Batuque

[ungora]

Now that's a manga i never heard about before and i ran into it completely randomly.
mangadex.org/title/bd3f1a3f-306d-4956-bd1c-7a127eae9790/batuque

But since i did i got completely hooked in Batuque and devoured all the available chapters in no time (128 chapters at the time i write this). It is a real masterpiece in the manga world, can't believe it's not talked more than that, it's brillant and the story telling is really top notch.

Batuque is the work of Sako Toshio that along of being a very talented mangaka (his story telling and artistic skills are really far above the average manga, i'm really impressed by his art how his characters grow both physically and spiritually, and how the story flow so smoothly through the panels) is also a trained boxer and capoeirista and his knowledge of those really shows in the manga.

The story of a middle school girl trying to find herself in the confusion of adolescence. Skateboard-loving Ichiri Sanjou, nicknamed "Icchi," may look like a normal energetic kid, but whenever she sees the full moon, she is hit with a wave of emotion she cannot comprehend. The series revolves around her learning the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira.

Honestly that quoted summary does not do justice to how absolutely great the story development is, how fantastic the characters are wrote with their characterisation, since i discovered Batuque it really became one of my top10 best manga ever, simple as that, but in the same time saying more may be big spoiler as you discover the story as you read.

I really heavily recommend Batuque, even if you know nothing of Capoeira as the manga also does a really great job at its history, its significance, the various branches and its terminology.

Zum, Zum, Zum, Capoeira Mata Um !
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SufUq4M0EY
Can't get this capoeira song out of my mind anymore when there's a fight happening in Batuque

[ungora]

Ichiri's half-sister finally arrived in Japan, looks like this long awaited fight between her and that brazilian version of She-Hulk is going to happen soon, can't wait for that.

I hope the author will not be treating Yusa as a jobber to show how crazy strong Aguri is, there is no need as we already knew that from the few chapters in which she destroyed people back in Brazil
But from what we see in the end of that chapter it looks like Yusa isn't going to shine much in their fight :/

Anyways, Yusa vs the capoeira group was a really cool story arc with superbly sequenced fights and great art panel, and that draw in the end of the fight between Ichiri and Yusa was very satisfying
Especially when Yusa and Ichiri were out of it, and after finally getting back on their feet, Yusa asking Ichiri
"who's the winner today ?"

And she answered

[ungora]

I'm not sure what happened, but it's been 4 or 5 chapters that the art really took a very noticable dive in quality.. it was so good in the Ichiri vs Yusa fight...

Now Ichiri's half brother is looking like as if he's from another manga completely different art style, and even Aguri is now having utterly insane facial expressions and look nearly out of place in several panels.
And their father face looks like he's "simplified" and often look no older than his children.

Hopefully things will improve as that fight between the sisters was something the reader was waiting for a long time, and the start with this new chapter (man that double headbutt was really brutal) really deserves to be at least on Ichiri vs Yusa level of artwork.

At least the story is still good, but i miss the better artwork that was simply amazing.

[ungora]

Latest chapter got some good art and some very nice panel sequences


After the oddly crappy art of the few past chapters, it's a welcome comeback of the art quality, hopefully the artist can keep up , but i wish this Ichiri vs Aguri would have been on the same level of artwork quality as Ichiri vs Yusa was.

Cool to see mestre Buscapé being there again, and i liked the "Pao" that must have confused Aguri a lot as it's bringing back memory of the early part of the story in which old mestre Buscapé was teaching younger Ichiri and the other kids.

[ungora]

A page of the latest chapter reminded me of Baki for some reason

[ungora]

The story ended, as expected from the past few chapters that finale is unfortunately very rushed as you don't see how things worked between some characters, they just worked out.

I enjoyed Batuque a lot and find it sad that it didn't got a proper development for the last arc of the story (unlike the previous arcs) with everything getting rushed to the ending instead.