Ok look Ill be honest. As a brazillian myself my judgement may be biased but I sincerely loved the way brazillian culture is fused in the story. And thats my first spoilerfree review. And Im not fluent in english so sorry for any bad writting. I never understood capoeira or had interest in researching the martial art but this manga singlehanded brought all my love from my country and its dorment culture and Im not kidding. In the days of today when our president is someone who doesnt care about our culture himself its kinda hard to look up to Brazil. But then I started reading Batuque as sort of a way to use a medium that I like manga to find the dorment love that I have for my country. And it worked. Ok now with that out of the way lets rate the four principal aspects of a manga: Story Characters Art and Universe. The first thing you see in ANY manga is the art therefore Ill start with it. Art: 95/10 Toshio Sako have a problem with drawing children and you can see it in the first chapters of Batuque. A lot of people are drawn away because of how odd the main character Sanjou Ichiri looks like as a kid. And I dont blame them. I was drawn away and only came back a year later. But giving it time I got used to it. And then started to love his drawings. The semirealistic style fits like a glove with the kinda gory aspect of the current arc and feels perfect. Every single character feels proportional and real I simply love this. And then the other thing that I dont really like but I love at the same time: the fighting sequences. All of then are beautifully drawn but some of them are a little confusing because of the way the author decided to draw them: sequencial drawings. And I dont mean like One Punch Man manga where if you put some panels in powerpoint and press right it feels like an animation I mean superpositioning drawings to give the idea of movement. It gets confusing sometimes but its gorgeous when it hits the perfect spot. Then after you have appreciated the artyou get to know the characters. Characters: 10/10 There isnt a SINGLE character that I dont like the way the author uses it. Ichiri feels like an organic person with feelings that she express and says her friends are like this too every action feels organic not like they needed to do this for writing sake. The various antagonists ALWAYS have interesting quirks and fighting styles. I find myself amused with how the fights go and feel. I simply adore the characters and dont hate anyone of them. Besides of course the previous main villain. This dude I simply love. His dumb eyes and ominous presence always gives me goosebumps when he is in the page. The setting that is the universe of the manga is the thing that gets you hooked. Universe/Setting: 10/10 Its simply Japan. There is nothing more to it. And I love it. Toshiosensei uses this ordinary setting to create a feeling of hey this could be happenning right now you know? and it works. The illegal fighting club is the only place that doesnt feel like normal world even the absurd fighting are explained by extensive training and specific characteristics of the martial art itself. Its beautiful what you can do with a normal world and a bit os creativity. And the story is what gets you out of the water. Story: 8/10 Its simple direct and uses some of brazillian history with bits of original story as the background applies the brazillian gangs in it too and brilliantly makes use of the capoeira songs. Its nothing out of the ordinary like Hunter X Hunter Story but I like it a lot. Overall its a pretty good manga with some great characters in the perfect setting for them to glow. Its a shame that it doesnt get the recognition that it deserves here. I hope this story continues to grow like always.