Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura

Manic Dogma · May 12, 2023

The second match of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament is done and over with, so now we have setup for the third to be getting on with. And what better way to start than with a big, juicy pair of buttocks at center panel. Plenty of ways actually, Kengan. Keep trying.

Anyway, these buttocks are actually attached to a member of the Kure Clan, who's keeping a bead drawn on a particular window from an under-construction office building with a massive sniper rifle. She grumbles about how long its been without a single sign of movement. Doesn't this guy ever ventilate his room?

And that's the female soldier being a sniper trope, mark off your bingo cards kids.

Anyway, she isn't alone. Another Kure clan clambers up through a hatch, greeting the sniper with a bag of hot takeout food. The sniper, called out as Fusui, thanks the boy, Henzo, and they briefly chatter about the rest of the members of their squad. Who are presently doing the tourist thing. Henzo lost the rock-paper-scissors. Y'know, for all the problems I have with the Kure, one thing I never get bored of is the blase attitude with which they approach assassination. No proselytising on it as a profound way or life, or poetic insistence that it's actually really philosophically important and illuminates fundamental truths of reality. They're here to do a job, and it's a job they're familiar enough with to joke around a little, like folks on a 9 to 5.

Grumble grumble

Discussion turns to the current big payday the Kure are working toward. Henzo asks Fusui if she reckons their match is starting now. She's confused for a moment before recalling the whole Kengan thing, it'd apparently been so far from her mind she hadn't even thought about it, and asks if Henzo is worried. And yeah, he is. Raian, as their representative? Why that guy, of all people? Then he scrambles to apologise, he hadn't meant to vent that to her, but she brushes it off.

Kure Fusui, sister of Kure Raian, knows full well her brother is a fucking maniac.

Deciding wisely to drop the subject, Henzo moves on. Any movement by the target? Fusui has nothing to report. Four days in, and they haven't so much as glimpsed the target. They know he's in one specific room, but otherwise not a peep.

Well well well. Seems like someone's figured out the big secret of Under Mount Incorporated. Well, if it was going to be anyone, the assassins you allowed into your confidence would be the ones to rumble you. Inside, Kenzo keeps watching the tournament, blissfully unaware of the Anti-materiel rifle aimed squarely at his window.

Anyway, back at the arena Raian's gone missing. Which is bizarre. The other Kures are helping look for him, but Ohta is still in despair. He doesn't know how to handle these fucks!

Hard cut, for some reason, to the men's lavatory. Rihito, in a custom slogan shirt, is taking a piss as he thinks over his plans for the next however long. Hanging out with Okubo, who's bringing along Kaneda and Himuro for the ride, as they eat before their matches. Which is cute, in a way, they're making friends. Rihito dryly muses on how easygoing everyone's being, given they're going to be enemies soon, but he doesn't give it much thought beyond that. And honestly, I don't know if it's even true. In the ring nobody's fucking around, but a lot of these guys seem capable of keeping work and leisure separate. Hell, Okubo's a professional in public combat sports, he has more experience of this than anyone. And ultimately for all the big talk Kengan Asura pulls, it hasn't done all that much to really sell the supposed lethality of the matches. Even when Akoya fought with intent to kill, he only went for the KO.

Anyway, speaking of killing, someone sneaks up behind Rihito as he's pissing with apparent intent to give the man a heart attack.

You heard it here first folks, Rihito's packing heat.

This fucking goofy asshole. There's a brief wrestle as Rihito tries to get Raian off him, hurriedly stuffing his junk back into his pants as he shriekingly demands Raian better not be gay (because of course that's where his mind went first, what manga do you think you're reading) and then to know what the fuck he thinks he's doing. Raian's immediate and shameless response is that he's fucking with the self proclaimed superman. Then he proceeds to have a little rant about how Rihito shouldn't even be here, he's pathetic, yadda yadda. So yeah, this guy took offense to Rihito's title and decided to try and humiliate him immediately before his own match.

Rihito isn't any smarter though, and takes the bait. He squares up to fight, informing Raian that, match soon or not, he'll be dropping out now. Raian smirkingly feigns confusion. Who, me? Drop out? Are you picking a fight? Rihito is like, yeah obviously, and Raian…muses on this being why "you morons" are so easy to deal with. I'm not sure what specifically is meant by "deal with" here, given nothing Rihito has said has actual bearing on how easy he is to beat in a fight and I'm not sure how the prior harassment counts as dealing with anything. Okay, so you can bait a demonstrably belligerent guy into being shirty with you by invading his personal space while he's on the loo, so what?

But yeah, the important bit comes immediately after.

Looks familiar, doesn't it? I wonder if he's making the same booming noise.

Hard cut back to the arena. Sayaka is about to introduce the fighters, and Ohta is about to have an aneurysm, when he hears Raian arrive behind him. For a moment's he's delighted and relieved, then he turns to actually see the younger man and recoils in fear and horror.

Sayaka hypes Raian up as the Kure's biggest problem child. Something something slaughter anyone, so high, so heavy, blah blah, first Kengan Match appearance. The important part is this.

He's covered in blood.

Sayaka's shocked, and so is everyone else watching. Still wearing his immovable sneer, Raian tells them not to squeal over every little thing as we get his tagline. The Taboo Descendant. Which I guess fits. The manga's going pretty hard on trying to set him up as the delinquent of the assassins, for all he is actually doing the job. A powerful killer who's difficult to control, even for an equally murderous patriarch.

Meanwhile, Okubo and friends went to find out what was taking Rihito so long.

God damn, that's gonna be expensive to fix. Or, well, I guess not by Association standards.

Back in the arena, we take a glance into Metsudo's box, where the big man himself is having a good chortle over what a rascal this boy is. He's a dead ringer of a certain someone isn't he, he jibes at Kure Erioh, who demurely jokes about how he's being embarrassed. So Erioh was a hellion in his youth, one can surmise. Not exactly a surprise, I feel like that's probably more the rule than the exception for the Kure. Still, Metsudo admits to some surprise. He was expecting Hollis to be down in that arena. Erioh has a chuckle and notes there's a simple reason he isn't. Raian is stronger than Hollis.

It's…not nothing, as heat goes, I guess. Some of the other fighters were distinctly wary of Hollis. But it's still kinda weak, and seems to be based on a presupposition that the Kure are a massive deal from baseline. This is the risk when you get too attached to original creations folks, you can easily skip a few steps in your brain and forget you need to actually sell how cool they are before you can lean on that coolness as a given.

Also Erioh says that over a panel of Raian snapping at Sayaka and barking like a dog, while she flinches adorably. I wonder what this shithead's response to Chainsaw Man would be?

We swing around the Arena to Yamashita's crew, where the man himself muses on how the winner of this match will fight Ohma in the next round. They need to pay attention. Thus inadvertently offending Urita Sukizo, CEO of Penasonic, and the opponent of Yamashita Trading company in the first round.

Oh my god, he's even doing the anime glasses thing.

You know, I have to wonder what's going through the minds of the two guys on either side of Inaba's seat. What do they think of the cryptid next to them, barely even on his seat as he drapes himself over the row in front. Are they concerned? Judgemental? Do they know he's an assassin, do they really hope he doesn't accidentally poke them with his probably extremely gravelly feet? I do appreciate that on some level Urita is acting like he's sharing a joke with Inaba, it feels like an early indicator of their genuine friendship. It's cute!

And speaking of friendships, Kure Karla is down in the fighter's quarters with Elena Robinson, sister of the other fighter in the match to come, Mokichi Robinson. Seemingly for moral support. But also conveniently placed for Mokichi to apologise to her. He thanks her for being a friend to Elena, but this is a match. I'm afraid, he says, I'm going to have to defeat your relative.

Now, the Hollis thing before didn't really hit for me. But this? This I actually like. It's the subtlety of it that really sells the emotion Karla is feeling here, I think. That sort of tense, unspoken "He has absolutely no idea what he's getting into" that gets quickly and firmly brushed under the rug but not quite actually hidden. The second panel feels forced. Not completely false, I'm sure she genuinely wishes him luck, but attempting to disguise her lack of faith he can actually manage it.

Nothing will make me like Kure Raian. But on a better character, from a character allowed to be more badass, this would be a nice bit of heat.

We follow Mokichi as he exits the corridor into the arena proper, and is introduced by Sayaka. The imported fighter from britain, a holy warrior shielded by god's providence.

The Exterminating Vicar

Back to Metsudo's box, the chairman is celebrating Mokichi's entrance. Erioh notes the favour with some surprise, and Metsudo finds it funny. Erioh may have a lot of esteem for Raian, he says, but this battle isn't as firmly in his favour as he thinks. They have both inherited powerful Blood. This seems to trigger a realisation in Erioh, one that causes him deep disbelief. This battle's up in the air now, isn't it, Metsudo insists.

The battle over blood begins, declares the final panel. End chapter.

Next time the match begins proper. See you all then.

Manic Dogma · May 15, 2023

The third match of the Kengan Annihilation begins, and Metsudo himself hypes it up as a match you can't take your eyes off. A fight not between individuals, but a flashpoint conflict between entire bloodlines.

We get a moment from Mokichi's perspective. He gazes up into heaven, as if supplicating to god, but it is Elena he addresses. To his sister he promises. She is his everything, and he will be as strong as he needs to be for her sake. If she asked him to, he would strike down God himself. So rest assured and watch me, he thinks as the visage of death looms in prayer behind him. I dedicate this victory to you.

It probably says a lot that, even with this siscon weirdo at the forefront being all weird and obsessive all over the place, I still end up finding him a little bit cool when contrasted to Raian.

Speaking of, the two keep standing around, eyeing each other up, as the audience bristles with anticipation. Then the referee commands each fighter to their starting positions, and Sayaka begins her commentary. Finally time for the elite Assassin to face of against the reverse imported-

This is cute, I like this. The CEOs would probably phrase it as a networking opportunity, but I enjoy all the friendships springing up all over the place. Granted, in this case it's mostly just that Karla is the only other named woman around Elena's age, but I enjoy the contrast between them regardless. Also Sayaka's adaptability and sense of showmanship being something she got from her father? Yeah, I believe that.

Then, the fighters take their stances. Raian takes a moment to flip off Mokichi, like the class act he is.

Okay you know what, I can't perfectly sustain my grumpiness in the face of that, those panels are sick as fuck.

And you know something? This is the first time in the manga that we've gotten a fight scene between two peer foes with reasonably similar body types. As in, the whole manga, not just the tournament. Rihito was a beeflord compared to Ohma, Kaburagi was Kaburagi, Sekibayashi might as well have been Godzilla, Kaneda was physically completely outmatched by Himuro, and both of the initial matches of the tournament were David vs Goliath matchups to varying degrees.

And as befits this sort of peer match, things immediately settle into something of a deadlock. Raian is the first to break the initial clash, lunging for a flurry that Mokichi deftly deflects, countering with a brutal snap-kick that rocks Raian's arm. The punk answers with a kick of his own, half-heartedly complimenting Mokichi before following up with another rush of jabs.

