Not my cup of tea.. violent and a bit too much nudity but I'm sure it's perfect for older teen boys lol

This was defiantly a random pick for me. I wasn't even sure what it was about. I just looked at the cover and was like hey it looks interesting lets see what's inside and I will tell you now I was not disappointed! This book was actually pretty trippy at first with the whole world building and this volume did a great job getting me into what's going on. It was all the more interesting seeing Zens start in all this and why he's getting into this Bootlegs group. I enjoyed getting to see the other new characters and seeing how different they were and how they got to this point and I can't wait to see more from these characters. I will say this book is a bit much with the fan service but I'll ignore that because the overall storyline was getting interesting enough for me to want to check out the next book soon as I can.

This book had some pretty gross portrayals of women. There’s an instance where a woman is grievously injured and she’s strategically posed so we can see her panties. There’s also multiple instances of the (14 year old) main character’s (adult) guardian trying to get him to bathe with her. If the genders were switched, I doubt the author would have included those sections due to how gross it is. Even ignoring these issues, the book is pretty bland. The characters don’t have much in the way of personality and the rules of the magic system, though interesting, aren’t really adhered to.

Bootsleg is surely something else, so weirdly refreshing! Zen's parents and sister were swallowed by Shake Hand, an odd and creepy hand that came from the ground. At the same time the seven-year-old Zen lost his leg and got a new prosthetic one. This incident wasn't the first though. Now he wants to find the mysterious devil and learns to fight. Eventually he becomes part of a secret organization called Bootsleg that makes shoes to find these evil gloves. Zen isn't the only one of course and all of the candidates have their own glove demons to handle. But the organization hasn't yet defeated even one, so what's to happen? The whole thing is so wonky that it amazes me. The idea is marvelous. I wish we'd get into the setting better though and less fights, since this isn't easiest to follow and understand. So, I hope Yasuda uses more time to explain and grow the story instead of ecchi stuff.

The art looks great and works amazingly well with the story line. The movement looks great, especially speed and kicks. The rhythm isn't steady though and the pacing lacks, since the beginning is quite slow until the action starts and then there's no end to it. Also, the fan service feels cheap, since this didn't need it. The whole thing is so great that the boobs and whatnot just feel superimposed in every way.

Felt like a typical Shonen manga with typical Shonen characters and backstories, and I don't think it does anything really unique for the genre. Will not continue with this series.

At the age of seven, Zen lost everything: his parents, his sister, and his even left leg. They were taken from him by a mysterious gloved entity known as Shake Hand. Zen vows to grow strong enough to avenge them and joins an organization known as Bootsleg whose duty is to root out the cursed gloves that are plaguing his city.

Bootsleg, Vol. 1 by Suzuhito Yasuda delivers an explosive first volume from the same mangaka who brought us the infamous Nun Bear from Yozakura Quartet.

This manga is fast-paced, high-octane, and a whole lot of fun, which comes as a bit of a double-edged sword.

Yes, it’s entertaining, but I found it difficult to care if any of the characters (asides from Lily) lived or died.

In the next volume, I’m hoping the story digs deeper than its whacky premise of magical shoes vs gloves. I’d like to see the characters get fleshed out more so they feel more believable and I can actually feel invested in what happens to them. Otherwise, it's just another generic battle shounen without soul.

ARC Copy...It is promising so far as a start to a series with lingering thoughts of "this might be important later on" and nice world building amongst the nature and power both the spirits and the every day object weapons used to fight them.

When Zen's family are attacked by a mysterious glove (turned monster) called Shake-Hand, taking his left leg in the process, Zen begins training in order to avenge his family. He encounters an organisation called Bootsleg who aspire to defeat the 100 gloves (known as Hand-Red).

