Quick Answer
Yes, if you want a short, heartfelt sports story. Run on Your New Legs follows a soccer kid who loses a leg and takes up blade running, and it handles that turn with real warmth and a lot of momentum. It's fairly conventional and wraps up fast at five volumes, but it sticks the landing.
Quick Verdict
“It's a five-volume underdog story about a kid relearning how to run, and it earns its goosebumps without dragging things out.”
Best for: Readers who want an uplifting, focused sports drama about adapting after a life-changing injury and chasing a new goal.
Not for: Readers who want a long, layered series or a darker, more downbeat sports story.
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manga (seinen), 38 chapters, 5 volumes |
| Run | 2019–2020 · completed |
| Community score | AniList 6.4 · MangaUpdates 6.7 |
| Content | Injury and amputation |
| Where to read | Yen Press — official |
Run on Your New Legs opens with a gut-punch: Kikuzato, a talented high-school soccer player aiming to be his team's ace striker, loses his left leg in an accident. That dream's over. But watching a Paralympic blade runner sparks a new one — he's going to sprint on a prosthetic and chase a spot at the Tokyo Paralympics. Wataru Midori's manga is a focused, five-volume underdog story about relearning your own body and finding a second goal when the first one is gone. It ran in Big Comic Spirits and is published in English by Yen Press.
It picks a subject most sports manga never touch, and it treats it with care. Blade running and para-athletics are front and center, and the book is specific about the gear, the training, and the mechanics of sprinting on a carbon blade. That specificity makes Kikuzato's progress feel real — you understand what he's actually fighting against, from balance to socket fit to plain fear.
The emotional core lands. Kikuzato's grief over soccer and his slow, stubborn climb into a new sport are handled without melodrama, and the supporting cast — coaches, rivals, fellow para-athletes — give him people to bounce off instead of leaving him alone with his feelings. When the races hit, they've got real momentum; the paneling sells the speed, and the wins feel earned.
It's also refreshingly hopeful without tipping into sappiness. The story is honest about how hard the road is but keeps its eyes forward, and that optimism is the whole appeal. For five volumes, it's a tight, satisfying ride with no obvious filler.
The flip side of "tight" is "short." At five volumes, Run on Your New Legs covers a lot fast, and the ending arrives sooner than you might want — some arcs and rivals feel like they're just getting going when it wraps. A longer run could have let the competition and the relationships breathe.
It's also fairly conventional once you get past the subject. Strip away the blade running and a lot of the beats — the doubting phase, the mentor figure, the big rival race — are standard sports-manga structure. It does them well, but it rarely surprises you, and a few side characters are thinner than the premise deserves.
Run on Your New Legs is a small, sincere sports manga that does its specific job well. It's grounded in real para-athletics, it's genuinely moving, and it never overstays its welcome — though that short length is also its main limit. If you want an uplifting comeback story you can finish in an afternoon, this is an easy one to recommend. Just don't expect a sprawling epic.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Takehiko Inoue's wheelchair-basketball drama — same disability-and-sport ground, grittier and more adult.
Another running-focused drama about a team chasing a goal that feels out of reach.
Character-driven soccer manga, good if you want a longer, deeper sports read.
| Platform | Format | Pricing | Region notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yen Press | Print & digital volumes | Paid | Region availability varies | Open |
Yes. It ran from 2019 to 2020 and is complete in five volumes, all available in English from Yen Press.
It's fiction, but it's grounded in real blade running and Paralympic sprinting, and clearly did its homework on the gear and training.
It helps, but the hook is the comeback story. If you like underdog tales about rebuilding after a setback, it works even if you don't usually read sports manga.
