High School Exciting Story: Tough

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

High School Exciting Story: Tough, or Koko Tekken-den TOUGH as it's known in Japan, is a Seinen manga written and illustrated by Tetsuya Saruwatari who was also responsible for the artwork of the popular and notoriously violent manga Riki-Oh. HSE:Tough revolves around Kiichi Miyazawa, a 17-year-old high school student who is the heir to the secret Nadashinkage-ryu fighting style that was passed down to him from his father Seiko.

The Nadashikage-Ryu is a fighting style that utilizes the user's knowledge of and hitting of an opponents vital organs and pressure points in such a way it can outright kill the opponent if the user isn't careful enough. The series revolves around Kiichi's goal to become strong by defeating even stronger opponents in what are essentially Death Matches though almost no one Kiichi fights actually dies (permanently anyway).

The original series ran for 42 volumes which ran in Young Jump from 1994-2003 it was apparently popular enough to get a 3 episode OVA adaptation titled Shootfighter Tekken which covers a small fraction of the first arc of the manga, a sequel to the original manga simply titled Tough which is still ongoing[when?], along with a side-story that revolves around Kiichi's father Oton.

Tropes used in High School Exciting Story: Tough include:
  • Abusive Parents:
  • Alcoholic Parent: Remco's mother who also happened to be verbally abusive.
  • Art Evolution: Kiichi before and Kiichi after should be noted Tetsuwari's art improves even beyond those two examples.
  • Accidental Murder: Barely averted with Kuroda at Kiichi's hands who caused the former's heart to stop.
    • Also played straight with Kuroda following a Judo Exhibition with his friend Naruse
  • Action Girl:
  • Badass Bookworm: Oton
  • Badass Grandpa: Heizo "The Destroyer" Onikawa.
  • Captain Ersatz: Kiba could pass as a somewhat reasonable facsimile to Antonio Inoki.
  • Calling Your Attacks:
  • Combat Pragmatist: Many characters have no problem using underhanded tactics even in sanctioned fights, hell both Oton & Kiichi have shown willingness to use underhanded tactics such as eye gouging and low blows.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome:
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Kiichi handed out a couple of these over the course of the series.
  • Cut Short: The Original manga only had 6 volumes released in America by Viz before they stopped publishing it.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Kiichi seems to love befriending or becoming friendly rivals with the people he fights.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: During his fight against Kiba, Kiichi deliberately allows himself to hit a ring post head first, the reasoning behind this was that if Kiichi hit the post originally as Kiba intended he would've suffered a much serious injury to his head.
  • Evil Eye: During their near fight Oton feels Master Genchu with so much fear and terror he causes him to bleed out of one of his eyes.
  • Extreme Melee Revenge:
  • Eye Scream: Kiba became an unfortunate victim of this at the hands of Oton though he's come's off nonchalant about it.
  • Fingore: During his fight against Kiba, Kiichi gets 2 of his fingers broken doesn't stop him from popping them back into place.
    • also happens to an unfortunate gangmember who made the unfortunate mistake of stabbing Yoshiki.
  • Gecko Ending: Subverted by the OVA which ended at the conclusion of the manga's first arc.
  • Hard Head: The word concussion or fractured skull doesn't seem to apply to most of the fighters in this series.
  • How Much More Can He Take?:Kiichi usually gets worked over bigtime before he pulls off the inevitable (but not always occurring) victory.
  • Jerkass/Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kiichi can come off a jerkass a great deal of the time even too his friends, though he has also been known to shown compassion and even respect to his opponents even after they just came out of fight where they intentionally try to kill or cripple him.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Important Haircut:Yoshiki get's one along with a goatee in the second arc which practically makes him almost unrecognizable.
  • Manly Tears: Kiba' & Kiichi's fight at the end of the first arc was powerful enough to invoke this from those there.
    • Happens during Kiba's retirement speech among some fans.
  • Kick the Dog: Kiba's backstory.
  • My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours:
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Asura,Maneater, The Destroyer just to name a few.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Original Video Animation:
  • Overprotective Dad: Oton gets called out for this during Kiichi's fight
  • Papa Wolf: Oton doesn't like when someone purposely threatens Kiichi's life (eventhough Kiichi gets himself into these very situations).
  • The Paralyzer: Onikawa's specialty.
  • Put on a Bus: Mysteriously and unfortunately winds up happening to Kuroda towards the end of Kiba & Kiichi's fight despite being at the fight from the start.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Samon
  • Seppuku: Oton makes a point to remind Kiichi that if he ever sullies the name of the Nadashikage Style by losing he will be forced to take his own life.
  • Shout-Out: In the first chapter of the manga, Kiichi fights a wrestler named Mammoth Nishi.
  • Squick: In this series legs get broken, arms get snapped, and in the most extreme cases bones splinter causing them to pop through the skin not pretty.
  • The Stoic: Oton when's not acting like a mild mannered salary man who has to .
  • Too Dumb to Live: Kiichi abuses the hell out of this trope.
  • Tough Love: Played justifiably straight with Oton & Kiichi.
  • Training from Hell: Played straight with Kiichi & occasionally with other characters.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Kiba has no qualms about hitting women or children for that matter.
  • The Worf Effect: Kiba suffers this fate "badly" at the hands of the second arc's big bad.
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