ST☆R: Strike it Rich is a biweekly manga written by Yabako Sandrovich and illustrated by MAAM.
After failing to enter in public MMA and being rejected by the underground fighting organizations, Nozomi Tenma finds herself without a job. Her friends don’t fare much better: Ichika Iori is a Dirty Cop that went from the anti-organized crime unit to the juvenile division after beating up her boss and Hana Mitani is the leader of a dwindling Yakuza family that can barely make enough money.
Nozomi gets the idea of creating a female only underground fighting organization to both get money and keeps the delinquents from fighting in the street, solving all of their issues with one stone. To help them attract strong fighters, they decide to recruit Hina Hongou, “the deadliest schoolgirl in Japan”, who was involved in a cult that tried to overthrow the Japanese government… but Hina might turn out to be too much for them and many other talented fighters to handle.
The manga is set in the same universe as Sandrovich's other works, including Kengan Ashura (illustrated by Daromeon) and How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? (also illustrated by MAAM). According to extras, the series takes place concurrently with Dumbell but set in between the end of Asura and its sequel Kengan Omega.
Tropes present in the work:
- Ambiguously Evil: Chogen Takahashi was the leader of a cult that tried to coup the Japanese government. However, a former member of the cult claims that he only advocated for violent methods after adopting Hina and accuses her of changing him. The veracity of the testimony is debated In-Universe, so whether Chogen or Hina is the real responsible is unknown.
- Badass Arm-Fold: During her introduction at the start Valkyria's first tournament, Riko has her arms crossed across her chest, emphasizing her muscules and showing that she is confident in her chances of winning.
- Blood Knight: Hina is a purebred combat junkie who is obsessed with finding fighters strong enough to pose a challenge for her. After Nozomi manages to impress her, Hina demands a rematch and even attacks Nozomi unprovoked just to instigate a fight. This puts Nozomi in a precarious position to keep providing Hina with strong opponents, both for the sake of Valkyria's longevity as a organization and her own safety.
- Boring, but Practical: Deconstructed. Nozomi’s fighting style is effective and allowed her to win her three underground matches. However, it is also boring to watch since her fights last over 40 minutes. As such, the crowd hates her, and she gets kicked out of the underground organization despite winning.
- Call-Back: The Army of God and their leader from Hanafusa’s flashback reappears as part of Hina’s backstory.
- Character Catchphrase: Before all of her fights, Hina says "Time for a revolution". She also likes to call weaker fighters "slowpoke".
- Career-Ending Injury: Just as Nozomi’s career in public MMA started to pick up steam, she discovered she had a detached retina, instantly stopping it in its track.
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist:
- Nozomi to Kazuo. She is a young woman who just lost her job while he is a middle-aged salaryman. Both of them serve as the main POV despite not being fighters, but Nozomi is experienced and could have gone to the public sphere if not for her Career-Ending Injury, while Kazuo gave up all hope of being a fighter long ago. Their relationship with the main fighter of their respective manga are also inverted: Kazuo often encourages Ohma when fighting and deeply respects him for his strength and refusal to ever give up, while Nozomi is annoyed that Hina wins her fight too easily and is uneased by her strength and personality.
- Hina to Ohma. Both them serve as the main fighter of their respective manga, but Hina is a outgoing and friendly girl while Ohma started as an asocial and rude man. Both are looking to fight strong opponents, but Ohma wants to both prove his strength and avenge his mentor Niko by defeating his killer, while Hina is looking for someone stronger than her. Ohma's first meeting with Kazuo ends with him asking Kazuo if he wants to fight and, when Kazuo refuses, he is disappointed but accepts it. Meanwhile, Hina's first meeting with Nozomi starts with them fighting and Hina wants Nozomi to fight her for real, despite the latter refusing.
- Continuity Cameo: The main cast of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? appears in a single panel in the first chapter.
- Cover-Blowing Superpower: Discussed in the aftermath of Valkyria's first tournament, where the Sena sisters (specifically Riku) confront Ichika over how Hina employed a technique that specifically designed to kill their opponents and demands to know more about who they're really dealing with. Ichika dodges Riku's questions instead entirely for the sake of not spooking both sisters off as new mainstays for Valkyria.
- Cult: The Army of God was a cult that tried to take over the government before the events of the story. The death of their leader lead to the cult falling apart.
- Curbstomp Battle: Deconstructed. Hina easily defeats her first opponents, knocking them out in a single blow. This is a problem for Valkyria since it is not good for gambling, which is their main source of revenue. Nozomi even promises to give Yuzuha and additional million yen as a prize if she wins her match against Hina, specifically because she believes that Hina becoming uncontested this early will only hurt Valkyria in the long run.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: Riku's strategy against Hina is to power through her blows to get close enough and retaliates.
- Dirty Cop: Ichika has no issues with stealing confiscated goods or using her previous position in the anti-organized crime unit to cover for Hana’s activities. Nozomi explicitly calls her one in the first chapter.
