Four years before women’s MMA would gain its first household name in the legendary Rhonda Rousey, Moare Ohta would create Teppu, an all-female mixed martial arts (MMA) manga that ran from 2008 to 2015. The manga didn’t find any immediate success, running for only 35 chapters before being cancelled. However, since the rise of MMA in the west through UFC and its subsequent expansion to Asia through ONE FC, Teppu has garnered a small but passionate following online due to its well written characters, tight story and incredible art.

Teppu’s main narrative details the rivalry between high school athletes Ishido Natsuo and Mawatari Yuzuko and the struggles that come along with the clashing of their personalities. Through their rivalry Natsuo develops personal relationships and a genuine understanding of effort and training thanks to the help of her coach, Kontani Karin. Natsuo and Karin strive to keep up with the titans that are Yuzuko and her surrogate sister Lindsay (often mistranslated as Ringi), whilst also developing Natsuo into a genuine athlete. Natsuo also has to deal with her own past, as her childhood friend Sawamura Sanae has turned into a stone-cold killer, and is ready to take revenge on Natsuo for their shared negative experience.

Whilst most people would recognise Teppu for its subversive narrative and incredibly complex protagonists, it also acts as an early chronology for the hardships that MMA would face in the future, and specifically the role of women in those struggles. Teppu effectively uses MMA as a vehicle to explore issues with female athleticism and also to explore the multiculturalism that comes along with any form of combat sport. Its poignant outlook on martial arts and its reverence for the specific sect of women’s MMA shows an appreciation for a sport that, at the time, was years away from becoming respectable, let alone popular.

Teppu would fight an uphill battle against traditional Seinen cliches and the fearmongering that initially surrounded MMA, but it would eventually find a very dedicated fanbase through the evolution of both the internet, and the sport it portrays.

Natsuo and Yuzuko - Two sides of the same coin

The narrative begins following Ishido Natsuo, a high school volleyball player and ex-karate practitioner. She meets a fellow classmate, Mawatari Yuzuko, recruiting for the MMA club outside her school. Initially dismissive, Natsuo begins to walk away before Yuzuko says the phrase that makes Natsuo’s blood boil … “it’s really fun”.

Natsuo is not a typical protagonist, in fact, she is borderline antithetical to the term. She is violent and cruel, oftentimes becoming manipulative and spiteful when she needs to get her way. This is all due to her massive amounts of talent. From childhood, Natsuo would only need to see a move performed once in order to be able to do it perfectly. Not only that, her body naturally assimilated to situations and picks the best outcome for her on instinct. This has isolated her from her peers, where they become jealous of her ability to succeed with minimal effort, she in turn becomes jealous of the journey they take, wishing that she could have something to strive for as well. As a result, she takes pleasure in using her talent to crush those who believe themselves to be skilled, revelling in the fact that until this point, no amount of hard work could stand up to her God given abilities.

This is where she meets Yuzuko, who exhibits all of the traditional traits of a manga protagonist. She is naïve and hardworking yet kind to a fault. However as readers, we expect the wide-eyed but determined airhead to be at the start of their journey, and the talented but arrogant rival to be far along. Natsuo agrees to spar Yuzuko, thinking that she can crush her with her skill, however for the first time in her life she comes across someone who outclasses her in every way. Yuzuko is completely untalented, we find out later in the story that moves Lindsay could learn in thirty minutes would take her nearly two weeks to master, however due to her determination, and more importantly her lack of fear of failure, she was able to put in double, if not triple the work of anyone else.

Teppu is an exploration of the phrase “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”, and Yuzuko is shown to be the hardest worker there is. Yuzuko works tirelessly, in both the physical and literal sense. Yuzuko never feels apathetic toward training, or that some drills are beneath her, despite her skill. One of the most repeated lines in the series is that Yuzuko “doesn’t miss what she doesn’t have”. Yuzuko is the first person we meet who isn’t jealous of Natsuo’s talent, because she knows she can simply work harder. Natsuo on the other hand is enraged by Yuzuko, as she is completely fulfilled by her love of fighting. Unlike Natsuo who’s goal is to beat Yuzuko or beat Sanae, Yuzuko has no exterior motivation, she is purely doing MMA for the love of the sport.

