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더 복서 [The Boxer] #2
The Boxer, Vol. 2
AN INSURMOUNTABLE WALL OF DESPAIR! IS NATURAL TALENT THE BE-ALL, END-ALL...?
After landing Baeksan in the hospital, Yu finds himself taking up K’s offer to join his gym. The legendary coach sweeps Yu away and gives him a new hairstyle, a new place to live, and a new become king of the boxing world! But K’s other prodigies aren’t too keen on a clueless, scrawny newbie receiving all their trainer’s attention… Still, Yu may have bigger fish to fry―his first professional fight has been set, and he’s facing the infamous “rookie killer,” John Taker. Can Yu’s innate genius hold a candle to years of experience and underhanded tricks?!
After landing Baeksan in the hospital, Yu finds himself taking up K’s offer to join his gym. The legendary coach sweeps Yu away and gives him a new hairstyle, a new place to live, and a new become king of the boxing world! But K’s other prodigies aren’t too keen on a clueless, scrawny newbie receiving all their trainer’s attention… Still, Yu may have bigger fish to fry―his first professional fight has been set, and he’s facing the infamous “rookie killer,” John Taker. Can Yu’s innate genius hold a candle to years of experience and underhanded tricks?!
304 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2023
4 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
July 14, 2025
ridiculously good! I've found my new obsession.
June 22, 2025
Really solid, the fight was awesome and the way the author tells the backstories of Yu’s openents through the fight is really good
May 15, 2025
why why why
to the author,
you keep introducing characters, pretty dislikable villainous characters only to make me fall in love with them and then watch them get dragged down T_T
nothing is at it seems. chasing dreams, is a funny business. i don't know, this has me feeling all kinds of jumbled bittersweet, hopeless, nostalgic something something.
to the author,
you keep introducing characters, pretty dislikable villainous characters only to make me fall in love with them and then watch them get dragged down T_T
nothing is at it seems. chasing dreams, is a funny business. i don't know, this has me feeling all kinds of jumbled bittersweet, hopeless, nostalgic something something.
April 14, 2023
Perfection. Mark my words, JH will become one of the most respected manhwa creators as the genre grows. Everything he has done has been amazing and he continues to improve.
April 24, 2023
This volume was something else!
I honestly don't even know how to rate it because there were so many engaging parts, with certain incidents having me engaged for different reasons. I guess that would be a good place to start in explaining what I mean! (Non-spoiler of course!)
The most engaging thing about this story for me personally has always been Yu. We don't see A LOT of page time with him where I feel we get to know him outside of a fighter, but I really want to know his story because I really like him as a main character. I want to know why he has such a dead look in his eyes, what's happened to his family, and if he has any deeper reasons for fighting (because it DOES seem like he wants to get stronger for someone that he knew/met in the past?). He's an interesting main character compared to previous sports manga I've read because he's the first character I've read who is unnaturally gifted and doesn't have to really "work" to win. This leads to my second point…
It was HARD seeing how gifted he is compared to other characters in this volume who have worked SO hard to get where they are. They have trained and fought yard, but all that has gone up in smoke in just one match against Yu. My favoritism of Yu doesn't change even with all this said, but it WAS hard seeing one new (and brief) character we meet become so deeply disheartened that he no longer wanted to pursue boxing. I honestly almost wanted to drop this title then and there because my heart just felt so heavy for him. Obviously I didn't because I kept reading, but that leads to my third point…
This volume really shows all the different sides of the life of boxing and how their wins and losses have affected them. It's not happy and more often than not (we see that especially with the losses), it's a bitter and ugly truth to face. I wouldn't say previous sports manga don't reflect this well, but I feel there is a brutality here that I haven't seen captured in the same way. As a reader, I felt these boxers' hardships in coming to terms with these new realities. It was as if their feelings had reached out across the page and wrapped around me, which was incredible (even if hard) to feel as a reader.
The art continues to be absolutely incredible! JH continues with being able to show the anguish or the "impossible" in very vivid ways that I think really deliver the feelings he's capturing SUPER well. Not only that, but the intensity that Yu can bring even straight-faced never fails to amaze me. This honestly is a series that even if I didn't love the story itself, I would want to continue just for the art because that is how much I love JH's art in general.
