Bingo 1: VS
One thing I love about my local public library system is that they have multiple summer reading challenges, including one for adults. Yes, with prizes too. Most years, the final finishing prize is a book; this year was no exception. What was a little different was that a) the half—way prize was also a book, and b) they’d “sold out” of nearly everything I’d have gone for way early. So, I picked out my finishing prize book from the YA section, a graphic novel I’d heard of but more as an anime, The God of High School (vol. 1). This is a teen fighter tournament story, hence its location in the “VS” square.
One of the reasons I had to explain the origin of how I started this is because I’m probably not the target audience (more like their mom, almost). It wasn’t a bad story, not a bad scenario or characters, but it was most definitely hugely trope-y. Basically, practically supernaturally gifted fighters are being gathered by a mysterious organization to participate in the tournament at the end of which the winner gets any wish they want granted. Our MC comes off as a goof-ball, who barely gets in and survives the first bout, but might just have some sort of hidden chosen-one-ness. Other fighters have noble causes, like trying to win to wish for a cure for a dying friend’s illness, while others are just violent lunatics. The mysterious organization is suspicious as some of the fighters start to notice and question the nature of the tournament. But it’s only volume 1, so more on that later, most likely.
The tournament is also not the only fighting bits; because the tournament participants have to be invited and they’re all experts in various forms of combat (in spite of supposedly all being high schoolers), convincing them to join up sometimes requires the organization’s messengers to beat them into submission or at least be enough of a threat themselves to be convincing.
So to sum up: a reasonable amount of fighting, suspicious circumstances, unremarkable characters whose names I don’t remember without looking them up, and I didn’t spend any $ on this. Don’t regret the choice, but also don’t care enough to follow up.
