Lord Chimera
Primordial Split Personality Disorder Dark God
So how crapsack KA's setting compared to Baki? I heard that in the latter, one has to be monstrous physically and mentally to be strong...
Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura
- Thread starter Manic Dogma
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Castro-Trudeauist
Baki is a setting where governments can be overruled by one super-freak man-monster with does literally whatever the fuck he wants, doesn't even need to hide like a vampire. It also has a prison being basically taken over by black mega-bodybuilder, who then lives out of the prison ruling it like a kingdom while occasionally just walking right out to go do mercenary work for the government. It's also a setting where the Bush administration gets punked by the micro-nation of martial artist anti-colonial pirates. It also features the mid-tier big boys either being like gangsters, or pillars of the community.
So really while Baki has bad implications it feels a lot more subjective on whether the presence of super muscle men is a positive or not.
Wth Kengan Ashura I get the impression that while martial arts are powerful, supermen still haven't risen far enough to fully usurp the money men through pure force. It feels like money capital is still in charge and the start of muscle capital has yet to really form. It also feels like low tier muscle men are basically disposable in the system.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Kengan Asura is ostensibly just modern day japan, but with corporate deathmatches. A single fighter can take out a whole group of guys with guns, but people on that level aren't common and they're still like...threatened. Weapons of any kind are treated like a big deal, and armies are still armies. Even in the sequel, where things go much more conspiracy thriller, the antagonistic force still operates largely using modern technology and shit.
So basically, pretty much on a modern day IRL level of crapsack. It's grounded enough that I don't see a Baki situation happening.
So basically, pretty much on a modern day IRL level of crapsack. It's grounded enough that I don't see a Baki situation happening.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
- Location
- Pennsylvania
It's a lot worse. Without going into too much detail, it's about ten years away from fully becoming a cyberpunk dystopia. Baki is mostly the same as the real world aside from maybe a hundred extremely strong lunatics existing.
Chapter 9 - Crook
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
We open chapter 9 on the sweaty, poorly shaved face of Kaburagi Koji. A 45 year old fighter with a match record of 9 wins and 7 los-
Wait hold on, it was 7 wins and 9 losses last chapter. Translation error? Typo? Who knows.
Anyway, the first page of this chapter reiterates the point we ended on last time. Kaburagi is kind of a washout, but winning isn't necessarily his goal. We see his opponent walk away from his battered body with arms raised, cheering his victory, until his face tightens. The man collapses to the floor in a puddle of his own blood.
Yamashita comes to the obvious conclusion, that Kaburagi is being deployed to take Ohma out of commission after the fight with Rihito, but no. Akiyama informs us that while the actual match with Kaburagi was scheduled two days ago (as in, when we heard about it last chapter, for those keeping track) the two companies have been planning something like it for a while. The original target was probably Komada, the sap Ohma walloped in chapter 1, who had a 4 win Kengan record, with no losses. A rising star. But of course Ohma crushed him, so here we are.
I'm honestly not certain what the implication is supposed to be, here. I haven't read these early chapters since the first time I read the manga, years ago, so I don't have foreknowledge of this little arc to lean on. But it definitely feels like they're trying to imply something significant? Or perhaps it's just a page wasting time reiterating the facts as we know them not even ten chapters after they were established. Who knows. That would certainly fit the manga that delayed the last chapter of its first significant fight to the second damn volume because of its own poor pacing.
Anyway, back to the chapter, we've got another pre-match confrontation. No CEOs trying to flex this time, it's Kaburagi on his own. And he's positively polite! He notes that he saw the fight with Rihito and compliments Ohma's strength, laying it on a little thick when he asks Ohma to go easy. Ohma, arrogant sod that he is, begins to swaggeringly promise not to hurt Kaburagi too badly, but is cut off.
I think this is more reaction to anything than Ohma's had so far.
Whatever it was, Yamashita is entirely unaffected, but Ohma and Akiyama are both briefly in significant pain. Some kind of sonic thing? That'd make sense, Yamashita's a good way older than either of the other two, his ears won't be able to detect higher pitches. But why screw with people like this before the match? It's not even permanent harm, they both shake it off right after, as Kaburagi makes his exit.
We follow him as he leaves, meeting up with his CEO who asks, with a very shifty expression, how the setup went. Kaburagi is very pleased. He didn't expect Akiyama to feel it too, but everything still went perfectly.
So yeah, he's got a whole-ass routine. Was it something subliminal? Figuring out auditory ranges? Just psyching them out? I suppose we'll see.
Next page is the venue, which oddly seems much more packed than last time, despite in theory being much less of a headliner match. Hell, we don't even know the economic stakes this time. Anyway, it's a harbor warehouse, with several raised catwalks full of people on the walls and a lot of those big, long cargo containers, some of which are making perches for a few braver folk. As the audience on the ground floor back off, making an impromptu ring, the referee searches Kaburagi, who's still wearing his huge-ass coat. Which definitely isn't at all suspicious, completely above board, totally not a distraction from something more subtle. Ohma's unimpressed, either with Kaburagi's obvious shenanigans or with the hushed, disappointed commentary from the audience, who are pretty universally writing him off. Probably the former, but I like to imagine it's the latter, and Kengan Association members are just generally incapable of an indoor voice.
It's at this point that Yamashita notices the inspection, or more specifically how bloody long it's taking (maybe Ohma really is just bored). Ohma's was done in seconds, he really isn't wearing much that you could hide any weapons in, but Kaburagi's has been going on for a while. Akiyama begins to note that there's a reason for it, before being roughly shoved aside by Suddenly Nogi.
…okay, like, I get that "lol look at this asshole disrespecting Akiyama" is the joke here. But how much respect has anyone else really shown her up to this point? If anything this isn't so much a gag as it is Business As Usual.
Mister "Spotlight Hog" Nogi then goes on to explain that the reason his check is so thorough is that Kaburagi is "clearly guilty." The sixteen other fighters he fought, in post-match inspections, all showed traces of attack with a weapon. Every last one of them. Which makes sense, a guy that mediocre isn't going to be ruining people 1v1 with his bare hands, but it does make me wonder why he's even still on the roster if they care enough to ban hidden weapons at all. Especially since he is in fact on notice for this shit.
