Reviews » Punch!

Category: Manga
Country: Japan
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Action
Artist: Rie Takada
Publisher: Viz Media
# of Volumes: 3

Brief Synopsis:
The story centers around a spunky and short high school girl by the name of Elle Nagahara. Elle wants a normal life, and a normal boyfriend to spend it with. Unfortunate for her is that she comes from a family of fighters! Not just that, but because of a promise that her grandfather, a champion boxer, and his rival had made in their youth, she is also engaged to a rising star in the boxing world named Ruo. Elle hates fighting, and every guy that she falls for ends up being chased away by Ruo, until one day she meets a street punk who is different from all the other guys she's fallen for...

Bonus Short Stories: Anything Goes and Hibari Telepathy

Punch! review by Jamie
To be quite honest, the biggest problem I had with this series is that it was far too short. I actually probably would've scored it much higher if it was longer. Although there are three volumes, the series is technically 2 1/2 books, seeing as how half of the last book contained bonus short stories. Don't get me wrong, both stories were excellent, but it felt like the main story was just getting started, the last book felt kind of rushed in the way it ended.

Aside from the fact that the series was much too short for my liking, I love this series. Its definently a little off beat and different from the average shoujo love story. Sprinkled with a good dose of comedy and a pinch of action and you have one of the cutest new shoujo titles to come out in a long time. The characters are all loveable in their own way, especially Gigi, Elle's grandfather.

Elle is also an awesome leading female character. They make a note on how tiny she is in the story, but she's no pushover! When she wanted something she fought tooth and nail to get it. Which is ironic considering she hates fighting.

One thing that surprises me though is that Elle's best friend, who has eyes for her fiance Ruo, kind of picks on Elle and doesn't seem to have any bit of loyalty towards her; Quite funny considering she's supposed to be one of Elle's good friends, and Elle doesn't take crap from anyone but her. This bugged me just a little bit, and I wish they had delved into this side plot a little more, but again the story was cut off so soon, there was barely enough time for the actual story to develop.

The story to me felt a little under developed, and it's a shame because it was going so well up until book three.

At the end once you've gotten over the disappointment of the series stopping so abruptly, you've got two quirky little short stories to enjoy. They aren't the greatest, but at least it's something. Both are worthwhile reads and are good for a laugh in the very least.


Strong Points: Original story, adorable characters
Weak Points: Far too short!
Overall Rating: