Fence (Full Series Review)

I have 0 interest in fencing. Which is why I was not at all interested in reading this series…until just about everyone on the internet said they loved it. 

Fence follows Nicholas Cox, the secret son of one of the world’s best fencers, on his journey to get into a good private school where he can join one of the top fencing teams. But will he get distracted by his desire to beat Seiji, a seemingly unbeatable opponent who knocked him out of nationals last year, and who turns out is not only his new schoolmate but his roomate?

According to other reviewers, knowledge of fencing isn’t a prerequisite for starting this series…but I wouldn’t say that’s exactly true. Thrust immediately into the world of fencing, I was surprised by how much lingo and explanation about the sport was included in Vol. 1. For someone who’s familiar, the jokes and fight scenes will be wonderful, but for someone like myself, there wasn’t a whole lot of time wasted on teaching. 

Not that there’s much time at all. These short comics fly by in a flash, and you can read the entire 12 issues that are out in one afternoon. I managed to stretch them out over two days…but just. After the first volume, which is mostly (and somewhat obviously) a set-up introducing us to the characters, the central conflict, and the setting, the series really finds its footing and becomes less focused on the fencing itself and more about the characters, which is when I realized why so many people love it. 

On the surface, this story more or less follows the tried-and-true set-up of any other sports story/romance. Although, despite many other reviewers saying they expected there to be a M-M romance at the forefront of the story, you certainly shouldn’t go into with that expectation or you’ll be sorely disappointed when you don’t find it.  You will, however, find a host of lgbtq+ representation in the side characters, which I Ioved to see, especially in a context where it was allowed to just be rather than taking over the narrative as a hard-hitting issue that needed discussion. But aside from that, the story follows an overly familiar formula; two opponents become sworn enemies and then somehow end up in the same school, thrust into all the same activities, and etc. etc. predictability ensues. If you want to be surprised by a story, this is probably not the one you should be picking up.  There was only one thing that managed to even mildly shock me, and it ended the entire series, which is more frustrating than anything considering that, although there is a promise of it being picked up as an actual graphic novel series, there’s not even a hint of a release date. 

But if you’re looking for great characters that will catch your heart and never let it go, it just might be. There are so many that we end up meeting, not only Nicholas and Seiji but also all the other fencing students who attend the prestigious private school: King’s Row. Eventually, we get all of their backstories and they grow to be complex and multilayered and completely cute and loveable…which is only helped by the classic comic style, with a hint of manga-esque expressions at times. By the end, there wasn’t a single fencer that I didn’t adore or that I didn’t feel fully invested in. 

My average rating of the 12 issues was 3.6 out of 5 stars. I’d highly recommend Fence to fans of My Hero Academia.  

Interested in reading Fence? You can read all 12 issues for free with a trial of Scribd.