Yeah, Raian strikes me as a character who could be narratively valuable; a despicable heel is a handy thing to have in tournament, someone you can build heat for to get the audience looking forward to the point when they're cast down. Maybe do some reaction shots with like, people wondering why he's dragging the fight out when he's so clearly won before they get it, 'is he trying to intimidate the other fighters before their matches?' 'No, he's genuinely just so much of a child that he wants to show off', which would also be an opportunity to remind readers of the perspective split at work here, with CEO's only caring about the challenge he represents, while at least some of the fighters are offended enough to acquire a personal stake in beating him, because they might be working as glorified mercenaries for people who only care about the money, but this is still their vocation and they're incensed by how this veiny manchild is spitting on the Art.
(And if you really want to get into something substantial, there's the seed of something about the rich movers-and-shakers of the world playing divide and conquer among even those who could just up and kill them over poor working conditions, through the use of paid actors and waving monstrous others in people's faces as decoys.)
But as is, it's plainly obvious that he's here not to be a hateable heel, but because he's the author's edgy OC from when he was 15 and you, reader, are gonna appreciate how badass he is.
I don't loathe Raian as much as some of you guys, but I broadly agree that he's not that great. To me he's more a matter of wasted potential than anything else. Him being this sort of spoiled brat with lots of natural gifts who enters the tournament not really wanting challenge so much as wanting to hurt and humiliate people; that's a solid idea. In a tournament this large you need a broad range of personalities, and his niche is appreciably different from everybody else's. To me the main issue is that the author doesn't actually condemn him as much as you'd expect him to. The characters treat him more seriously than they really ought to, and the framing of the panels tries to make him look cool even when he's being childish.
Yeah like the description of how the other Kure members react to him just doesn't make any sense with his actual on screen actions. "Raian is powerful enough to win without reversal" he just got owned completely, and "he's using the removal to end the fight quickly to avoid injury" makes zero fucking sense after he got his face smashed into the pavement. He really does get treated like he has history that we're meant to have already instead of what's actually here.
Another thing I noticed is that. When you compare the treatment of a brutal knockout blow that very solidly downs the opponent between this fight with Mokichi slamming Raian into the ground and with Ohma vs Seki. In the latter getting punched out is a loss even if everyone knows he could get up and sweep the floor with Ohma afterwards, but comparatively Raian gets to completely phone it in and get his as handed to him technically and still continue with nobody calling the match as Mokichi's win.
Thinking on it more, the thought that occurred to me is that Raian written in such a way that it wastes his own potential and robs us of the potential that Mokichi could have provided. That's the way Raian's narrative faceplant is framed to me after thinking about it. Wasting potential so hard you pull down the potential of a whole other character is impressively bad execution.
Yeah like the description of how the other Kure members react to him just doesn't make any sense with his actual on screen actions. "Raian is powerful enough to win without reversal" he just got owned completely, and "he's using the removal to end the fight quickly to avoid injury" makes zero fucking sense after he got his face smashed into the pavement. He really does get treated like he has history that we're meant to have already instead of what's actually here.
Another thing I noticed is that. When you compare the treatment of a brutal knockout blow that very solidly downs the opponent between this fight with Mokichi slamming Raian into the ground and with Ohma vs Seki. In the latter getting punched out is a loss even if everyone knows he could get up and sweep the floor with Ohma afterwards, but comparatively Raian gets to completely phone it in and get his as handed to him technically and still continue with nobody calling the match as Mokichi's win.
I think what they meant by Raian being able to win without Removal is that he wasn't using his family's martial arts at all. He was using some technically sound but pretty standard punches and kicks, but without much planning or tactics, and didn't use anything very advanced.
…except that's it's still dumb because the Kure Style is bullshit when we finally see it. It's 80% normal karate moves and 20% "I magically make your neck bones turn into a pretzel because I said so". It's every bit as arbitrary as turning up your raw stats with Removal. If Raian had been using the Kure Style, he presumably would have just decided to make Mokichi's bones explode at some earlier point in the match.
Edit: It's even a meme among fans. People joke about how the names of Kure Style moves are either extremely boring and basic or flowery and over the top, with nothing in between.
What I love about this fight* is that the opening chapter is titled "Bloodlines," and explicitly sets up both Mokichi and Raian as being each the heir to a particular legacy of martial arts, a unique bloodline of which they are the most elite representative, two secretive legacies which are now pitted against each other to find out which one is the better one. It implicitly posits them as being on an equal footing - one of the two must be superior, but it's a difference of degree, not kind.