Sayaka hypes up the brutal initial engagement, claiming Raian's got a slight lead in claiming momentum, but the Kure are just exasperated. Karla, Reiichi and Horio all comment to some extent on how Raian isn't taking this seriously. Horio going so far as to lament what a dumbass he is. Of all four of them, only Hollis notices that Mokichi isn't going all out either.

The next page is something I enjoy a lot. A single moment, one exchange, decompressed to emphasise just how fast and skilled these two are. Mokichi's superb, technical precision and Raian's agility. The Kure lunges in for a haymaker, which mokichi sways inches out of the way of, tapping Raian's forward foot with his own as it lands. His balance thrown off, Raian flings himself down rather than let Mokichi's followup punch ring his skull like a dinner bell, landing on his hand and immediately jacknifing up into something like a capoeira kick, which Mokichi blocks handily.

Then they disengage and the crowd goes wild. Neither one's giving an inch, Sayaka proclaims, you can't take your eyes off this fight for a second!

During the moment's respite, Raian muses on how much fun this "limey wanker" is to play with. Then bites the back of his hand before charging in. Mokichi, apparently completely missing this, settles into a guard, waiting for Raian's inevitable charge.

Come on man, that was telegraphed as fuck.

Yamashita is the one to pick out what happened and let the rest of his group know, as Mokichi curses and tries to wipe away the blood as soon as possible. A fair priority, who knows what the fuck this asshole has going on, but unfortunately it leaves him open just long enough for Raian to grab him by the collar.

Gaolang calls this stupid and classless, and I'm inclined to agree. I think Saw Paing agrees too, but it's hard to tell through the screaming.

With a stupid look on his face, Raian makes to haymaker the pinned jujitsuka, only for his fist to stop with a blur of motion and a crack of skin on skin. He stops moving completely. Erioh admits, foe or not, he's impressed. Without even looking, Mokichi predicted the path of Raian's punch and caught his hand, worming their fingers together into a classical jiu-jitsu finger lock.

Rad as hell. Mokichi takes a moment to taunt his opponent, noting how easy it'd be to break his fingers right now, as Kiryu notes all the joints in Kure's arm have been locked down perfectly. Can you keep going, man of the Kure, Mokichi asks.

Unfortunately, the mangaka has a favourite in this match, and it's not the one with an actually interesting history and moveset.

Raian was feigning pain, and with a singsong tone he casually pushes out of the finger lock, and we get a page of additional backstory on the Kure courtesy of Erioh. To summarise briefly, the Kure clan has existed for 1300 years and in that time have gone out of their way to interbreed with the families of any martial artists of fame, and other similar selective breeding techniques, as well as copying any shit they can find from other martial arts.

In Erioh's own words, the Kure have become "A race specialised for battle."

(Courtesy of Ava's Demon)

Okay, like many problematic elements of this story, I'm sure it wasn't Sandro's intention to all but claim Eugenics is good and effective. And I'm not completely opposed to a family or clan existing in a context that means, on average, they tend to produce better warriors than normal on the regular. But the Kure go a little further than that.

And Raian is such a fucking boring manifestation of it. You'll see what I mean.

Anyway, the two fighters trash talk a little, Raian mocks the idea that Mokichi thinks he could ever win and tells him to keep dreaming. Mokichi says he'll turn the dream into a prophetic one, further proving himself the one person in this fight with two brain cells to rub together. End chapter.

Okay, this is a pretty light chapter, mostly carried by the art and visual action, so there isn't much wrapup to do. And the art really is phenomenal, don't get me wrong. I'd forgotten how cool and dynamic the exchanges actually are, especially when they dip into the artist's crunchier style, with the heavy black borders and jagged impacts.

I guess I just feel like I have to apologise for coming into this with a pretty firm bias. The well is already poisoned, the dog has already eaten my homework, the dumbass has already pissed in my breakfast cereal. I fucking hate Raian, more than any other character in the manga. Akoya is pretty objectively a worse person, but as a character I find him much more compelling. Raian commits a much worse sin.

He's boring. And he's boring in a way that devalues and delegitimises other characters that are much more fun. We have one more chapter to get through before we get to why that is, though. So let's get that done, so next time I can give you that rant good and proper.

Fuck, I love Rei. I almost regret the Sasuke gags. But then, I suppose the resemblance to Sasuke, both in appearance and his usual attitude, is why it's so funny. He's the super serious ninja guy, except no not really! He's actually a massive, lovestruck dork who gets all pouty when his GF gives another guy medical aid. And his pouty possessiveness is being treated as ridiculous and childish, which is a shocking bit of progressive thought for this manga. Look at this massive fucking baby.

He's totally mad.

These moments keep happening around Kurayoshi, it's weird.

Although, thinking about it, in this case maybe a little bit of protectiveness at least is warranted. Because the specific guy in question is Rihito, who has already demonstrated an at best lackadaisical approach to the idea of women's sexual autonomy. He tries to flirt with her as she's treating him, which she brushes off before commenting on what a "bad boy" Raian is, attacking someone out of nowhere like that. This unfortunately sets Rihito off on a rant about how he's totally gonna get his own back on the guy, which hilariously prompts an on-screen exasperated sigh from Kurayoshi. I think I actually kind of love this woman?

Then, in a flabbergasting moment of self awareness, Rihito actually wonders if he'd have been able to win if Raian hadn't pissed off, wondering what the hell "that form" was.

Anyway, uh…wasn't there something happening? Oh shit, right, yeah. The fight.

Apparently a whole-ass minute has passed since the two fighters trash-talked, spent with arm straining against arm. Sayaka comments on how still this is compared to the earlier frenetic action, but nevertheless acknowledges it's just as fierce. Neither fighter is giving anything up. And indeed both fighters are deep in thought. Mokichi considers his next move, and Raian giggles about how fun this is getting.

The Kure comment on the stalemate, how each is waiting for the other to move. Horio points out that neither can really move recklessly, but Hollis disagrees. Raian will be the one to break the stalemate. He just doesn't have the kind of patience it takes to wait until his opponent leaves an opening to exploit.

And sure enough he's right, with a yell Raian lashes out with his free arm, grabbing Mokichi's gi once more. With two arms worth of leverage he leans his whole body back like a crescent, winding up for the sort of headbutt that blasts a man's nose out through his spinal column. In his ballistic head he taunts Mokichi. How you gonna avoid this, you dipshit? Gonna dodge? Sidestep? Try to catch it?

The answer, it turns out, is none of the above.

Plenty of people are confused, not least of which is Raian himself. Erioh though, recognises that move. A point blank uppercut, not the sort of move classical martial arts like Jiujitsu are known for. In a sudden moment of lucidity, Raian hops back and makes some space, but Mokichi is having none of it. He chases Raian down with strange, sinuous footwork, flowing back and forth in unpredictable rhythms before slamming the Kure's guard with a brutal right hook. Raian recognises these moves now. It's boxing.

Not that it helps. His guard lingers just and so too long, and Mokichi takes full, brutal advantage. He grabs Raian's arm and pivots on one foot, deftly tugging the Kure off balance and right into an expertly placed kick.

This time even Erioh is stumped, he doesn't recognise these techniques at all. Metsudo has a good chortle about this, finding understandable satisfaction getting one over on the eternally smug "race specialised for battle" fuckers, and deigns to explain. The fighting style Mokichi Robinson uses is known as Baritsu.

Now, irl Baritsu isn't actually a real martial art, but rather a fictional practise noted in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels, used to explain Sherlock surviving the Reichenbach falls when Doyle 100% intended for them to be decisively fatal for him. Baritsu is widely believed to actually be a misspelling of a real martial art called Bartitsu, a strange system that combines Boxing and jiujitsu as in Kengan Asura, but also french savate and the use of a walking cane. Because, need I remind you, it was indeed british. In real life this martial art was, to my knowledge, created by a man called Edward William Barton-wright, after studying a number of martial arts on his own time.

In Kengan Asura, the martial art of Baritsu instead finds its origin in the 19th century within the Tokugawa Shogunate, during a particular fighter's reign of dominance over the Kengan Matches. Kotoura Shigenosuke, master of the Musen style, a classical synthesis of martial arts. And Mokichi Robinson's ancestor, after Shigenosuke left japan to refine his arts, eventually landing in britain where he discovered boxing, wrestling, and other arts. Thus was born Baritsu, a unique martial art that…

…that combines the principles of eastern martial arts with…the rationality of Western martial arts.

Sandro, were you elbow deep in Spacebattles rationalfic when you wrote this? That's the kind of bullshit phrasing I'd expect from there.

Anyway, just in case you were under any illusions about where the inspiration came from, in the panels explaining Baritsu's rise and fall we get an image of a bizarrely square-jawed Sherlock Holmes squaring up for a scrap.

Erioh experiences a moment of youthful wonder at how big the world is, that martial arts he's never even heard of still exist.

But back to the fight.

Mokichi muses on how a fight ultimately comes down to information warfare. He compliments the Kure clan on their techniques, despite Raian not having really demonstrated any, but ultimately they're still based on Japanese martial arts alone. Implicitly, he's dealt with japanese martial arts of all kinds before, and knows how they tick. And demonstrates that fluidly, cracking Raian's nose with an elbow that would have been a punch.

He then proceeds to completely humiliate Raian, hammering him from all angles with a fluid and ever changing assault, each and every flailing retaliatory blow Raian throws disturbing naught but the flecks of his own blood dancing on the air. Even Erioh begins to show visible concern, wondering if the boy dare disgrace him like this, as Mokichi returns the ferocious flurry Raian gave him when the fight began.

Then Raian throws one ill-advised punch with all his weight, and that's all it takes.

Ding ding! Welcome to the ground floor, dickhead!

Forgive me, Mokichi Robinson asks of Kure Raian, I did not have the luxury of pulling my punches. Rest in Piece, he says in fluent english as he walks away from his opponent, who's legs stick comically up into the air as the stupid fuck's face gently marinates in its own blood.

By rights, this is how it should end. The overconfident scion of the assassin family, heavily set up in every previous appearance to be the sort of dumbass who takes precisely nothing seriously, falls in the first round despite phenomenal potential as a fighter. Because he refuses to respect his opponents, and their technique.

Unfortunately, as I noted, there's a writer's favourite in the room. And Erioh was not concerned about disgrace coming from Raian's loss. He curses the boy for a fool, as Raian's fingers curl into claws and crack the arena floor. Hollis warns the other Kure to brace themselves. This is not a fight anymore.

Nepotism.

Rihito shrieks, that's the form Raian was in when he humiliated him. Rei is more incredulous. He's actually going to use that in front of an audience? The Kure Clan's true secret technique, the art that defines them. Removal. Used in public, without Erioh's permission, risking the old man wearing out his fingers throttling the little tit.

Raian engages in a moronic little rant, about how he's not here for a fair fight, blah blah, masturbation, blah blah, he likes one sided domination blah blah blah. End chapter, for the second time this update.

So hey, yeah, remember how I said this was the first fight so far between peer opponents of similar body types? And described other fights as David vs Goliath matchups, thusly implying this wasn't one?

