Book Review
Title: All Rounder Meguru (Volume 1)
Author: Hiroki Endo
Genre: Manga
Rating: *****
Review: I didn’t know a lot about this manage when I requested it from NetGalley but I have been getting into sports anime with Haikyuu, so I was excited to read it. I realised earlier on that All Rounder Meguru doesn’t follow boxing or baseball as I first thought by Mixed Martial Arts or MMA fighting. We are introduced to our two protagonists, Takashi Segawa (Meguru) and Takayanagi who both trained in Takayanagi’s karate dojo. Both boys have lost their mothers, but have very different fathers, Meguru lives with his grandparents because his father travel a lot for work while Takayanagi’s father is mixed up the yakuzu and had to skip town.
One day the boys try to fight some older boys picking on them and get beat up and they both want to become stronger but it turns out for very different reasons. Meguru’s life gets harder when his grandfather dementia gets worse leading to him falling off a bridge and dying which means they have to move again this time to Tokyo. Takayanagi’s father makes a reappearance and gives his son the warning not to turn out like him but when he is killed by the yakuzu, Taka wants revenge and makes that his mission in life. We then jump forward 7 years and Meguru still trains in his spare time but seem to have quite the talent for art in high school, he is popular and has a good friend base. One day he is offered to fight in a shooto match and accepts but it turns out he is fighting against his old friend. The tattoo take is sporting likely links him to the yakuzu, as his uncle runs a yakuzu family but this isn’t confirmed. Taka has obviously trained harder and longer than Meguru and he quickly wins the fight.
Afterwards, Meguru tries to talk to him but gets the cold shoulder and Taka says to a friend that he has always hated Meguru but we know this isn’t true from seeing their childhood together but I really wanted to know what had changed in those seven years. Meguru, meanwhile, goes home and decide to take part in the pro training class in order to get stronger and takes on a few more fights although unlike the other amateur boy in the pro training class, Meguru hasn’t developed his own style of fighting which would be why he loses yet again but losing doesn’t seem to frustrate him like it does other fighters. Towards the end of the manga, Taka learns that the yakuzu boss who killed him father has been killed in prison thus cutting his dream of revenge short and he doesn’t really know what to do with himself now.
Overall, I really enjoyed All Rounder Meguru, the characters are really compelling, even if the art style is a bit plain. I also like the focus on fighting and training as well as the external struggles both boys are going through and I am hoping to see more interaction and fighting between them soon.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from NetGalley.
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