The answer will obviously emerge at the end of this seventh and last volume of Uchikomi !, volume devoted entirely to this famous team meeting between the two schools. As a result, Yu Muraoka follows a classic pattern that he cannot avoid, where each member of the two teams must face an opponent, for a result that is sometimes very pleasant and sometimes disappointing.
Thus we will once again appreciate Ren’s duel, which opens the ball against the solid Fujimori, with a convincing technical rendering, a palpable tension where the need to seize the chance that arises in a fraction of a second dominates. Shorter, Hyôma’s duel is also quite nice, taking advantage of the boy’s doubts, who feels useless despite his qualities. but even if he is not sure of winning, there is no doubt that his verve could have a strong impact on the collective morale of Musashibara, to remain in a positive spiral and precisely demonstrate the value of this collective side. And of course, we will also appreciate the inevitable duel between Haruki and Sôgo then the last confrontation “surprise” but logical, which are as many means to make evolve Sôgo in his vision of things.
The slightly more disappointing elements then come from certain other things. To a lesser extent, the lack of usefulness of the two daughters Nozomi and Jun, who remain stooges by ultimately having no impact on the work, except to bring 2-3 “gags” a bit sexist at the beginning of series. But above all, the little space given to Jyôji and Sadao matches. The first is making great efforts here, of course, but we do not see anything at all, and your regrets that this character has always remained behind outside his little moment of glory in volume 6. As for the second, we were waiting necessarily a more present highlight of his “captains duel” and the fact that this is his very last game within the club, aspects unfortunately dispatched. Finally, there is this conclusion, which will not please everyone: if it concludes something well in the course of Ren and the others, it remains overall very expeditious. A few more pages really wouldn’t have been too much.
We then have a final straight line which, despite its various small limits, is nice to follow and is generally very gripping, especially since the whole of the volume is traversed by a real tension, by a fairly nekketsu sports fever that makes that we do not let go of reading. And overall, Uchikomi therefore presents itself as a very imperfect little series but with a certain capital-sympathy, especially since it highlights a sport that is not very present in manga published in France. Pika Edition also intends to continue in this direction since, after judo, it is another martial art that will be highlighted in the next novelty of the Sport Addict collection: karate with the Karate Heat series, to be published in June. .
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