And speaking of things happening way too late, the next page is pretty much entirely the referee telling Kaburagi to do things that should have happened before he even got into the ring. First his hands are covered in bandages and rings. Then he gets told to take off his extremely suspicious coat, which he hands to his CEO, who asks if he's going to be alright.
We already know you're hentai-man, dude, we don't need you to reference it directly
Back at the main cast, Yamashita asks the burning question of this whole scenario. If it's obvious Kaburagi is cheating, why isn't he being meaningfully punished? What's the point of a rule he can plainly just ignore? Nogi's answer is a haughty one. Rules there may be, but some things are more important to a Merchant than rules. He supposes a scenario. Yamashita has bought a product from a vendor, in expectation of turning a profit. But, the vendor was a con artist and the product worthless. What would he do? Yamashita, obviously, notes he'd take him to the court or police. Nogi asks if that means he's saying he'd "announce to the world that he's a blind sucker who can't even detect a scam." Damaging his customer's trust, and crippling his business. The correct answer, Nogi claims, is silence.
Okay so this is bullshit, yeah?
Like, the logic functions within the context of the analogy it's given in. Merchants, engaging in business peer to peer, with control over the information that goes out. But that's not what's happening here, is it? A Kengan match is essentially a competition between companies prior to a deal going through, determining who gets to participate at all, and more importantly is always observed by peers and is being run by a third party. A third party with its own validation and enforcement mechanisms, which has already discovered the fuckup, provided evidence of the fuckup, and then disseminated the knowledge of that fuckup within and without its structure. Everyone already fucking knows about Kaburagi's cheating, none of you even have the basic level of plausible deniability it'd require to dismiss this knowledge. It's such public knowledge that you've gone into this fight expecting it to happen! Presumably as another test for Ohma! There is absolutely no face to save here by trying to pretend it didn't happen, the knowledge is out there and people are acting on it.
The right call here would be, with the knowledge that fuckery is afoot, prove that your organisation's enforcement mechanisms are up to snuff and boot the fucker out of the running. That's the only option for a draconian establishment when a rule is broken this fucking publically. Allowing it to pass isn't hiding your poor judgement, it's a public admission that you can't even enforce the rules after the fact. You absolute brainlet.
And of course, instead of calling it out as the absolutely comic stupidity that it is, Yamashita just takes everything Nogi says at face value as the hard, cold truth. Because this manga just cannot let a sharp-edged manly man speak without kneeling at his feet and worshipping the god-given wisdom that spills from his lips.
I couldn't agree more, Ohma.
The referee calls the start, and away Ohma goes. And Kaburagi stands there, with a great, big dopy smile, as Ohma rushes toward him. "Look out! The time bomb's going to blow!" he cackles internally as Ohma's fist soars toward his face. It's probably supposed to be kinda…not scary, but tense in a "what's gonna happen" sort of way, I guess. But it honestly just looks kind of silly.
And then we get to the next page, which is three panels of non-diegetic lightning effects zeroing in on Kaburagi's CEO who is, no joke, holding a fucking vintage amp setup under Kaburagi's fucking coat. How did he even get that thing in here?!
He sets the thing off and several audience members are struck with pain, as is Akiyama again, to Nogi's faint whisper of token concern. Ohma hears it too, but this time he keeps his pain response under control. Unfortunately, that wasn't what Kaburagi was going for. His plan hinges more on Ohma's brief instant of distraction as he looks for the sound's source.
Without the intentional grotesquery of Kaburagi's face on display, it's much easier to appreciate the artist's grasp of anatomy. Look at that hanging fat fold on his underarm. Sure would be nice if his body weren't being used as coding for how disgusting he is.
Wham, right in the face. But that's only stage one, as Ohma notes how pathetic taking that hit was, he notices something's up. His eyes are red, their veins standing out, and Kaburagi taunts him over the moment of distraction. And more pertinently to the plot, how it's allowed him to take Ohma's sight.
See you all next time.
Wait hold on, it was 7 wins and 9 losses last chapter. Translation error? Typo? Who knows.
Anyway, the first page of this chapter reiterates the point we ended on last time. Kaburagi is kind of a washout, but winning isn't necessarily his goal. We see his opponent walk away from his battered body with arms raised, cheering his victory, until his face tightens. The man collapses to the floor in a puddle of his own blood.
Yamashita comes to the obvious conclusion, that Kaburagi is being deployed to take Ohma out of commission after the fight with Rihito, but no. Akiyama informs us that while the actual match with Kaburagi was scheduled two days ago (as in, when we heard about it last chapter, for those keeping track) the two companies have been planning something like it for a while. The original target was probably Komada, the sap Ohma walloped in chapter 1, who had a 4 win Kengan record, with no losses. A rising star. But of course Ohma crushed him, so here we are.
I'm honestly not certain what the implication is supposed to be, here. I haven't read these early chapters since the first time I read the manga, years ago, so I don't have foreknowledge of this little arc to lean on. But it definitely feels like they're trying to imply something significant? Or perhaps it's just a page wasting time reiterating the facts as we know them not even ten chapters after they were established. Who knows. That would certainly fit the manga that delayed the last chapter of its first significant fight to the second damn volume because of its own poor pacing.
Anyway, back to the chapter, we've got another pre-match confrontation. No CEOs trying to flex this time, it's Kaburagi on his own. And he's positively polite! He notes that he saw the fight with Rihito and compliments Ohma's strength, laying it on a little thick when he asks Ohma to go easy. Ohma, arrogant sod that he is, begins to swaggeringly promise not to hurt Kaburagi too badly, but is cut off.
I think this is more reaction to anything than Ohma's had so far.
Whatever it was, Yamashita is entirely unaffected, but Ohma and Akiyama are both briefly in significant pain. Some kind of sonic thing? That'd make sense, Yamashita's a good way older than either of the other two, his ears won't be able to detect higher pitches. But why screw with people like this before the match? It's not even permanent harm, they both shake it off right after, as Kaburagi makes his exit.
