Kokou no Hito

Today the review is about ''Kokou no Hito'' ( ''The Climber'' in the english version), a mountain climbing manga. Yes you read it right, mountain climbing.

This seinen manga is loosely based on a novel about a japanese mountain Climber, Katou Buntarou, in the manga being adressed as Mori Buntarou in the most part of the manga and his more famous name in the later parts.The beginning of the story begins with a teenage Buntarou. He's a lonely person, don't caring about other people, making friends or even having  a very social life. Having an argument with a classmate, he ends up taking the challenge of climbing the shcool wall, but with his stubborn way of living, he climbs it without any gear using only his hands and feet, in a situation or life and death. Later he gets introduced to the world of climbing by his teacher, developing an addiction to it. In the beggining he gets obsessed with a huge rock wall in his town, and begins training to solely climbing it. And so begins the story of Katou Buntarou.

The plot only focus on the growth of Buntarou. Sure there are more characters, but we don't see their growth as we see his. We see the struggle of Buntarou's love for mountain climbing and the conflicts that come with his personality. As he is an anti-social person, he prefers solo climbing (climbing without a partner) and it's seen as risky by his teacher. His stuborness in climbing alone gives him lot of troubles, even causing the death of his teacher. Buntarou is always trying to achieve more and more, and we see that is a person that tries to change, eventually joining a climbing expedition in a group, even though that turns to the worst and he comes back to solo climbing. Then we see the true devotion Buntarou has for mountains, the sacrifices he makes to keep doing what he loves most as he searches for the meaning of his existence, and be one with nature. In a way, how the manga's written, it's very similar to the way Vagabond. Both based on real people and how they grow as a person doing what they love.

The art of this manga is absolutely beautiful. The realistic style that Sakamoto Shinichi uses fits the manga perfectly, and the scenarios he draws are stunning. From the simple expressions from a person's face to a peak of a mountain, you keep getting your mouth open with the great detail.

It's hard not to like this art

Art - 5/5 - I've seen a lot of realistic style mangas, but in my opinion this is the best by far.

Plot - 4/5 - The story of Buntarou is well written, and it feels real. We can even wonder if that couldn't even happen in the real world.

Excitement - 3/5 - The manga has a slow pace and sometimes is a liitle bit heavy, it's not for eveyone.

Characters 4/5 - Even if the only character development is from Buntarou, he's a great character to follow. In a point I didn't even care about the other characters as I just wanted to see where Buntarou's determination would lead him.

Kokou no Hito reaches the peak of a solid 16.