Tetsuwan girl could have been many things.
It could've been a straightforward sports manga/underdog story with a cool historical setting. It could've been an inspiring feminist tale about women finding empowerment in their passions against an oppressive, conservative environment that brings them down at every opportunity. It could've been an anti-war story about the power of sports that transcends national boundaries and brings people together, even in the aftermath of war and destruction. It could have been a tragic character study about obsession, pride, and the crushing weight of ambition.
It's not any of these things.
Anti-war sentiments are nowhere to be found. Instead, we get a nationalistic power fantasy riddled with shoehorned crime elements, driven by a lead girl who appears charismatic and cool on the surface, but the author never really attempts to dig any deeper than that, which ultimately might be Tetsuwan girl's biggest downfall. The titular character, Tome (or the 'iron-armed girl') remains completely static throughout the span of 92 chapters. Despite having the entire story revolve around her, Takahashi never gives Tome the development she so desperately needs, because she's basically a goddess from the start; a complete natural at pitching, always confident, always unphased, she can silence an angry mob by yelling "shut up" at them, and she never wavers in her resolve. She has no self-doubt, no inner conflict, not a worry in the world, which is what makes her charismatic, but also a fundamentally boring character to read. There's a brief training camp segment in the earlier chapters, but we never see her skills flourish - ultimately, her success feels unearned because we never see her truly struggle.
Which brings me to the pacing, another key weakness of Tetsuwan girl. In one word, the pacing is fast. Tome isn't the only one whose development feels lackluster - that is to say, the rest of the main cast is two-dimensional at best, and the side characters are pretty much non-existent. The characters aren't the only ones who aren't given proper attention - there's no real buildup to anything.The worst offender is probably the romantic development between Tome and Katsumi, which plays out over the course of just a few chapters and then becomes the main driving force for the rest of the story. Just as we never get to know these characters, we don't really see them get to know each other either - it all feels so rushed, forced and out of nowhere. The same can be said about most of the sequences throughout this manga.
With all that said, i still gave Tetsuwan girl a 4/10. Anything below that is reserved for offensively bad works, which i don't really think it is; it's just painfully underwhelming and incompetently written. Despite all of its wasted potential, Tetsuwan girl still has its redeeming qualities, most notably the realistic, detailed and sufficiently dynamic artwork. It's not the kind of art i'd call beautiful, at least not in the sense that Tsuruta Kenji's, Mori Kaoru's, or Shimura Takako's art is beautiful. Nevertheless, it has a level of quality that's easy to appreciate.
That's all i have to say. Sorry, i'm not good at closing out reviews.