Yeah, for people who aren't keeping up with the chapters as Manic posts 'em, it does really well at slipping in those couple frames of the artery being choked off without being obvious. You can (or, well, I did, dunk on me as you will) totally miss it until you see the legitimately surreal stuff happen, then pause and register where it started.
On the punches rain, even after he sees the boy hit the floor, an avalanche of spite and indulgence. The perfect sandbag, he says.
He howls at the broken body he sees before him, Cosmo's mangled body lying in a crater stained with blood. Dudley demands to know if that's it, demands he keep fighting, The Emperor is only just starting to have fun god damn it!
Yep! And then there's the noble native corrupted by western decadence in Haru which is also wild. It's... it's probably just got the worst background of any fight in the tournament, and wow that's something to say given somethings.
It's definitely peak Kengan, though. For better or worse.
Match 2 of the Annihilation Tournament is here! But there's a problem. We know the fighters names, we know what they look like, and we've had a few moments of implication for each of them. We know Akoya is schtupping his boss and is obsessed with justice. We know Haruo is near impossible to meaningfully control. But we don't know what either of these guys' actual deal is. There's only been so much space for raw exposition after all.
Well, it's time to get some knowledge dumps in. Let's meet the fighters!
Chapter 47 opens on a palatial estate, all white stone and classical pillars, save for the curious presence of what seems to be a Controller's D-Pad decorating the frontmost gates. And peeking over the mansion's rooftops is the very tip of a crane, suggesting the presence of construction workers. And sure enough, a fellow in a hard hat and overalls approaches a new guy with a huge grin on his face, congratulating the fellow on how quickly he's getting a grip on things. And hey! Look who it is!
Somehow hard graft gave him a jawline.
Yeah, seems like Yasuo meant it when he said he'd turn over a new leaf, and it's done him a world of good. He's happier and healthier looking than ever, and even has a career lined up waiting for him to finish highschool. And on top of that, he seems well liked by his coworkers. Chalk that up as a W, kid's on a roll.
He's come over all mindful and dutiful on us too, as he sprints off to put some gear away before knocking off for lunch. As he's doing that, he comes across some other workers, including the foreman, marveling at some absolute fuckery. Yasuo's not sure what's wrong, so he asks. And being well liked, he gets an answer from the foreman. Damndest thing, their company actually just did repairs on the mansion not six months ago.
Not that you'd know it to look at the place now.
Right, we had a fighter to introduce, didn't we? And boy howdy, this fucker got some gamer rage.
In the federal democratic republic of nepal, among its vast forest of mountains, are a number of native tribes. In the Himalayas specifically, one particular tribe, one particular village, was home to a child who was known to be monstrous. The boy's name was Haru.
By the age of six he could lift a grown man over his head with one hand and little effort. By ten he was the tallest man in his village. At eleven a snow leopard attacked the village and he throttled it to death on his own. And this is barely the beginning of Haru's legend. But his definitive story centered around a coming of age ritual demanded of every young boy of his culture.
At the bottom of a sheer cliff, down in one of the high mountain valleys, a herd of wild Himalayan goats rests. With only a single knife, each boy is required to hunt one of these heavy, powerful animals, and carry it back up the cliff. The master of the ceremony asks for a volunteer to go first, and Haru answers, a fresh young titan of 15.
One of the other boys objects. Not out of outrage, but concern. Haru forgot his knife! He scrambles to pull out his own knife, flipping it in hand to offer the handle to Haru. Here, he says, you can use mine. Haru says he doesn't need it. There's a pause, while the other boy processes this. Before he can get another word out, Haru tells the other boys to wait there for him.
And then he fucking yeets himself off the cliff edge.
A casual sunday stroll.
He lands among the goats who, for all at least some of them noticed him coming, are blown away by the impact of his landing. And then it turns out the ravine is deep enough that he can't even be properly seen, as everyone else present is leaned over the ledge peering down, including the grown-ass man presiding over the whole thing. And even he only spots Haru as the boy is on his way back.
Btw, he's charging back up the cliff at a flat sprint as well, leaping clean over everyone's heads to land a dozen feet into flat stone. And he's not alone.
Those goats are not calm, they have simply accepted death.
The presiding adult sweats bullets. Every single one of those animals is 80 kilograms of ornery adult male Goat, and he ran up the cliff like a goddamn wuxia hero carrying six of the fuckers. That's over 480 combined kilograms of belligerent herbivore. And he is, to repeat, only fifteen.