- Dramatic Irony: In Chapter 4, after Nozomi complains to her that Hina is too strong to provide a good fight, Hana reassures her that her next opponent is a former national boxing champion and that even Hina couldn't defeat her in one blow. This fight was shown in Chapter 0 and, sure enough, Hina won in a single punch.
- Dumb Muscle: Ichika notes while the Sena sisters are idiots, they are extremely strong. In junior high, Riko got her judo team to national top four while Riku broke her prefecture record for women's throwing javelot, despite neither of them having experience in those sports.
- Riko is easily the dumber sister, often confused by Riku's verbal speculating.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Hina’s pupils are shaped like stars.
- Family Theme Naming: The Sena sisters have very similar first name: Riku and Riko.
- First Blood: Riku's headbutt is the first attack that made Hina bleed, shocking Nozomi. It establishes Riku as a serious threat.
- Feuding Families: Chapter 18 puts the Jinguuji Family under Mitani Hana at odds with the Sanba Family under Inoue Sugaya. The Sanba have no respect for the Jinguuji due to the latter being one of the weakest Yakuza organizations in Japan's underworld, protected only by the fact that Hana's late father/predecessor had a close personal relationship with the boss of the dominant Niwa Clan, and sees their involvement in Valkyria's creation as a brazen attempt to intrude on the Slaughter Colosseum's business. After Yuzuha gets injured losing her match against Hina, Sugaya uses it as an excuse to try and poach Valkyria of their most promising fighters so they can finally crush the Jinguuji and absorb the rest of their assets in one fell swoop. Thankfully, Sugaya's scheme starts completely falling apart when Hina decides to attend his private meeting with Hana.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Some of the female delinquents fighting in the first chapter are using bottles to hit each other.
- Grin of Rage: After being called slow by Hina, Toujou's face is deformed by a grin of pure anger. Also combines with Goblin Face.
- Groin Attack: Rare female example. During her fight with Nozomi, Hina kicks her in the crotch. Nozomi clearly feels a lot of pain, but she manages to keep fighting.
- Hollywood Healing: Even though this takes place in the same World of Badass as Kengan Ashura, this is surprisingly subverted for once in Chapter 19 where three of Valkyria's Fighters must participate in an exhibition against three fighters representing the Slaughter Colosseum. The problem? Hina, Yuzuha, and Riku are still recovering from the injuries they racked up during the previous tournament, leaving Riko as the only one Valkyria has who is in any shape to fight.
- How We Got Here: Chapter 0 focuses on Hina's fight with Toujou and Nozomi asking Hina to hold back to prevent Valkyria from going bankrupt. Chapter 1 through 3 and half of Chapter 4 take place before, and shows how Nozomi got the idea of creating Valkyria and how Hina got involved.How was it that Tenma Nozomi and Hongou Hina crossed path? Let's turn back the clock.
- In the Back: To interrupt Hina's first fight with Nozomi, Ichika knocks Hina out by shooting her with a stun gun from behind.
- Like a Son to Me: The true reason why the Jinguuji Family continues to exist in spite of their weak status. The Jinguuji Family's original boss was Sworn Brothers with Chairman Niwa, resulting in the latter caring for Hana as if she was his own flesh and blood while secretly supporting her businesses after she took over. So when Ichika leaks that Sugaya essentially tried to start a Mob War with Hana, Chairman Niwa's Number Two Lee Akinobu personally intervenes to force the Sanba Family to apologize and agree to a compromise. Akinobu also notes that if Chairman Niwa himself caught wind of the news first, Sugaya would be dead.
- Loser Protagonist: As lampshaded by Nozomi in the first chapter, no one in her group of friends is really an exemplary member of society.
- Loved by All: Hina is universally loved by members of the Army of God, even those who completely left the cult behind. This clues Hana that there's something unnatural going on, since no matter how popular someone is, there's always going to be a few people who don't like them.
- MacGuffin: The chemicals weapons that were stolen from the Army of God. Ichika, Nozomi and Hana are trying to get their hands on it to ensure to be in the good graces of the police. Hina knows where they are (and Ichika suspects she stole them), but refuses to reveal their location until either Nozomi fight her for real or they find someone stronger than her, leading to the others redoubling efforts to find her strong opponents.
- Mugging the Monster: Nozomi doesn't take Ichika seriously when she's filled in on Hina's background and decides to pick a fight with Hina to test her out as a potential mainstay for Valkyria. Thanks to Ichika knocking Hina out with a taser, Nozomi manages to survive the encounter with a bruised arm... and the unenviable responsibility and dread of managing Hina as their main asset for Valkiria's success.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Hina only weights 50kg and is less muscular than her opponents. Despite this, she is strong enough to knock out experienced fighters with one blow. Subverted/Justified in Chapters 9 and 15, where its shown that Hina is essentially in the same boat as Wakatsuki Takeshi in terms of possessing inhumanly strong muscle fibers that radically improves their strength, speed, and durability. But unlike Takeshi, Hina has far greater control over her individual tendons as proven by her "Rikudou: Sunder Heaven", which is essentially the "Blast Core" technique but specialized to use only the muscles in just one arm.
