10 Dance Volume 8 Review

After breaking up, the two ballroom dancing champions, Suzuki and Sugiki, have been trying to pursue their separate careers and new relationships. Their dream of competing in the legendary 10 Dance competition as a male pair has faded into the background – until they run into each other off-stage at the 39th Japan International Dance Championships. (It was bound to happen…) The old chemistry reignites – but the audience are waiting for them to perform in the winners’ Dance of Honour so there’s no time to talk.

Suzuki and dance partner Aki have been engaged to do a prestigious photoshoot for ‘Fabio Schiaparelli’ and their striking masked, naked images appear on giant screens in Tokyo. In makeup together before the next shoot, Aki asks Suzuki why he danced so crazily at the last competition. They’ve been friends since childhood and she has something to confess to him; she’s met someone she really likes! And then, she can’t help hugging him, telling him to be true to his feelings. “If nobody gets to be happy… it’s pointless! You and them… should be way happier together!” At last, Suzuki hears the truth of what she’s telling him and hurries away to have a very honest talk with Norman before setting out for the Suzuki Dance School. But will Sugiki listen to what he’s come to say?

It’s been three years since Kodansha brought us Volume 7 of 10 Dance and since then, thanks to the Netflix live action film (2026), the fiery Suzuki (Latin Dance) and suave Sugiki (Standard Ballroom), not forgetting their long-suffering partners Aki and Fusako, have acquired many new fans. And if Volume 7 suffered from too much ‘noise’ (endless comments from all the other characters, no matter how minor, that I felt was a distraction, hindering the story from moving on) Inouesatoh now brings the two leads firmly back into the spotlight. There are many one-page and even two-page close-ups highlighting the most emotional moments, leaving us with no doubts as to how both men are feeling about each other and these images are very beautifully drawn. The art has always been the strongest element of this series and even if there are not very many dance-devoted images in this volume, Inouesatoh brings the everyday street scenes to vivid life. And there are some genuinely moving moments, especially the painful confrontation in which Suzuki is honest when breaking up with Norman about having realized his feelings for Sugiki, which rings true at quite a deep level.

However… this manga is not always the most straightforward of reads. There are three powerful older men, all with similar hairstyles and glasses, making moves to influence – and one, in Sugiki’s case, adopt! – our ballroom dance champions. There’s no list of characters to help us work out which one is which and no ‘The story so far’ so it assumes that the reader will remember or pick up on who all these people are. The fact that they’re also mostly speaking in <English> is an added distraction. It’s unnecessarily vague, swapping between scenes of Suzuki and Sugiki being propositioned by these older men (from a business point of view, er, mostly) who want to control them so that it’s tempting to identify with Suzuki thinking at one moment, I have no idea what you’re going on about.

Translation for Kodansha is again by Shryke with lettering by Brndn Blakeslee and both combine to bring all the elements of the story to life in English. Extras include an amusing bonus comic, the usual Afterword which explains the song titles chosen as chapter headings and a page of translation notes.

If you’ve been following the two Shinyas through the world of professional ballroom dance this far (via manga and/or film) you’ll definitely want to find out what happens in this latest volume! We’ve caught up with Japan again so it could be another three years before we see Volume 9; I’m hoping that the long-awaited 10 Dance competition will be featured at last (or maybe by Volume 10?).

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.