That was the day Haru was recognised as the most powerful Warrior of his tribe. Out of sheer, overwhelming physicality. And when someone becomes a figure like that, rumours spread. And there's always some bizarre, physiologically improbable ears listening.
A few years after his initiation into adulthood, the elder of Haru's village told him they had a guest. And that guest wished to speak with Haru. Said guest turned out to be Kono Akio, the Hey Arnold bit character and member of the three nobles who controls Japan's premier gaming company. The CEO of Nentendo comes to Haru with tales of the Kengan Matches, duels between mighty warriors for riches and glory, and tells him how he has been searching for a surpassing gladiator to fight on his behalf. When he heard about Haru, he couldn't not come to invite him. He'll give the boy whatever he pleases in return, if Haru will just come with him to japan.
And Haru is immediately tempted. He's always wanted to fight with all his strength, limited by the fragility of people he doesn't want to hurt. And yet he hesitates, because he's teenager being asked to leave behind everything he's ever known. And on top of that, his might has been pivotal. Who will lead hunts? Who will fend off the most dangerous predators. What if-
He's interrupted. The boy who offered him a knife, those years ago. Familiar with the taller boy, Yaku has clocked his thought process and tells him firm. You don't need to feel held back. Look around you. Everyone here is supporting you. Haru is struck dumb, and yet the praise continues. The man who presided over his coming of age tells him that he is unrivalled in the Himalayas, but the world is vast. Go see it!
Yaku recalls a story. A bear had him dead to rights, and he'd given up on surviving. Then Haru fell from nowhere like a star, crushing the beast in an instant. That was when Yaku personally knew that Haru was the strongest man in the world. And how he knows Haru is too kind, that he worries so fiercely for the village. But all of them have high hopes for him. Is it not his dream to fight to the fullest extremes of his strength?
This is where the heartwarming story of a boy's ascension to fame and the faith in him carried by those he loves ends. And where the usual Kengan Asura brand problematic bullshit begins.
In the end, stereotypes are only ever a deleterious force in the human psyche. They are by definition a reduction, complete and complex human beings rendered down into the most digestible and convenient possible ideas. This applies just as much to positive stereotypes as it does negative ones. And while it's not quite as common nowadays as it was in the 90s and before, the idea that people who live lives unlike the modern, cosmopolitan ones we endure today are somehow more pure and enlightened is a hard one to purge.
Akio was not content to merely employ Haru. He conceived of a plot to bring the boy completely under his sway, and the events that followed are a pretty clear example of a story characterising the influence of modern life as toxic, and infectious.
Haru is struck dumb by the sheer scale of a modern Japanese city, the sheer number of people and the size of the buildings. Which is fine on it's own, there's certainly going to be that kind of culture shock. And I'm given to understand the panel of bunch of japanese people rubbernecking him in awe of his scale is actually a thing that does happen. The problems start after Akio decides he'll give "this backwater simpleton" a taste of luxury, and get him addicted to the flavour.
Specifically, that it works. It works beyond Akio's wildest fantasies.
Oh, it backfires on him, but it still works.
…dude, what the hell are you making your maids wear?
Thus did Haru die. Thus was Haruo born.
I hope the point is clear. Haru started as a powerful, chiseled adonis. A little arrogant, but also kind, loving and beloved of his people. And then immediately upon exposure to the luxuries of modern life he balloons outward in a startling return of Fatness as Moral Decay, devolving into a consuming, hateful thing. Indulging wantonly in careless, destructive violence. Every inch, save for his size and strength, what people mean when they spit the word Otaku in judgement.
God, he's even sweatier than Kaburagi.
When his sheer size is reacted to, I should note, very few of the reactions are of serious awe. Most of them, especially those of the other fighters, are reactions of incredulity.
And one of them is Hiyama, employer of Haruo's opponent today. She tokenly grants how big he is, before noting how poor his endurance must be because of it. Then she drops the subject entirely, hooking in an earbud and pulling a wireless communicator to her lips. She and Akoya confirm contact, and thus that there's no signal jammers in the stadium, using the communicator that Akoya has embedded into his skull. Some kind of bone-conduction transmitter, apparently, which seems wild to me.
So, they're definitely angling to cheat somehow, though Hiyama notes it's not their only strategy. That said, she'd apparently rather avoid Akoya using his "Trump Card." What card is that? I guess we'll find out when they play it. Because come on, that's some foreshadowing right there. The only question is if we'll find out this match.
We end on a panel of Akoya's heavily shadowed face, as he declares it is time to execute Justice.
Next time, we'll see what Akoya's deal is. See you all then.
