is Ashita no Joe-ver
    • blahmoomoo: Better second effort, do retry again?
    • BumpBob Looly: A having strong heart solves everything.
    • ChemyChems: That ending was the biggest punch.
    • Diego (Phantom Seer): Mangaka should do retry not (bone) collecting
    • Digizi, the evil, sleepy A.I.: We bombed Japan, this bombed too.
    • duderocks the earthchild stan: How is yakuza boxing this boring?
    • Glornak Ironspawn: Do Retry writing the bad guys.
    • GreyPotter 👑 King of Questions: Boxing For Yakuza : Do (not) Retry
    • Kpt.Kluless: A real swing and a miss
    • LordAnubis, #1RedHoodFan/Mourner: Never seen such a drastic nosedive
    • 
      
    • Meru (Francisco): Gaslighting Underage Non-combatant Demanding Abdication Mentality
    • Portal man: It's not as popular as wrestling
    • Redblade: Stubborn Child Triggers His Opponents PTSD
    • Resident Warhammer Nerd: Just Another Swing And A Miss
    • Riley: Boxing not realistic, but not fantastic
    • Sbubby: We have Tomorrow’s Joe at home
    • Scott: Postwar Japan piece turns pretty boring.
    • Spike: BEHOLD, THE ALMIGHTY FIREBOMBING WANK ARM
    • The Laughing Fool: Flop like butter, sting like B'
    • The Wolf The Wood The Trafalgar: Improved since Bone Collection, keep retrying
    • Thores (aka Daniel): Ha ha, he said the thing
    • Watchtower: At least it isn’t Bone Collection
  • David: sadly this punch-out ain't a knock-out | B-grade writing has no sting
    • Do or do not there is no retry
  • Jordan: I don’t see any heart here
  • Guest:
• Flop or not
  • David: Flop, go read Takutore! To learn all about fitness