An action-packed, ambitious new shounen for sure. A <b>LOT</b> got introduced in this volume, which is incredibly long compared to other manga volumes I have read - the characters are interesting and each have their own motivations, the concept is original and seems well-thought out. Young characters living together in a training setting with a big bad to defeat and badass leaders/trainers? A shounen story

<i>I will admit there is something about the dynamic between two characters - one older lady and our younger protagonist, that sparked me the wrong way</i>. Apart from that, the character dynamics are really interesting.

This could become quite a big manga and has quite a big scope. This is one I will enjoy continuing to read.

<i>Many thanks to Kodansha via NetGalley for the ARC of this volume in exchange for an honest review</i>

This is not for me. The girls are all very young and they're drawn like adult women. There's no need to have them running around half-naked. It was hard to take them seriously as characters.

The plot is very shounen - boy seeks revenge on the person that killed his family with super powers - but it lacks the charm that a lot of older series have. The plot is unique in that everyone fights with their shoes against gloved people, but the uniqueness also makes it incredibly corny.

If the girls weren't the way they are, I would recommend this for much younger readers that might enjoy super-powered shoes.

[Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for the Arc of this manga in exchange for a single review.]

A really very original story, it surprised me a lot.
It is exciting and like a good shounen there is the protagonist who, following an accident, has to follow a path in order to become "the hero" and defeat the enemy.

The world seemed particularly similar to ours, if there weren't some strange demons. The most disturbing one that shows only the hand from the ground.

So a story of courage, strength and hard commitment, because to defeat the villain, our protagonist must train and train if he wants to try to get close.

One thing that intrigued me a lot, is that the protagonist for a certain event (I will not spoilers) but remains without a leg and the dynamics and the way in which it is told.

I enjoyed it very much and am curious to continue the story with the next volumes.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kodansha, and Suzuhito Yasuda for the opportunity to read this manga in exchange for an honest review.

"The war between Bootsleg and Hand-Red has lasted well over a century, and while we've fended them off many a time, the number of Hand-Red we've defeated... ...remains at zero."

An interesting shounen tale full of vengeance, determination, and blood. Zen lost his leg and his whole family to Shake Hand, a member of Hand-Red, one of one hundred gloves possessed by spirits.

Zen has been learning how to live life without his family and with a prosthetic leg for seven years. When Shake Hand returns once more, after such a long absence, Zen learns he was being sheltered, hidden from the glove spirit until he hit a certain readiness to join Bootsleg, an organization dedicated to ridding the world of Hand-Red.

An interesting manga. This volume is over three hundred pages, but was a quick read and full of excellently drawn action scenes. An enthralling new manga to the start of what seems to be quite a promising and intriguing series.

[Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.]

An unfortunate encounter cost Zen his entire family and part of his leg. Years later, he trains to get revenge on Shake Hand, the villain who did this to him. Shonen manga basically occurs, with all the nonsensical backstory and scantily clad minors that entails.

You might get the impression that I did not care for this manga. You would be very, very accurate. This is basically every single thing I don’t like about shonen manga wrapped up with one of the stupidest excuses for a conflict that I have ever seen.

After Zen’s family is killed, he’s on his own, but he has a nurse named Lily who he spars with because why not and she is dressed for her work like she gets her outfits from the ‘sexy [blank]’ section of the Halloween store. This makes perfect sense if you are writing a character like this, but not in terms of being believable.

As he chafes at not getting stronger, Zen is recruited into a shadowy organization known as Bootsleg that is fighting against spiritual gloves running amuck and you have to wonder at this point if the author just wants to troll the audience.

Yes, it’s the throwdown of our time, as gloves and shoes battle out for supremacy and if you can take any of that with a straight face, you’ll be fine. I’ll just be annoyed. It’s super cringe and reads like something a middle schooler would write.

This first volume is three hundred plus pages and involves a guy with giant hands, a parasitic train, and a family curse monster. It’s inventive, I’ll grant you that, but despite Bootsleg having a ridiculously convoluted hierarchy the villains proper seem very ‘whatever I want’.

There’s a really weird set-up that sees every member having one arch nemesis and, by the way, Bootsleg has never won a battle so you have tons of fights ahead of you and my eyes slowly began to glaze over at the very prospect.