*(he said sarcastically)
Then it turns out than when Mokichi says "bloodline" he means "normal guy who has a rare fighting style that has few remaining practitioners and as such surprises people with its unique combination of techniques" and when Raian says "bloodline" he means "Eugenics works and I am the proof, behold the Übermensch."
It's such an insane plot beat.
Honestly I'd be more down to watch one of the shitty Kure scions, like the guy whose Removal only works up to 40% and who isn't one of the best alive to begin with so it's genuinely just a brief edge he has to leverage carefully against opponents that are superior to his baseline instead of a total trump card.
There are two parts about this match that stuck with me on my very first read of Kengan Ashura.
The first was that this is a tournament where the worst of the worst can win. Akoya's win was a step towards this, but Mokichi getting all the hero spots and still being taken out really cemented it. This isn't a bracket where the person with the most shonen virtue will triumph.
The second was Raian's speech to the audience. Turning to the aghast crowd, looking on with horror at his murderous actions, and confronting them with the bold, bloodstained face of the brutality that is implicit in this building, in this island. "WHAT'S THE MATTER? LETS HEAR SOME CHEERING! DIDN'T YOU COME HERE TO SEE AN ANNIHILATION TOURNAMENT?"
Somebody needed to say it. These people, these leaders, these CEOs, these 'decent' individuals, are here to watch a bloodsport. They're here to watch people break themselves upon each other. Be killed, even. The fighters don't get to delude themselves, and neither should the spectators. It's a good 'moment', imo, and one that ought to come pretty early in the overall event. Though I do wish that maybe Raian wasn't the mouthpiece.
Rereading this fight was nice. The art is consistently great, tiny feet aside, and Raian's expressions reminded me of Etna, my favorite Star Impact character.
Somebody needed to say it. These people, these leaders, these CEOs, these 'decent' individuals, are here to watch a bloodsport. They're here to watch people break themselves upon each other. Be killed, even. The fighters don't get to delude themselves, and neither should the spectators. It's a good 'moment', imo, and one that ought to come pretty early in the overall event. Though I do wish that maybe Raian wasn't the mouthpiece.
I don't think you're necessarily wrong, but I do think that this character, and this moment, were both completely wrong for a beat like that. Raian isn't smart or incisive enough for it to come off as sincere, rather than more wanking of how cool and Big Shot he is, and the violence he just indulged in was genuinely excessive even for the Kengan Matches' advertised brutality. He went out of his way to double-tap Mokichi before the Referee could get a word in, then rubbed it in.
Rereading this fight was nice. The art is consistently great, tiny feet aside, and Raian's expressions reminded me of Etna, my favorite Star Impact character.
If y'all want to read a combat sport fighting comic thats good in an uncomplicated way, channelling top tier shonen tropes with an art style that's got all the snap and sizzle of Trigger without any of the grossness, then I wholeheartedly recommend Star Impact. It's really fucking good. If slightly inconsistent with the updates.
Oh, Star Impact is fantastic. Think of a Trigger style anime but without being horny. It's peak combat sports shonen and it does it's job fantastically well, particularly with the protagonist. Worth a look for basically anyone who likes the genre.
I think after this I'm still neutral on Raian, he has a lot of problems but they're problems I've learned to just brush off as part of manga in general, and I really just don't care enough about Mokichi to see his loss as much of a waste. That said, yeah, he has a lot of problems. I think I just hadn't really considered how much the author wanked him off since I kinda dismissed him after this fight.
I'm trying to imagine Raian being someone (in the audience)'s favorite character, and I almost get there; he's a crazy guy sticking it to my his family, who's too strong for them to ignore him despite his problems, and he gets there pretty much entirely on a random win of the (genetic) lottery.
But then I remember Ohma also has his schtick and is way more likable besides.
Edit: It's even a meme among fans. People joke about how the names of Kure Style moves are either extremely boring and basic or flowery and over the top, with nothing in between.
If y'all want to read a combat sport fighting comic thats good in an uncomplicated way, channelling top tier shonen tropes with an art style that's got all the snap and sizzle of Trigger without any of the grossness, then I wholeheartedly recommend Star Impact. It's really fucking good. If slightly inconsistent with the updates.
Honestly I'd be more down to watch one of the shitty Kure scions, like the guy whose Removal only works up to 40% and who isn't one of the best alive to begin with so it's genuinely just a brief edge he has to leverage carefully against opponents that are superior to his baseline instead of a total trump card.
