power to the dream

Holyland by Mouri Kouji is the best fighting manga I’m been reading. Yeah, and I read Vagabond too. By fighting I mean in a general sense. Characters fight in duels.

The premise:

Yuu is a high school kid who doesn’t really fit anywhere. To find a place he can belong, be accepted, he will do anything. However one thing leads to another and he is forced to fight to keep his place, his holyland.

This Tokyo has its violent streets. No one really gets killed, but kids like to fight. Holyland doesn’t have the best illustrations, but it makes up for it by really, really, really getting into the dynamics of the fights.

It doesn’t really even fetishize martial arts and its techniques so much, but rather the intricacies of the fight itself, how every movement, every strike counts. I love it for that, it may just be for you.