Full Drive: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes

Manga Details

• Genki Ono
  • Notable people they were an assistant for
    • Kouji Miura (Blue Box)
      • Helped out for a while and drew an illustration for the author, who posted it on twitter.
  • Other works
    • A bunch of one shots
• Publishing
  • Run Dates:
    • October 23, 2017 to February 19, 2018
  • Series it replaced
• Isobe Isobee Monogatari ~Ukiyo wa Tsurai yo~ by Ryo Nakama (2013-2017, 16 volumes, hit)
  • Author of High School Family
• Series that replaced it
  • Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami (2018-present, 25+ vols, MEGA-HIT)
• Series that started at the same time as it
  • Lycopene the Tomatoy Poodle by Koji Oishi (2017-present, 8+ vols, it’s complicated) (transferred to Jump Plus in 2018 with chapter 38)
  • Golem Hearts by Gen Oosuka (2 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 2 and episode 52)
• Chapters/Volumes:
  • 16 chapters/3 volumes

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Tamashiro Dan is a quarter-German kid living in Germany whose grandfather was known as Hagen Wolf, one of the greatest table tennis players of his generation. Yes. This manga is about ping pong. After his grandfather’s death Dan and his mom move to Japan where Dan is determined to take the ping pong world by storm. He first meets Shiraishi Marin, a 13 year old ping pong prodigy who is surprised when he plays her to a stand still.
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  • She tells him that he should join the best table tennis after school program, which he gets into by defeating Atsushi, an upper classman. Marin then tells him that he now needs to join Ohzono, the best ping pong private middle school, which his mom just casually allows him to do. Dan joins the school and is able to find the table tennis club with help from Koshino who doesn’t matter, and he meets a bunch of cool older kids. Dan makes his intentions of domination known, and is challenged to a match by Kan, one of his seniors. After a bunch of games where Kan is slowly educating Dan on why he sucks, Dan manages to win.
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  • Dan and Atsushi hang out with Marin on her day off which doesn’t really matter except that it’s kind of a date. Then Dan must prepare for the big tournament where he’s facing Nanjou Yukiya, a ping pong genius who actually hates ping pong and talks shit on Marin. During the match Dan is doing really well which makes Yukiya big mad. 4 years later Dan and Marin are now dating and reminisce about that time that Dan beat Yukiya and won the tournament as Dan prepares to head back to Germany to go pro.
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• Characters
  • Tamashiro Dan
    • Quarter White
    • Grandpa was a prodigy in germany
    • Has the power of the spin
    • Modest but confident
    • Special loop attack
  • Shiraishi Marin
    • Prodigy table tennis
    • Thinks she’s the best and gorgeous
    • Tsundere?
    • Where the fuck does she go?
  • Narukawa, Atsushi
    • Determined!
    • Top player
    • Always fresh
  • Nanjou Yukiya
    • Fuckin dick
    • Loves clash of clans
    • Hates table tennis
    • Family of doctors

Why it Failed

• Wow a short protag in a sports manga
• Art is fine at least the female characters have somewhat realistic proportions
• This is loooong setup to actually seeing some fucking table tennis, probably needed this first part as a flashback
• This first chapter really focuses on characters kinda talking to each other but doesn't set up much of a plot
• That second chapter is kind of a slog
• Four chapters in I still don't know what the point of this series is
• I feel it's a struggle making a series about a protagonist who's good at the sport
• They spent way too much time on that 1v1 on his first day at the school
• I never have a sense of understanding what’s the actual focus of this series
• Why does everyone have this super rigid staring down pose
• Man got lost in the sauce like we don’t care about pingpong this much
• Why did the blow over the first ever doubles match, isn’t that like a big deal?

What it Did Well

• Table tennis is at least a novel sport and is nice that it’s both a team sport but can focus on the MC heavily
• I like how global this feels and not just japan japan japan
• Does a good job making the art look intense
• Dan is a likable character who's excited about pingpong without being annoying
• Definitely made me more interested in ping pong than I ever have been before

Where it Could Have Gone

• Maybe further use how the mc uses pingpong as a way of understanding and interacting with people since he lived kinda isolated. Yes eyeshield ripoff whatever it’s a good idea
• Focus more on the global community of the sport
• Have some actual female characters
• Also show them doing non pingpong things jesus people got lives ya know

Misc Thoughts

• The word noob now I haven't heard that in a very long time
• Lmao they had to last minute be like oh yeah he has a mom and needs to approve his school change
• I'm not sure how I feel about the weird art style shifts where it gets a lot more angular when the mc is being serious
• Is the homoerotic just me or y'all feel it too
• This panel reminds me of togashi for some reason
• Maxy Bee thoughts:
  • Viz Media ran this in their digital magazine for its first three chapters as part of its Jump Start initiative.
  • Volumes 2 and 3 each contain two one-shots, meaning at least half of each book isn’t even Full Drive. Buyer beware for six years ago, I guess.
  • The author states that he focused a lot on fashion with Marin, as girls look best when dressed up and otherwise she’d be in a jersey all the time.
  • Chapter 11 has extra pages to promote the series. According to the author the chapter was well-received for its focus on Marin, and improved the series ranking temporarily, so it kind of worked.
  • Volume extras include:
    • Comedy sketches between chapters
    • Profiles (vol.2-3, Marin and Dan saved for last)
    • A 3-page strip where Dan, Atsushi and Marin go out for McDonalds
    • One-shots! Vol 2 has ‘Bloom in Love, Mikoto’ and ‘Gun-cutting Sword in the Heart’. Vol.3 has ‘Dobu no Kyuuki’ and ‘Red-Haired Acho!!’.
  • Pure conjecture, but reading the one-shots before Full Drive got published makes me think the author is a big fan of Hiro Mashima (Rave Master, Fairy Tail), and Fukuchi Tsubasa (The Law of Ueki). Like his early art style is just uncannily like the both of them.

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Community
    • Tucker: Short, sassy, and a little beautiful
    • Maxybee: Serie abgesetzt? Das ist nicht gut!
    • AuraPaladin: Heartbreaking: Table Tennis scores Zero-Love
    • Diego (Phantom Seer): (Help from GreyPotter) Dan’s pong fell to the axe-ping ?
    • duderocks the earthchild stan: It’s ping pong not table tennis
    • Isekai Sensei-Sama 🎙: Perfectly played ping pong preserves perceptivity
    • Kpt.Kluless: Wait this isn’t kamen rider drive
    • Portal man: thought this was a racing manga
    • Resident Warhammer Nerd: About people playing with their balls
    • Riel: I don't understand table tennis rules.
    • Sbubby: shrimpy schoolboy superbly strikes shrunken spheres
    • Spike: A ding dong playing ping pong?
    • The Duke Of Dumbass: Read wrong manga- Full Drive’s better?
    • The Wolf The Wood The Trafalgar: I Riley Method this, so uninteresting
    • Dackerson: “I polish my rubber every day”
  • David: has one game and zero plot
  • Jordan: Metallica I AM THE TABLE TENNIS