The action ranges from well-drawn to especially inscrutable. The fight that closes out the book is an absolute mess where I couldn’t even manage to get an idea of what was happening or the bad guy even looked like. We also get the introduction of Masamune here, who is a young girl who just strips down to what she calls sportswear but feels like an excuse for serious fan service of an underage character (the female lead in <i>Zom 100</I> is way better at pulling that off).

Fan service is one of those things you have to accept, but the art is particularly thirsty for her. Which is a shame because she’s a fairly good character when you don’t feel like you’ll go to jail for looking at her. The camaraderie between the leads is decent enough.

The middle section introducing a speedier character is probably the best section and has some definite moments and the more legible portions of the action. That’s the biggest crime in all this - there’s a good book in here somewhere, buried beneath its own premise and desire to be a book of sexy females and a foot fetishist’s dream come true.

There’s a constantly reused picture of Zen in school that pops up and features a girl with a clear crush on him that’s really cute and such efficient visual storytelling - she doesn’t show up anywhere else and only for literally a single panel each time - that it hints at something so much better. I wish we’d gotten that book.

2 stars - my rule of thumb remains that I won’t give one star unless I believe the book has no appeal or reason to exist. I think this may very well appeal to somebody, but it’s somebody who isn’t me.

Review to come to blog/Goodreads/etc.. on May 18th.

I received this book from Netgalley/Kodansha in exchange of an honest review.

So, I normally don't pick up shounen manga, but the cover, the blurb, and OH YES the fact that it is by the creator of Yozakura Quartet!!!!! I just needed to pick this up. Make another exception again for a shounen manga.

AND BOY did it start off fantastic! We see our MC along with his sister and parents at the town square. There is a hand in the middle of it... and what should you NOT do when you see a hand? That is right shakey shake the hand. What happens next was gruesome, exciting, and made me want to keep on reading!

Cue to a few years later and we see how the town is doing now! The main square is now mostly abandoned. Well, only one store/place remains and well, given how the person running it is.. I don't blame her, I would also have stuck around! I loved seeing our MC again and see how he is doing. See that he is training hard to get stronger. Better. Faster. There is a lot happening and I was all in it! There is never a dull moment, we go from meeting that creepy hands dude again to the organisation to WOW, there was so much. I thought I may get bored as this manga is 300+ pages long and that is pretty long for a single volume manga, but if anything I was fully invested! And haha, it was just as over the top/crazy/WTF as Yozakura Quartet!

Lily? Lily is SO SO my favourite character. Yes, the MC was kick-ass and pretty cool, but you just cannot do better than a nurse doing fighting moves without even blinking an eye. I loved that she was training our MC, that she was there for him in harder times. She was sweet and kicks butt, yas!

But I also liked the other characters. Elio, Masamune, the lady running the shoe shop (and much more than that), everyone are such awesome and interesting characters. Even the baddies are interesting and I love their designs and how each of the hands is doing something different.

The battle scenes were written and illustrated to perfection. Some mangaka can just make these so fantastic!

The art was wonderful and I just love the style. It is very much like Quartet~

The ending, OH MY, I need more! That was an exciting and great ending.

All in all, I would love to chat more as there is so much happening in this one, but I don't want to give too much away, haha. So you will just have to read this amazing manga! I cannot WAIT for the next volume.

I really enjoyed this manga! The story was original and the art was beautiful and easy to read. The story has great pacing, There was a good balance between character growth and backstory. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

I hope they release this in print one day - I would love to add it to my shelf!

At seven years old, Zen's parents, sister, and his own left leg were swallowed by the mysterious gloved entity only known as Shake Hand. And Zen's not the only one—

This comic is so insanely well done. The fight scenes are incredibly dynamic and the characters are all so distinct and refreshing. It has a unique story that hits hard right from the get go with plot. Definitely a great first volume with plenty of room to grow and tell a really awesome adventure.