Manga Review: ドリトライ (2023) and 仮面ボクサー (1989)

There are two major boxing manga, and their protagonists are almost certainly the two most famous fictional boxers to step out of a comic page. (Does the average cazzie know who Ted "Wildcat" Grant is? Have you ever even heard of Joe Palooka?)

This review isn't about any those series. It's about a couple of series that tried to become 'the next big hit' and didn't make it.

Do Retry / ドリトライ (2023)

Do Retry is not a good manga. And that's a good thing. Unironically!

I sometimes get into unserious but firm arguments about this, often stemming from someone making the seemingly reasonable statement that it's a waste of time to bother with media that isn't good. Wrong! You should have an accurate measure for when something is mediocre or outright bad and the best way to do that is by not sticking exclusively to the already-renowned.

This open-minded approach is how you come to accept Sturgeon's Law and appreciate how/where a piece of media went wrong, and what it does well in spite of that. Do Retry currently has a 5.20 rating on MyAnimeList and only lasted 19 chapters in Weekly Shōnen Jump which should give you a sense of how people felt about it.

The story is about the Okami kids, Aozora and Akari, who lose their mother during the American firebombing of Japan. Akari falls ill with tuberculosis, and Aozora needs to make cash so he can pay for her to get help. He takes a good beating and has a strong heart, like his missing father, who was a Japanese boxing champion. Aozora goes down the same route but of course boxing in Japan was run by the Japanese mob (the 'yakuza: like a dragon'), so he joins the mob.

If that sounds like it goes immediately off-kilter, it's because it does both in terms of plot and tone. 1940s Japan was a not fun time in many ways. There's a lot of poverty and the yakuza sometimes do illegal things (neutral). Yet this tries to be comedic in some of its portrayal because it's a manga and aimed at a shōnen audience. It does not work.

The main problem is it's not fun. If it's not fun, why bother? The rival-turned-friend has a huge right arm. That's kinda silly. Oh? It got huge after his left one was injured and he had to dig out of collapsed bomb shelter with one arm during the war? And then he joined the yakuza and is now physically abusive to his little sister? That sounds less light-hearted. Unlike our main character, who we're constantly reminded has a strong heart.

Aozora is a dull as paper character with a basic bastich design and motivation. He has to win, otherwise he won't be able to pay for his sister's medical treatment. So it's obvious from the off that he's not going to lose any of these fights. Boooooooring. The hook isn't his journey to the top of boxing. It's barely about surviving the socio-economic conditions of post-war Japan. It's just some kid trying to make a living.

In addition to the writing being all over the place, the art is kinda lame too at times. I can imagine the publisher getting negative feedback for both about chapters 13 and 14 especially.

The boxing and yakuza life aren't going anywhere so the writer pivots into solving the mystery of Aozora's missing father instead. It's possible that the series was already on the verge of cancellation and this was supposed to get readers to feel differently about the series, like Dragon Ball's first tournament arc saving the day after an initially lukewarm reception. What they miscalculated though was that tournament arcs are exciting because you don't know who will win, beelining towards a fairly common mystery box isn't an ambitious hail mary play.

Even then, it's a mess.

It was already immediately questionable if this was an accurate/realistic portrayal since everyone has suspiciously clean and slightly modern looking clothes, even in the boonies. Then after making no great use of what they have in the setting, the fights themselves devolve into the absurdly comical. Aozora has to beat up his father, but his father makes liberal use of the ど土遁遁 technique, where he punches the ground and causes destructive shockwaves along the ground (like Link in Tears of the Kingdom or C. Viper's Seismic Hammer).

There's a nice "everyone is here" moment but it's much too little, far too predictable, with characters that lack personality, and much too late.

I would've liked to have seen where they'd try to go after this because 1950s and 60s Japan are very Interesting Times. But it wasn't to be, and the series didn't deliver on 1940s Japan in any impactful way so it's no great loss. For a series obsessed with strong hearts, there is no clear vision for what the story wants to achieve.

An interesting thing is that although it could end with chapter 18 when all the main plot points are wrapped up, there's an endearing epilogue set in the present. Okami Taiga, the grandson of Aozora, is a salaryman in modern day Japan and unsatisfied with his white-collar life. He gets the call that Aozora has passed away and at the funeral sees a video of his of grandfather's life, this is the epiphany YOLO moment for Taiga where he rediscovers that he should be following his heart.

Nobody, in their heart of hearts, dreams of working in an office and increasing value for shareholders. Whereas some people do want to be boxers, shoemakers, or even writers.

What went right?

When the idea to write this review came to me I couldn't think of what this series did right, if anything. After reading the manga a second time, I've concluded that it's just meh on almost every front. The attention that eyes get is kinda interesting, it reminded somewhat of how the Mid Hero Academia artist enjoys making characters emote with their hands. Beyond that though, it's very by the numbers.

Closing thoughts

The hopeful note that it ends on warms my heart. The first article I published on this site was about how I learned to accept mistakes and things not being perfect. The ending of this series echoes the sentiment in what is essentially a note-to-self from the author.

This series was far from perfect. The next one has the potential to be much better.

Final Review Scores
In a word: Warm-blooded
In a sentence: Manga was a mistake.
In a number: 4.19
In an emoji: ❎
In a Muromachi era sei-i taishōgun : 足利 義稙

'Do Retry'
Written and drawn by 雲母坂 盾 (Kirarazaka Jun)
Translation by David Evelyn
19 chapters, available on Viz.

Masked Boxer (AKA Kamen Boxer) / 仮面ボクサー (1989)

Getting cancelled after only 19 chapters has got to hurt. If you think that's bad, this series only made it to chapter 3 before being was told to wrap it up in the next two chapters, giving this a grand total of just 5.

Taste is subjective. But this mangaka has the same taste as me, so he has objectively good taste and he specifically tried to cater to someone like me. I can appreciate that. Though I think the art style and references – deliberate throwbacks to 1970s manga – were always going to have trouble appealing to Japanese kids who were born in the 1980s.

Sometimes you have to meet people where they are. Shimamoto Kazuhiko stayed true to himself and his tastes, which is respectable. Masked Boxer is a comedy/parody manga that takes its cues from Ashita no Joe and Kamen Rider. The protagonist, Masked Boxer, faces various 怪人 (kai-jin) boxers - themed after animals and insects, like in Kamen Rider - who were created by an evil group bent on world domination, not unlike in Kamen Rider.

It was aiming to be a monster-of-the-week series but one full of gags, which is a delicate balancing act. Anyone who wanted a monster-of-the-week series back then had a range of earnest ones to choose from (including on television) and anyone who wanted a gag series could choose ones that weren't constrained by parody.

The gags are wrapped up around having to beat the five (or seven, i don't quite remember) main evil boxers and collect their macguffins (masks i think?) to save the world of boxing (or the world in general idk).

By the end of chapter 3, only one mask remains.
By the third chapter, the series was cancelled.
The remaining two chapters were released in the tankōbon, complete with the mangaka talking about the cancellation and how he came up with the ending.

The sudden cancellation meant that loyal readers of 月刊少年キャプテン (Monthly Shōnen Captain) did not get to see the bone-crushing power of world heavyweight champion, "Mark Python".

Python gets the "God Boxer" mask from the evil group and is moved to tears at his new power: no longer having to fear his manager or wife taking his fight money (a trait shared with Street Fighter's Mike Bison/Balrog).

The author's comic retelling of his struggles on how to wrap up the series shows that he gave things a lot of thought. He naturally ended up at the impasse of any boxing story. In a fictional series starring a boxer, the main character has to win or lose. How do you make the character achieve/accept the outcome in a way that leaves the reader/viewer satisfied?

One way is to up the stakes of the big fight. But how to do so when you've only had three chapters to build up to a finale? Why, with science of course! Masked Boxer receives a new mask that displays his lifeforce of 70, because his natural lifespan has 70 years left. The new mask allows him to "spend" his lifeforce and exchange years of his life for punching power. He's told that a 30-year punch should be enough to beat Python but like Light Yagami, he figures it's a bum deal.