Overall, another really great volume that left me feeling a lot of different emotions! I'm super interested in seeing what happens next because there are two new characters that seem are going to really have Yu bring even more of his all than he did in the fight with the "Rookie Killer."
I honestly don't even know how to rate it because there were so many engaging parts, with certain incidents having me engaged for different reasons. I guess that would be a good place to start in explaining what I mean! (Non-spoiler of course!)
The most engaging thing about this story for me personally has always been Yu. We don't see A LOT of page time with him where I feel we get to know him outside of a fighter, but I really want to know his story because I really like him as a main character. I want to know why he has such a dead look in his eyes, what's happened to his family, and if he has any deeper reasons for fighting (because it DOES seem like he wants to get stronger for someone that he knew/met in the past?). He's an interesting main character compared to previous sports manga I've read because he's the first character I've read who is unnaturally gifted and doesn't have to really "work" to win. This leads to my second point…
It was HARD seeing how gifted he is compared to other characters in this volume who have worked SO hard to get where they are. They have trained and fought yard, but all that has gone up in smoke in just one match against Yu. My favoritism of Yu doesn't change even with all this said, but it WAS hard seeing one new (and brief) character we meet become so deeply disheartened that he no longer wanted to pursue boxing. I honestly almost wanted to drop this title then and there because my heart just felt so heavy for him. Obviously I didn't because I kept reading, but that leads to my third point…
This volume really shows all the different sides of the life of boxing and how their wins and losses have affected them. It's not happy and more often than not (we see that especially with the losses), it's a bitter and ugly truth to face. I wouldn't say previous sports manga don't reflect this well, but I feel there is a brutality here that I haven't seen captured in the same way. As a reader, I felt these boxers' hardships in coming to terms with these new realities. It was as if their feelings had reached out across the page and wrapped around me, which was incredible (even if hard) to feel as a reader.
The art continues to be absolutely incredible! JH continues with being able to show the anguish or the "impossible" in very vivid ways that I think really deliver the feelings he's capturing SUPER well. Not only that, but the intensity that Yu can bring even straight-faced never fails to amaze me. This honestly is a series that even if I didn't love the story itself, I would want to continue just for the art because that is how much I love JH's art in general.
Overall, another really great volume that left me feeling a lot of different emotions! I'm super interested in seeing what happens next because there are two new characters that seem are going to really have Yu bring even more of his all than he did in the fight with the "Rookie Killer."
April 7, 2025
2.5
La historia y las motivaciones de Taker, conocido como el "asesino de novatos", me impactaron. Me sorprendió cómo decidió convertirse en el "villano", soportar malos tratos y adoptar otra personalidad solo para poder seguir boxeando. Eligió no rendirse ante sus sueños, aunque eso significara ocultar quién era realmente y cargar con una imagen negativa, todo para no volver a su pasado. ☹️
PD: Y ustedes dirán “Oye, ¿y entonces por qué el 2.5?” Bueno, es que hay algo que no me termina de encantar en esta serie. No sé si es la forma en que se lleva la historia, tal vez los diálogos o la narrativa, pero no me engancha lo suficiente. Siento que le falta ese “algo” que me haga conectar de verdad. Ojalá cambie de opinión cuando avance más en la historia, porque el potencial está ahí.
La historia y las motivaciones de Taker, conocido como el "asesino de novatos", me impactaron. Me sorprendió cómo decidió convertirse en el "villano", soportar malos tratos y adoptar otra personalidad solo para poder seguir boxeando. Eligió no rendirse ante sus sueños, aunque eso significara ocultar quién era realmente y cargar con una imagen negativa, todo para no volver a su pasado. ☹️
PD: Y ustedes dirán “Oye, ¿y entonces por qué el 2.5?” Bueno, es que hay algo que no me termina de encantar en esta serie. No sé si es la forma en que se lleva la historia, tal vez los diálogos o la narrativa, pero no me engancha lo suficiente. Siento que le falta ese “algo” que me haga conectar de verdad. Ojalá cambie de opinión cuando avance más en la historia, porque el potencial está ahí.
July 22, 2023
4.0⭐️
Presiento que este cómic será mi nueva obsesión.
Presiento que este cómic será mi nueva obsesión.
