'Teppu' is an underrated MMA manga with an edge

A complex and unusual anti-heroine livens up the story beats of a sports manga that has more grit than the competition

A good manga (or Japanese comic) is hard to find. There's so much out there. Long-time readers have usually finished the better ones, while new fans struggle to find series that are good starting points to get hooked on the medium.

Moare Ohta's Teppu finds the sweet spot by offering something relatable and easy to read, but also has a fresh take on an established genre.

The 33-chapter seinen series (aimed at older male readers) ran from 2008 to 2015 and is about a girl who finds herself enamoured with MMA, or mixed martial arts. Natsuo Ishido is a tall girl who has exceptional physical talent. She learns quickly and can perform at a level of excellence few others can rival. But because everything comes easily to her, it leaves her bored. The other girls can sense her frustration and disconnection too, leaving her isolated and without friends.

Unlike the protagonists of most typical shounen sports manga (comics aimed at young boys), Natsuo isn't a peppy underdog. That role is filled by her main rival Yuzuko Mawatari, who has just returned to Japan from Brazil and starts an MMA club at their school. She's cheerful, excited, and skilled. Natsuo hates her from the start. It's not just that Yuzuko excels at her chosen field and works hard to reach even greater heights. It's also because she seems to have fun doing it and makes friends along the way.

Natsuo, on the other hand, is cranky, rude, and a bit of a bully. She quits the volleyball club right before a big tournament just because she's bored. When the karate club tries to confront her about insulting the president, she beats and humiliates its members. And when the lively, welcoming new MMA club asks her to join, she refuses, choosing to join a gym of more hard-nosed characters.

In fact, a lot of the early issues paint Natsuo as more of an antagonist. But not in a way that annoys you to see the story from her perspective. Though she's outwardly thorny and mean, she expresses many negative adolescent emotions that feel true to life. She stands out as a lead, and it makes for a refreshing change of pace from the usual sports drama by focusing on some of the nastier emotions, tackling ideas of self-esteem, narcissism and teamwork with a darker lens.

Though much of the plot is typical sports manga fare, it's brightened up by adding our acidic lead. The rest of the cast also bucks the usual genre trends by being more down-to-earth and morally grey than convention dictates. The gym Natsuo goes to isn't just for elite sportspeople at the top of their discipline. They're office workers, schoolteachers, and truck drivers. Even some of the champions in the field have day jobs to try and earn a living. It feels grounded and lived in to a degree uncommon in a genre that thrives on high-stakes dramatics.

That grounding applies to the sports aspect too. The story leads the reader through some of the basics of the mixed martial art style, including strikes, grappling, submissions, throws, and other ins-and-outs of MMA. It's a decent introduction to how the competition works and the main strategies used by the participants.

Another aspect that deserves serious praise is how flashbacks are incorporated into the story. From One Piece to Haikyuu!, any manga about battles and competition tends to tie in the pasts and backstories of the opponents to heighten the tension and the drama. Teppu does the same but is deft in its use of the technique. The flashbacks are brief but effective, raising stakes and adding the necessary passion without derailing the narrative or the momentum for a multi-chapter digression.

The biggest hurdle to the series, though, is the art. I do appreciate the older art styles of classic anime like Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Inuyasha, but there's a specific blocky stiffness to Teppu. Outside of the action scenes, there's a flatness to the composition, layout, and even the characters' poses. It's not terrible, and it takes more chances and gets better as the series goes on, but it can be tedious. The character designs aren't too appealing, either.

But, if there is a positive to this, it's the body diversity among the cast. Most manga tend towards designs that look attractive to the audience. Especially when mostly focused on female fighters, it could have made them more stylised and typically pretty. Teppu doesn't. The characters range from short to tall, skinny to broad, and sculpted to flabby.

Overall, Teppu is a tonic for those tired of the recycled tropes of the usual sports story. It might hit some of the same beats along the way, giving readers those same highs and lows, but it dances to its own tune too. A gritty, down-to-earth tune that isn't afraid to go a bit dark once in a while.  

This article is part of Stripe, bdnews24.com's special publication focusing on culture and society from a youth perspective.