We follow him as he leaves, meeting up with his CEO who asks, with a very shifty expression, how the setup went. Kaburagi is very pleased. He didn't expect Akiyama to feel it too, but everything still went perfectly.
So yeah, he's got a whole-ass routine. Was it something subliminal? Figuring out auditory ranges? Just psyching them out? I suppose we'll see.
Next page is the venue, which oddly seems much more packed than last time, despite in theory being much less of a headliner match. Hell, we don't even know the economic stakes this time. Anyway, it's a harbor warehouse, with several raised catwalks full of people on the walls and a lot of those big, long cargo containers, some of which are making perches for a few braver folk. As the audience on the ground floor back off, making an impromptu ring, the referee searches Kaburagi, who's still wearing his huge-ass coat. Which definitely isn't at all suspicious, completely above board, totally not a distraction from something more subtle. Ohma's unimpressed, either with Kaburagi's obvious shenanigans or with the hushed, disappointed commentary from the audience, who are pretty universally writing him off. Probably the former, but I like to imagine it's the latter, and Kengan Association members are just generally incapable of an indoor voice.
It's at this point that Yamashita notices the inspection, or more specifically how bloody long it's taking (maybe Ohma really is just bored). Ohma's was done in seconds, he really isn't wearing much that you could hide any weapons in, but Kaburagi's has been going on for a while. Akiyama begins to note that there's a reason for it, before being roughly shoved aside by Suddenly Nogi.
…okay, like, I get that "lol look at this asshole disrespecting Akiyama" is the joke here. But how much respect has anyone else really shown her up to this point? If anything this isn't so much a gag as it is Business As Usual.
Mister "Spotlight Hog" Nogi then goes on to explain that the reason his check is so thorough is that Kaburagi is "clearly guilty." The sixteen other fighters he fought, in post-match inspections, all showed traces of attack with a weapon. Every last one of them. Which makes sense, a guy that mediocre isn't going to be ruining people 1v1 with his bare hands, but it does make me wonder why he's even still on the roster if they care enough to ban hidden weapons at all. Especially since he is in fact on notice for this shit.
And speaking of things happening way too late, the next page is pretty much entirely the referee telling Kaburagi to do things that should have happened before he even got into the ring. First his hands are covered in bandages and rings. Then he gets told to take off his extremely suspicious coat, which he hands to his CEO, who asks if he's going to be alright.
We already know you're hentai-man, dude, we don't need you to reference it directly
Back at the main cast, Yamashita asks the burning question of this whole scenario. If it's obvious Kaburagi is cheating, why isn't he being meaningfully punished? What's the point of a rule he can plainly just ignore? Nogi's answer is a haughty one. Rules there may be, but some things are more important to a Merchant than rules. He supposes a scenario. Yamashita has bought a product from a vendor, in expectation of turning a profit. But, the vendor was a con artist and the product worthless. What would he do? Yamashita, obviously, notes he'd take him to the court or police. Nogi asks if that means he's saying he'd "announce to the world that he's a blind sucker who can't even detect a scam." Damaging his customer's trust, and crippling his business. The correct answer, Nogi claims, is silence.
Okay so this is bullshit, yeah?
Like, the logic functions within the context of the analogy it's given in. Merchants, engaging in business peer to peer, with control over the information that goes out. But that's not what's happening here, is it? A Kengan match is essentially a competition between companies prior to a deal going through, determining who gets to participate at all, and more importantly is always observed by peers and is being run by a third party. A third party with its own validation and enforcement mechanisms, which has already discovered the fuckup, provided evidence of the fuckup, and then disseminated the knowledge of that fuckup within and without its structure. Everyone already fucking knows about Kaburagi's cheating, none of you even have the basic level of plausible deniability it'd require to dismiss this knowledge. It's such public knowledge that you've gone into this fight expecting it to happen! Presumably as another test for Ohma! There is absolutely no face to save here by trying to pretend it didn't happen, the knowledge is out there and people are acting on it.
The right call here would be, with the knowledge that fuckery is afoot, prove that your organisation's enforcement mechanisms are up to snuff and boot the fucker out of the running. That's the only option for a draconian establishment when a rule is broken this fucking publically. Allowing it to pass isn't hiding your poor judgement, it's a public admission that you can't even enforce the rules after the fact. You absolute brainlet.
And of course, instead of calling it out as the absolutely comic stupidity that it is, Yamashita just takes everything Nogi says at face value as the hard, cold truth. Because this manga just cannot let a sharp-edged manly man speak without kneeling at his feet and worshipping the god-given wisdom that spills from his lips.
I couldn't agree more, Ohma.
The referee calls the start, and away Ohma goes. And Kaburagi stands there, with a great, big dopy smile, as Ohma rushes toward him. "Look out! The time bomb's going to blow!" he cackles internally as Ohma's fist soars toward his face. It's probably supposed to be kinda…not scary, but tense in a "what's gonna happen" sort of way, I guess. But it honestly just looks kind of silly.
And then we get to the next page, which is three panels of non-diegetic lightning effects zeroing in on Kaburagi's CEO who is, no joke, holding a fucking vintage amp setup under Kaburagi's fucking coat. How did he even get that thing in here?!
He sets the thing off and several audience members are struck with pain, as is Akiyama again, to Nogi's faint whisper of token concern. Ohma hears it too, but this time he keeps his pain response under control. Unfortunately, that wasn't what Kaburagi was going for. His plan hinges more on Ohma's brief instant of distraction as he looks for the sound's source.
Without the intentional grotesquery of Kaburagi's face on display, it's much easier to appreciate the artist's grasp of anatomy. Look at that hanging fat fold on his underarm. Sure would be nice if his body weren't being used as coding for how disgusting he is.
Wham, right in the face. But that's only stage one, as Ohma notes how pathetic taking that hit was, he notices something's up. His eyes are red, their veins standing out, and Kaburagi taunts him over the moment of distraction. And more pertinently to the plot, how it's allowed him to take Ohma's sight.
See you all next time.