February 10, 2024
Became boxer
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2024
This is to hajime no ippo what kuruko basketball is to slam dunk. It’s a more unrealistic version, the coloured pages are nice, hajime no ippo is my favourite anime because of how well it develops each opponents character, and this did a good job of that making you like the rookie crusher.
Hajime no ippo better but this was ok
Hajime no ippo better but this was ok
November 9, 2023
Covers chapters 10-20.
Another FIRE volume. Yu decides to join K's gym. K takes Yu under his wing to mold Yu into the greatest boxer in the world. We see Yu's debut fight and meet his second opponent and another boxer who is intrigued by Yu.
Another FIRE volume. Yu decides to join K's gym. K takes Yu under his wing to mold Yu into the greatest boxer in the world. We see Yu's debut fight and meet his second opponent and another boxer who is intrigued by Yu.
November 24, 2025
81%
A clear improvement from the last volume. While Yu isn’t much of a focus here and still remains decently flat as a character, this whole first fight is just so interesting.
Going into it, Yu and John’s dynamic comes off as a relatively standard one as far as sport manga / manwha go - Yu is the quiet newcomer, and John is the experienced cocky tough guy who’s likely going to get shown up and lose the fight. It’s generic, right? Well, JH doesn’t like to do generic (besides the first volume a bit but uhhh disregarding that).
Pretty quickly into the fight, JH flips this dynamic on its head with a combination of John’s backstory, motivations, and Yu’s performance in the fight. The guy who came off as a ‘demon’ is anything but, and the main character we’re supposed to be rooting for is starting to look like the devil himself. John and his coach’s thoughts and faces, in a stark contrast, look much more hopeful and light compared to Yu and K (Yu’s coach)’s, which are dark, contorted, almost demonic. I even found myself rooting for John with his insurmountable odds, rather than Yu. JH does this relatively quickly, too - I find it all so interesting, honestly.
That’s why I liked this volume so much more than the first when I read it a year ago, I’m realising. While the first volume of this series is a little generic and mostly focuses on a standard bullying plot, this volume really demonstrates an interesting, warped idea of a sport manga / manhwa. Now that I have up to volume six, though, now I gotta see if the rest of the volumes keep improving at this trajectory… let’s hope so.
A clear improvement from the last volume. While Yu isn’t much of a focus here and still remains decently flat as a character, this whole first fight is just so interesting.
Going into it, Yu and John’s dynamic comes off as a relatively standard one as far as sport manga / manwha go - Yu is the quiet newcomer, and John is the experienced cocky tough guy who’s likely going to get shown up and lose the fight. It’s generic, right? Well, JH doesn’t like to do generic (besides the first volume a bit but uhhh disregarding that).
Pretty quickly into the fight, JH flips this dynamic on its head with a combination of John’s backstory, motivations, and Yu’s performance in the fight. The guy who came off as a ‘demon’ is anything but, and the main character we’re supposed to be rooting for is starting to look like the devil himself. John and his coach’s thoughts and faces, in a stark contrast, look much more hopeful and light compared to Yu and K (Yu’s coach)’s, which are dark, contorted, almost demonic. I even found myself rooting for John with his insurmountable odds, rather than Yu. JH does this relatively quickly, too - I find it all so interesting, honestly.
That’s why I liked this volume so much more than the first when I read it a year ago, I’m realising. While the first volume of this series is a little generic and mostly focuses on a standard bullying plot, this volume really demonstrates an interesting, warped idea of a sport manga / manhwa. Now that I have up to volume six, though, now I gotta see if the rest of the volumes keep improving at this trajectory… let’s hope so.
August 10, 2023
JH is one of my most favorite webtoon artists / writers and The Boxer is one of his best series (the other being The Horizon). So when The Boxer was being published as a hardcopy print, I immediately started collecting.
The story itself is fantastic and seems to start off as a fun sports story with our protagonist, Yu, training to climb the ranks of the boxing world. But Volume 2 already shows how The Boxer will not be your typical feel good sports story. Many tropes of the genre are subverted in favor of deep philosophical dives into life. The writer is especially effective at making you care for Yu’s opponents in the ring - which in this case was John the Rookie Killer.
One of the things I also look out for is how the vertical formatting of a webtoon is translated to book form. As with The Horizon, it seems that JH had intended for The Boxer to be experienced as a book because the use of page turns, page splashes, and negative space made the emotional moments hit all the more even as I’m reading the story for a second time.