I apologise for my shameless lies. This was a David vs Goliath matchup all along, we were just waiting for frieza to transform.

See you all next time, when Raian skill-lessly overwhelms his opponent and we're expected to find it cool as hell. I'm so fucking tired.

Manic Dogma · May 19, 2023

So, the match is over, but the writer's favourite didn't win so we're getting a do-over. Raian, all veiny and an angry, bruised red, declares his intent to dominate Mokichi. I could make some kind of sexual joke about that, but just…why fucking bother.

Mokichi at least recognises something's up, and is wary. He's keeping his stance light but poised, and arms raised in a guard as he considers his foe, who seems like a completely different person all of a sudden. I honestly have no idea what he's on about, this is just a colour palette of normal Raian, nothing about the character has actually meaningfully changed.

Well, except for his raw stats.

A panel this awesome is wasted on you, Raian.

In the blink of an eye Raian has crossed the space between them, and where before Mokichi was able to respond to every blow evenly, now he's just completely helpless. Elena screams, terrified, but Mokichi doesn't even hear her. He's too busy scrambling to respond to Raian's ape-like flailing, now that he's turned his cheat engine on and edited his attack speed and attack damage stats up through the roof, because he's salty he was getting fucking humilated by the better fighter.

Back with the peanut gallery, Kushida is awed, but Akiyama recognises what's happening and points it out to Yamashita. Doesn't that remind of what Ohma did? Yamashita agrees that it does look like it, but it's not the same. I have no idea how, it's literally the same shit with the same palette swap and the same effects. But then, I suppose the SFX package is different. So maybe that's what he means.

The next page returns to Metsudo's box, where Erioh explains what's happening. It's basically hysterical strength, that thing where humans exert the full power of their muscles, except the Kure have developed bodies that can endure that force. Along with, presumably, meditative techniques to break those instinctive limiters at will. Which produces the Kure secret technique, Removal. Because they're Removing their limits.

They might be great assassins, but their PR could use some work. What a boring name for a secret super mode.

That said, it's not a simple switch. The aforesaid meditative techniques aren't a binary switch, and different Kure can only manage to release so much of their actual power. We see a bunch of different Kure with pie charts of how high their Release Rate is, and there's a wide variance. A bunch of relatively normal Kure start off the first panel, ranging between 19 and 36 percent. Reiichi and Horio can achieve 50 and 65 percent respectively. Hollis can manage 80, and Karla 85, which is apparently incredible for her age. So hey, a nice W for Karla I guess.

I'm not posting any pictures, because they're all nude. And of course Karla is the only one we see below the waist. Big ol' clear view of her bum. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm down with the Removal as an idea, even if the name is as spicy as used pasta water. As I've said about similar things in the past, it's exactly the sort of hyper-reality shit you get in manga like this, and if they didn't keep calling themselves "a race specialised for combat" I probably wouldn't even blink. It works, particularly in conjunction with a clan of assassins. I think it would work better though, if they achieved the toughness to use the Removal via training, and there weren't the whole selective breeding thing. Mostly just because it makes more sense in context of what the clan actually is. Surpassing human limits for burst of unimaginable, inhuman violence works for a clan of assassins, and provides some kind of real counterplay. As is, they might as well be going super saiyan, it doesn't mean much. Or perhaps this is my distaste for Raian spilling out onto the rest of the clan, idk.

Oh, what's Raian's release rate you ask? Take a fucking guess, this manga's been wanking itself crosseyed over him long enough you should be able to crack it without more than one. Obviously it's 100%, obviously that's nearly unique even within the Kure, wanky wanky wank.

While that discussion was happening, Raian pitched Mokichi like a tennis ball across the Arena, because we're just done trying to have an interesting fight now. I do like that Karla's actually getting mad at Raian tho.

Look! Actual veins! A genuine display of superhuman strength! Yes I know it's really tiny and minor, shut up I'm taking what victories I can get.

That said, back to the rest of the Kure clan, where Reiichi is confused. Raian is powerful enough to win without Removal (suck my fucking dick) so he concludes that Raian's only doing this to flex on Mokichi. Horio disagrees, Raian's a savage but he has always fulfilled his missions. He's probably using the Removal to keep the match as short as possible and minimise any lasting damage, a critical factor when fighting in a tournament. Hollis, listening in, agrees that both are probably a factor. But he feels like there's a bigger factor than that.

Back in the Arena, Raian keeps idly ragdolling Mokichi around without any meaningful resistance or interesting choreography, proceeding to pick him up by the throat and slam him into the Arena floor. He then proceeds to linger there, strangling Mokichi one handed, with explicit intent to show off how strong he is to the rest of the fighters. Of whom, to my eternal delight, only one or two dipshits seem actually impressed. And one of those is the drool-ey guy who cried over how much he loves getting to kill people, so his opinion is sort of instantly invalid.

Credit where it's due, this is an excellent expression of desperation.

The other fighters are vaguely disgusted or grumbly, and Elena's in full streaming with tears mode, probably already very traumatised. She begs him to forfeit, but he's in full determined "I can't afford to lose" mode, flush with the pride of his pedigree. Which is fair to a degree, I'm usually unwilling to just drop a game when I feel cheated out of a win. In this case though it manifests in Mokichi doing his level best to gouge out Raian's eyes. It doesn't work, sadly.

That's the end of the chapter, but not this update. Oh no, I'm steamed up now, and we're finishing this bullshit TODAY.

First page of chapter 56 is straight back to Mokichi's gritted teeth as he repeats his refusal to lose like a mantra, with Raian's gormless grin staring back down at him. Then we enter a flashback.

Cracking under the pressure of…frankly pretty abusive parenting, Mokichi took to the streets. In his head he was getting one over on his father, using the only thin the man cared about to commit crimes. Staining Baritsu's legacy with the blood of petty gangsters. Briefly dipping back into reality for a moment, Mokichi manages to break Raian's hold, twisting a finger back far enough to loosen his grip. He knew his father didn't hate him, wasn't trying to be cruel. He was an awkward man, lacking emotional intelligence, or the ability to express himself. The only way he had available, the only point of personal contact…was Baritsu.

Before Mokichi can correct his stance, Raian blows him back off his feet. Mokichi admits to himself, he was afraid. Afraid of failing to live up to those expectations, afraid of disappointing his father. Neither man able to connect to the other properly, to communicate, both were left floundering. So Mokichi fled, immersing himself in simple violence in a desperate attempt to feel free of that weight. His life had no meaning, or value.

Then his father died. And Mokichi discovered he had a sister.

Okay, so none of this makes the possessive gags from earlier okay? But on its own, sans those moments, this is cute. I'm down with this. A rootless young man, flailing for some kind of meaning in his life, has responsibility dumped on him and through it learns what he actually values and finds meaning. It's probably how he found religion, too. It's not especially original, and is pretty heteronormative, but this would work just as well if Elena were a young boy. Maybe even better, since perhaps then we wouldn't have gotten those stupid possessive brother jokes.

And fuck, it's not even a fully resolved arc! Mokichi might be willing to give his life to protect Elena, but Elena doesn't want that. She can tell if this fight goes on much longer he could get seriously hurt, maybe die. She doesn't care if he wins or loses, as long as he's okay! But, apparently having gotten all the emotional intelligence in her family, she recognises that right now she can't do anything to stop him. So all she can do is maybe give him the spirit to win. She cries out, a passionate exhortation. Don't lose, Mokichi! And he's invigorated! He thanks her for her and winds up a Baritsu secret technique, winding to fingers together to-

Get summarily punched in the face, nearly passing out on the spot. Raian grabs him by the throat before he can fall and gives a stupid little rant on his stupid, childish little motivations. Which can basically be summarised as Baby's First Superiority complex.

Then he breaks Mokichi's neck.

(courtesy of Ava's Demon)

Right. Okay. This Let's Read isn't a writing advice blog or anything, but it talks about writing and I am technically qualified, so here's a free fucking tip. When you're looking at your story, and feel like this or that story event is perhaps a little predictable or formulaic, so you think up some way to subvert audience expectations and have a little twist? I want you to take that look a few dozen more times, with and without said twist included, from a bunch of different angles to make absolutely sure of one thing.

That the twisty version isn't less fucking interesting than the normal progression.

There's a clear and pretty standard plot thread happening here. The protagonist, facing a foe of overwhelming power, looks back into their past and experiences some kind of personal revelation that focuses and clarifies them in the present. And in the process they win, be it from simply being able to push and focus that bit harder, or something specific emerging from the memories, some flash of inspiration or a forgotten lesson buried by trauma. This chapter is that arc being sacrificed on the altar of hyping up the most boring motherfucker in the fucking tournament.

I. Fucking. Hate. This.

It's cold comfort that the rest of the audience and the other fighters are also horrified. Particularly when we get panels of him crowing at the audience, and Erioh trying to pull the card that the clan simply can't control him. You're a clan of fucking assassins! Just kill the fucker, he's a liability!

At least Karla is on my side on this, as she watches a bawling, traumatised Elena accompany Mokichi away.

Yes, please kill him, put him out of my misery.

Then Raian, the insufferable fucking pest, turns to eye up Metsudo's box and challenges Kanoh fucking Agito.

Motherfuckers, why are you trying to play this up as some kind of awesome, destined grudge match? We all know these two are never going to fight! End fucking chapter.

Fucking hell, okay, so that was the third match. Reading over it again for this Let's Read, I'd actually forgotten that there were some genuinely cool panels in it, but that excuses this bullshit of absolutely nothing.

This was a david vs goliath narrative where Goliath won and we were expected to find it cool.

And that's really the fundamental issue with this match, and with Raian as a character. The whole thing takes out the beats and expectations of a formula and then fails to replace them with anything. Raian doesn't have a single aspect of appeal to his name, no aesthetic or interesting angle of his own, even his signature technique is just a flat powerup that half a dozen other people in this fucking arena can also do! Like, I talked smack about Haruo not really having any interesting techniques, but at least with him there's the inherent spectacle of a man his size performing ridiculous feats of agility. At least Haruo is the biggest guy in the tournament, at least Adam had his whole America + ice hockey thing going. Raian doesn't even have an interesting character underneath it all, he's just this frictionless sphere of pure ego, with nothing to adhere him to anyone else or the audience. And worse, one that the manga goes out of its way to fucking validate at every opportunity.

I'm not scared or horrified by this guy Sandro, I'm just fucking bored, and angry that panels are being wasted on this insufferable cunt. Mokichi was a character with some engagement, with a potential arc, Raian is just…nothing. He's a mary sue, plopped ex nihilo into the plot with a ta daaaaa, as if he's supposed to be engaging and cool by the simple fact of his existence. Fuck, Karla got more setup as an antagonist than Raian, and she gets no fucking respect from the framing!

And you want to know the worst part? Raian isn't like this because he's a straightforward Power character. There are other characters in this tournament who's schtick is that they're physically exceptional juggernauts, and they're fine. One of them is one of my favourite characters, even. Raian is just an object lesson in the risks of putting your personal fave onscreen without any fucking thought.

