Strongest Legend Kurosawa is a manga about a 44 year old man, which already strikes it apart from most manga/anime - it's almost muscle memory at this point for me to write high schooler/young man. In any case, it's about our titular character, who's a 44 year old labourer, barely getting by. His large build leads others to mistake him for a brute, and so he has no friends at work, nor a girlfriend or wife. One day, he brings it upon himself to be the changed man he always wished he were, and so begins his endeavour to attempt to become an accomplished and cheerful man, loved by all. Just a shame for Kurosawa that things do not go as planned, as we follow him through the first few volumes, in what I consider the best point of the series. What follows is some solid cringe comedy about the well-intentioned Kurosawa devising some plan that will finally make everyone on the work site love him, such as letting everyone take an early break, or sneaking in extra food into everyone's lunches, but naturally, it never does seem to go his way. In fact, nothing ever does, with Kurosawa either finding himself completely ignored for his good deeds a lot of the time, or in most instances, a misunderstanding develops, and it escalates to the point that he finds himself further ostracised by his co-workers. After around Volume 3, after one of Kurosawa's mishaps, he finds himself in a mess with delinquent high schoolers, and I think it grows a bit stagnant, I do very much prefer the setting of day-to-day on the work site, and afterwards in pachinko parlours or restaurants, with each gag being relatively short, rather than a single interconnected one. But the stagnation is a minor one, there is never an interruption of the quality humour, with the bleak seriousness and "wake up you fucking retard this is what you look like to other people" mixed in.

It's a Fukumoto manga, and looks just like one would expect: rough and robust faces, zaps of electricity, and plenty of metaphors. Of course, what defines a Fukumoto isn't purely in the art, and Kurosawa has all the characteristics of a standard Fukumoto manga, complete with the setting in modern urban Japan (recovering from an economic deficit), in a harsh and unforgiving reality, and Kurosawa, like Kaiji, the protagonist of perhaps Fukumoto's well-known work, he cries a lot, and has contempt for himself, but always finds a way to pull through.

Kurosawa is of course the focus of this series, but we do see an ensemble of other characters, who are of equal importance and see time in the spotlight as well, most notably delinquent and millionaire Nakane, who admires Kurosawa, despite the man's objections. Still, at the end of the day, you're reading for Kurosawa, and everyone else is just secondary - these characters aren't sub-par, but they're not as compelling, as would be expected.

Ultimately, Kurosawa is a solid manga. It's a classic Fukumoto, with the art, setting, and characters you'd expect from one, and the titular character is one who acts both as the source of great comedy, as well as realisations and philosophies relevant to just about anyone living in the modern age (unless you've lived in luxury like Nakane, that is). Cringe comedy done right, maybe Watamote's author could learn from this one.