I’m not going to lie, I’m not really into E-Sports in any way, and to avoid sounding like an old out-of-touch man, I don’t quite “get it”. That said, I am willing to give Ablaze a shot since they always put out quality material, and this looked interesting at least. Versus Fighting Story follows a lot of tropes that have previously been used for sports manga, which is fitting seeing that this is an extension of that to a degree. You have a hot-headed, overly arrogant star player that loses everything due to laziness, and his attempted reclamation of his lost spot. Even Pixar’s Cars has a similar general plot – it’s tried and true and works for this sort of story quite well. I was happy to see that the art-style used in this was a throw-back to older anime and manga, a style I generally prefer over modern stuff – all-in-all presentation-wise this was solid.

“Max Volta, leader of a team of professional players, launches an assault on the Capcom Pro Tour, one of the major international competitions for Street Fighter V. Everything does not happen as expected for the arrogant and overconfident Max… even after being named top pick to win the tournament, he suffers a crushing defeat. Max takes it out on his friends, which leads to his sponsors pulling out. He is afraid his career is over. But then the mysterious Inés offers to return to the basics of “VS fighting” and put together a team capable of beating the Japanese god of fighting games…and which will cause a storm in the world of professional gaming.”


Max starts out in the story as a fairly unlikeable character, I’m not sure if he fully gets his redemption in this volume as he just seems slightly less conceited than before. Then again, this is more of a comedy/action manga than a drama, so I’m not expecting it to really bare it’s soul or anything. If you are a fan of E-sports, or the history of fighting games, this is a solid manga with a competent story and great artwork. I’m not super interested in the story, but even then, I found it’s merits and would welcome reading more of it if the situation presents itself. I know of plenty of people in the fighting game scene that would love this, perhaps I should recommend it to them?

NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.

Volume 1 of "Versus Fighting Story" read in the synopsis like my cup of tea. It is marketed as being a sports manga, focusing on e-sport.

I definitely enjoyed the character design and characters. They are reminiscent of the genre and are great with capturing any eager reader.

Where I am somewhat reluctant to recommend the manga is that I don't feel this first volume does a great job of introducing the readers to this particular sport. As someone who isn't well-versed in esports, some of the references and events felt too fantastical. Personally, I would have preferred a story more grounded in reality (at least for the first arc).

While I don't think the storytelling is bad, I'd recommend it to fans of seinen stories over the typical shounen that sports manga tends to appeal towards.

Overall, I hope that volume two finds its feet, as it settles into storylines introduced.

I was worried at first that you would need to be familiar with Street Fighter in order to enjoy this book, but it got better after a slow start. There are some terms and characters that make it hard to grasp if you aren't familiar with the references. Once it got past the rough start, I was able to get into the basic premise of the story. For those who grew up with Street Fighter, you may enjoy the nostalgia.

3.25/5 stars!

When a Japanese player wins against the Max Volta at the Capcom Pro Tour, it changed the future for the French player. A year later, as the disgraced professional player tries to stay afloat after being fired by his uncle, he meets a young woman who changes his life. Read on to see how Max begins his new journey at professional gaming.

I liked this first volume of this series. It is definitely focused on gaming in the professional arena and it's informative in playing the Street Fighter game. However, the main character reached a level in a personality trait that I found irritable, though I hope that in the future this trait will change. There were also some characters that I didn't like as much as others. I also liked that there was a tutorial, an interview of a professional gamer, and a glossary at the end of the book. Though enjoyable, this manga series is highly focused towards this particular gaming series so for anyone who enjoys video games, this series is for you. Otherwise the general readers would be lost about the story and its jargon.

**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own.**

I surprisingly really liked this book. I picked it up because I used to play Street Fighter as a kid, and I thought it would bring back some nostalgia. However, it started out a bit slow for me. I was concerned that it was going to be that way through the whole book, but once they got into the family background, it really picked up for me. I was pleasantly surprised and would read volume II.