Haru, Haruo, is... just so bad. The presentation, the "twist" it's all just awful. He gets better in Omega (which actually does kind of also reduce "horrible fat" angle of Haru's presentation as he's still physically the same but like, not a rampaging toddler) but even then, it's not good.
Also, at that height, Haru would be the seventh tallest man alive, tying with the (IRL) present place at 242. I think Japanese people rubbernecking is honestly understandable at that behemothic size.
I'm not gonna lie, I like Haruo. Not this Haruo, christ no, and I do understand the issue with stereotypes, but they do cool shit with the character (eventually)! I like him in Omega for how they nod towards the themes in that manga! I cannot hold back my love for this character… later. Much later. I wonder if all this would work better if he was some sort of supernally gifted city kid who fell into hedonism, rather than the 'noble savage'. And if the childish addiction was more personal than just 'gamesgamesgames'.
This is almost certainly unintentional on Sandrovich's part, but Haruo's life so far sorta mirrors the metareligious development of Indra (whom he is an incarnation of according to his birth culture) from Vedic paragon sky father, to post-Vedic hedonistic sky god
Haruo is… a bad idea for a character at the base level, though neat stuff is done with him later on. It is interesting though that I think this is the only time Kengan has ever depicted a fighter becoming weaker over time instead of stronger. Well, except for really old fighters. It kinda invites the reader to wonder just what kind of freak the guy used to be. Frankly, even after all of Omega's power-creep, I think the old Haru might be up there with the strongest characters.
Haruo is… a bad idea for a character at the base level, though neat stuff is done with him later on. It is interesting though that I think this is the only time Kengan has ever depicted a fighter becoming weaker over time instead of stronger. Well, except for really old fighters. It kinda invites the reader to wonder just what kind of freak the guy used to be. Frankly, even after all of Omega's power-creep, I think the old Haru might be up there with the strongest characters.
In strength, definitely. Fifteen years old and sprinting up a mountain with half a ton of goat? I'm pretty sure that's an insane feat of pure strength by the standards of anyone in Asura not explicitly superhumanly strong. Hell, it's on par by those standards.
Haruo is a mess in Ashura but I will say that I genuinely enjoy what they've done with him in Omega. As much as I'd love to see the old superhuman return, I like that he's still fat but genuinely happy. Nobody gives him shit for it, either, and he's clearly working his ass off to keep up with everyone. It feels rare to see that kind of arc and support for a fat character, especially in this genre.
I'm not gonna lie, I like Haruo. Not this Haruo, christ no, and I do understand the issue with stereotypes, but they do cool shit with the character (eventually)! I like him in Omega for how they nod towards the themes in that manga! I cannot hold back my love for this character… later. Much later. I wonder if all this would work better if he was some sort of supernally gifted city kid who fell into hedonism, rather than the 'noble savage'. And if the childish addiction was more personal than just 'gamesgamesgames'.
Yeah. There are two already iffy ideas for a filler fighter in his concept that combine into something far more cursed than the sum of its parts. If you reduced him down to just a bad work-ethic, but ridiculous baseline-character without all the rest, the result would probably still not be good, but definitely better than what we actually ended up with.
Yeah. There are two already iffy ideas for a filler fighter in his concept that combine into something far more cursed than the sum of its parts. If you reduced him down to just a bad work-ethic, but ridiculous baseline-character without all the rest, the result would probably still not be good, but definitely better than what we actually ended up with.
One of the things that strikes me for Haruo is that from his intro, he doesn't have training or skill or much in that direction. Just sheer mass and behemoth strength and Kengan is not sympathetic or merciful to a lack of skill. Coming off Cosmo vs Adam where both fighters were skilled, the sheer contrast of Haruo's apparent lack of training really sticks in my head.
One of the things that strikes me for Haruo is that from his intro, he doesn't have training or skill or much in that direction. Just sheer mass and behemoth strength and Kengan is not sympathetic or merciful to a lack of skill. Coming off Cosmo vs Adam where both fighters were skilled, the sheer contrast of Haruo's apparent lack of training really sticks in my head.
True, I guess since he is already silly you could lean into the nerd angle. Having everyone else assume shit like footsies and oki are concepts from some hidden Himalayan martial art would be a decent gag. Definitely not a winning strategy in this manga, though.
We've seen the problematic epitaph to a noble savage that last chapter represented, the slow death of the pure and innocent Haru as the inherently evil badthoughts toxicity of modernity crept in, which he was apparently helpless to resist. Now we move on to the next hot mess. What's Akoya Seishu's deal?
