While Yabako Sandrovich is best known for Kengan Ashura, thanks to the Netflix adaptation of his latest manga, ST☆R: Get rich, is a must-read for action manga fans. The story follows an all-female fighting tournament in which Sandrovich’s love of fearless fighting is highlighted more clearly than ever. No punches are thrown in Strike It Rich, blood flows as freely here as in any Kengan match.
A series featuring serious female warriors is often a rarity, as it seems easier to market them solely based on character design or play their battles for laughs. At the very least, Strike It Rich is willing to try something different. Sandrovich presents the battles in Valkyria with intense choreography similar to those in his other manga. What’s even better is that the tournament is bolstered by a unique overarching plot revolving around the manga’s main villain, Hina Hongou.
Strike It Rich is different from other martial arts manga
While beautiful women performing high kicks in miniskirts is a cliché, Strike It Rich chose to focus on the athleticism of female fighters. Indeed, the manga’s cast includes a wide variety of body types and martial arts. While the two main characters – tournament organizer and former MMA fighter Nozomi, and deadly Hina – both have stereotypically cute designs, Sandrovich clearly doesn’t feel compelled to turn everyone into a supermodel. It’s a refreshing change of pace: even if there are conventionally attractive characters, their toned muscles and practical outfits suggest they don’t need to overpower or undermine the combat.
Sandrovich’s choice of protagonist is also a smart twist. Unlike Kengan Ashura’s Ohma Tokita – a badass who strives to reach the top – Hina Hongou is a physical and mental ace, as well as a questionable villain. Believed to be the mastermind behind a fallen cult, Hina taunts Nozomi and her friends to find her powerful rival in exchange for the biological weapon she stole. While all of this is played out in a nonsensical manner, it still adds a cat-and-mouse subplot, where the goal is not for the hero to win a tournament but to find one. the enemy is strong enough to defeat the baby-faced villain.
Overall, this new manga should not be underestimated. Even if the muscular women prove to be no different from Kengan Ashura, Hina’s reversal of the tournament’s stakes should be interesting enough to watch, as readers will know whether the hapless organizers have succeed in displacing WMD from its “most dangerous place.” female students in Japan”. The manga just started being published this April and hasn’t gotten very far with its bi-weekly schedule yet. For fans of martial arts stories who want something fresh and up-to-date ST☆R: Get rich so there are few challenges.
