Fight Class 3

Joined
May 19, 2019
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1
Man the thumbnail for this series really reminds me of the dreamcast box art for third strike .
 
Joined
Apr 7, 2019
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48
Holy fucking shit, he got fucking wrecked. As cool as this chapter was, and as much as I dislike how he treated her, I hope he isn't permanently injured for life cause I feel bad for him after seeing his past lol. But he's probably gonna be permanently injured, considering how lethal those strikes were.
 
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
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39
Sigh. After reading up to the current translations, and even peaking at some of the raws. This manhwa has just gone off all the rails.
 
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
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39
My theory is the author likes too many of his characters, and that he's a fan of combat sports so he spreads the attention around to all the characters and all the fighting styles to the detriment of the story.
 
Fed-Kun's army
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Jul 3, 2019
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88
But is it really to the detriment of the story though?

I personally enjoy seeing all this world building and character development for the rest of the cast. If the story happened to exclusively focus on Ji-tae, people would be complaining that the rest of the characters have no purpose being in the series. Then this manga would be just like every other generic story about a weak main character becoming strong and kicking everybody's ass one asspull after another.

These supporting characters interact with the MC so knowing their backstories, motives and ideals is important since they will become his rivals and their goals and dreams will clash with Ji-tae's at some point of the story. Also, side plots are a thing people.
 
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
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@mylastchance89 I mean... the side characters don't serve a purpose right now, and people are saying that already so what would change if the manhwa kept its focus on Ji-tae? People would say that side characters don't matter, but the story would develop more. Like of all these side characters in the story, how many does Ji-tae actually interact with, or had interactions with, and did those interactions change him? Besides his friends, who are theoretically the most important side characters, I can list 2 characters that Ji-tae has interacted with, and those interactions developed his character. Karate girl, judo girl... only those 2 come to mind. All the other characters are just noise. What was the point of spending half a chapter having karate girl, Ha-min, and horse dude talk about how horse dude lost. How does that affect Ji-tae? Why has there been chapters focusing on class 1-2, and Capoeira chick, and that dude who got knocked out by Ha-min in one punch? Those characters don't interact with Ji-tae (horse guy, capoera, and other class 1-2 dude), but they've gotten screen time. Just ask yourself this, what was the intro of the story? Was it Ji-tae entering the fight classes and becoming acquainted with all the other fight class members, or was it Ji-tae losing his sister and catching the eye of Maria? Whatever answer you choose should tell you the story's through-line.

If the author wanted to make a story about a bunch of characters trying trying to reach the top of the fight class, then his intro didn't really serve in that purpose. All of the focus of the first 17 chapters was on Ji-tae, but then that collapses, and because of that the story loses focus. Almost nothing that's happening right now is getting Ji-tae any closer to getting his sister. We haven't even seen him learn Jiu Jitsu in almost 15 chapters, our supposed main character has only been the story half the time, and that's for whats been translated. The only development we've seen with Ji-tae is that he stopped hesitating in chapter 30, but a that point, the last time we saw him fight at that point was chapter 17. That could have happened way sooner. That doesn't make sense. There's a difference between side-plots, and shifting focus. How is this "tournament arc" a side plot, but whenever we return to Ji-tae, he gets 2 chapters, but the tournament gets 4-5 chapters about it. Doesn't really seem like a side plot tbh.
 
Active member
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Mar 3, 2019
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It seems to me that the people complaining has a problem with the pace rather than the story. All the stuff most point out doesn't take away from the plot in any means whatsover (imo), in fact makes the whole fight class more interesting. In the end it comes to a matter of appeal. What someone might enjoy other might not.

Also, It's not like Ji-tae is going to fight his dad in a couple of weeks anyways. He has 3 years to become a real fighter before really going after that goal. What's the problem of getting a look into the students daily life just because it doesn't push Ji-tae closer to finding his sister right away? I mean, most shonen MCs have a goal that takes years to become reallity (Naruto becoming Hokage, Luffy becoming the King of Pirates, etc) but we don't complain despite that journey becoming excessively monothematic in the long run. There's a reason why the series is called "Fight Class 3" instead of "Ji-tae's Revenge".

There's nothing wrong with liking simple stories that have an MC driven plotline or a single POV, but that doesn't mean the style of storytelling the author is going for is bad just because its different or not what most people are used to when it comes to shonen series.

I honestly believe that a lot of shonen readers prefer stories like Solo Leveling, where the MC is the only character that matters and where the plot is just an excuse to wank him off the whole time, because they love self inserting and putting themselves into the MC's shoes so they can feel as the cool hero for once in their lives.
 
