I wasn't going to pass this by, lack of a proper splash page or no.
Riku's a young martial artist, living with her pervert of a sensei/adoptive father in his movie star photo shop. The shop barely scrapes by, but Riku supplements the budget by occasionally solving problems for other people. Problems that can only be solved by punching!
Riku also has a left arm that turns to steel when she concentrates. That she has an unusual trait isn't the notable part, as her world is full of people with either animal traits or other odd skills who are deemed "demihumans". But Riku doesn't know where she comes from, though it rarely gets her down.
In a lot of ways, Steel Fist Riku is a fairly typical shonen manga, just with a teenage girl for a protagonist rather than a teen boy. The cheerful protagonist who loves to eat and enjoys a good fight. Hates bullies and makes friends easily. The unique physical feature. In volume 2, we get the rival who eventually becomes a grudging ally, and later, a crazy old woman who helps Riku get stronger.
And the pervert martial arts master. Can't do without that! A fair amount - though not all - of the humor in the series revolves around characters reacting in shock to Riku's bust size, and that includes Rokuhara, her father and teacher (in whichever order you care to list those.) Riku wears bindings most of the time to avoid getting drenched in a nosebleed geyser from Rokuhara, but in most of the fights, she either ditches them - because her fighting style relies on breath control, and the bindings restrict that - or they get torn by an enemy's attack. Nishino doesn't really draw her any different, but the characters sure react like there's a noticeable change, to Riku's irritation.
It helps it feels like we're meant to laugh at those guys behaving like morons, rather than at Riku for having big boobs. Plus, there's a lot of other humor that doesn't revolve around that, so I get a lot of laughs from the book. The introduction of the rival thankfully doesn't derail the theme of stories about Riku being hungry or trying to help a person in need. The "case-of-the-week" stories are some of the best parts, largely for the fact Nishino is getting silly with them.
Sadly, since the book only lasted three volumes, the training with the crazy old lady eats up most of the final volume, forcing a rush through the rematch with a person who has the same trait as Riku and might know her origins.
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