All Rounder Meguru
A manga series by Endo Hiroki, author of Eden: It's an Endless World!. All Rounder Meguru is the story of a young Shooto fighter in the amateur circuit, his relationships with his gym and school friends, and his ambitions to reach pro level.
It's also the story of a young man trying to avenge the death of his father and keep himself out of the family business while trying to make a place for himself in the world of professional martial arts.
Much lighter than the author's previous work, the story is highly realistic, both with regards to the mixed martial arts and the character relationships.
Tropes used in All Rounder Meguru include:
- Accidental Pervert: Not so much accidental as deliberately engineered by a third party.
- Action Girl: Maki.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: "But I'm the star of this manga!" Also, see Say It with Hearts below.
- Chekhov's Gun: "Yudai, you'll hurt yourself getting out of a hold like that."
- Combat Commentator: For all the shooto matches; unsurprising since it's a spectator sport.
- Deadpan Snarker: Maki, full stop. Gets called out on it at one point, but it's Played for Laughs.
- Decoy Protagonist: Takashi. The establishing prologue mostly shows his story, and his plots are much heavier and more dramatic, but Meguru's the one with his name in the title.
- Deuteragonist: Takashi.
- Expy: Maki, a red haired skilled kickboxing high school aged girl of unusual size. Does that name sound familiar from somewhere?
- Good Old Fisticuffs: In the prologue, and again with Takashi against Samyong Cho, the ex-boxer bodyguard. averted when Takashi takes down multiple armed opponents with his traditional karate techniques.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Maki (179 cm)
- Instant Sedation: Used on Takashi's father.
- Lady of War: Maria.
- Lightning Bruiser: Takashi, most prominently. Though there's plenty more, which isn't surprising seeing as this is a series about MMA.
- Martial Pacifist: What Takashi's grandfather tries to teach his students to be, ever since his son fell in with the yakuza.
- Mega Manning: Meguru's specialty, although in a more low key fashion than usual.
- Naked First Impression: Done twice, with two sets of characters. The first time (Meguru and Maki) ends exactly how you'd expect it to. The second one (Yudai and Momoko), on the other hand...
- Not What It Looks Like: Meguru practicing his ground grappling techniques on a cloth doll in his bedroom.
- Operation: Jealousy: Meguru becomes the Other Guy in one of these.
- Panty Shot: Subverted when Kazumasa and Tadashi discover, to their horror, that most schoolgirls wear gym shorts under their skirts.
 |
Meguru: That's the sound of their lecherous dreams being shattered. |
 |
- Parental Abandonment: Takashi.
- Perpetual Smiler: Maria.
- Punny Name: "Meguru" is a Japanese verb that means "to go around."
- Say It with Hearts: In a fourth wall breaking moment, this actually gets noticed by other characters.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Meguru's grandmother.
- Tsundere: Maki's attitude towards Meguru is slowly developing into this.
- We Used to Be Friends: Meguru and Takashi.
- You Killed My Father: Averted. Takashi finds out the man responsible for his father's death was already killed in prison.