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
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39
Well, most long running shonen series maintain their focus on a character and his group. One piece is focused on Luffy and his pirate crews quest, Naruto is focused on Naruto's quest to become Hokage, though that does in fact get derailed later in the story and a lot of people complain about that as well. The point is the focus is always consistent though.

You're correct, the series is called "Fight Class 3" so it should focus on fight class 3 I guess, oh wait, nvm we aren't there yet I guess lol we're in fight class 1... Guess someone gotta change the name. Just cause the name of the series says one thing doesn't denote where the focus is. One Piece is called "One Piece", but its not a story about all the pirates trying to get Gol D. Roger's treasure, no, its about Luffy and his quest to become the King of Pirates. Bad is subjective I'll give you that, but I stand by the fact that the story seems to be losing its focus.

You're also correct that Ji-tae isn't going to be fighting his dad in a couple weeks but, I mean, is he gonna fight anyone? He's had 3 fights overall in a story about him fighting to get his sister back. And there's been over 20 fights already.

I also don't see how this is a story pacing thing. You can have slow story pacing, but still have a focus on the main character. Hajime no Ippo anyone? This isn't a pacing problem if you ask me, its a focus problem. Like, take my favorite story Ballroom he Youkoso. Tatara is the main character, and the focus of the story is about him growing as a whole, and the side characters develop through interactions with him. The story doesn't "wank off" Tatara at all. It constantly points out his flaws through comparisons with the other characters, and he's constantly being challenged by the side characters to be better. Despite that, the story doesn't go on detours to show tournaments of Kiyoharu and Shizuku competing. No, we learn about their tournament results through conversation after they've competed off camera, not by watching them because they're not the focus of the story. The story is about Tatara's quest to become the best ballroom dancer.
 
Group Leader
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Jan 26, 2018
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138
Wow, the debates won't stop don't they?

That's a pretty cool thing to have to be honest and I haven't come across a story that is perfect so criticism is always valid and necessary imo. The only thing I would like to say is that it seems to be pretty clear that there are people who enjoy the route the story is going while there are others that don't and that's perfectly fine. Not everyone has to like or enjoy the same things. That's the beauty of it.


Have a nice day everyone.
 
Fed-Kun's army
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Jul 3, 2019
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88
@shinratensei16 Well, nobody is forcing anyone to read read the series against their will though. Criticism is always valid but some of the comments I see around here are mostly complains about them not getting what they want from the story. Maybe those same aspects that make you dislike it are the same reasons for others to love it.

If a series doesn't give you what you're looking for then just drop it. Nobody is gonna get mad at you for doing so. What's the point of trying to force your experience on others just because you don't enjoy it the same way? I mean, what would be the point of me complaining about a certain restaurant serving trash food if I keep going there to eat anyways? Should I try to convince the people that like eating there of not going just because I don't?

I just don't see the point honestly, but to each its own.
 
Group Leader
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Jan 26, 2018
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@mylastchance89 I 100% agree but you know how this works. In an ideal world people would move on and let others enjoy things but things are a bit more complicated on a public forum lol.

You also have to consider that making criticism doesn't necessarily mean a person dislikes everything about a series. It could be some gripe about some specfic aspects while still enjoying others. Or it could also be that those people are waiting to see if the focus switches back to what initially caught their attention and made them read the series.

Last but not least: Why would you allow others to ruin the fun for you? If you like how things are going just keep enjoying the series man.

Thanks for your reply and have a nice day.
 
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
Messages
39
Or you know, people can like aspects of a comic and dislike other aspects? Its not black and white lmao. And also, you have the choice of ignoring the comments? If you don't like what someone said, you can just ignore it and let it go instead of adding to it which incentives people to talk more. Seems a little funny to me.

Edit: Whoops looks like shinra already said what I said lmao. You're 100% on point.
 
Dex-chan lover
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Mar 6, 2019
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182
I think the real problem is not just that the plot isn't going forward - after all, this is a tournament arc. It's for having good fights and introducing characters.