- NEET: After being fired from the underground org she was in, Nozomi finds herself without a job and doesn't have any plan to get a new one. Ichika makes a few jokes at her expanse about it.
- Perpetual Smiler: Hina always has a smile on her face, even when fighting or threatening someone.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: During her fight with Riku, Hina has one when she decides to get serious.Hina: Well, I'm gonna trash you now. You're welcome to stop me, if you can.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Riku's "Carnage Rush" is a barrage of punches, elbow strikes and knee strikes.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: After getting in a fight with her boss and beating him up half to death, Ichika is reassigned from the anti-organized crime unit to the juvenile division to restrict her. Part of her motivation for helping Valkirya is getting back to her old job.
- Red Baron:
- Hina's epithet is the "Revolution Princess", in reference to her being at the center of a conspiracy to overthrow the entire Japanese government.
- The Sena sisters are known as the "Psycho Sisters".
- Yuzuha Lee's epithet is the "Explosive Kung-Fu Girl".
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Hina has pink hair and is a very friendly girl... who is obsessed with fighting strong opponents and may or may not be responsible for an attempted coup against the Japanese government using chemical weapons.
- Roundhouse Kick: During their first fight, Hina counters Nozomi low kick with a full 360 degree kick aimed at her head. Nozomi has barely enough time to put a guard and is shocked by Hina's reaction time and speed.
- Scary Teeth: Ichika is drawn with shark-like teeth to emphasize the fact she is a rude Dirty Cop.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Ichika used her position as a member of the gang unit to help Hana to fly under the radar. Naturally, her being reassigned put a stop to it.
- Sex Sells: To attract customers to Valkyria, Hana gets the idea of dressing the fighters with cute outfits and recruiting pretty girls for the staff.
- Slipped the Ropes: Hina dislocates her own thumb to free herself from the handcuffs Ichika put on her. She then immediately snaps her thumb back in place.
- Static Stun Gun: Ichika uses a Taser to knock out Hina. Hana implies it was something Ichika confiscated from a delinquent, before stealing it for herself.
- Threat Backfire: After capturing Hina, Ichika notes that she can't claim legitimate defense for her fight with Nozomi since there's no evidence and tells her that "[her] life is between [their] hands". This completely fails to intimidate Hina who calmly counters that "[their] life is in [her] hands". Her response sent chills down Nozomi's, Ichika's and Hana's spine, since she probably isn't bluffing.
- Directly before that, Nozomi tries to pick a fight with her once Ichika's informal dossier on Hina piques her interest.
Nozomi: Hey, little miss terrorist. Why don't come over and play with me for a bit?Hina: (with black speech bubbles) Are you sure? You might die doing this.- Kawakita Itsuki, Nozomi's last opponent before she was forced to retire as an underground fighter, tries to goad Hina into a brawl with her right in the middle of Hana's meeting with the boss of the Sanba Family in Chapter 18. Hina, being Hina, immediately responds by jumping out of her seat to knock Kawakita's lights out.
Hina: Oh? Um, should I nooot have done that? She saaaid she was game if I was, so I just thought, you know... Anyway! I beat her! ♡ Now what?Both Hana & Sugaya in unison: THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOOOOOOUUUU?! - Tournament Arc: When Nozomi can't decide whether Hina should fight Yuzuha or one of the Sena sisters, she gets the idea of organizing a small tournament between the four of them, with the winner gaining the 5 million yen. The first round pits Hina against Riku and Riko against Yuzuha. Both of the Sena sisters lose their respective bouts, making the final match between Hina and Yuzuha. Hina wins the tournament, much to Nozomi's own shock and disappointment.
- Unskilled, but Strong:
- Hina has enough strength to knock out her opponents in a single hit. However, since she never fought someone on her level, she lacks skills and goes for big swings that leave her wide open. This isn't a problem against weaker fighters, but Nozomi has enough experience to capitalize on it during their second fight.
- When they were in junior high, Riko got her judo team to national top four while Riku broke her prefecture women's throwing javelot. Neither of them had any experience in those sports, so they relied solely on their physical abilities. Riku even tells Hina that fighting isn't about technique, but nerve.
- Use Your Head: During their fight, Riku powers through Hina's blows to headbutt her. This is the first time Hina gets hurt by an attack.
- Weak, but Skilled:
- Nozomi, at least relatively to Hina: she doesn't have nearly as much strength, but she has experience, unlike her opponent. As such, she can capitalize on Hina's big openings to pin her leg to the ground. However, the sheer gap in raw strength means Nozomi couldn't win a real fight, something she is well aware of.
- Yuzuha is nowhere near the physical powerhouse Riko is, but her martial arts techniques more than make up for her lack in raw strength. This actually enables Yuzuha to score a victory against Riko via Ring Out.
- Yakuza: Hana is the head of the Jinguuji group, an independent group of Yakuza. Unfortunately, it is already one of the weakest ones and it is losing members, so she struggles to make money.
