Following Ping Kong, the publisher Mangetsu offers a new two-volume series on the sport but, in All Free, we abandon the rackets to put on a kimono.
Reconnecting with tradition
In volume 1 of All Free, we meet Mifune who is a descendant of the god of judo, Kyûzô Mifune and the niece of a former world champion. She wants to prove that she is worthy of this dual heritage. For this, the fifteen-year-old girl confronts adults rather than fighting women her age and she wins! Very respectful of traditions, she highlights, like her ancestor, her great technique. As often in sports manga, she began to train alone demonstrating a strong stubbornness but also a great loneliness. Indeed, she must face the contempt of her uncle. He who claimed that judo is freedom, now finds this sport boring and abandons his lifestyle. He has lost the flame of judo and smokes rather than trains. However, he regains passion when he sees his niece defend the family style. He will train her and become a severe coach that we often meet in this kind of shônen. He refines his technique and gives him moral lessons: how to overcome a failure, the importance of experience but also to surprise the opponent … All Free is then a story of transmission between generations. However, Jun is also a free spirit who makes his own choices.
A series of connoisseurs?
The writer and artist of All Free, Terubo Aono is a black belt in judo. He uses all his technical knowledge to pass on his passion to us. The terms are very technical but the images illustrate the positions and especially the novice reader grasps the underlying issues. We see two conceptions of judo clash. A traditional vision that advocates technique and flexibility believing that weight is secondary. Another more modern one that focuses on strength and therefore defines weight categories to avoid fatal accidents. We also cross different techniques that correspond to the personality of each, as illustrated by the title of the series. All Free not only presents winners but also a hard-working man who has forgotten his dream of glory to focus on a single catch. This sport is so ingrained in Japanese culture that dojos are installed in chiropractic clinics. Nevertheless, we can find the agreed dialogues. Planned or provoked by chance, the fights are linked in All Free and lead to the climax of volume 2: Jun Mifune faces David Ours, the French champion undefeated for ten years who alone had managed to beat his uncle. If the first name is reminiscent of Douillet, the representation is closer to Teddy Riner. Terubo Aano's drawing is very agile illustrating speed very well but lacks softness in shapes and precision in takes. The series being very short, the fights become too quickly very disproportionate. It is hard to believe that a neophyte is up against a world-class judoka after such a short time. Neophyte or regular visitors to dojos, All Free is a striking manga about judo. Terubo Aono takes classics of sports manga, shows us the stronghold of this sport in Japanese culture but he also drops many preconceptions about judo. A woman beats men twice as big as her, showing that strength is not everything… If you are interested in sports in manga you can find articles on a series on football (Ao Ashi) and table tennis (Ping Kong).
