r/judo • u/GreatStoneSkull shodan • Jun 17 '25
Judo News Judo manga for beginners
There was an interesting thread the other day about the difficulty of making Judo exciting in comic-book form (https://www.reddit.com/r/judo/s/pZhw98Av2r). I thought as a follow-up I’d give some details of Judo manga thatI’ve collected.
Judo is quite a popular subject for manga as there are exciting fight scenes, plenty of scope for drama and even love can bloom on the tatami.
Most judo manga that I’ve been able to find are in a school setting - I guess because that’s where most readers would encounter the real thing.
Another good feature is that even if, like myself you aren’t much good at Japanese, these manga tend to be easier to understand as everyone mostly talks about Judo and uses the terminology we all know.
In mostly alphabetical order (if I’ve uploaded properly, the pics should be in the same order):
- Hikaru chachacha!!
- Minomo Kenji
- 1990
A basic young readers title, an undersized schoolboy triumphs through gumption and the power of friendship.
Igaguri-kun
Fukui Eiichi
1952
Very influential action manga from the fifties. Only available in reprints (which are hard to get). There was an (expensive) English volume released a year or so ago.
Ippon!
Sato Takahiro
2005
Pretty straight sports story for teens/highschoolers
Mou Ippon! (Ippon again!)
Moraoka Yuu
2019
Sort of follow up to Ippon! High school girls this time. Rather dull for me, but it does have an anime and I think an English translation.
Judobu monogatari
Kobayashi Makoto
1987
Another straight up sports story, but Kobayashi’s art really lifts it above average (if you can get past the hero’s wacky eyebrows). Includes truly horrifying 70’s/80’s training concepts.
Joshi Judobu Monogatari
Kobayashi Makoto & Emoto Yuko
2016
As above but with a female lead. The script is co written by olympic medalist Emoto. My favourite judo manga and possibly my favourite manga ever.
Followed by a sequel - Joshi Judobu Monogatari Shakaijinhen
Judo no rekishi
1988
A history of Kano-sensei and the development of Judo for school-kids
Nanatei Judo-ki
Masuda Toshinari
Story of a University team
Sobakkasu!
Kikuchi Shouta
2006
Another of my favourites. Another high-schooler learns judo story, but with a comedic angle.
Yawara!
Urasawa Naoki
1987
The most famous Judo manga of them all. The real-life RyokoTani was nicknames “Yawara-chan” after the heroine. My complaint is that unlike all the other protagonists here, Yawara doesn’t want to do Judo. Having the other characters manipulate and trick her is funny but gets old fast.
If you can find a decent re-seller it’s not so hard to get titles like these from Japan. The biggest problem is the shipping costs - it can cost many times more than the books themselves.
I think I’ve got about all the school-oriented titles I need.I’m going to focus on historical and action comics, but it’s often much harder to work out how much Judo they have.
Hope people enjoyed this - happy to answer any questions.
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u/Available_Sundae_924 Jun 17 '25
Amazing. As a judoka you can really appreciate the details, highliting energy transfer. Arguably the best martial art for manga. Shame it is underutilised.
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u/hidden_subgroup Jun 17 '25
I would like to recommend Obi o Gyutto ne (帯をギュッとね!) by Kawai Katsutoshi, which has realistic depiction of Judo techniques. But maybe there is no English version available.
And I always want to have a chance to read Judo Icchokusen (柔道一直線) in the 1960s, that's where the (very unrealistic) Hell Wheel (地獄車) originates from (the back throw movement of Ken in Street Fighter series). There is a clip of Hell Wheel of the TV series adaption available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3thtTMUpFs .
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u/GreatStoneSkull shodan Jun 17 '25
Thanks! Judo Icchokusen is a must, - I need to work out the different printings (8 vol, 10 vol, etc).
Obi o gyutto ne sounds really familiar but I don’t have anything on my shelf - will check it out.
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u/Puzzleandmonkeys Jun 17 '25
May be inappropriate for younger audiences due to Japanese naughty humor, but I love "Shin Kotaro Makaritoru! Judo Hen". It's originally a karateka manga, but this was an arc solely about judo.
I find the part of Manga where they portray "dirty judo" or "street judo" to be very interesting as I've only been exposed to Sport Judo. This Manga also got me interested in Yama Arashi as well.
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u/GreatStoneSkull shodan Jun 17 '25
Thank you. I think I looked at this one but didn’t realise it was a Judo story. I will check out the “Judo hen” series.
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u/LazyClerk408 ikkyu Jun 18 '25
Manga is fun but knowing the real life history of judo is one crazy boom
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u/miqv44 Jun 19 '25
I liked the judo guy in Mightiest Desciple Kenichi, even though he was only a supporting character and a very background one at that.
But you Sir are clearly a manga expert so I'll take my "basic bitch martial arts manga" and walk away :D
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u/GreatStoneSkull shodan Jun 19 '25
True, Mightiest disciple is a lot of fun. But I am cold and ruthless and it just doesn’t have enough Judo for my collection.
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u/smultronxd Jun 19 '25
I recommend 花マル伝 and its sequel. Up there with judobu monogatari. Would love to talk about judo manga on discord if you have the time! What's your discord ID?
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u/GreatStoneSkull shodan Jun 19 '25
I haven’t seen that one before - I like the art! I’m not a discord user (I’m old ok) but I’ll look into it. Would be great to compare notes.
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u/smultronxd Jun 19 '25
I was super surprised by Hana maru den. I'd never heard of it before and yet it was very professionally made, what I mean with professional, is not only is the art fidelity high, but so is the paneling and imagery. In my reading experience, those two are the thing that sets good manga apart from great manga. Give it a try, very fun and they speak kagoshima-ben haha.
Could you open your dms? I can send you some screenshots of hana maru.
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u/Ok_Resource6874 Jul 17 '25
where i can find it, because i was looking for some kind of judo manga but couldnt find it anywhere, mb smone could share link?
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u/frizzaro nikyu Jun 17 '25
Check for "Uchikomi!!" from Muraoka Yuu. Pretty neat! "Ren is a fifteen-year-old boy with a complex about his small size. Abused by his peers against whom he feels powerless, he contains his rage daily. But chance brings this high school student to discover the art that will make his unsuspected talent blossom: judo. Ren then embarks on "the way of flexibility" with an untiring ardour and tenacity which will be the keys to his ascension!"