Bamboo Blade # 14 - Thoughts and final opinions on overall series

[pianocello]

I just got my manga for Bamboo Blade # 14. Quite frankly I wasn't expecting the series to end so soon. All the development on Tama was nice but I thought the conclusion was rather abrupt. It felt almost like the mangaka had no choice but to finish the series. We don't even see a proper conclusion to a match and it was more of a "life goes on, there will always be more matches" kind of conclusion.

When this series first started, I thought it was extremely hilarious and one of my favorite manga. I was especially looking forward to what would happen beyond the anime ending. Towards the 2nd half of the series, the show became too much like a typical shounen sports manga with way too much focus on matches rather than character development and the series seemed to lose its earlier charm. With the material that they have beyond the anime ending, I doubt it will be enough to do an anime 2nd season.

Overall while I initially thought this would turn out to be one of my all-time favorite manga, the drop in quality in the 2nd half puts it in my "merely good" category. Anyone else been following this manga?

[Damius]

The way I felt at the end is like: "This was an awesome introduction, now we can start the main story" I mean, from now on, where would go Tama and her teammates? In other words I feel like: "This is an anime that will never have a second season, so if I want to know how the story will continue I'll need to read the manga. Oh wait! I was reading the manga..."