And just as it got interesting, it was over.

What went right?

It's catering to a niche and if you're part of that niche, it's genuinely quite a funny series. I would say it's probably enjoyable outside of that too. Though some of the references won't be apparent unless/until you read the seminal hot-blooded boxing manga. Then again, that's true for the majority of popular manga/anime since the 1970s.

Closing thoughts

As sad as it is in this case because it teases the promise of "what could have been", getting cancelled on an upswing is a better trajectory for a series than starting strong and steadily declining. Well, better for the consumer at least. Too many longrunning forms of fiction are happy to end on an unsatisfying weak note when they should be aiming to leave a strong lasting impression. It might just be personal preference but imo the best narratives are the ones that peak at the latest possible moment, like in Ashita no Joe.

Final Review Scores
In a word: Rip
In a sentence: Parodies can quickly overstay their welcome.
In a number: 7.40
In an emoji: 🏄
In an Ed, Edd, n Eddy character: Rolf

'Masked Boxer'
Written and drawn by 島本 和彦 (Shimamoto Kazuhiko)
Scanlation by 'Hokuto no Gun' and 'HappyScans'
Translation by SystematicChaos
5 chapters, available on [REDACTED - SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK].

Summary

These series have little in common other than being shortlived boxing manga that didn't make it very far and I told you that at the start. I guess they are also both about perseverance and self-belief. Saying anything further would be redundant.

BONUS! - Petty nitpicks and redundant pontifications

• There doesn't appear to be much English-language content about the pre-war and midcentury history of Japanese boxing. I'm doubtful that the national Japanese champion of a foreign sport would be a celebrity back then but I have no way of checking how popular it was.
• The Mike Tyson parody is named マーク・パイソン (Mark Python), Dragon Ball nerds will have noticed that マーク are syllables in 'akuma', the Japanese word for demon.
  • Another detail we're given, 鋼鉄の肉体, translates to 'flesh/body of steel' - no doubt a reference to Iron Mike's old nickname.
  • If you're wondering what Mike Tyson is doing in your Japanese comics, he fought Tony Tubbs there in 1988 (W - TKO2) and Buster Douglas in 1990 (L - KO10). This is supposedly Mark Python's third match at the Tokyo Dome.
• My preference for strong endings is possibly shaped by how many writers swear by cliffhangers in serialised stories these days.
  • Just thinking out loud here but is this why so many big TV shows have bad endings when they finish? Old scribes used to write a self-contained story with a proper ending on a regular basis, whereas now it's just sprawling and aimless plots that eventually have to be tied up by someone who hasn't exercised their story-tying muscle.
• Do Retry is set in 1946, I'm not so sure that building a boxing ring would be a priority when there's a lot of post-war construction to do. Especially one that's made solely for a guy who has been a jerk to everyone.

• In 1612, Ganryū-jima (or Ganryū Island) was the location of a duel between the brave fencer Musashi and his biggest rival, Sasaki. The island is named after Sasaki, whose nickname was Ganryū. He was killed in that duel. It's lost on a Western audience that the location is supposed to evoke the connotation of a legendary battle. It's possibly lost on younger Japanese audiences too.
  • Musashi vs. Sasaki is the most famous samurai duel. Part of the story goes that Sasaki's blade appeared to strike a clean blow, only to have cut Musashi's headband or topknot. It's the kind of impossibly dramatic swordfighting regularly seen in Japanese cartoons.
• The difference in the two series cancellations says something about how the manga industry has changed in the space of 35 years. Masked Boxer was a good series, but the expectation (and competition) was much higher back then, so it was ruthlessly cancelled. Do Retry was one of the series of all time, but the new generation of editors and business executives have a bit more compassion and empathy than their predecessors, so it got longer than it would have if such a series came out in days of yore.
  • Masked Boxer had the misfortune of being published monthly. Maybe the monster-of-the-week format would've succeeded in a weekly magazine.
• Masked Boxer was cancelled in the same year that another Ashita no Joe and Mike Tyson inspired boxing manga began.