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NonSequtur
a body
This particular cheating thing is even stupider because like, sure, ignore Nogi's explanation - take it as given Kengan matches operate under 'fair enough, you got us' rules for the fighters.
this isn't being carried by a fighter
You might as well have a sniper in the building. It violates the sole logic of Kengan matches: restricting corporate warfare from turning into Actual Warfare.
this isn't being carried by a fighter
You might as well have a sniper in the building. It violates the sole logic of Kengan matches: restricting corporate warfare from turning into Actual Warfare.
Peanut-007
Hat or Hair? America decides.
- Location
- Maryland, United States of America
The only way it really works is if none of the businessmen actually care about winning that much and are essentially playing with monopoly money to add some extra stakes to their death matches. Cheating is allowed as long as it's part of the fun essentially. That's not how it's actually presented though.
- Location
- The North
This panel is really interesting to me, because from the motion lines and the pose Nogi is in it kinda looks like he was coming in to wrap his arms around both of them and Akiyama deftly slipped away cuz fuck off dude you don't get to touch me like that. Like, the sound-effect seems at odds with the posing and general composition. And that's interesting because if she's slipping away rather than being shoved aside it creates a slightly different sort of dynamic where Akiyama seems canny, like she's seeing through what's going on. Maybe I've just got a weird read on it. >.<
Also this is a great let's read. I enjoy that you're highlighting the series' weird flaws and themes while also weaving in the ongoing narrative. It's a genuinely pleasant stroll down memory lane.
At least, until we get to... those parts.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
That's...a really good point, actually. looking at the panel again you're right, that's exactly what it looks like. My eyes just locked onto the great big SHOVE sound effect and assumed that's the context. Maybe a translation error for what was supposed to be a sharp movement?
Still pretty disrespectful of your employee's personal space, so the criticism holds, but yeah. Huh.
Chapter 10 - Coward
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Last time in Kengan Asura we started the second Kengan Match of Tokita Ohma's career, and he promptly fell for psychological warfare and let his opponent score a telling blow against his eyesight. It's possibly the first real, meaningful blow anyone's struck against him in the manga so far. How will our lord and sigma get out of this one?
Well, chapter 10 starts with an honestly really well put together and unsettling PoV shot of Ohma's fading sight.
Yeesh, I feel claustrophobic just looking at this.
Ohma's confused, not sure what happened that's fucking up his sight, caught mid-thought as his blunted senses pick up an incoming strike. But this one lands too, his reactions slowed by confusion and hampered vision, the right hook snapping Ohma's face to one side with a shower of blood from his mouth. Kaburagi's smug, noting as much with a taunting lilt to his tone. Which would be weird behaviour for a man on probation for cheating, but last chapter established the cheating rules for this promotion run on fucking moon logic, so…go off, I guess. Might as well have fun where you can get it, I suppose.
The crowd around them are taunting and jeering, aside from the couple of people still reeling from the sonic burst, one guy even flipping the arena off. In the crowd, Kaburagi's boss is having old crusty man thoughts about modern tech, and more understandably grumbly about Kaburagi making him take part in his schemes. And then does a complete 180 in tone. All's well that ends well, after all.
And then the next page is…just some waffle confirming what we already know, and giving Nogi a chance to flex his worldly knowledge. He looks around the venue, noting that only the younger participants have had any sort of reaction, and based on this decides that Kaburagi's weapon could only be one thing. The Mosquito.
The Mosquito is actually a real thing, hilariously marketed a long while back as "Teenager repellent". It's a particular frequency of sound that can only be picked up by people sensitive to higher frequencies, and to people who can hear it is a source of profound discomfort. Kengan Asura describes it as able to bring "agony beyond description" but that is, as far as I know, an extreme exaggeration. Still, there was widespread campaigns to ban the thing in most places, and while they largely got stonewalled at first the sheer pointlessness of the device has resulted in them mostly falling out of the public consciousness by the mid 2010s, at which point most of the active Mosquito devices had been removed.
The Mosquito Sound
I actually can't hear a thing in this video. Age doesn't half sneak up on you, doesn't it?
This is a classic Shonen/Seinen move. Taking a principle or technology that is actually extant and then exaggerating it for dramatic effect, mostly in manga that lean a little more grounded but also in some top tier wacky shit, like Toriko. It's a little silly, but I'm not bothered. Especially since the use here is actually semi intelligent. As we'd already gathered, Nogi notes that Kaburagi approached them before the match specifically to set up the Mosquito, to get him wary for it in a way he wouldn't be if it just blared out for the first time mid match. Psychological warfare, getting him to actually look out for it and leave an opening rather than ignore it and punch Kaburagi's teeth in.
And then we get a gag about how shocked Nogi is that Akiyama could hear it and hah hah hee hoo lady don't like implications of age, very comedy, much funny.
Anyway, we return to the fight and Kaburagi is still punching Ohma in the face. Going by how much time those few pages of conversation must have lasted, I believe he's been using Ohma's jaw as a punching bag for a solid thirty seconds. Understandably pleased with himself after so many uninterrupted seconds of knuckle-based stress relief, Kaburagi is monologuing in his head. He apparently downloaded the mosquito onto his mobile phone and hooked it up to an amp, which is the setup we saw in his boss' hands last chapter.
Oh, tell a lie, apparently it was only…two punches he landed? Okay, whatever, audience talk happens in compressed time. More importantly, we get the elaboration on what the whole circus act with the search was about earlier.
Cute frogs!
His hands are poisoned.
The rings, the bandages, the coat, they were all a bluff to distract from his skin itself. This…doesn't at all explain why the referee hadn't already told him to fucking get rid of it all before the patdown, so that's down for the record as a failure of presentation. He continues to gloat about how he'll keep slipping through the pre-fight checks no matter how strict they get, hidden weapons specialist, blah blah. It's a visually nice series of panels honestly, tired monologue aside. The heavy fluidity and sense of motion is back and properly selling that, though mediocre in a straight up fight, Kaburagi is still a fighter. He's an athletic motherfucker, for all the mug shots we get of him try to emphasise slovenliness and grossness. Slamming Ohma with all his weight, and then ducking and weaving through the younger man's counterattacks.
Come on man, how many hentai jokes are you going to set up? I can't keep doing this!
