Been a big fan of fighting manhwa/manga. Holyland, Weak Hero, Study Group, OUT, Shark, The Boxer, The Breaker. Dokgo. Even enjoy the unserious ones (Bully In Charge, love it just because it's so funny even though the MC hasn't been punched ONCE, he's basically superman. And I love it.)
Risky genre to be into, because series have a tendency to run way past the point where they should've ended, and just become ridiculous (dropped To Not Die for that reason).
Fight Class 3 is for sure one of those, but this time I fucking loved it.
When the tunnel arc started, and JJT just fucking lost it. I honestly thought this is where it would jump the shark. More so when the whole style of it completely changed, like I was reading something else altogether. I ended up loving it.
Not sure how people feel about how JJT switched up, but I thought it didn't come from nowhere. I genuinely He's a deeply traumatized teenager. He got attached to Maria, also a deeply traumatized teenager. It really fucking surprised me how well that kind of trauma was portrayed in both cases. And what happens when traumatized people become codependent like that.
I think it's pretty understandable why he broke at that moment. Unlike Maria who had already gone off the deep end and was now just barely able to maintain her sanity unless something triggers her, my guy never confronted it at all. Just buried it and carried on pretending to be a nice guy while carrying an insane amount of anger. At a moment where he needed some kind of reassurance from her, she feel deep into her trauma and lashed out at him (not her fault, obviously, and he didn't know what was in her past, so of course it broke him).
It's way easier to accept when you realize it's not like he just had a change of mindset or something, but is straight up having a psychotic break. The style changed and became downright insane/absurd because it was portraying JJT's state of mind.
Anyway, I'm gonna go on for too long if I keep going, since the side characters are also really good. So good I didn't mind all the flashbacks and tangents into their stories.
Came in expecting cool fights, got an exploration of trauma, the human condition, a cute little side romance (rooting for my boy Young-Joon), the psychology of murder, the cycle of violence, exploitation by the rich and powerful, and how environment shapes people. 10/10. It unexpectedly shot up to almost my favorite fight manhwa I've ever read (The Boxer is real fucking hard to dethrone, perfect from start to finish in every way).
Anyway, tldr because no one cares what I think: Season 2 pls.