Fence Volume 1

Fence header

To attract fans of the boys-love sports series Check, Please! and Yuri!!! on Ice, Boom! has released a manga-like comic about competitive boys at a fencing academy. Fence Volume 1 is written by C.S. Pacat and illustrated by Johanna the Mad.

Nicholas is the scrappy, disadvantaged up-and-comer with natural talent and insufficient training. In his first tournament, he faces off against Seiji, a well-accomplished prodigy. Six months later, they’re roommates at the same boarding school, both there to try and make the team.

The other team members make up a gallery of familiar types — the cute youngster with a crush, the wiseacre, the gorgeous prince, the brain, the hothead, the no-nonsense captain. You’ve seen these characters and situations before (particularly if you read manga), but there’s a reason authors keep coming back to them. They’re dramatic, which allows for plenty of high emotion among the attractive young men. And only three of them will make the team, which adds undertones to any friendships that could form.

Fence Volume 1

The choice of fencing for the sport is a particularly interesting one, as it’s highly visual, very competitive, not particularly subtle in showing who’s winning, and something most readers don’t know much about. The coach character is used well to convey knowledge of how the sport works to the reader, as well as being a strong personality to keep these guys in line.

It takes a while to be able to distinguish the supporting characters, as there are a number of them introduced quickly, but they’re a diverse bunch in terms of appearance, which helps. This volume, collecting the first four issues, is all introduction and setup, but readers will likely be eager to see more, as a lot of relationship and competition threads are started here. Fence quickly becomes addictive soap opera.

(The publisher provided a digital review copy. Review originally posted at Good Comics for Kids.)



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