The Kengan audience doesn't seem put off, though. Hell, they're excited. Maybe that's the real reason Kaburagi doesn't get slammed, rather than Nogi's undercooked bullshit? Perhaps he's an audience favourite, they love an underdog who gets by with sneaky tricks, so he gets a bit of preferential treatment. As they cheer for Kaburagi to finish off the new kid, the man himself takes the time to gloat a little more. Ohma's greatest strength, Kaburagi claims, is his extraordinary kinetic vision. It's how he perceives the flow of power that allows his Redirection technique to work. Not something a normal bloke like Kaburagi could do, but he knows enough to recognise someone who can. So, that's the big step in his plan. Kill Ohma's eyes.
Of course, that's not all. Ohma might not have been doing it well, but he's still been fighting back. His hearing is finely tuned as well, and Kaburagi congratulates him on it. Under normal circumstances he's sure Ohma would still be fully capable of steamrolling him, even with his attention disrupted by the mosquito. Would, that is…
Honestly, the shape of this plan is something I like. The core of it is simple but clever, applying the natural circumstances the fight would take place in both as cover and part of the trick. Even the bloodlust of the audience! It would be a really cool swerve into a fighter who's obviously outclassed by Ohma, but manages to be even more of a threat than Rihito simply by…well, cheating. The problem is that the manga has no faith in its audience. Everything gets oversold, both in the moment and in the after-the-fact explanations, nothing gets left to implication. There's no trust that the audience will pick up on a subtle cue and be able to keep it in mind for a future reveal, it's all got to be big and plain right now. For example, they didn't need Kaburagi's patdown to have taken minutes before he even got told to take off his suspicious-ass coat. They could have had the referee yell at him to do that, then moved on to his rings and shit, and so on down, watching him like a hawk, and gotten Yamashita to ask questions based on his tone.
Anyway, Kaburagi is very pleased to have control of a fight against a talented rising star. Just, super jazzed about it. Creepy faces and everything. Yamashita's freaking out, because of course he is, and Nogi is unflappably stoic, as usual. And, for once, Akiyama gets to be the one pointing out something important is happening. Ohma seems to have an idea.
I like that there's still people clutching their ears in the audience. Good attention to detail.
He's turtled up. Complete defensive stance. The audience doesn't get it, and neither does Kaburagi. It'll be hard for him to get off the back foot if he just gives up on offense. But, Kaburagi shrugs it off. A stationary target is exactly what he wants, after all. This man isn't a warrior, he's a professional with a job to do, and suspiciously indulgent satisfaction in punching people more talented than him in the face to enjoy. He tilts his hand back, and plucks out a needle he had buried in the flesh of his wrist, hidden by a roll of fat. It's time to end this.
He walks toward Ohma, apparently not taking any chances. He shuffles behind Ohma, with some sort of funny footwork that goes unelaborated on, and his target is Ohma's cervical vertebrae. I'm no physician, but I agree that a shot to the spine with a sharp object is probably crippling, and so does Yamashita. He shrieks at Ohma, behind you! Behind you, he screams, as the audience chatter and guffaw. Kill him! Bullshit! Medicine Man! And the extremely mature Grow a fucking pair, Ohma!
Ohma is unbothered. Unmoving. Yamashita thinks it's because of the crowd drowning him out, that Ohma would move if he heard him. Kaburagi seems to share that assumption, leaping through the air in an astonishing show of athleticism, mockingly noting in his head that Ohma won't die…
Hopefully.
The final panel is a blood spatter.
See you all next time.
Well, chapter 10 starts with an honestly really well put together and unsettling PoV shot of Ohma's fading sight.
Yeesh, I feel claustrophobic just looking at this.
Ohma's confused, not sure what happened that's fucking up his sight, caught mid-thought as his blunted senses pick up an incoming strike. But this one lands too, his reactions slowed by confusion and hampered vision, the right hook snapping Ohma's face to one side with a shower of blood from his mouth. Kaburagi's smug, noting as much with a taunting lilt to his tone. Which would be weird behaviour for a man on probation for cheating, but last chapter established the cheating rules for this promotion run on fucking moon logic, so…go off, I guess. Might as well have fun where you can get it, I suppose.
The crowd around them are taunting and jeering, aside from the couple of people still reeling from the sonic burst, one guy even flipping the arena off. In the crowd, Kaburagi's boss is having old crusty man thoughts about modern tech, and more understandably grumbly about Kaburagi making him take part in his schemes. And then does a complete 180 in tone. All's well that ends well, after all.
And then the next page is…just some waffle confirming what we already know, and giving Nogi a chance to flex his worldly knowledge. He looks around the venue, noting that only the younger participants have had any sort of reaction, and based on this decides that Kaburagi's weapon could only be one thing. The Mosquito.
The Mosquito is actually a real thing, hilariously marketed a long while back as "Teenager repellent". It's a particular frequency of sound that can only be picked up by people sensitive to higher frequencies, and to people who can hear it is a source of profound discomfort. Kengan Asura describes it as able to bring "agony beyond description" but that is, as far as I know, an extreme exaggeration. Still, there was widespread campaigns to ban the thing in most places, and while they largely got stonewalled at first the sheer pointlessness of the device has resulted in them mostly falling out of the public consciousness by the mid 2010s, at which point most of the active Mosquito devices had been removed.
The Mosquito Sound
I actually can't hear a thing in this video. Age doesn't half sneak up on you, doesn't it?
This is a classic Shonen/Seinen move. Taking a principle or technology that is actually extant and then exaggerating it for dramatic effect, mostly in manga that lean a little more grounded but also in some top tier wacky shit, like Toriko. It's a little silly, but I'm not bothered. Especially since the use here is actually semi intelligent. As we'd already gathered, Nogi notes that Kaburagi approached them before the match specifically to set up the Mosquito, to get him wary for it in a way he wouldn't be if it just blared out for the first time mid match. Psychological warfare, getting him to actually look out for it and leave an opening rather than ignore it and punch Kaburagi's teeth in.
And then we get a gag about how shocked Nogi is that Akiyama could hear it and hah hah hee hoo lady don't like implications of age, very comedy, much funny.
Anyway, we return to the fight and Kaburagi is still punching Ohma in the face. Going by how much time those few pages of conversation must have lasted, I believe he's been using Ohma's jaw as a punching bag for a solid thirty seconds. Understandably pleased with himself after so many uninterrupted seconds of knuckle-based stress relief, Kaburagi is monologuing in his head. He apparently downloaded the mosquito onto his mobile phone and hooked it up to an amp, which is the setup we saw in his boss' hands last chapter.
Oh, tell a lie, apparently it was only…two punches he landed? Okay, whatever, audience talk happens in compressed time. More importantly, we get the elaboration on what the whole circus act with the search was about earlier.
Cute frogs!
His hands are poisoned.
The rings, the bandages, the coat, they were all a bluff to distract from his skin itself. This…doesn't at all explain why the referee hadn't already told him to fucking get rid of it all before the patdown, so that's down for the record as a failure of presentation. He continues to gloat about how he'll keep slipping through the pre-fight checks no matter how strict they get, hidden weapons specialist, blah blah. It's a visually nice series of panels honestly, tired monologue aside. The heavy fluidity and sense of motion is back and properly selling that, though mediocre in a straight up fight, Kaburagi is still a fighter. He's an athletic motherfucker, for all the mug shots we get of him try to emphasise slovenliness and grossness. Slamming Ohma with all his weight, and then ducking and weaving through the younger man's counterattacks.
Come on man, how many hentai jokes are you going to set up? I can't keep doing this!
The Kengan audience doesn't seem put off, though. Hell, they're excited. Maybe that's the real reason Kaburagi doesn't get slammed, rather than Nogi's undercooked bullshit? Perhaps he's an audience favourite, they love an underdog who gets by with sneaky tricks, so he gets a bit of preferential treatment. As they cheer for Kaburagi to finish off the new kid, the man himself takes the time to gloat a little more. Ohma's greatest strength, Kaburagi claims, is his extraordinary kinetic vision. It's how he perceives the flow of power that allows his Redirection technique to work. Not something a normal bloke like Kaburagi could do, but he knows enough to recognise someone who can. So, that's the big step in his plan. Kill Ohma's eyes.
Of course, that's not all. Ohma might not have been doing it well, but he's still been fighting back. His hearing is finely tuned as well, and Kaburagi congratulates him on it. Under normal circumstances he's sure Ohma would still be fully capable of steamrolling him, even with his attention disrupted by the mosquito. Would, that is…
Honestly, the shape of this plan is something I like. The core of it is simple but clever, applying the natural circumstances the fight would take place in both as cover and part of the trick. Even the bloodlust of the audience! It would be a really cool swerve into a fighter who's obviously outclassed by Ohma, but manages to be even more of a threat than Rihito simply by…well, cheating. The problem is that the manga has no faith in its audience. Everything gets oversold, both in the moment and in the after-the-fact explanations, nothing gets left to implication. There's no trust that the audience will pick up on a subtle cue and be able to keep it in mind for a future reveal, it's all got to be big and plain right now. For example, they didn't need Kaburagi's patdown to have taken minutes before he even got told to take off his suspicious-ass coat. They could have had the referee yell at him to do that, then moved on to his rings and shit, and so on down, watching him like a hawk, and gotten Yamashita to ask questions based on his tone.
Anyway, Kaburagi is very pleased to have control of a fight against a talented rising star. Just, super jazzed about it. Creepy faces and everything. Yamashita's freaking out, because of course he is, and Nogi is unflappably stoic, as usual. And, for once, Akiyama gets to be the one pointing out something important is happening. Ohma seems to have an idea.
I like that there's still people clutching their ears in the audience. Good attention to detail.
He's turtled up. Complete defensive stance. The audience doesn't get it, and neither does Kaburagi. It'll be hard for him to get off the back foot if he just gives up on offense. But, Kaburagi shrugs it off. A stationary target is exactly what he wants, after all. This man isn't a warrior, he's a professional with a job to do, and suspiciously indulgent satisfaction in punching people more talented than him in the face to enjoy. He tilts his hand back, and plucks out a needle he had buried in the flesh of his wrist, hidden by a roll of fat. It's time to end this.
He walks toward Ohma, apparently not taking any chances. He shuffles behind Ohma, with some sort of funny footwork that goes unelaborated on, and his target is Ohma's cervical vertebrae. I'm no physician, but I agree that a shot to the spine with a sharp object is probably crippling, and so does Yamashita. He shrieks at Ohma, behind you! Behind you, he screams, as the audience chatter and guffaw. Kill him! Bullshit! Medicine Man! And the extremely mature Grow a fucking pair, Ohma!
Ohma is unbothered. Unmoving. Yamashita thinks it's because of the crowd drowning him out, that Ohma would move if he heard him. Kaburagi seems to share that assumption, leaping through the air in an astonishing show of athleticism, mockingly noting in his head that Ohma won't die…
Hopefully.
The final panel is a blood spatter.
See you all next time.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
- Location
- Pennsylvania
This chapter is the one where we first get a glance at the manga's ability to pull off horror, or at least a horror-adjacent tone. It's unrefined here, but it will get more and more honed as the story goes on, result in some deeply unsettling moments.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Yeah, I actually tried to track down an alternate translation or raw of this chapter, just to check whether the sound effect was a mistranslation (couldn't find one). Based on how all three characters are drawn, Akiyama is definitely dodging unwanted PDA from her overly (and falsely) chummy boss, which Yamashita isn't confident or aware enough to avoid. That also fits her and Nogi's personalities a lot better than him shoving her aside for some reason.
- Location
- The North
Excellent chapter breakdown!
Also, do we even have an 'official' English translation of Kengan Ashura? I know the sequel series got picked up my Comikey, but it looks like the only volumes up on Amazon are in the original Japanese.
Oh, for sure! Nogi is hella scummy. I agree that the SHOVE sound effect is very conspicuous. I'm not gonna fault the translators for it, cuz goodness knows it's probably a crunch-intensive, unforgiving sort of work, but it's really interesting to me how these kinds of translation errors can change the energy of a whole interaction.