I don't think you're necessarily wrong, but I do think that this character, and this moment, were both completely wrong for a beat like that. Raian isn't smart or incisive enough for it to come off as sincere, rather than more wanking of how cool and Big Shot he is, and the violence he just indulged in was genuinely excessive even for the Kengan Matches' advertised brutality. He went out of his way to double-tap Mokichi before the Referee could get a word in, then rubbed it in.
The "not smart enough" thing actually gave me a silly idea for an alternate take on the 'born so gifted no dedication is required to succeed' plus 'not interest in the art, but really into humiliating those who are' combo:
A Raian who put all the time spent not training into cultivating himself into someone who is as humiliating to lose to as possible for all the people dedicating their life to fighting. Maybe he styles himself as harmless wholesome nerd in a puffy pastel sweater with a photo of his happy family printed on it. Or maybe he turned himself into a famous tiktok fuckboy who deliberately fight using only moves that recently went viral. Just something super stupid to make the sting of losing against him as big as possible.
The bit that really annoys me about Raian isn't (only) that he's some leftover edgy tryhard that reads like a teenager's attempt at being cool, or his total lack of style and class, substituted entirely by ego, or even that he has a valid point about the capitalism death matches that everyone just sort of ignores.
It's that after he executes the relatively normal plot beat of the heel killing off a sympathetic competitor in order to draw some of the audience's ire, said competitor gets resurrected by the doctor, so we're supposed to think this absolves him of any sin and register him firmly as one of the good-ish guys. At the very least, Mokichi could have stayed dead - to drive home the stakes of the tournament, emphasize that yes, the Kure really are a clan of assassins, and also maybe make it possible to take Raian at least mildly seriously.
Like, sure, let him be evil - but also at least let him commit to it, then.
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.
He is like, absolute tumblr bait. This utter cryptid of a guy who's actually cute and nice and yet still violent. If this manga could penetrate onto tumblr, he would absolutely be a sexyman character.
Anyway, this chapter's a nice welcome repast from the last... god, two fights, which have all been (in different ways) pretty high pressure/high bullshit pieces. It's a good pacing chapter, and soon we'll see with Inaba's record if he's actually (on paper) worth the odds he's sporting.
I like Inaba. He's nice not only in a way that's a good contrast to the last two important guys we met (and wow did we need a new guy to be a decent person after Raian and Akoya) but because he's just genuinely a neat character, on top of being basically a prototype tumblr sexyman /cryptid sort of creature.
Also, how fitting for Ohma the cryptid to have his first fight against another cryptid.
Raian is very similar in character beats to Yujiro from Baki. Arrogant invincible dickhead who was born stronger then everyone else and really likes to rub it in their face. And for all the issues that abound in Baki's storytelling, Yujiro is at least effective as a villain. Everyone wants to beat the shit out of the dude and seeing him very occasionally be made to sweat and take a fight seriously is cathartic.
Where I think Raian falls short is the presentation of how ludicrous he is. He's not invincible enough to sell as an interesting goal for the characters to strive towards beating. Probably in the top five in terms of sheer talent. Maybe top ten for actual power. He doesn't have the instant sell of "He's the strongest man in the world and believes some super shitty things about martial arts. Beat him up to prove him wrong."
Raian is instead stuck in this weird halfway point where he's generally to strong to make fights interesting but not strong enough that it becomes interesting in its own right. We'll get to that with Julius. Raian takes hits and as was pointed out, kind of gets the shit kicked out of him in this fight, but the manga just kind of brushes it off to keep on hyping him up. He needs to be either way more invincible to the point it becomes an interesting challenge or way less invincible so his fights aren't him going gorilla mode after eating a shoulder throw with his face and taking no damage.
Notably I remember his match with Ohma being pretty good because there's back and forth and competition between them.
Judging by the long black hair and crawling I would imagine that it's a school tailored for fighting in The Ring.
More seriously, I'm gonna take a guess that he's a Voldo-like character who scampers around on all fours a lot and goes full dodgemonkey, frustrating opponents with his weird cryptid movements that are hard to anticipate because they're so inhuman, combined with a lot of shots to the legs/pelvis and maybe some monkeylike climbing-on-your-opponent style grappling.
In light of Ohma's new outfit, it may be interesting to note that the second most popular ship on AO3, after Adam Dudley/Cosmo Imai, happens to be Tokita Ohma/Reader.