We got Hiyama's profile this chapter by the way. Apparently there are readers who were wondering if she was a man, based on how she talks? Which is just wild to me, given we saw her tits in the first panel she turned up in, and I think I speak for the whole world when I say I don't think anyone sane expects to ever see a trans man in Kengan Asura.

God, the tournament has been a little disappointing so far, hasn't it? The first match was perfectly solid, then the second match was shaky, and the third…I don't think I've been this vociferously negative about any fight since Kaburagi. Hopefully the fourth will pick us out of this slump.

If not, I know I can rely on match 5.

See you all next time.

Manic Dogma · May 22, 2023

Holy shit, Adam Dudley, you are speaking my fucking language.

So yeah, this chapter opens on a previous heel getting outraged over Raian's edgelord bullshit. Adam Dudley, looking a little roughed up but generally none the worse for wear, is sat in some kind of viewing parlor with a bunch of screens hanging off the ceiling and musing on the way match 3 ended. Specifically he seems to find it offensive that Raian double-tapped Mokichi when the guy was already on death's door. Which makes sense, for all his own brutality Adam is a sportsman, and when he thought the Ref was calling him off he did so immediately. Or at least, would have, if it weren't a hallucination.

Speaking of, here's Imai Cosmo, who's been looking for Adam all over. He ambles up with an icepack firmly pressed against his jaw, apparently just to tell Adam that he's super strong, and Cosmo barely won, and that they should fight again sometime. Like the little fight maniac he is, he holds absolutely no hard feelings, and in fact seems to admire Adam's style. Which is cute, I guess?

Adam responds by uncorking his best loom, informing Cosmo with a malicious grin that he can fucking bet on it. Adam will get his revenge some day.

This is actually so fucking cute, I love it. Cosmo's a fight maniac! Of course he holds no hard feelings, that's just how it goes. And Adam, confrontational pillar of toxic masculinity that he is, has no idea how to deal with it. All of his aggression is being ignored to take his words at face value. It's like trying to punch someone who's using a soft defensive style, your knuckles just can't find any purchase, so you're left flailing and off balance. Kinda like their fight, actually. Hmmm.

Anyway, Nishihonji tells them to save the flirting for later, the next match is starting. Okay, he doesn't actually call it flirting, but you were all thinking it.

Anyway, back to the arena, and Sayaka is doing her best to lift the mood back up after Raian's bullshit spoiled everyone's vibe. And what gets the Kengan Association more hyped up than anything else on god's green earth? A cheap avenue to exploit their fellow man without the interference of the law or human rights. But a solid second place is gambling!

Interesting, those aren't great odds for Ohma. I wonder what's up with that? We don't get a real explanation, my guess personally is just that Penasonic is a much more established name, but at least the audience seems to think Inaba is a safe bet. A couple of douchebags discuss the issue, and go over their previous bets. One of them even bet on Adam in the first match, which he laughingly agrees bit him in the ass, but dismisses his losses as a donation to the Kengan Association. It's all just a game anyway, noone's taking the bets seriously, and it's not like anyone's betting enough to bankrupt themselves. If that seemed a little pointed and overly specific, that's because it is. Say hello to Suoh Mihono.

Suoh Mihono's story is a pretty unfortunate one. She was the daughter of the CEO of Suoh Ironworks, the 414th ranked company of the 417 Kengan associated businesses. A year ago, she was in university, just living her life. The manga phrases it as "a completely average university student", but let's be real here, even the most bottom rung company in this association makes bank. I sincerely doubt anything about her life was truly average. Anyway, the problem comes in when her father very abruptly dies, and he gave her the post of CEO in his will. I feel like that's grounds for the board of directors to take actual control of the company while she learns the ropes, if she ever gets any meaningful power at all, but this is Kengan Asura. Where the sole will and intellect behind a business is its CEO, and everyone else in the company might as well be so many overcooked spam fritters.

So yeah, she's ever so slightly fucked.

Things got even worse when the financial crisis of the late 2000s hit, and Suoh Ironworks took it especially hard. The company kept losing money even after the crisis abated, dangling on the verge of bankruptcy. But then, as if a sign from heaven, bright and radiant possibility arose. The Kengan Annihilation Tournament! Even if she didn't win, making it into the main tournament could get her the prestige and profile she needs to pull her company back from the brink.

There was one small problem with that plan.

Yeah. There really wasn't any hope from that guy. Only one option remained. Bet the farm. The problem with THAT plan is that she's got a terrible eye. She made losing bets on all three of the first three matches, and now she only has nine hundred million yen left. Not even a billion! Like a PEASANT. And worse still, she has to pay seven billion in debts by noon today, or all her personal assets are forfeit.

She's quite understandably panicking, even if I'm fairly sure you can't literally be sold into the sex industry for debt these days. I mean, she's a legitimate businesswoman, it's not like she was in deep with the mob. She's pretty convinced otherwise though, and we get a kind of weird and uncomfortable panel about it. No, I'm not going to describe or post it, screw you.

So here she is, effectively doomed, wondering what she did to deserve this and hating her father. Which is fair, being set up to fail is pretty awful.

One, final, shining thread of hope falls before her. The odds have gone up again. 8.10 to 1.14, in Inaba and Penasonic's favour. And it does seem like it's the company's prestige that's doing this, as Mihono reels in shock and does some calculations another guy doesn't seem surprised. It's penasonic, after all. Still, 8.1 times nine hundred million. If Mihono wins that bet, she'll be able to cover her debts with a few hundred million to spare. Well, it's no choice at all really, is it? Certain doom or betting on the dark horse.

Meanwhile, our main characters are preparing for their match. And Ohma's got some new threads!

It's not much as uniforms go, but it's a sporty little number. And it's a gift too! Yamashita bought the shorts, and the spats under them were picked out by Akiyama. Kushida laments a little, those old spats were some sexy stuff, but this is still damn good in its own way. Akiyama asks her to stop talking like a dirty old man, which is fair. Then something clicks. Ohma fought in his clothes in the preliminaries. How does Kushida know what Ohma's old spats looked like? In the end, as Ohma is called to the arena, she brushes it off. Nogi probably told her about it.

I don't think it's particularly suspicious myself, we know for a fact there's footage of Ohma's fights knocking about, but the manga has already been signalling that there's something off with Kushida. So this is more of that, I guess.

Before Ohma can leave though, Yamashita asks him to stop a moment. He knows his doomerism probably isn't great right before the match, but…if it ever looks like Ohma can't win, Yamashita wants him to forfeit. He doesn't want to be burdened with debt, but Ohma's life means more to him than money.

Ohma laughs.

Ohma's pretty bad at communicating, isn't he? Still, this looks almost affectionate to me. Just tell him you appreciate the concern but it's unwarranted Ohma, christ's sake.

A little cut later, Yamashita has ambled on up to a part of the Arena building overlooking the stands, expansive corridors on the building's outer limits with windows down onto the Arena. Here he finds a little group of fighters, here to watch the fight in person. Okubo, Kaneda, Rihito and Himuro. Okubo notes to Yamashita, when he asks if they're watching the match here, that the waiting room monitors just aren't good enough. And also that Rihito wanted to see his "Rival's" match in person.

Akiyama gets a little panel of interrogation in on him, expressing disbelief over calling Ohma his Rival, and asking the obviously roughed up Rihito what happened to him. He tries to pass it off as nothing, it's pretty funny.

Then Himuro points to the Arena. They're starting.

And now, as is tradition, time for some reaction shots.

I really wish the manga hadn't already established such terrible precedent with Kiryu. I want to enjoy jokes like this without a part of me grimacing like I'm trying to hold a plate between my teeth. His dynamic with Tomoko could be really cute.

But they're obviously not the only one's looking, as we skip on back to Suoh Mihono. Who, with dark circles around her eyes deep enough for a grue to hide in, isn't totally impressed. She's heard the rumours of his strength obviously, but he seems so much skinnier than the other fighters. Which is a bit misleading, given only half of the fighters so far were meaningfully bigger than him, and one of the others was like half his size, but whatever you get it. Then she hears other people around her notice Yamashita himself, watching from way up high, and chatter on about how they need to get his business card. Then she sees him and he's just some random middle aged schlub.

It's kinda fair of her to be concerned. Yamashita would probably agree!

Back to the fighters, Okubo is apparently seeing Ohma for the first time, and comments that his expression seems focused. Rihito, excitable boy that he is, yells at Ohma to get it over with but Himuro cuts in. He doesn't think it'll be that simple. Penasonic hasn't taken a loss in the Kengan Matches for six years. They've managed it because of an incredibly wide fighter pool, more fighters than any other company in the association, deployed with surgical precision by their CEO to perfectly counter that opponent. It's not a company that ever takes risks. This might be Inaba's first appearance in the Kengan Matches, but he's still the person that CEO picked as his representative. He isn't going to be an easy win.

Cut to one of the waiting room corridors. Penasonic CEO Urita Sukizo comments that he hasn't seen Inaba walk on two legs for a while. Then, with quiet seriousness, tells Inaba that they really need to win this match. He's counting on him.

Oh. He's actually pretty cute, in a scrungly sort of way. How about that? End chapter. And volume!

We're back into the weeds of setup chapters for this one. Which is a good idea, we're working with main characters here so there's no doubt who's going to win. That just means the fight needs some additional context to layer on a bit more tension and engagement, which we'll see next time.

See you all then!

Manic Dogma · May 26, 2023

You know what, random audience member? You're right. Those are some damn fine trunks. Also why are Ohma's arms suddenly so long, you fucking gorilla man.

Anyway, that's a big audience response for a guy who turned up on the scene basically yesterday, and Okubo notes as much. And given his professional MMA career on top of Kengan matches, I'm inclined to trust his judgement on this. Akiyama notes that those three matches he's won are probably why, though I don't really see eye to eye with her on her logic. She claims that the audience's expectations are high because, and I quote "all the fighters that Ohma's defeated have been overwhelmingly upper ranked fighters in the public's opinion."

I…what?

Okay, Sekibayashi? Absolutely. Man's a fucking juggernaut, and a consummate showman to boot, the audience basically has no choice but to recognise beating him as a big deal. But Rihito barely had more wins then than Ohma does now, hasn't fought another match since, and Ohma completely dumpstered him with a single technique. He's probably reasonably high in the Association's esteem of raw strength, but not in an overwhelming sort of way. And Kaburagi was explicitly mediocre, that was a core point of that match's plot! Ohma has one big headliner win under his belt, which will be enough to stir some interest, but for this kind of response on the Kengan Associations highest stage, I don't know if I buy it being because of how high profile all of his previous wins were. Also it seems pretty directly contradicted by the betting odds last chapter, so what the hell?

Moving on, Rihito takes the comment as a compliment, and in the style of dipshit manchildren everywhere seems to be taking said incidental compliment as a signal of interest, immediately asking if she wants to go to a "hotel" with him. I'm sure you can all guess what kind. Being a sensible woman with some kind of standards, she thankfully shoots him down immediately and without mercy. And off to the side, Kushida tells Okubo and Kaneda to keep a close eye on the match, 'cos Ohma's really strong. For some reason she also calls Kaneda by his first name, which baffles the man himself.