A horror movie, apparently, as we open on the ragged front end of a series of abandoned office blocks to the sound of a bloodcurdling scream of fear and pain.
I'm gonna need to be careful about what images I post this chapter, good lord.
Anyway, a douchey looking dude with terrible hair sits whimpering, tied to a wall hands bound and watching another guy get mutilated. The screams die, bit by bit, until they peter out completely. The guy doing the mutilation apologises. Your friend's dead now, he says, in a strange and tinny voice.
Are there any larger fellows in this manga who aren't evil or useless?
Like any good villain, Mimura pauses to monologue. He waxes lyrical on the many ways in which this poor sap is just so god damn unlucky. He pissed off the Godo group Don somehow, that's a bad start. And now he has Mimura as his executioner! Oh well. If his luck turns around now, this should all be over in less than an hour.
Fuck me, but this chapter is going as hard as it can to make this guy just…excessively evil. Now, if I were a betting creature, I'd say this gives me serious vibes of trying to set this guy up as a target for a villain protagonist. Let's see how that pans out, because events are very abruptly interrupted by a voice with an ominous black speech bubble, demanding that Mimura "hold it."
The sixth Ranger is here.
Mimura then demonstrates himself to be a smarter cookie than he looked, with that metal cross bolting his head together. He immediately pegs this guy as police, and his mind starts racing for an explanation, since the secrecy on this place was supposed to be absolute. Outside of his head he brandishes a switchknife and basically tells the power ranger to fuck off, he's getting to a good bit.
The suited figure ignores him, and just starts walking forward. Oh, ignoring me are you? Mimura asks, the camera panning behind him to reveal the hand without a knife in it is pulling a gun out of a hidden back-holster.
Then with shocking speed and zero hesitation he unloads.
The bullet strikes the invader dead in the chest. He reels back, staggered by the bullet's force…but then straightens again, with nothing to show for the impact but a scorch mark.
For some reason this doesn't intimidate Mimura. He just tosses his knife and gun away and calls the guy interesting, interesting enough to fight for real. He yanks a sword from a back-mounted sheathe, a square-tipped executioner's blade. A specially made weapon of unknown make or mechanism which can cut through steel with even a feather-slight touch.
He then tries to declare, like any good ha'penny villain, just how mean and nasty he's gonna be. Specifically, he gets halfway through declaring a start to this "slaughterfest." I say only half, because before he can finish the armoured guy dashes across the room and rips out his throat-speaker. Along with most of Mimura's throat. Slaughterfest? Don't get the wrong idea.
This is an execution.
The would-be victim is left in awe at this man's strength, and thanks him profusely after he's untied. In the process he's quick to note that his friend, the one our trooper was too late to save, wasn't a good guy either, apparently just to drum in those funny feelings I had early about the construction of this scene. Eager to make clear none of the people whose faces we see are good folk.
Armoured Guy mostly ignores him, and keeps ignoring him as he asks who the hell he is. Instead AG ambles over to the late Mimura's gun, and picks it up. Apparently unable to stop running his mouth, but then it's been a rough day for him so I'll cut some slack, he asks what the hell AG is gonna do with that, identifying it as a cheap chinese gun. Then, apparently eager to return the favour on some level, he goes on about a friend who sells the real russian model of this gun he can refer AG to, and so on and so forth. All the while Armoured Guy remains stone silent. Until he presses the gun into the shorter guy's hands.
So that's how the kid ended up in this situation. Sorry, Asai.
No good people in this scene at all, eh? Looks like my initial, earlier theory about a villain protagonist and greater evils and such is starting to bear out. But, I'll ask you to hold judgement for a bit. There's something cooking here.
Predictably, Asai goes ballistic on Armoured guy. What the fuck is he on about? He's going to kill him just for a hit and run? Besides, he weaselly tries to justify, the car belonged to gangsters. They're the evil ones, you should kill them. AG actually agrees, but pauses to clarify.
They're all already dead.
In fact we get a brief panel of all the Godo group executives hung up in a row by their feet, arms tied together to support their severed and inverted heads. A gruesome warning. They won't be after the kid any longer, AG says. Though in return he'll be joining them soon. Very much on the verge of justifiably pissing himself in fear now, Asai screams into the man's face that his claims of justice are bullshit, it doesn't exist. With eyes filled with a singular, white hot mania AG stares him down and insists that he is justice. Justice has molded him, and he carries it out. This is obviously nonsense, and the kid is smart enough to call it a joke, demanding to know how the hell murder is justice.
A pretty telling answer. Also a fucking insane torrent of drippy, rancid bullshit.
