With more people reading manga and webtoons (aka vertical scroll comics) than ever before, Beat’s Bizarre Adventure gives three writers an opportunity each week to recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea, and elsewhere. This week we have sports rivalries, snowy romance, and, of course, comics artists.
Fighting Girls
Writer/Artist: Taizan5
Translation: Julie Goniwich
Lettering: Jezael Manahan
Platform: VIZ
I stumbled on Fighting Girls when I was looking to reread Taizan5’s more well-known work Takopi’s Original Sin. Published in 2025, this one-shot was released in celebration of Jump+’s 10th year anniversary.
Fighting Girls follows a young girl named Koume who, after seeing an MMA fighter win a match, is inspired to take up karate in the hopes that she may one day follow in his footsteps. She improves by leaps and bounds, earning the admiration of her peers. But then she meets the ultimate obstacle in Tiara, a prodigy who has been fighting since she was two years old. Her spirit burning with a competitive fire, Koume throws her everything into training in the hope that she might one day beat Tiara. The years pass and Koume becomes a rising MMA fighter. But just as she’s about to reunite with her old rival, Tiara announces her retirement, taking Koume by surprise.
Fighting Girls reminds me of Look Back in its focus on a rivalry that pushes two girls to reach their potential. Unlike Kyomoto and Fujino in Look Back, who become friends and work together, Tiara and Koume remain rivals. Still, their relationship no longer resembles Koume’s initial one-sided, antagonistic rivalry. What Koume doesn’t know is that Tiara has her own share of troubles in the form of uncaring and dismissive parents, who think that her dreams are not as important as her brothers’. Koume’s relentless stubbornness in challenging Tiara, despite never beating her, inspired Tiara all along.
While I hate (no, I don’t) to bring Haikyuu!! into this, Koume and Tiara’s rivalry also reminds me of Hinata and Kageyama. Their desire to grow past each other brought them to new heights they could not have reached on their own.
This one-shot has strong writing and fully fleshed out characters. Although I sometimes had trouble telling the character designs apart, I did enjoy Taizan5’s unique style, and I may or may not have breathed a sigh of relief that this was not as dark as Takopi’s Original Sin. — Hilary Leung
Snow Fairy
Writer/Artist: Tomo Serizawa
Translation: Christine Dashiell
Lettering: Vibrraant Publishing Studio
Editing: Lena Atanassova
Publisher: Tokyopop
“There might be a fairy in your final shot.”
Snow Fairy is an emotionally heavy, winter-coated story of two men meeting in a small snowy town at the northern end of Japan. The heat of their hearts unites them despite the solitary environments both have built for themselves. It’s a lovely little tale that I found myself enthralled by, that is as long as it needs to be and yet I wish was longer. The artist Tomo Serizawa captures the loneliness of individuals stuck within themselves regardless of how that loneliness takes shape.
Haruki is a small town man who lives alone in the house his parents built. He lives next to his grandmother, and hangs out with the same two friends he grew up with. He’s a nice guy, but unadventurous. Narumi is a popular nature photographer who travels wherever his job takes him. He’s also a nice guy, but unable to set down roots. When Haruki notices that Narumi’s car caught in the snow on the side of the road, and that Narumi is without lodging, he boldly asks if Narumi is willing to stay with him for while in town. Thus the winds of winter begin to blow…
The bones of a hot house story are ever present within Snow Fairy. Two people almost locked away in a tiny, enclosed space, their feelings bursting out as the world collides with them. Everything pulls them ever closer even if they don’t yet see it. I like both of these characters a lot, and appreciate there isn’t a ton of drama outside of the usual will-they-won’t-they tropes.
The supporting cast is also lovely; I especially love Granny and her cat. Haruki and Narumi’s backstories are tragic, but only serve to inform them as individuals without =overtaking the narrative. You can see how their different lived experiences very easily took them down these paths. And I enjoy the emphasis put on Narumi’s work as a photographer. His photographs become a bridge connecting the two of them. His beautiful (illustrated) photos had me thinking, “Man, I really need to look at nature photography more often”. Whatever love Serizawa has for the medium comes through.
Serizawa’s art is detailed but never overbearing, from the animals to the cars and roads. The characters have near-jagged jaw lines that make their faces look pronounced. While both Narumi and Haruki look similar, Serizawa was smart enough to give them different hair colors and a funny height difference to set them apart within the same scene.
I can easily recommend this comic you want a little bit of drama, incredible environmental atmosphere, and a cute story between two men falling in love. — Derrick Crow
Bande Dead Innate
Writer/Artist: Layae
Proofreaders: Tamara Ansing, Wommol
Platform: WEBTOON CANVAS
Webcomics never fail to amaze me. Anyone can post their own stories online for all to see. Some will be great with mediocre or bad art, others will have great art but downright terrible writing. All will be true to the creator’s vision: unashamedly raw, in the moment, their story.
Bande Dead Innate is a webcomic created and illustrated by Layae and self published on WEBTOON CANVAS. It follows Tim and Alison, two recently graduated students from art school, as they stumble through life together. Yet from the beginning, we know that Tim will one day make the worst decision of his life and tear his relationship with Alison apart.
Tim is a flawed character. He’s headstrong, short-tempered, and at times uncertain. He’s very different from Alison, our resident art gremlin who wants to create comics. She is impulsive, energetic, and also quite mischievous. You can start to see the seeds of what could snowball into their split.
The art does a great job telegraphing who is speaking, as each speech bubble is color coded to a specific character. It is so subtle and yet natural within the story, because the world itself is always lively with color. The characters and world are colored and shaded with a marker-like texture that blends so seamlessly with the varied lineart, and with so much weight despite the simplistic character design shapes. Layae also changes colors between panels to achieve specific moods. At times there are multiple panels without dialogue just to let the reader soak in a character’s lingering emotions. There are even times where for comedic effect, panels repeat with slight deviations to sell the illusion of time slowing to a crawl, as well as the discomfort of waiting for something to happen.
Underneath the intricacies of its presentation, you can feel an intimate connection with the creator. This is a grounded story. The characters do not travel to another world or fight monsters. They are just two art students trying to figure out what comic book they want to make. — Justin Guerrero
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