Yamashita didn't register any of this. He's too busy with anxiety for Ohma. He does, however, register when someone outright calls him out.

That's right, it's this match's opposition. And he's met with the extremely valid question, "what do you want?" What he wants, it turns out, is to make a proposal.

This match, he explains, basically works the same as a normal Kengan Match, with the stakes being "progress further" rather than something with direct economic worth. As such, betting on matches is completely allowed. Not sure why anyone felt the need to spend panels pointing this out, given half of the previous chapter was occupied with gambling-related content, but sure. There is one pertinent difference, at least.

Observe the dreadful majesty of this skinny, middle-aged schlub, who's Atum burns a foot or two wide and manifests the wonky glasses that are the mark of his dorkliness. He isn't even bumbling into it anymore, he's accumulated so much phantom momentum that other CEOs are just making shit up all on their own, out of sheer capitalist paranoia. It's so fucking funny.

Anyway, there was an actual proposal he wanted to make. Doing the anime glasses thing, and resolving to keep rattling Yamashita's cage as much as it takes to make him flinch, Urita proposes they make a personal bet of their own.

Yamashita is hesitant, but Akiyama points out there's no rule against it and Urita insists it's just to make things a little more interesting. Yamashita's tentatively game, but he only has like 10,000 on him. He means 10,000 yen (because Kaneda swindled the rest off him, lol). Urita, by some stock market fuck-logic I'm not clear on, decides this means he has one hundred million yen on him in cash. Urita dismisses that though, he isn't against betting cash, but they're businessmen! It's more appropriate if they bet something related to their companies. So his bet is, he declares with his face draped in dramatic shadow as to highlight the slightly manic light in his eyes, "Ten of our TVs."

Akiyama and Kushida are aghast. They know what's up here, even if they're struggling to believe it.

Yamashita hasn't a single earthly clue, and declares that sounds great. In fact he's always wanted a Penasonic TV! If he gets ten he can even give some away to his family, even better. Urita is startled and wary. He replied with no hesitation? And has always been after them? But like a good businessman, he steadies himself and goes on. They don't have a deal yet. What will Yamashita bet?

He pauses in thought as both Akiyama and Kushida try to get his attention to stop what's about to happen. But he's too caught up in recent trauma, and the pressure of Nogi's fuckery. Just remembering sends his stomach into fits. But this gives him an idea which, with uncharacteristic decisiveness, he immediately acts upon.

Urita walks away with his tactical victory as Akiyama, aghast, asks Yamashita how he could do that. Yamashita's confused and kind of blase. Oh, you're blowing it out of proportion Ms Akiyama! How much can ten TVs possibly be worth, if they lose he can just get Nogi to cover the bill. He's already 5.1 billion yen in debt to the guy, what could it hurt.

With a shadow of anxious despair hanging over her face, Akiyama slowly and carefully asks Yamashita a question. He knows what professional jargon is…right? Of course, he answers, code words that outsiders won't understand, right? Rather than argue the point, Akiyama allows this slightly wrong answer, and moves on. So, does he realise the Kengan Association has Jargon too?

This starts setting off alarm bells in Yamashita's brain. What did he just do? Akiyama asks him to stay calm, as she explains.

Yamashita Don't Panic Challenge, Difficulty Impossible

So yeah. The bet Yamashita just made was for ten percent of Penasonic's stocks. His brain starts going a mile a minute. 10% of one of the biggest producers of home electronics in japan? He can't even process how much money that is. Fortunately, Kushida has the numbers, and runs some calculations on her phone. At Penasonic's current market values…

We haven't had Yamashita Faces this good for a while, have we?

And he promised he'd pay in cash! Akiyama says outright, that's more money than even the Nogi group, one of the biggest organisations in the Association, could pull together on short notice. And bets are binding in the association, she doesn't even know what penalties would be levelled on him if he failed to pay up. The verdict's in, boyo, you done fucked the hell up.

Yamashita promptly collapses into a boneless heap on the floor, passing out in paroxysms of anxiety.

We take a moment now to follow Urita as he ambles away, and the best fucking part of all this. He was only there to try and shake Yamashita up, rattle his nerves some. And now, out of sheer ignorance, Yamashita inadvertently escalated the situation to absurd degrees. To the point Urita is more convinced than ever Yamashita is a razor-witted mastermind who had designs on a majority share in Urita's company from the start. He needs to crush him while he has the chance.

Absolutely spectacular display of failing upwards. Also we get a cute panel of the fighters looking after Yamashita, resting his shaking head on a bag as Kaneda fetches water, and Akiyama verbally reams Kushida for failing to head this problem off beforehand. It's fun.

But now that's over with, it's time to enter the arena. Ohma's doing his pre-fight ritual, loosening up with little hops, as Sayaka introduces his opponent. A first time fighter in the Kengan Matches, 155cm tall and 62kgs, the smallest and lightest fighter in the tournament. Penasonic's Inaba Ryo…

Is not there.

Sayaka looks around, confused. There's no sign of him. Ohma posits that he's on the toilet, and Sayaka asks for his patience for a moment. She then asks the audience the same, as they taunt and jeer in frustration. She takes a moment to pause and sigh, lamenting the moment. Pretty humiliating really. Penasonic really should have given notice that they were going to be late, this is just-

He was there all along. Finally, an assassin who actually acts the part!

This catches a lot of attention. Ohma, and plenty of the other fighters, warily perk up like cats that heard a loud noise. Mihono, from last chapter, notes that he's even shorter than she is. Can he really fight like that? Elsewhere in the stands Sawada is very eager to declare that he still finds Inaba creepy, and definitely would not tap that. Togawa, his employer, asks why that matters and I'm liable to agree. Just another "Haha this guy is gay, how ludicrous" gag, I suppose.

Anyway, down in the Arena, Sayaka can get back to doing her job, though the shock of being startled like that shut off her legs for a moment, so she's knelt on the floor until she can shake them back to life. She begins introducing the first round as the fighters eye each other up.

Ohma's another person to note how tiny Inaba is, but he also instinctually recognises it as, in his words, "a disguise." He doesn't have any real firm points of evidence, or arguments to make in favour of this position. Just long experience, and sheer intuition, that's all telling him one thing.

Itsy bitsy spider, beat up the water spout

Genuinely sick as hell. It's been a bit since we had this kind of visualisation of a character's strength, but it's one of my favourite tropes of this sort of media. Ohma isn't getting caught up in the hype though. As the Referee tells the fighters to take their starting positions, he doesn't even hear it. A trick he made sure to learn after the Kaburagi fight made it such a big deal, he's actively tuning out all sound, save for his opponent's breath.

I love this shit.

End chapter. Next time, our protagonists begin their first match of the tournament.

See you then.

BUT FIRST, did you guys know there was a special at the end of volume 7? I wasn't going to actually make anything of it, and still aren't going to do a full update on it, but just for fun I'm going to cap off this update with a few choice moments of fun from it. There's some gross bullshit in there, but I'm sure you can imagine what that shit'll be in a Hot Springs episode, so I'm going to focus on the cute stuff.

One, Kurayoshi hooks up with Rei in a japanese-styled spa facility, and he's super excited to play pingpong with her.

Two, Tomoko is Bisexual. (What's that off to the left? Nothing, shut up.)

Three, Cosmo is as innocent as Tomoko thinks he is.

Four, Togo and Hiyama are friends (I hope she drops a tank on Akoya).

Four, Yamashita "outlasts" Ohma in the Sauna, and it backfires on him tremendously.

I'm as shocked as you are that the joke is "Yamashita is so paralysed by the idea of being rude to these guys that he's going to dessicate" rather than "Hahah he's in a room full of big, mostly nude men and also Metsudo." But there it is. Kengan's attitude toward the male body is real hard to pin down, like that.

Anyway, see you next update, for real this time.

Later!

Manic Dogma · May 29, 2023

And away they go, at blinding speed. Inaba opens with a mean looking chop, that Ohma deflects with a knee, cancelling out all the smaller man's momentum and pivoting into a fierce rush of blows. Ohma is significantly faster than Inaba had anticipated, and it's getting him a strong lead, with enough space to fire off a hopping roundhouse kick. Inaba's head seems to crash into the floor.

But he's not done. Inaba pivots with the momentum of Ohma's blow, blocking it with a forearm and converting the motion into a bizarre kick. A lancing thing, lead by his big toe, that thrusts for Ohma's eye, throwing him off just enough for Inaba to make some space. As the fighters rush each other again Sayaka comments on what a shocking striking contest it is, she barely even has time to comment on it, and Jerry agrees. They're practically on even footing, he says. Yamashita disagrees. As Ohma folds Inaba in half with his foot, he notes that Ohma has the clear upper hand. And in an uncharacteristic display of bloodlust, he howls for Ohma to go and finish it.

Then something very strange happens.

Inaba, true to his title as the Black Phantom, begins to flicker and multiply.

God, I love this shit. The afterimages dispersing like smoke around Ohma's blows, how clear it is where Inaba's moving and how deftly fluid the motion is. The way his billowing, scraggly hair helps sell how unnatural it all is. And it's not just Ohma who recognises the shift in movement, the peanut gallery are aghast.

After a few dodges to put Ohma off balance, Inaba begins to attack. Not sustained flurries like before, but razor sharp bursts of violence. Ohma blocks and parries the strikes, but isn't even clipping Inaba, each time he misses releasing a little, frustrated utterance escape his gritted teeth. Back and forth Inaba flows like morning mist until, finally. Something. A lancing knife-hand thrust breaks skin, tearing blood from Ohma's cheek. Ohma lashes out, a massive, sweeping roundhouse kick. It misses, but it forces Inaba away for a moment. Has Inaba managed to turn the tide in his favour? The commentators ask, pointing out how well the hit and run strategy is working. They can even see how irritated Ohma seems. Up in the stands, by contrast, Urita is profoundly smug. This was exactly the plan. Ohma does his best work head on, so Inaba shouldn't fight him on those terms. Take him down slowly, laterally.

And then we get insight into what Inaba is actually doing. Courtesy of, of all people, Nishihonji.

Pfffff, really? Edging? That's what you're going to call it? Fucking hell, okay.

If you know, you know.

Anyway, reactions to this new state of affairs vary. Yamashita screams at Ohma not to panic, that he should definitely keep his cool, even as Yamashita's own cool left him years ago to find its fortune in the Caribbean sea. Urita maintains his smirkitude, confident that taking all the time in the world is going to work out fine. Unfortunately, there's a downside to taking the slow and steady route.

It's just begging for a talented, versatile protagonist to adapt to your shit.

Inaba, catlike, lands on his feet, but his mental balance cannot compare to his physical balance. He's baffled, reeling. And up in the stands Kiryu has figured everything out. Inaba's footwork was working on similar principles to Drunken Kung Fu, arrhythmic movements with speed and pace kept out of sync to disrupt the enemy and make prediction near impossible. Those little frustrated "tch!" sounds Ohma was making? He was measuring the timing with his tongue. Because Inaba isn't the only one with a funky footwork technique.