The real problem is threefold:
1. Too little of the characters we're getting to know will matter at all
2. Too few of the fights we've seen so far have been very interesting
3. Of the characters who will definitely matter there are some major flaws

To elaborate:

1. The general ability level of the class we're in seems really weak. Every single time Shim Ha-Min's been in a fight he's utterly crushed his enemies (barring the time where he wasn't able to KO the other guy and only got a unanimous point decision); he's also significantly below Maria. Against the class's best striker the MC nearly went the distance even though he had maybe a month tops of training. Once he gets a little better he's going to absolutely skyrocket with the power of his eyes. That means those three are miles above the rest of the people in the tournament, i.e. the people with whom we've been wasting 20 chapters. This is a tournament that eliminated the MC in the first round, meaning that there's fantastic room to have a real mystery as to who will get to the finals!

But there is none, Maria and Shim Ha-Min were introduced as the strongest people in the class and they are, getting to the finals with zero difficulty each. There's no equivalent of the dark horses in Kengan or the carnival of colourful characters in YuYu Hakusho. The tournament is purely down to Shim Ha-Min V Maria, which we're only just getting to after 25 chapters. They were building one up for Shim Ha-Min in terms of Eul-Sol, but she's booted in the most embarrassing way possible in the most baffling decision in the manga, one of its more impressive side characters sacrificed to hype up one of its worst. What's odd is that Ha-min seems to have some trouble with actually KO-ing the random bowlcut guy, so it's not like he's some sacred cow that can never be touched. The author just didn't want to have him fight against the only non-main character who was getting any degree of momentum. For some inexplicable reason.

We spend half a chapter looking at the sambo guy who doesn't take his responsibilities seriously enough. That's great! He seems like a fun character. But what's the point of building up his byronic status just to have the actual fight be over in a single page? No look at how his false confidence crumbles? Or how he puts up a brave effort anyway? So we've wasted half a chapter characterising a random jobber for no payoff in the moment and none going forward because he will never matter.

I only mention this one because it stood out because it was relatively good by this series's standards. I really remembered that character, which is more than I can say for 80% of the side cast.

2. Since this tournament arc began we've seen maybe three decent fights. The Capoeria/Takkeyon fight, Eul's first fight and the Karate girl's fight when she loses. Every other fight has been a massive squash or has just been two characters beating on each other with no distinctive style, flair or tactics. Even if you want to build up characters as strong, having them win fights even when they're not using their strengths makes the story feel like it's operating off of DBZ rules. For example, Maria's used submissions maybe four times in the entire manga, despite her main style being BJJ. Every other time she's fought she's blitzed her opponents with pure strikes. Not only is neither character pressed so we can see how they handle under pressure, Maria's opponents can't even force her to use her main tactics.

Even those three good fights have significant flaws. The first ends rather anti-climactically, the second is rather short and only good for that one amazing panel, and the final one, while emotional, doesn't really bring anything to the table in terms of uniqueness or choreography.

So in a manga, called fight class 3, during its tournament arc, the vast majority of the fights suck. That is a problem.

3. Currently, there only seem to be three characters who matter in the entire tournament. One of them is the MC, who was taken out really easily, but the fact that he was able to see all the shots coming from the karate girl imply that he's going to get a lot better really fast and completely outpace everyone not called Maria or Shin-Han. The problem is that the MC, Maria, and Shin-Han all have glaring flaws.

The MC has a pretty bog-standard motivation and has no real interesting character moments to speak of; also, how easily fighting comes to him is a constant niggle (things like throwing a punch perfectly the first time despite never practising it are just obnoxious and unnecessary). He's just kind of there.

Maria is waaaay too psychotic to root for. After the ultimate hero fight she went from "troubled hero" to "sympathetic villain". I'm actually fine with her beating up the MC in his house because we saw the PTSD trigger go off; against the Ultimate hero guy even though he was chatting shit she could have just broken his arm or something instead of going out of her way to nearly kill him. I would broadly say that there's at least potential here, but at the same time there's so much page space wasted hyping up a character we already know is really good, which also irritates me. We don't need chapter after chapter of Maria dominating her opposition; you'd think the author would know this by having her tournament fights take place offscreen but he still crams her in the flashbacks.

Shim Ha-Min is just boring as fuck. Despite making it all the way to the finals and getting a multi-chapter flashback, he is essentially still the guy we were introduced to. He likes Maria and he's really strong. Those are his only two character traits. His backstory does nothing to expand on that.

These points are all interlinked. The weakness in the side cast brings into focus the flaws of the main trio. The weakness in the side cast is partially because they suck in fights, and they suck in fights to hype up Shim Ha-Min and Maria.

In short, the plot's going nowhere, the characters are either boring, fodder, or both, and the fights need improvement. Could the manga still make a comeback? Definitely. Will it? Only time will tell. But one thing's for sure, it's making a comeback from a rocky, rocky second arc.
 

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