Asai's last act on this earth is to rightly tell AG he's crazy before pulling the trigger, as AG ducks around him and snaps his neck before he can finish firing the gun.
Cut to some time later. The police have arrived on the scene, and forensics are already picking it over and dealing with the bodies. A detective comments on how gruesome the scene is, and expresses hope he never ends up like this. Not every day you see signs of a struggle this terrible. A man with black speech bubbles confirms, he heard gunshots and by the time he got to the crime scene it was too late. Then he takes his leave, and the lead investigator apologises for taking up so much of his time off duty. The detective, who's apparently never met this guy before, asks if he was an officer too. The lead confirms, that was the strongest man in their entire police department.
Captain of the 44th Riot Squad, Inspector Akoya Seishu. Also Armoured Guy, in case anyone hasn't caught that.
And sure enough, as the camera follows Akoya away from the crime scene Hiyama turns up in her limousine and tells him to hop in. She'll take him home. He neither accepts nor refuses, instead reminding her he told her not to come here, probably for concern of her giving him away. Hiyama admits she couldn't help but worry, she can't have him dying on her. Then in a very unsubtle segue, she prods him for how long he's going to keep this up. If he's thought of taking a rest.
Then like the calm and rational man that he is, he informs her that this is preposterous, justice never rests, and furthermore that he will continue to fight until evil is eradicated. While nailing the camera with the sharpest, stariest set of crazy eyes I've ever been subjected to.
This man is completely fucking mental.
We hard cut to Kurayoshi Rin's room, where Rei has suddenly actually perked up, though apparently not quite enough to remove his head from her cleavage completely. He explicitly and directly notes Akoya's strength, and claims they should keep a close eye on him, opposite block or no. Now, note that Rei is one of the Tournament's many assassins. Because after another hard cut, Muteba is picking up how every other Assassin in the tournament is also suddenly paying very close attention. And then, he muses himself on something very, very pertinent to how I interpret the meaning of this chapter and Akoya Seishu as a character.
Funny, isn't it? The people who are taking the most notice of this policeman, this supposed arbiter of justice, are a very particular sort of person. Blood merchants, flesh-makers. Killers. The very people he'd condemn are the only ones here who do not see him as an alien, but instead recognise him as one of their own.
There was never a lesser or greater evil in that run down office building. Only the more vicious, more demented evil.
The referee begins the match, and Haruo lunges with an earth-shattering haymaker. Akoya bunkers down, and Hiyama commences her analysis. End Chapter.
Well now, this was an interesting change of pace. I don't think there's grounds here to suggest Sandro subscribes to All Cops Are Bastards, but he definitely thinks this shithead is a complete, deluded hypocrite. There's definitely an edge of "this guy is cool" to proceedings too, but that feels more like the natural background noise of all characters in Kengan Asura next to the blaring airhorns of what a psychotic weirdo he is. Of course he looks cool in motion, that's what makes him fun to hate.
Incidentally, y'all aint seen nothing yet.
Unrelated note, this chapter had Adam Dudley's profile page and just, fucking hell.
Someday these things will stop vindicating me, lol. Would any of you be surprised to hear his hobby is collecting guns?
While I don't really care for this fight, I love Akoya as a character. As you said, he's very fun to hate, and I appreciate that the story goes out of its way to avoid vindicating anything he does.
It also helps that he's a fucked up Kamen Rider knockoff in his spare time
Damnit, I legitimately forgot we're getting into the Ayoka fight. He... as much as I'll admit he's well written as a bastard, I just can't really stomach the guy. I don't hate him in the fun way, I just don't enjoy seeing him around. That said:
We hard cut to Kurayoshi Rin's room, where Rei has suddenly actually perked up, though apparently not quite enough to remove his head from her cleavage completely.
…I'm not kidding about how random they are by the way, one of the ones that gets prominent placement is some dork with his hat on backwards shouting, with great glee and no apparent shame or self awareness, "Holy Testicle Tuesday."
The beauty of media written by people who don't speak english, but try to play with it anyway. Gorgeous.
'Holy Testicle Tuesday!' is not, in fact, a made-up chant that someone who is not fluent in English came up with at random.
It is, in fact, a deliberate reference to the immortal Jim Carrey in the (incredibly problematic, seen here probably engaging in some kind of sexual harassment) cult-movie-with-90s-male-teenagers comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Damnit, I legitimately forgot we're getting into the Ayoka fight. He... as much as I'll admit he's well written as a bastard, I just can't really stomach the guy. I don't hate him in the fun way, I just don't enjoy seeing him around.