That's right, it's the third Kata of the Niko style, the Flame Kata. A system of techniques focused, as far as I understand, on light and agile footwork. Inaba is put completely on the defensive, forced to simply accept a brutal body blow right to his kidneys. Inaba's on the ropes, and it causes a curious transformation in Yamashita. With the flow of battle on Ohma's side again, he considers the prize he's set to win. Billions of Yen, to his name. Fuck paying off his debt to Nogi, he'll never have to worry about money again!

Hm, when I put it like that it seems much more reasonable that he almost seems to undergo a Removal transformation of his own, howling with bloodlust for Ohma to give him hell. I still can't really blame the rest of the peanut gallery for being concerned though. Even Rihito looks slightly put off.

Anyway, back to the fight, Inaba still hasn't found a way out yet and his time is running out. Ohma sweeps one of his feet out from under him and lands another body blow to the same kidney, sending Inaba wheeling back and coughing up blood. As well as pissing it for the next week, in all likelihood. His breathing is disrupted though, and his feet are planted, he can't move. Ohma sees victory right in front of him, and tauntingly asks if his street performance is already over. Yamashita sees it too, grinning in sweaty victory.

Then Ohma's foot stops just short of Inaba's head. Urita concedes Ohma the victory in maneuvering and lateral tactics, and admits the only option left is a frontal assault.

End chapter…at only just over 900 words? I think the fuck not.

Chapter 60 opens in exactly the same moment regardless. Confusion abounds, Ohma's match-winning high kick was stopped just before impact, what the hell happened? Then the commentators parse the sight they're seeing.

And it's…kinda gross.

Ugh god, can you imagine how that feels? Also I'm not entirely certain how that stopped Ohma's kick from actually hitting Inaba, it seems more like it'd pull the kick in onto his head harder if anything. I dunno, maybe seeing the hair wrap around his ankle like that freaked Ohma out so much that he froze. I could buy it, look at the dude's expression.

Then, taking advantage of the momentary pause for some theatrics of his own, Inaba pushes back his fringe to reveal his face and declare it's his turn, with a little singsong lilt. Tomoko is confused and blushy over the sudden reveal of oh cute boy actually, and Sawada freaks out a little. Because, being a gay man, he isn't allowed to be normal about anything. Manga don't be weird about gender nonconformity challenge, failed again.

Anyway, as Sayaka lets the audience know just how precious and adorable this little scrunklo is, Ohma manages to reassert his composure. Your turn? Nah, Ohma isn't gonna just go on defense like that. He yanks his leg back, clearly trying to pull it out, tear it, or just dismantle Inaba's stance, but uh…

Holy shit. We've seen bigger displays of strength, but still, smallest fighter in the tournament. It's not like you can't see the effort he's putting in either, look at his feet and that one arm not obscured by motion blur. Also I'm pretty sure his hair has magically extended for this panel, but I don't care, it's cool as hell.

Inaba then whips Ohma into the ground, which cracks and buckles under the force. Ohma manages to ablate most of the force with the Adamantine Kata, but as noted it's not his favourite of his style's systems. He's feeling the pain. And then Inaba deadass just whips him using his hair, breaking skin and declaring it's "time for some punishment."

Is…are we looking at a stealth top? And like, not even a mild one either, a hardcore dom. Noone pushed him into saying that, there's nothing in particular he's likely to want to punish Ohma for, and yet that's the smacktalk he went for while whipping his foes' exposed and chiseled chesticles.

Ahem, anyway.

Apparently up until this point, we hear in a little expositional aside from Urita, Inaba's hair has been bound up until now with a special drug, though in function it looks more like a hair gel. But now that his hair is unbound, he has no weak spots. And it's strength enough to shake Ohma, too. Lying on his back on the floor, he considers that this isn't hair, it's a goddamn chain.

Next page, oh boy kiddywinks, it's time for some Facts with Kengan Asura!

Hair, the manga professes, is the strongest organ of the human body. Each strand can support about 150 grams of weight, and each head on average carries somewhere in the region of 100,000 strands. In theory, one person's hair can carry a weight of fifteen tons. To my knowledge, this…isn't wrong? Hair absolutely does have ludicrous tensile strength for its thickness, and iirc is one of many substances being studied to replicate the internal structures that make it so strong. I feel like I recall certain bones being proportionally even stronger, but whatever. The manga then references Manjit Singh, crediting him with successfully pulling a double decker bus over 21 metres using his hair alone in 2009. This is actually a real event that happened, though in a rare case of Kengan Asura underselling something it's actually even more impressive than it sounds. Because the bus had 30 god damn people in it on top of its own weight. God damn.

This transitions into an explanation of the Inaba specifically, who strengthen their hair by treating it with a special cocktail of drugs from childhood. Giving it tremendous resilience and strength, which allows it to grow far longer than normal. From there, the assassin is trained for years to manipulate their hair, and a true practitioner of the Inaba style is born.

It's completely ridiculous, entirely unrealistic, and also really cool. This is some good shonen gimmickry, right here.

Back to the fight, Ohma has returned to his feet, and to try and reclaim the momentum he dashes in. The Flame Kata returns in another technique, Raging Fire, a sort of head-on flash step which he uses to approach Inaba. To no end. With shocking speed Inaba yanks on his hair, tugging Ohma's foot out from under him again. Approaching to get within the hair's optimal range has been accounted for, and with a big smile on his face Inaba once more heaves every kilogram of Ohma into the air.

No kidding, Jerry. The back of the kid's neck must look like he's smuggling a turkey.

Sayaka questions why Ohma can't just pull back on the hair, he's heavier after all, but this is why the pro fighter is here to provide additional commentary. He points out Inaba's strange footwork from earlier in the match, and what he's doing here uses the same principle. All that toe strength, enough to shift the 62 kg young man at speed, is now being reapplied to holding him firmly in place. It's hard to move someone with that much traction normally, let alone when your balance is being fucked with.

Then Inaba decides he's done fucking around, pivots on his heel, and lashes Ohma head on into the arena's concrete wall. Cratering it with his back. With another flick of his neck, he secures another shackle of hair around Ohma's right arm. Urita's pleased. Inaba's moved into the final phase of his strategy, and he concludes that this match is Penasonic's win. On a whim, he looks to where Yamashita stands, and realises…he's smiling?

I never get bored of this shit.

Down in the Arena, Inaba's channelling his inner Dom again, and whipping the everloving shit out of Ohma, who seems near helpless to do anything about it. And then, worse still, Inaba finishes the lock. Another flick of his powerful neck, and hair wraps around Ohma's eyes…and throat. Breath is the lifeblood of a martial artist, of any fighter really, even more than normal. Yamashita is shocked back into life, and screams Ohma's name. Urita is smugger than ever, granting that Ohma is much stronger than Inaba. But points out that he's fighting an assassin. And assassination is, in effect, defeating your opponent before they have a chance to exhibit their power.

Ohma's in a bad spot. And he knows it. He feels like he's getting torn apart. He never imagined Inaba might be this powerful. Yeah, he's real damn good.

You pass.

There's still a trump card Ohma has yet to bust out. Y'all know what it is. End chapter.

Maybe it's just that it seems especially good after the absolute nadir that was the last match, but this fight kinda slaps. Particularly, I think, for how it leverages some core principles of how people actually fight. Stance is important, control of breath is important, and Inaba takes both away from Ohma. He's an assassin! It makes sense that, even in this sort of context, he does his best to eliminate elements of the opponent's strength before committing to a killing blow. Even if his hair nonsense is unrealistic as hell, the way it's applied has strong elements of verisimilitude, which helps sell the idea. Especially since Inaba has such a strong and unique aesthetic generally.

And hey, we got the reveal of another one of the Niko Style's forms. That's neat. Only one more left!

See you all next time for the conclusion, and why it works for me where a similar previous ending didn't.

Manic Dogma · Jun 2, 2023

God, I love how fucking weird and inhuman Inaba looks in this panel, limbs spread with unsettling, insectoid posture and his hair lashing and writhing in the air like tentacles. He seems more like some unearthly spirit, something somewhere between a spider and an octopus. And as a spirit, he overwhelms the merely human. As Ohma struggles, he begins to bleed, as Inaba's hard and sharp hair bites into his flesh. Yamashita despairs, and Urita's satisfaction reaches a crescendo. Well done Inaba, he thinks. We've made it through the first round.

Yeah, uhm…about that…

Ohma thinks to himself, or more specifically to Niko, about philosophies of combat. We get an image of Niko himself, in all his lackadaisical humour, telling Ohma to finish fights quickly. Go all out right from the start, it's the easiest way to fight, and will save you time and energy in the long run. Ohma never really vibed with the idea.

Unfortunately, this fight was never actually a spirit lashing out against a hapless, unsuspecting human.

The unquiet ghost has woken a battle-lusted Asura.

Urita and Yamashita are, for once, completely in emotional sync. Absolute shock, as the dust clears and reveals a chunk of Inaba's inhuman hair has been shorn away. All of Ohma's previous major opponents get a reaction panel. Rihito is shocked, watching the gap widen again. Kaburagi is visibly petrified of the creature he could have woken. Sekibayashi is grimly attentive. Ripped, punched, thrown, each in time to the foe who struck him in that way, Ohma intones. Taking everything your opponent has to give, and then crushing them in return. What could possibly be more satisfying?

Come on! Ohma demands, to the pounding chorus that accompanies this form. I'm gonna heat you up!

Not exactly the most terrifying smacktalk. Maybe it was supposed to be eat?

Anyway, while the commentators don't talk about the Removal, Erioh clearly notices the resemblance as Metsudo chortles away. The audience seem to be as hyped up as Ohma too, caught up in the energy of the reversal, screaming at Inaba to move, to attack, what is he waiting for? He isn't paying attention to them, though. He's distracted. A deathly chill races up his spine as it sinks in that his ultimate weapon just failed utterly, his invincible hair was torn by sheer, brute force.

Then the manga pauses to clarify something. To provide context for the thoughts racing through Inaba's mind. Because, for all the history of his clan's service to the Urita family, Inaba has not killed a single person on Sukizo's orders. In fact, we get several absolutely adorable panels of the two of them as children, supposedly employer and bodyguard but very obviously in practise just really good friends. "We don't need assassins in this day and age," Sukizo said. Inaba is his best friend, and that's enough.

And yet, though he enjoyed it, peace was not in Inaba Ryo's blood. He may not have killed for Sukizo, but those arts still defined him. The name Inaba, the assassin clan, is still the beating heart of his identity.

I'm not sure that's strictly cogent with the meaning of assassination, but it's cool enough that I don't really care. This is where he feels most alive, and I dig it.

Ohma invites Inaba in, it's time to end this, and that's exactly what Inaba wanted to hear. By inches all else fades away, the stone ring, the referee, and the howling audience all. Until all that's left is the Ghost and the Asura. For a moment of perfect stillness.

Then they move.

The difference is immediate and apparent. Inaba's uppercut meets Ohma's haymaker and his hand recoils, his fingernails shattered and fingers dislocated, and before his can recover the strike pushes through to ring his head like a fucking gong, cracking the bone in his cheek. And Ohma doesn't rest on his laurels for an instant, from that punch he blinks faster than sight after Inaba's reeling form and thrashes the man.