You don’t have to collect the hardcopy like me and can read it for free on Webtoons. But it is one of my most favorite comics and highly recommended.
The story itself is fantastic and seems to start off as a fun sports story with our protagonist, Yu, training to climb the ranks of the boxing world. But Volume 2 already shows how The Boxer will not be your typical feel good sports story. Many tropes of the genre are subverted in favor of deep philosophical dives into life. The writer is especially effective at making you care for Yu’s opponents in the ring - which in this case was John the Rookie Killer.
One of the things I also look out for is how the vertical formatting of a webtoon is translated to book form. As with The Horizon, it seems that JH had intended for The Boxer to be experienced as a book because the use of page turns, page splashes, and negative space made the emotional moments hit all the more even as I’m reading the story for a second time.
You don’t have to collect the hardcopy like me and can read it for free on Webtoons. But it is one of my most favorite comics and highly recommended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2025
The artist does such a great job of evoking emotion from the characters faces with what is really quite a simplistic style. My main issue with this volume was that it was so unrealistic. I am ok with some exaggeration, especially with this medium (I was. Or even that bothered with the highly unrealistic body comp changes in 2 weeks by the new guy) but there is no way that a fight would be allowed to go on with that much blood.
September 8, 2023
Continuation of the story. Don't wanna spoil much, but I do feel like it was a little predictable more so than the first one. Still an interesting read and I plan to continue it. I really liked the Mike Tyson/Evander Holyfield homage (Man on the cover has Tyson's Tattoos and Holyfield's ear 'chip' *courtesy of Mr. Tyson*)
Will continue to read
Will continue to read
November 18, 2023
I read this volume in under an hour. It was so enjoyable. I do not feel bad for the bad characters in the series because I know in my heart of hearts that the protagonist is not a bad person. And I really appreciate him. I cannot wait to go to comicon. I really hope that someone dresses up as one of the characters that would be so awesome.
March 30, 2024
Another solid volume by JH in The Boxer Saga. Most of this volume is dominated by Yu’s first fight against John Taker. The pacing was very well done with a series of flashbacks while in the ring. Once again the art is stellar and does as much for showing emotion as the words on the page. The end of the volume was a bit strange but introduced briefly a new character I am excited to explore.
December 2, 2024
So Yu is just overpowered from the start? I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt because I’m sure he’s gonna get downed at least once. His debut fight was such overkill it was crazy, made Josh switch professions was hilarious. I’m gonna be reading the rest online when I get the chance cause 20 a volume is crazy but it was still good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 17, 2024
My favorite webtoon I've ever read, even one of my favorite fictional stories ever. I cannot praise this enough. It's so beautiful.
90% I don't like "drama" genre webtoons/books/manga but everyone was reading about how good it was so I tried it and I'm so glad I did.
90% I don't like "drama" genre webtoons/books/manga but everyone was reading about how good it was so I tried it and I'm so glad I did.
August 25, 2025
I dont know if I'm reading a story about the rise of a hero or the origin of a villain, and I love it. The art continues to be fantastic and I am captivated by the plot. Can't wait to get into the next one.
April 26, 2023
An amazing read. The fight scenes are intense and entertaining. The art is stunning. Even the side characters are written in a way you feel for them.
May 8, 2023
A truly unique art style joined by a unique means of telling a story. To any boxing fan or sports manga fan this is a must read.
November 27, 2023
I am still not sure if I liked this book
March 15, 2024
4.5
Not everyone is going to be a main character….
I LOVED this volume, seeing the ambition of boxer and coach combined.. chef’s kiss
Not everyone is going to be a main character….
I LOVED this volume, seeing the ambition of boxer and coach combined.. chef’s kiss
May 16, 2024
3.5 stars.
June 2, 2024
It's still interesting, but the flat affect and apathy of the main character makes me less invested in the story. I'll give it one more volume and see what happens.
July 1, 2024
Para mí, sin duda, uno de los mejores Manhwas que he leído en todos sus aspectos. Os guste o no el género, es que da igual, vale. No hay manera de que no vayais a disfrutar esto.
August 7, 2024
Que barbaridad de pack completo
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews