Is The Build Up Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Manhwa, 184 chapters
Run	2020–present · ongoing
Community score	AniList 7.1 · MangaUpdates 6.8
Where to read	WEBTOON — official

Overview

Maru Kang is an ordinary kid with ordinary interests until his dad forces him to watch a soccer match on TV, and something clicks. The problem: he's already been crowned the "King of the Losers" at his high school, and wanting to be great at soccer doesn't make him any good at it. The Build Up is his slow, unglamorous climb from that starting point, and it's built less around instant talent than around a kid who has to earn every improvement the hard way.

That's a familiar sports-manhwa premise, but the way it's structured — following an entire team's worth of growth rather than one chosen prodigy — sets it apart from a lot of genre peers, even if it takes a while to show its hand.

What it does well

Once The Build Up settles into its rhythm, its biggest strength becomes clear: it isn't just Maru's story. Teammates get their own arcs, their own reasons for playing, and their own growth beats, which gives the eventual team dynamic real weight instead of making everyone else set dressing for one lead's rise. The soccer itself gets more confident and more tense as the series goes — later matches are staged with real tactical thinking rather than just big flashy moments, and it pays off the groundwork laid earlier.

The comedy is also a genuine asset. The series leans into absurdist, fourth-wall-breaking humor at points, which gives it a personality distinct from the usual straight-faced sports webtoon. And crucially, Maru's underdog status isn't just a narrative pose — the story is honest about him being genuinely bad at the sport early on, which makes his gradual improvement feel like it's actually being tracked rather than declared.

Where it falls short

The biggest hurdle is the entry point. The opening arc is where a lot of readers bounce off — the pacing is slower than it needs to be, the art is noticeably rougher than what the series later becomes, and the early version of the cast isn't especially easy to like. It's a real ask to tell someone "it gets better" for dozens of chapters, but that's genuinely the shape of this series.

The romance subplot is a mixed bag too — it's not badly written, but it periodically pulls focus away from the team and match storylines that are the series' actual strength, and it doesn't get the same level of development. And measured against genre high points like Blue Lock or Ao Ashi, the tactical and technical soccer knowledge here is serviceable rather than expert-level; this is a comic more interested in character growth than in being a soccer tactics showcase.

Verdict

The Build Up asks for more patience than most sports webtoons, and that's a legitimate knock against it — plenty of readers won't make it past the rough opening arc. But for those who stick around, it turns into a genuinely satisfying ensemble underdog story with real tension in its matches and characters worth following beyond the lead. Go in expecting a slow start, and it delivers.