Holyland – A fighting manga with a different theme

Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. Hope you all are safe and healthy. This has to be one of the most realistic fighting manga that I’ve read. As usual, mild SPOILERS ahead.

The story follows Yuu Kamishiro, a troubled teen who was viciously bullied in school and now roams the streets at night. In these streets a new legend has begun rising, the legend of the Thug Hunter, a fighter who has been going after the thugs in the streets, beating them down. This Thug Hunter is none other than Yuu Kamishiro himself who picked up boxing from a boxing manual and now roams the streets searching for a place to belong. As he gathers attention and new fighters show up to fight Yuu, he also makes friends along the way as he creates and protects the place that he belongs in, his Holyland. A tale about searching for a sense of belonging, a tale of the night streets where violence rules supreme, this is the story of the rise of the Thug Hunter, Kamishiro Yuu.

The characters in this manga go through some extreme character development. There is a vast cast of people whose stories and reasons for being in the streets are intertwined together and explored well. There is our protagonist Yuu Kamishiro, a troubled teen who is searching for a place to belong. He is a gifted fighter who takes down his opponents in one on one matches and rises to insane levels of strength. There’s Izawa Masaki, the Charisma of the streets, a person who Yuu looks up to, both fighters share the style of boxing as their foundations. Seeing these two interact, the newbie and the pro and seeing both of them intice development in each other is really amazing. There’s Shin, who becomes Yuu’s friend, Midorikawa Shougo, a karate specialist, Mai Izawa, sister to Masaki and Yuu’s love interest. There’s even more characters and each of them play a significant role in the plot and go through their own developments.

The manga does a good job of showing realistic fights since the author clearly shows that he has experience in fights and has researched martial arts deeply. While usually in delinquent manga we see very unrealistic fights which mainly happens because these stories are fiction but Holyland discusses each martial arts deeply, every punch, every move is discussed and explained so much so that I believe that this can be used as a fighting manual but the author discourages that. Though this discussion might be boring for some, for me it was entertaining. The manga also shows the reality of stuff that happens between teens, pride and ego, bullying and seeking a place to belong, even drugs. The characterization is pretty deep and the manga even goes psychological by showing us Yuu’s as well as others’ thoughts, emotions and his own inner conflicts.

The theme of seeking a place to belong is the main theme of this manga and the author manages to bring it out beautifully in his story. As we see Yuu struggling to find an answer to why he has to fight and turn to violence we see that it is what he has to do to protect his Holyland. This manga can be really relatable to teens even those who haven’t taken a single punch in their lives, like me, because that age group is generally lost and feels like Yuu does. This manga deals with going through these feelings and emotions and discusses what Holyland, the place where Yuu belongs actually is.

The manga is finished at 182 chapters. The finale is amazing and the entire final arc is so real in dealing with the relationship between characters and concluding everyone’s character arcs. We see how much Yuu, Masaki and everyone else grew as people over the course of the story and how they found what they were looking for on the streets. With it’s intense and realistic fights, deep story and hard hitting themes, Holyland is one manga that you should definetly read.

So that is it for this post guys hope you got some value from this.  Thank you guys for reading to the end hit me up on Instagram and Twitter with your thoughts and if you have any ideas on what I should write about. Stay safe from the COVID-19. Thank you again and I’ll see you all next week.