Heart, philtrum, Glabella, pancreas, liver, solar plexus, Inaba can tell where every blow of the insane rush is headed. But it meant nothing.

Fffffuck me, that looks like it hurts. God, the sheer sense of speed and impact, the contiguous lines of action blurring most of the panel into indistinct motion but for the core of Ohma's body, the fulcrum around which the blow turns. Absolutely incredible work.

Inaba soars back, blood beginning to ooze from the corner of his eye, but he doesn't give up. He launches back up off his hands into a wheeling, overhead axe kick. Ohma hadn't thought he still had the strength in him, he's taken completely by surprise. Still it means nothing. He sways aside, and his fist rocks Inaba's face. Then Ohma catches Inaba's hair, and heaves him back onto his mercilessly rising knee.

Inaba's consciousness begins to fail him, but he doesn't stop. Rather, he recognises something strange, a new emotion overcoming him. Nothing like the cold focus of a well executed assassination. A heat that wells up from his very core.

Inaba's blood runs hot today, for the first time, as all his training and experience comes together in a clarifying moment of absolute focus. And yet all that strength, all that tempering of Inaba Ryo's mettle, means nothing at all. As he staggers, his chin rattled once more by Ohma's fist, all Inaba can think is how strong Ohma is. How much training did he endure for this power?

Then Ohma's foot strikes his head, before his foot catches Inaba in mid air. Manipulating his momentum.

Niko style, Redirection and Flame Katas, come together.

The peanut gallery watches with mouths hanging slack, as Urita's face pulls tight in distress. Inaba lies splayed in the crater his head left in the floor, wondering what this feeling is. He couldn't even come close to his opponent, once the guy went all out he was helpless. But…he doesn't feel so bad. He expected this to feel much worse.

Ohma releases his transformation, and his expression settles back down from feral excitement to even focus. He looks down at Inaba.

That's right, Inaba has discovered the intoxicating heat of competition. And he likes it. End chapter.

Well now, that was match 4 of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament. And it was a banger! Not exactly rife with tension, but it's the protagonist and we're in the first round, so I think it gets away with that on sheer spectacle. Besides, there's some ominous implications to how Ohma won. It's the first round after all, and he already had to bust out his Install Super to win. How's he going to cope in future?

All that said, I'm sure something's occurred to at least some of you. "Hey Manic," some of you might say, "you say you really enjoyed this match, when it's structurally almost identical to match 3, which you very obviously hated and called terrible. What gives?"

First of all, well spotted! You are absolutely right! The character with a long martial history fights evenly with his opponent for a while before managing to get the upper hand, implicitly because of his opponent's negative tendencies, and then that opponent activates a straightforward powerup transformation and proceeds to overwhelm them through sheer power. That's, in broad terms, exactly the same basic rhythm that Mokichi vs Raian followed. But the devil, as they say, is in the details. And there's a bunch of elements of execution here that are highly conspicuous by their absence in match 3. Let's go through some!

First of all, there's actually significant fight-scene beats before Inaba manages to overwhelm Ohma. The fight isn't a one-and-done pony, where one party isn't even trying but just wins by authorial fiat, they're both feeling each other out and trying to win with minimal effort and loss of information advantage. Both parties are exchanging techniques in a stimulating back and forth even without putting in 100% effort, and in the process we got significant reveals about the fighting style of each. There is, in short, shit actually fucking happening. It wasn't tremendously complex, but gambits were employed and countered, and the use of Inaba's main weapon was built up to via that pacing.

Second, Ohma is just flat out more interesting and compelling than Raian, and his reasons for holding back, while still basic, aren't so much the behaviour of an insufferable cock. It's arrogant, of course, to intentionally let fights drag out a bit because you find it deeply satisfying to meet an opponent's best head on and still overcome it, but it makes sense for the kind of fight junkie he is and honestly is just much more fun to watch. Ohma loves the fight, it's genuine enthusiasm, and that's compelling! Raian on the other hand, explicitly doesn't give a fuck for the idea, he's not here to fight, he's just here for the sensation of bodies breaking against his knuckles. And of course, this isn't even going into the ongoing intrigues and mysteries around Ohma.

To very pretentiously quote Meti Ten Ryo, of Kill Six Billion Demons, "A man who finds pleasure in the result of cutting is the most hateful, crawling creature there is. A man who finds pleasure in the act of cutting is an artisan."

Third, just like the first stages of the fight were more interesting, even after Ohma transforms he isn't skillessly overwhelming Inaba. He's still putting genuine effort in, applying pressure to put Inaba off balance, and leveraging actual techniques. It's still a fight, just a pretty one-sided one, and is much more visually and choreographically interesting for it. And appropriately, it takes up the lesser portion of the fight, only a single chapter at the end. Rather than lingering for two fucking chapters on a fighters summarily failing to make a dent in what might as well be a stone boulder rolling him over.

Fourth, and finally for the purposes of this post, there's actual respect between the participants. They fight as hard as they can in the moment, and there's no hard feelings afterwards. This feels like a pretty consistent element of Ohma's characterisation, actually, right from the first chapter he's been very prone to complimenting his opponents. And similarly, when he transforms in this fight it's as an acknowledgement of Inaba's strength, rather than an act of childish frustration that your mean old opponent smeared your face across the arena floor.

So yeah, things are looking up with Match 4. And for the Manga as a whole, since this is apparently the standard we can expect of the protagonist's matches. And we haven't even come close to seeing the best yet. I'm excited as hell for match 5.

I invite y'all to make your own comparisons between matches 3 and 4, and see what can be learned from the difference.

See you all next time!

Manic Dogma · Jun 5, 2023

Ladies, Gentlemen, Creatures and Critters, we are four matches into the Annihilation Tournament. That's a quarter of the way through the first round. And thusly, with that milestone reached, it's an appropriate time to do a little housekeeping. Sort out the results of the matches so far, explore a few reactions to the events, and deal with certain lingering threads.

And also to watch as the Nurse from Teito University's shadow writhes behind the infirmary's curtain, a heavy flush painting her face red as sweat streams down her cleavage and tears pool in her eyes. I-I can't go on, she begs Doctor Hanafusa, a little slip of bra showing as clouds of steamy breath escape her lips. The Doctor is just as sweaty, rivulets of it exploring the toned crevasse of his pectoral muscles. Alright, he says, I think that's enough.

Did I get ya?

Yeah they weren't fucking, it was just a really intense bit of surgery. It's a classic wheeze, but kind of weird in context, because the rest of the scene really isn't terribly comedic. Because the procedure in question?

Saving Mokichi Robinson's life.

Yeah! He's not dead! Granted he's in a coma, with a beefy neckbrace and all sorts of tubes and doodads keeping him alive, so while it's rather ridiculous that he's alive the manga is at least selling the idea that it took effort and acknowledging how unlikely it is. Hanafusa, as we'll see later, is basically a fucking Wizard. So having to try this hard does at least sell what happened to Mokichi as really severe.

Elena collapses into tears again, this time of relief and joy, and the panel of her face as it sinks in that Mokichi is going to be okay is genuinely kind of heartrending when you pause to look at it. For some reason as she effusively thanks the doctor for his work he has another moment of comedy, noting how rarely he gets to fiddle with a living fighter's body and giggling over it, to his nurse's admonishment. Karla is there too, for moral support, for all she's clearly been a bit distracted. As soon as Elena's composure breaks again and she's crying in the nurse's arms, Karla's attention is back on the monitors showing the Arena, complimenting the Inaba Style's strength and how amazing Ohma's performance was. It's a little out of place, like a lot of the scene's comedy.

Ohoh? What's this? What does the doctor know that we don't? What's happening to Ohma that even this mystical sage doesn't think is fixable? Omen! Intrigue! Actual consequences for our lord and sigma!

Anyway, back in the Arena, an intermission is starting. Girls in catsuits, and no I don't mean latex I mean tigerstripes and cat-ears, strut around the arena making the announcement as Katahara Sayaka does a big old' back-arching stretch, thrusting her tits right into the camera for our viewing pleasure. As Jerry goofily compliments her performance in the background. Keep it classy, Kengan Asura.

Her rest isn't immediate though, as her earpiece receives a little buzz of warning. She picks up and heyo, it's her brother. Sayaka tells him he really should be here to watch the matches, they're super intense, but Retsudo points out he's on the clock. I guess he must take more after his mother if he's actually dedicated to his job, and sure enough he presses on to deal with actual business. Specifically, that he's struggling to get ahold of their father.

Obviously he's in the announcer's booth with Sayaka, and chooses now to announce his presence. Because he's a fucking troll.

Sayaka's a good girl.

The business at hand is a discovery the Extermination squad has made on the island's eastern shoreline. There's been a breach of security. Someone's on the island who really shouldn't be.

Now, we know this. Kaburagi and Hassad are right there. But the very next page we see someone else. A bunch of people in black, outfitted in top hats and duster coats, with plague doctor masks obscuring their faces. They whizz past a camera. Coincidentally, at the same moment, Hassad asks Kaburagi if something's up. No, he says. It's nothing.

More intrigue. Wonder where that's going.

Back inside the Annihilation Dome, Yamashita is celebrating the victory with Ohma in the overlooking corridor, when they're approached by someone offering their own congratulations. It's Urita Sukizo, noting that he never imagined he'd be eliminated this early with a thousand yard stare. Ohma doesn't recognise him, but Yamashita makes the introduction, before Urita addresses Ohma directly. He underestimated him, and that's why Penasonic lost.

But all that said, it is what it is. It's time to make good on their promise, he says, pulling out a certificate marking Yamashita's shareholder status. Yamashita had legitimately forgotten in the excitement of the match, the goob, and struggles to contain his excitement as he makes an extremely thinly veiled show of hesitation before accepti-

"Don't need it."

Biblically Accurate Yamashita.

Urita is shocked, and I think slightly offended. He starts to demand to know what Ohma means, but is cut off when the man himself declares that his and Inaba's fight wasn't over anything that petty. They were contesting on terms of strength, to measure themselves against each other. Don't go bringing your bullshit into our fight, he snarls. And it aint just me, he says as Yamashita wobbles and distorts like he's being animated by Fleischer, panicking over how Ohma's cutting off his new life at the pass. "I bet he feels the same, right Yamashitakazuo?"

Yamashita's reeling, where the hell did he get that? And the best part, Urita is fucking buying it, boggle-eyed with awe and telling Yamashita how kind he is. But no, he insists. He cannot retract this bet. The Kengan Association, as previously noted, upholds bets as like unto legal obligations. Yamashita absolutely must accept!

Yamashita vibrates in place, a cloud of sweat spraying off him like a lawn sprinkler.

Excellent crop of Yamashita faces, today.

Yamashita and Ohma walk away, leaving Urita to process what just happened. You win, he says. Yamashita Kazuo…what a great man you are.