I appreciate you searching for a raw!
Also, do we even have an 'official' English translation of Kengan Ashura? I know the sequel series got picked up my Comikey, but it looks like the only volumes up on Amazon are in the original Japanese.
Lord Chimera
Primordial Split Personality Disorder Dark God
I say that replace "perversion" with "travesty."
The latter sounds more GP-friendly and formal if the fat guy wants a name for his life philosophy.
Also Kaburagi'a fighting style reminds me of a Street Fighter character with poison attacks...
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Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Swear to god, one of these days I'm just gonna delete the 3pm from the schedule post.
Boxing Day chapter, incoming.
Boxing Day chapter, incoming.
Chapter 11 - Defeat
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Kaburagi has taken Ohma's vision. His hearing is useless, between the Mosquito and the roaring crowd. He's given up on offense entirely, standing still in a conventional guard. It's checkmate, Kaburagi thinks, has his body soars through the air. The fat lady has sung, his needle is trained for Ohma's most vital area. He will be crippled, at best.
It's over.
A kick so powerful even the panels cannot contain it.
Everyone is flabbergasted. Kaburagi's employer, the random nobodies in the background, Yamashita. Especially Yamashita, who doesn't seem to take relief any better than panic. Kaburagi's still processing it, blood trailing from the empty sockets in his mouth where several teeth used to be. And Ohma, our lord and sigma, is back in smug prick mode. It was tough he says, with the crowd, to identify Kaburagi's sound.
Kaburagi's confused, but not to worry! In sweeps Nogi for another bit of Sharply Dressed Man Wisdom. He cites something he calls the "cocktail party effect", which is basically just that thing where you tune out sounds that go on too long. Like, if you've ever been in a public place, the general background noise of cars and indistinct conversations eventually just stops registering. Ohma made sure he was making as little noise himself as possible, and tuned out the crowd just in time to hear Kaburagi's heavy breathing, heart beat and so on as he leapt in for the kill.
So basically, the whole plan went to shit because Kaburagi took too long to capitalise on it, and apparently never twigged to this basic aspect of human auditory processing despite his demonstrated technical knowledge of how to exploit human hearing.
What a fucking copout.
Like holy shit, what a lame way for the protagonist to get out of a bind. Just "lol, no". It worked, but fuck you no it didn't. You wanted something clever? For Ohma to figure something out, or demonstrate a technique for overcoming debilitation? Anything interesting? Hah, no.
Anyway, the disappointment immediately continues as Kaburagi begins to lose his cool. Shouting about how he's had it with Ohma's cocky attitude (which is fair, if I'm being honest), he hucks a shoe past his opponent and lunges forward as it hits the floor. A feint, in theory, suggesting an attack from behind when he's actually still at his side.
Kaburagi, down a few more teeth, lands on the floor seething and malding. He reaches inside his mouth, indignantly insisting that he's still got tricks ready to go, and with a flick of his thumb launches something at Ohma. He parries it, and the projectile rebounds off his fist with incredible force, cracking the concrete floor and throwing up a plume of dust at the audience's feet.
There's now a tooth embedded in the floor.
Kaburagi tries to play cool for a second, thanking Ohma for the beating, before his face pinches up with fury and he screams about how he's gonna riddle Ohma full of holes. And it's not an idle threat, flicking a tooth with enough force to pierce stone is probably the second most superhuman display of strength in the manga so far, only exceeded by Komada's stomp in chapter 1.
We shift to Ohma's PoV, as he confirms a new sound. The panels black out, a classic visual signifier that we're working without sight here, and he picks out the sound of multiple flying objects moving at him in a straight line. By rights those teeth are moving faster than sound if they're being fired with that much force, but whatever.
I'm still annoyed, but this shit remains cool. Nyoom!
He slips through. "Impossible!" Kaburagi protests, sealing his fate as an early-stage battle manga antagonist. He whinges, questioning how his skills could be outdone by "a little brat." It's a sort of pride he has, I suppose, if an unspoken one. He may not win his matches, but he achieves his goal, usually. Still, it's sad that no real effort is being made to elevate him beyond an early bit-part stepping stone for the protagonist.
Anyway, Ohma's rushing in and opens his eyes, cutting Kaburagi off with sheer terror as he reveals his eyes are just solid red. A demon? Kaburagi asks, shrieking incoherently, as Yamashita cheers Ohma on. He lunges, fast, far too fast for Kaburagi to dodge now he's back on his game. And so, the man gives up outright. Literally screaming Uncle.
I actually like this panel, despite it all. You can feel the air pressure of his fist stopping.
Kaburagi plops to the ground (that's not my wording, it's literally the sound effect they use) and a winner is declared. Tokita Ohma's record is now 2/0, and the crowd goes wild. Yamashita celebrates in his looney tunes way, Akiyama quietly claps, and Nogi crosses his arms with a satisfied smile. Koyama mart's CEO seems almost relieved, interestingly enough, and takes the loss with much more grace than Kaburagi did, congratulating Nogi on finding a fine fighter. One that might take him to the summit of the Kengan Matches. He does something on his phone.
I'm sure it's nothing.
Back with Ohma, he apologises to Kaburagi, noting that he did end up hurting him a bit. Which, while still deeply smug, is still a callback I can appreciate. Even if Kaburagi isn't sufficiently conscious to share my amusement. Ohma wanders off, noting he was right all along.
God, I wish Ohma wasn't such a shithead this early, or this panel would be much more fun.
Also, we get another summary of the match and its stakes. Ohma won after two minutes and eleven seconds by forfeit, winning Nogi Group "Rose", an art piece by Western painter…Van Cough. Which has a market value of 5 billion yen. Lol.
So, that was the second match of the series so far. And it. Is. A letdown.
When I skip the first stretch of the series, the vague, half-remembered shadow of these last four chapters is the spectre that rises in the back of my head. Rereading it now it's not completely without worth or meaning, but it's definitely pretty short on both. The art continued to be a standout quality of the manga, visibly refining in some panels (especially the kick at the start of chapter 11, i mean god damn), but was used for a plot that was just so much more full of holes than the last match. I've gone over the weaknesses of the plot in the prior chapters so I won't labour the specifics, but it's definitely got the scent of a plot that the writer figured was a lot smarter than it actually is, and than he had the ability to execute.
