A series whose clean visuals struggle to cover up an unfocused plot.

"There are moments in life where we are struck to the core. But the one I'm most grateful for is the day that she found me."

• Isami Neruma, Chapter 1

Neru: The Way of the Martial Artist is a martial arts-based series that takes the digitally exclusive Bugei Michiyuki NERU and translated it into a print run. While the core elements of the series remain, with Isami Neruma attempting to become a martial artist. Hiraga, however, chose to introduce a number of new elements early on in order to make this release stand out from its predecessor. It is these changes, especially the ones made during the opening chapter, that highlight the reasons why Neru struggled to retain a readership.

The basic plot of Neru: The Way of the Martial Artist is one that has potential. Watching a character steadily become stronger can be a satisfying experience, especially when the progress is well-paced; balancing success and failure. Unfortunately, this is something that Neru fails to achieve in its short run.

The opening to this series immediately disturbs this balance by introducing an element of mystery that feels out of place. It creates a weak foundation that is neglected by the main plot until it eventually collapses. There is a need constantly build on a mystery, whether that be subtly handled or not, as this reinforces its importance and shows the impact that it has on the plot. Hiraga Minya relies on the familial nature of the mystery to generate interest and imply its prominence, but this fails as there is little reference back to it and it struggles to pull the reader’s attention in. Neru also attempts to introduce a number of elements all at the same time; such as during the exam chapters where there are a number of new characters but the reader has no grasp on who is important and who isn’t.

There are, however, a couple of changes that improve the series such as Neruma encountering Haiba Akebi before her twin brother. This allows the reader to see her as an active fighter rather than relegating her to the sidelines; offering some interesting avenues that the series could have explored.

It does cause a couple of issues later on in regards to consistency. One of the characters, an archer, was being challenged about her place due to being a girl. While this isn’t an unrealistic storyline, it doesn’t really make sense as we have already seen Akebi being a very accomplished fighter who is respected for her talent. Within the space of a few chapters, we see one character imply that martial arts isn’t a place for women while another chides his sister for not turning up to practice. Having these two storylines happen so closely together makes it difficult to tell how the characters interact with each other outside of Neruma’s presence.

This lack of clear and maintained focus within the plot of Neru occurs despite its obvious goal which is highlighted from the start. This mostly appears when the series is trying to balance personal drama and action as it struggles to explore both aspects at the same time. The pacing becomes a little haphazard as it cuts between these elements and makes the story a little less coherent. Hiraga often ends up choosing to sacrifice one for the other; leading to less development on both sides. This is definitely a downgrade from Bugei Michiyuki NERU which managed to harmonise the emotional connections with the fight scenes.

However, there were signs that the series was improving the balance between drama and action; especially with the last major fight. The personal conflicts worked closely with the fight scenes and made the chapters more enjoyable to read. Hiraga really shows skill when they stretch fight scenes out over multiple chapters rather than having one chapter conflicts.

The original series used its opening chapter to develop Neruma’s character, showing how he struggled to fit in with society while developing the world around him. In Neru, he is glossed over as a character with the plot favouring a couple of less relevant elements. The lack of a comprehensive grasp of Neruma as a character reduces him to more of a caricature than the character he was in Bugei Michiyuki NERU. He simply becomes obsessed with martial arts without any compelling reason.

The side characters are also victims of the changes made to Neru’s pacing. Rather than taking the time to develop them, Hiraga quickly shuffles through them; making it difficult to tell who is important and who isn’t. This also makes any of the attempts to create an emotional connection between the characters fall flat. Most side characters are given a goal or character trait that defines them but, due to their rapid introductions, they are forgettable or not too engaging.

Their goals also create some internal inconsistencies that generate more unsatisfying questions. This is partly due to the lack of understandable motivations; especially when concerning fight scenes. The moments of tension lack weight, with the only exceptions being where the characters were well established before the conflict surrounding them. The only characters who felt developed were the ones who spent an extended time with Neruma, those being Akebi and Ryuzen Satomi. They had more concrete motivations and were allowed to develop over time and outside of conflicts. This growth also makes their fight scenes more interesting as the reader is made to care about them.

Where Hiraga shines is in the fight scenes. Each movement flows smoothly while, for the most part, remaining easy to read. There were some interesting decisions made earlier on to show how Neruma learned to fight through drawing out movements. It made his thought processes easy to understand while offering a unique perspective for his fight scenes. It’s a shame that this wasn’t utilised more. This also reflects Neru’s trouble with pacing as, despite being well choreographed, the action scenes are rather short and so it is difficult to get into their flow. They become moments that look good rather than being elevated to enjoyable spectacles; especially fight scenes that are weighed down by unnecessary exposition.

One of the reasons that the fight scenes stand out, in particular, is the art style used. It captures the nostalgic feeling of the 90s; using lighter lines to create an almost ethereal feel to the manga. The only issue I sometimes had was with lighter hair becoming difficult to make out, however, this only affects a small handful of characters.

Overall, Neru: The Way of the Martial Artist was a series that demonstrated its potential, but not consistently enough to garner a regular readership. Perhaps this could have been improved if martial arts remained at the forefront of the story. The ending does what it can with its material; referring back to its opening chapter in a nice enough way that it is easy to see how the story would have progressed if given more time.

I wish Hiraga all the best for their future as they showed that they had a fascinating way of capturing movement and a strong sense of martial art-based fighting. Hopefully, they will be able to apply this to a new story that allows them to demonstrate their talents.