Review: Aoashi Omnibus Volume 1

#review #manga June 01, 2026

by Demelza Ward

When people think of soccer manga, a lot of the time what comes to mind is Blue Lock. But before Blue Lock rose to stardom, there was Aoashi, which boomed in popularity due to its anime adaptation back in 2022 and which is due to return for its second season later this year. And now Yugo Kobayashi’s award-winning manga comes to the English market for the first time in an omnibus format, thanks to Titan Manga, but has it been worth the wait?

The Premise

Aoashi follows the story of Ashito Aoi, a boy from Ehime who loves soccer but gets sent off-pitch during his final game in middle school for violently headbutting another player. With scouts watching, he feels like he has blown his chances at being able to become a pro soccer player; no one is going to take on someone with his anger issues.

However, while blowing off steam on Futami Beach, Ashito meets Fukuda Tatsuya, formally a rising star of the soccer world and now a coach for the Tokyo City Esperion Youth Club for J-Youth Soccer. Having watched Ashito’s game and now getting a chance to speak to him, Fukuda thinks there’s potential here and invites Ashito to the upcoming tryouts. If he passes the tryouts, Ashito’s life could change forever, but does he have what it takes? And will his family allow him to leave Ehime behind for the big city?

An In-Depth Depiction of The World of Soccer

Aoashi is an award-winning series with several prizes to its name, and it’s not hard to see why after reading this first omnibus collection. Yugo Kobayashi spares no detail as we follow Ashito’s journey to the tryouts and everything he experiences there. Unlike a series like Blue Lock, which hinges on sometimes unrealistic drama, Aoashi feels much more life-like. Ashito struggles to fit in with the people around him at first; he’s not as skilled as they are, and they’re not interested in letting him score goals and look good through their skills. Instead, Ashito is forced to look at the bigger picture and work with his teammates as opposed to trying to be the one to score. And that’s where Ashito’s abilities really shine because he has the ability to figure out the placement of everyone around him on the pitch and create a plan from there. Not a lot of players have that foresight while in the middle of a match.

This shines not only from a soccer perspective but also as a human drama too. Ashito comes from a single-parent household that barely scrapes by, and one of the reasons he wants to become a pro is so he can use the money to give something back to his mother, who has worked so hard for him. In fact, the reason he gets sent off the pitch at the start of the book is that someone insults his mother, who hasn’t been able to buy him new shoes. He feels guilty about his outburst there and the cost of going to Tokyo for the tryouts, as well as all the money required if he did get in, but all the same, being able to play football professionally is his dream, and he wants his family's support. It’s this heartfelt storytelling that explores these emotions from both Ashito's and his family's perspectives that keep you engaged and turning the pages.

This is already a complete series in Japan at an incredible 40 volumes. Of course, here in English we’ll have a shorter run due to the omnibus editions, but this does mean you’re going to be in for the long haul with these. Still, if you’re specifically looking for a longer-running sports series, then this will definitely scratch that itch, and I’m looking forward to seeing where Ashito’s story goes in the long run. By the end of the third volume included here, we’ve only just reached the resolution of the tryouts, so the pace is quite slow as Kobayashi favours depicting every detail of the sport over moving the story along quickly. In some ways that makes these omnibuses more appealing, as they give you a nice large slice of the work at once.

One thing I will say is that I sometimes find Kobayashi’s artwork hard to follow. Pivotal moments are often depicted in two-page spreads, which look fantastic, but individual panels don’t always flow into each other very well. This makes it confusing to keep track of in the midst of intense moments, not helped by the character designs often looking similar at a small scale. That said, Kobayashi’s work was already starting to get better for these issues by the end of the release, so I imagine it will become much less of an issue as time goes on, especially when you consider that this series ran for a whole decade between 2015 and 2025!

Release Details

As mentioned, Aoashi comes to the West thanks to Titan Manga. This release has been translated by Motoko Tamamuro and Jonathan Clements, with lettering by Cale Ward. I didn’t think there was a great deal of variation in the lettering when it came to speech presentation, and the original sound effects from the Japanese edition have been left in place with translations provided alongside them. Having said that, the translation reads well, and on the whole, given the sheer amount of text here and soccer-related jargon, I think the team has done well to present a release that feels polished.

For the purpose of this review, we were provided with a PDF, so I unfortunately can’t speak to the quality of the physical edition. I am always wary of omnibus editions, especially 3-in-1s, due to often using quite thin paper. And this is being released as a softcover edition coming in at a little over 600 pages, so it’s going to be quite bulky without any kind of hardcover binding to help keep it in shape. But I’m hoping the edition will be plenty premium-like, especially given the number of them you’ll be collecting to reach the end!

The second omnibus volume is currently scheduled for a release in August, with #3 following in December. That’s a good release pace, so I’m hoping they’ll be able to keep it up going into 2027!

In Closing

To many, bringing Aoashi to the English market will seem like a risky endeavour given the sheer quantity of volumes. But this realistic and emotional journey to becoming a professional soccer player is one that deserves a chance to shine and become loved by a much bigger audience, and I really hope sports fans will go out and pick it up. Ashito Aoi’s story is only just getting started, and you’ll definitely want to come along for the ride.

More details are available on the Titan Manga website. Anime Atelier's review copy was supplied by the publisher.