This is the crux of the story, as through their interactions and their journey to becoming not only rivals, but professional fighters, we learn that they are actually two sides of the same coin. While different in talent, both girls find a love of fighting and more importantly, both girls put people off by being themselves. Natsuo isolated people from herself through her callous attitude as a result of her talent, whereas Yuzuko’s overwhelming kindness can often be mistaken as patronization from her opponents due to her immense skill as a result of her training. The story therefore shows how they change, as despite starting out as the talented one, we see Natsuo begin to form relationships and connections through MMA, something Yuzuko cannot do because of her myopic view of martial arts and her tunnel visioned approach.

The girls' fighting styles also function as metaphors for their personalities. Natsuo is a striker who uses her incredible stature and long reach to keep opponents at a distance, however has to learn grappling throughout the series to keep up. This focus on wrestling is indicative of her growing relationships, and how her friendships changed her personality more than she expected. By the end of the series, Natsuo has lost the chip on her shoulder due to her loss to Yuzuko. She finally found out what it was like to work hard for something and not achieve it, and she can now be fulfilled in pursuing MMA.

Ohta’s All-Female Cast in a Male-Centric Publication

What’s most impressive about the series however is not only its subversion of narrative structures, but also its engagement with the fighting subculture, and its overall rejection of not only manga, but cultural status quo in Japan. The narrative itself is subversive as mentioned before, but that subversion also extends to the cast. The manga’s cast is almost entirely female, with only three named male characters, all of whom are relegated to the role of coach. This is especially impressive when you consider that the most popular Shounen manga of the time were the big 3, all of which have historically poor writing for their female characters, something even acknowledged by Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto.

In contrast, the characters in Teppu are diverse and well rounded, and unlike other traditional Shounen or Seinen, show no inclination of romantic interest toward male characters for the entire series. In fact, the first panel of Teppu functions as an indicator, having Natsuo turn down a boy with a crush on her, subtly letting the audience know that Teppu is above that kind of stereotypical writing. The series' approach was unconcerned with the gender of its readers, which was likely a by-product of the magazine that serialized the manga. Good! Afternoon (good! アフタヌーン) was a seinen magazine that carved a market niche by publishing seinen series with female leads. Whilst in the company of the popular Seinen of the late 2000’s such as Hellsing Ultimate and Btooom! Teppu may seem out of place, but when given the context of Good! Afternoon’s running series like Shuukyuu Shoujo (Football Girl) and Billionaire Girls, the onus on the all-female cast begins to make more sense.

This same focus on female casts may also have been the cause for Teppu’s sub-par sales and lack of mainstream appeal. While it wasn’t uncommon for Seinen and Shounen manga to feature female leads, they are often oversexualised in order to pander to a more conservative public (such as Revi from Black Lagoon or Kaede from Elfen Leid). These characters are still fully capable and have narrative agency, unlike their Shounen counterparts, however their design and costume is oftentimes a product of the larger male audience. Teppu does not follow this trend, placing an emphasis on realism and functionality when it comes to both costume and character design. This likely stems from both Good! Afternoon being the sister publication to Kodanshu’s Monthly Afternoon, which featured more popular and traditional Seinen titles such as Mushishi and Vinland Saga. Monthly Afternoon would regularly hit sales figures in the hundreds of thousands at the same time its sister publication was struggling to break thirty thousand sales.

It is also likely rooted in Moare Ohta’s reverence for MMA as a sport, as one of the only known photos of the man is from his appearance as a fan at a women’s MMA event. Whatever the reason, Teppu was distinct from its mainstream counterparts, leading to a higher degree of retroactive popularity when compared to its initial release.

The Uphill Battle of Female Fighters

From the start of its publication, Teppu would find it difficult to find a fanbase due to the fact it was being published in a secondary market of a secondary market. Not only did Teppu have to market an all female manga to both females and males, but they also had to meet the prerequisite of being WMMA fans. A prerequisite that was nothing short of staggering in 2008. Whilst in the current climate, where WMMA is in a much better space, there are a number of female fighters that have become ubiquitous to fans of the sport. Names like Valentina Shevchenko, Amanda Nunes and Joanna Jędrzejczyk are recognisable, even to people who are casual fans of the sport. Even Japan has a set of popular home-grown fighters that have made a name for themselves on the international stage, most notably Itsuki Hirata and Moeri Suda. In 2008 however, this was not the case.