And you know what, this time he isn't even wrong. Yeah, he was being pressured by Ohma, but Urita was still insisting. He could have folded and taken the bet, probably ruining Urita in the process. Yamashita's hurting over it, streaming with frustrated tears that he dropped the chance to claim the kind of wealth individual men can rarely even dream of. But he still made that choice.

And I'm not the only person who sees that.

Have I mentioned recently how much I love the dynamic between these two? Because I do. Especially now they're past the stage of Yamashita being scared shitless of him, and the bullshit undeserved hype has stopped showering down on Ohma. Chill Ohma and Yamashita do a lot for each other emotionally, and it's surprisingly understated a lot of the time. Yamashita isn't a saint either, he's still kinda sore about it after this moment, but he can't stay mad at Ohma.

Then Karla arrives and the entire emotional landscape of the scene is obliterated like so much sugarglass meeting a wrecking ball at terminal velocity.

In a vacuum, this panel would be cute. Alas.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you what happens immediately after this, so I won't waste the wordcount. Instead, as Ohma tries to pry her off his shoulders, we'll focus on the other young woman who enters the room. Immediately behind Yamashita, Suoh Mihono. Fully prostrate on the floor, with the sort of bags under her eyes you only get after you suffered a full week of no sleep and spent half of it crying. Yeah, she won her bet, so her company's in the clear for now and effusively thanks Yamashita, promising to return the favour. She also insists she needs to thank Ohma, who turns with a confused expression. Mihono only really has one thing to give him right now though, and passes a slip of paper into his hand.

It's her room number. He's free to drop by any time.

Lady, I think you need to sleep on your own for a bit before trying anything like that. Even if Ohma's Allosexual to begin with, which I honestly kind of doubt, I think if you get your back blown out right now you might actually suffer permanent harm. Or at the very least a full psychotic break from reality.

Oh, but it gets better, because Kiryu goddamn Setsuna is around the corner. His dick is very visibly at full mast, he's streaming with tears, and he's babbling on about how it's been so long, but you're finally back.

God, not to be a broken record, but this would be such a cool moment of "what the fuck does he mean I'm curious" intrigue if Sandro just didn't insist on the fucking extravagant gay coding. If the man just weren't popping a full boner in a public space. Look at that art! The inky black painterly background, the partially obscured half-smile on Probably Kiryu's shadowed face, the aura of white around Probably Ohma's tensed body, focusing the panel around him and lending a sense of superhuman presence.

It could be so cool, but instead you turned around and decided "you know what'd really sell this weirdo as a demented freak? Him being gay, yeah, that'll do it." Fuck you, man.

There really is a very distinct line between every instance of intentional homosexuality in this manga and the shockingly common accidental stuff. I prefer the latter by a lot.

Anyway, we end the chapter on a panel of Ohma grumpily keeping Karla at arms length, and I'm gonna share it 'cos it's honestly kind of funny.

Look at how thoroughly done this man is. Really, I think that's the main thing keeping this whole gag a guilty pleasure rather than just violently disgusting me. It adds the unfortunate element of a man's rejection of sex being a joke, which is unfortunately extremely common in media and its own bag of unpleasant worms, but can you imagine how fucking insufferable Ohma would be if he was enjoying it? Like, if he actively luxuriated in all this sexual attention? The fact he's aggressively uninterested doesn't make it good or right, but perhaps it makes it tolerable. I don't blame anyone who still finds it insufferable, though.

End chapter. See you all next time.

Manic Dogma · Jun 9, 2023

The Decathlon is a fucking absurd test of human athleticism. Ten different events, held over two days, in which a competitor must be all but equal to an entire olympic village on their own to approach victory.

The Immeasurable.

What follows is most of a page elaborating on what a fucking machine the guy is. Born to parents who did Hammer-throw and Javelin in…the olympics I presume, it doesn't say, he stood up ten days after was born. In middle school he got involved in the track and field scene, breaking every record he faced. At 16 he represented Japan in the Decathlon, and kept competing for 25 years, only losing five times in international competitions. Sometimes beating specialists in their own field.

If we take this spiel seriously, and I find no reason not to, Murobuchi Gozo is every bit as much of a superhuman beast as any of the Atlases we've seen so far. Achieving olympic level athleticism in a single event is a singular achievement you cannot possibly overstate, to approach that level in ten is literally insane. To be the best in the world at anything, I'm strongly of the opinion you have to be a certain flavour of mad, and this goes well beyond that. The Immeasurable is certainly a fitting sobriquet.

And then, two years ago at the age of 41, he announced his retirement. He hasn't been on the public stage since. Where did he go?

As if you have to ask.

Someone's played Street Fighter.

Yeah, he joined the Kengan Matches, leveraging his superhuman athleticism in the field of battle. I wonder what lessons he took from the Decathlon, and how he's adapted them to actual combat?

His employer, Yanagi Makoto, the CEO of United Clothing, approaches him from behind. He notes what great condition Murobuchi is in. Murobuchi disagrees. Great? Not really. This is what we call Peak Condition, he declares with a wink. Yanagi laughs, he's just a big mouthed as ever, clearly a man familiar with the ego that comes naturally to The Best. Or perhaps, being a CEO, he just doesn't think that kind of arrogance is weird.

Murobuchi isn't just a frictionless sphere of ego though, he's here with an agenda. Or perhaps a grudge is more accurate. He thanks Yanagi, not for the spotlight, but for a shot at revenge on so spectacular a stage. What comes next is a grudge match, then.

Hard cut. The CEO of Furumi Pharmaceuticals, Furumi Heihachi, steps into Wakatsuki's changing room. The Wild Tiger is…listening to music. Sat with earbuds hooked in, but still aware enough hear his employer come in. Said CEO expresses surprise, he didn't think Wakatsuki listened to music. Wakatsuki points out that he isn't, they aren't playing anything, he just wanted some quiet. It's a calm little scene, much more reserved than Murobuchi's introduction over the last few pages. But then, how much more does Wakatsuki need to be sold? Instead we get a different sort of insight.

Furumi muses on the odd way of finding some peace, noting that it must be his centering technique. His method of calming and focusing before a match. Wakatsuki leans forward, resting his chin on his interlinked fingers. Centering Technique, hm. That does sound more impressive, doesn't it?

In truth, he's afraid.

The CEO is surprised. Even a fighter of his level is afraid of a match? Of course I am, Wakatsuki responds. No matter how many matches he fights, he can't get used to it. Every time he steps into the ring he wants to run away from the pressure, he says with his head hanging and fingers clenching tensely against each other. And his opponent today is the Murobuchi Gozo. He doesn't think he can afford to hold anything back. He has to go all out from the first round.

So, yeah. Wakatsuki Takeshi has anxiety problems, and tries to handle them by zoning out in absolute silence. That's…a shockingly human and vulnerable angle for any manga to take with a character it's trying to sell as a pillar of strength, by which the rest of the setting is measured. For a manga which measures the validity of its characters by the strength of their masculinity, it's positively flabbergasting. The quietness of the scene, and how matter-of-fact Wakatsuki is about it really helps sell it for me, even if it's a bit weird that this is his employer's first time hearing about it. This is clearly something Wakatsuki's been managing for a long time, probably his entire career in the Kengan Matches.

Cut again, some time later, as the Annihilation Dome trembles to the force of ten thousand howling voices. The Fifth match is here, and so is the first contestant.

The applause, deafening in its scope, is familiar music to The Immeasurable's ears.

Up above the stands with the peanut gallery, Okubo is flexing his connections. He's actually good friends with Murobuchi, to Kaneda's shock, and co-starred in a bunch of sports programs with him before the man's retirement. They've been meeting up for dinner now and then ever since. And this is when Himuro kindly opens us up to a revelation about Murobuchi. He asks if the man has any experience in martial arts, and Okubo answers a firm no. At least as far as he's aware, Murobuchi is a genuine amateur at martial arts. Akiyama steps in to corroborate this, since his debut two years ago Murobuchi racked up his nineteen wins on sheer athleticism alone. He's only been defeated once. And, of course, the man who broke the immeasurable's win streak was…

Interestingly, before his introduction, Sayaka gets briefly interrupted by one of the girls who did the intermission entertainment, letting her know that a call came in about Waketsuki's profile. There was a misprint. That's why Sayaka skipped noting Wakatsuki's height and weight. Don't worry though, we'll get to see them in due time.

Yamashita briefly breaks, noting that Wakatsuki's winnings are almost as much as the national budget, which is seriously impressive even if it's over the course of like forty years. Ohma, the cryptid dork, asks what a national budget is. He doesn't get an answer though, all noise in the arena is drowned out by the earth-shattering whooping and hollering that accompanies the Wild Tiger's entrance, and Yamashita takes notice. Fighters that have won over 300 matches are in a league of their own, he supposes. Ohma looks a bit grumpy over it, which is kinda funny. Eyes are looking kinda green there, bro.

Down in the arena, the two titans of their spheres square up, Murobuchi seemingly by a little the taller of the two. Wakatsuki is no less wary than before. Internally, he notes that Murobuchi seems far, far stronger than he was last time. In words, he calmly and evenly notes that Murobuchi has changed. The Decathlete agrees, he has, and all thanks to Wakatsuki. Challenge! How sweet the sound! He'd never dared dream he'd be the challenger again, and find a nemesis of such grand scale. He feels deeply, truly blessed.

The referee tries to order them to their starting positions, but uh…

Look how small they make the ref, that's some good perspective there.

Two unstoppable forces, and the pressure they exert, overwhelm the arena. And the referee, who staggers back, hesitantly trying to force commands for them to wait from between his lips. He can't stop them, and fortunately he doesn't have to. Katahara Metsudo calls down from his box, through a walkie talkie telling him to just let them at it. Oh, and he should probably get his ass out of dodge before he gets hurt. As commanded, he sprints away, stuttering the start signal over his shoulder as he goes.

Murobuchi drops into something like a sprinter's stance, but with his arms coiled. Wakatsuki simply leans forward a little, loosening up.

BY GOD I THINK HE'S DEAD.

There is a novel, by a british writer called Terry Pratchett, called Men at Arms. At the end of the novel, as the villain's plans finally collapse completely, it has a short and extremely well known monologue about good and evil men. Here I'd like to present a corollary to that speech.

If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man loves the fight. A man enamoured with battle revels in his strength, his insight into your weakness, and wants to see you reel. To feel the burn of exertion in his arms, to soak in the smell of blood. They want you to know you're losing, and to see it in your eyes. So they'll talk, they'll step back.

They'll watch you struggle, they'll let you get back up, they'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.

So hope like hell your foe loves war. A man who fears it will kill you with hardly a word.

This is the true terror of Wakatsuki Takeshi. A man without conceit. Who will destroy you without a word.

And possibly my favourite two-page splash in the series.

End chapter. Rest in Peace, Sir Terry Pratchett.

Manic Dogma · Jun 9, 2023

Hey my lovelies, happy to see you're enjoying the update. I don't have good news though.

After Monday's update, which will conclude match 5 so don't worry about that, Capitalism Ho will be undergoing a few weeks hiatus while I grieve for my dog and rebuild my buffer. I'll make a post with a specific date to expect proper updates again some time in the next week.

Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura

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