Shonen Beam

[scanlation by Keishou Scans]

Decent Shonen Sunday cover page, but awful color pages. Fanservice (and borderline nudity) this gratuitous is uncalled for. Worse still is the fact that the color pages have no connection to the rest of the chapter. That’s basically an admittance of pandering from Matsuena.

Kenichi’s counter to Yan Erawan, which had previously “killed” him, is exactly the kind of martial arts exchange I’ve wanted. Discounting the color pages, this is an excellent start to the chapter.

The way Matsuena draws Kenichi’s eyes never gets old. I can’t remember any other manga character with such pure intensity shown through his or her eyes alone.

But are they Mystic Eyes?

Tirawit shows some fantastic martial arts skill, and even taunts Kenichi properly, but name-dropping Kanou Shou only reminds me how much more interesting of an opponent Kanou was. Tirawit may well be a stronger fighter, but Kanou had the underlying plot to round out his character.

The masters believe their battle will end first. That would bode well for some great development out of Kenichi, who finally seems poised for a sharp improvement.

Final Flash: Insulting color pages aside, this was a great chapter. This kind of fighting is what this arc should have featured all along.