MMA in Japan has historically been underrepresented simply due to the fact that Japan has an oversaturation of martial arts. Martial arts are rooted in Japanese history, with Sumo being the national sport, Karate being one of the most practiced martial arts worldwide and the Japanese team having triple the amount of gold medals in Judo as the next highest placing country, France. Japan also has a popular kickboxing league, K1, which has been regarded highly by Japanese fighters, and seen as more prestigious for MMA prospects. All of these sports are well established and well funded in Japan, which led to the smaller and less respected MMA finding a much smaller niche. On top of that, perceptions of MMA were very different in the 2000’s than they are today. MMA was often seen as brutal and overly violent, due in large part to the “cage fighting” aspect of the sport.

All of this is to say that MMA was niche, and WMMA took that a step further. Outside of the primary narrative, Teppu explores the issues that affect professional women’s fighters through characters like Natsuo’s coach, Kontani Karin. She tells Natsuo early in the series that “Women’s MMA is only for the die hard fans of the sport”, explaining that due to their lighter weight (especially in Japan) explosive knockouts and exciting moments are less common, and therefore the sport draws in a smaller audience.

One of the most poignant moments in the series comes in chapter 14, where after deliberating on Natsuo’s personality with another one of her students, Karin is recognised by another woman on the train. She then begins to comment on the state of women’s pro-fighting, giving insight into the real world economic and social problems that come along with the sport. She notes that the biggest detractor for women becoming pro-athletes is the lack of payoff for more of the work, stating “the number one issue with women’s MMA … is that we can’t clearly envision our final destination”. She details that unlike for the men’s division, there are no “big leagues”, televised tournaments with career making viewership and large pay-outs, so female fighters have to put the most amount of effort into making every match count. Twice the effort for half the reward. In 2008 when Teppu started, MMA was in a terrible spot, Pride FC (one of the larger international MMA promotions) went defunct the year before, and Smackgirl (Japan’s largest WMMA promotion) was headed the same way. Karin’s assertion that to survive, female athletes had to make every match a spectacle was not only accurate, but would ring true even to today.

Combat Sports is an International Affair

One of the aforementioned struggles with MMA especially in Japan was its constant comparison to already established Japanese martial arts. Moare Ohta shows his appreciation for MMA as a system through his inclusion of international characters in vital roles. Traditionally in sports manga, the protagonist will be Japanese, and the antagonists will be either Japanese, or in rare cases international. These international characters are almost always reserved for the role of antagonist, such as Michael Kaiser, the German soccer prodigy from Blue Lock. However in Teppu, there are multiple characters of different nationalities that make up the supporting cast.

The most prominent international roles within the manga are Yuzuko’s surrogate family and teammates, the Cordeiro’s. Both Lindsay and her father Mario are from Brazil, and actively engage with Brazilian language and culture throughout the story. This is expressed through Yuzuko, who whilst being a competent striker, expressed her mix of Japanese and Brazilian upbringing through her specialisation in the grappling arts of Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and Judo. This is also expressed through the frequency at which non-Japanese martial arts show up in top contenders, for example, Mitsuko Honma pivoted from Judo to Sambo before becoming a professional fighter.

Moare Ohta recognises that MMA is a conglomerate of multiple styles from all around the world and expresses that effectively through his characters, once again showing a major appreciation for the sport that has attracted multiple fans worldwide. The manga itself is analogous to reality, and gives an explanation as to why this multiculturalism is the case that would only be evident to a true MMA fan. While the MMA and WMMA scene in Japan is populated with mostly Japanese fighters, the Japanese scene is unique due to its distribution of weight classes. Women’s MMA in the US is geared towards fighters of around 55kg, having the most populated divisions being the featherweight (61.2kg and up) and the bantamweight (56.7kg to 61.1kg) divisions. In Japan however, they have the atomweight and super atomweight divisions that accommodate fighters under 50kg. Therefore, lighter fighters from South America and Asia tend to find more success fighting in Japan rather than America, which is where American and European fighters gravitate toward. This is the in-universe reason as to why Lindsay Cordeiro moved to Yuzuko’s home country from Brazil.

The key takeaway is that Teppu shows a great understanding and appreciation for MMA. Its story and characters are incredible and it’s art is stylish and expressive. However on a deeper level Teppu is grounded. It explored real themes and gives a stylized but relatively accurate account of the state of Women’s MMA in the late 2000’s. It doesn’t stray away from social topics and uses its cast of realistic female characters in order to address these things. Whilst the manga didn’t find much success during its initial run, its clear that it has impacted a small, but incredibly dedicated group of fans that are intent on preserving a series that is reverential of women’s MMA, and dedicated to keeping this schism of fighting subculture alive.

Text by Riley Miszkurka-Morrison