Which isn't to say there isn't the seed of something here. A foe like Kaburagi is a natural early opponent in a Battle manga, someone who challenges and stretches the limits of what's allowed in a match, or even breaks them entirely, in a way that hampers the Protagonist's natural advantages. Something to force them to flex outside of their box, or to reveal the true depth of their skills. We've been over the specific structural and expositional problems of the match, but ultimately what really kills it is a failure to tie it all together at the end. We don't learn anything about Ohma or how he fights in this match, and Ohma doesn't engage with the challenge. Either one the match could maybe have survived, but both just kills the whole thing stone dead. We already knew Ohma had, as the manga would put it, ridiculous physical specs. We didn't need him to just flatly overwhelm Kaburagi to know that. If Ohma had managed to obviate the disadvantage using one of the other techniques of his style, then that would have moved the story forward at least a bit. It's how this sort of martial arts story goes, it's what these early fights are largely for. And if Ohma had been forced to work within his demonstrated moveset and figure out some kind of clever or characterful response, then the fight might at least have been fun to follow even if it didn't teach us anything.
Like, consider a similar sort of fight in Bleach. Zaraki Kenpachi is a massive juggernaut of a character who bulldozes through most fights he's involved in with direct, overwhelming power. Kaname Tousen is a much more deft and deliberate fighter and, importantly, completely blind. They fight late in the Soul Society arc, and Tousen uses his Bankai mode to transform the rings hanging off his sword into a huge zone where anyone except him experiences near total sensory deprivation. No sight, hearing or spiritual senses, just touch and your internal spacial senses. Kenpachi is near helpless, in a similar way to Ohma in this match. This example, a shonen manga where Kenpachi is already the sort of character who overwhelms people with sheer power, could almost get away with what Kengan Asura pulled, but no. After a while keeping his wounds to only shallow cuts by dodging as soon as he feels steel, Kenpachi deliberately lets Tousen stab him. And then grabs the sword hand to hold him in place. Knowing where his opponent is, he carves him like a christmas turkey, winning the fight. That's much more interesting and creative, and tells us things about what a terrifying weirdo Kenpachi is.
And, well, it'd be remiss of me if I didn't at least talk a bit about the fatphobia thing. It's hardly a unique problem to Kengan Asura, or indeed to Manga. As far as I know, basically every first world nation uses fatness as coding for various forms of moral decay, and that's 100% what's happening here. Kaburagi is a squalid little shithead, and then by the end of the fight what little integrity he has melts away in favour of wild, pathetic squealing. Despite his occasional displays of athleticism, the manga's fantastic art is turned against Kaburagi, using his weight and sweatiness to try and make the reader uncomfortable. I can at least say future overweight characters won't be as extreme as him in their design being used to scream "look how disgusting this fat fuck is, holy shit" but…they aren't exactly going to be kind either. It's a rare thing in media of any nation to see plus size characters who are heroic, skilled, or just flat out good people in ways that aren't dopey and infantilising. And that's just for the men, it's even fucking worse for women. At least you do occasionally see men in media, if rarely, who's weight has a variety of connotations or is just not remarked upon. Plus size women? Objects of ridicule, damn near 100% of the time.
None of this is to say you can't have plus size villains, or plus size women who are funny, in your story. Just practise some care, and maybe have more than one or two people with thicker waistlines going on. This is generally good practice for any social group treated problematically in media honestly, the more there are in your story the harder it is for any one of them to come off as a statement on their entire group.
So, there it is. At least with my foreknowledge of the manga to come, I know that this is the nadir of Kengan Asura's fightin' writin'. But one last note, before I sign off. This is another chapter that ends with a character profile, Nogi specifically. It doesn't say all that much of interest (aside from his age. Holy shit, my dude looks good for 61!) but right at the end it notes that he seems to be planning something. And he does seem to be, doesn't he? The people turning up to the Rihito match, the long work setting up the seemingly relatively low stakes Koyama Mart match. The tests for Ohma, his weird preoccupation with Yamashita.
Next chapter marks where my previous, private reading of the Manga began. The point at which the little seeds of foreshadowing we've been getting here and there begin to sprout. Buckle your seatbelts kids, this is where things start to pick up. In terms of the plot, the fights, and in fascinating new vistas of problematic bullshit. Yes sir, we're leaving the dank woods of mostly just Alpha bullshit for wide open fields of varied grossness soon, don't you worry.
See you next time.
It's over.
A kick so powerful even the panels cannot contain it.
Everyone is flabbergasted. Kaburagi's employer, the random nobodies in the background, Yamashita. Especially Yamashita, who doesn't seem to take relief any better than panic. Kaburagi's still processing it, blood trailing from the empty sockets in his mouth where several teeth used to be. And Ohma, our lord and sigma, is back in smug prick mode. It was tough he says, with the crowd, to identify Kaburagi's sound.
Kaburagi's confused, but not to worry! In sweeps Nogi for another bit of Sharply Dressed Man Wisdom. He cites something he calls the "cocktail party effect", which is basically just that thing where you tune out sounds that go on too long. Like, if you've ever been in a public place, the general background noise of cars and indistinct conversations eventually just stops registering. Ohma made sure he was making as little noise himself as possible, and tuned out the crowd just in time to hear Kaburagi's heavy breathing, heart beat and so on as he leapt in for the kill.
So basically, the whole plan went to shit because Kaburagi took too long to capitalise on it, and apparently never twigged to this basic aspect of human auditory processing despite his demonstrated technical knowledge of how to exploit human hearing.
What a fucking copout.
Like holy shit, what a lame way for the protagonist to get out of a bind. Just "lol, no". It worked, but fuck you no it didn't. You wanted something clever? For Ohma to figure something out, or demonstrate a technique for overcoming debilitation? Anything interesting? Hah, no.
Anyway, the disappointment immediately continues as Kaburagi begins to lose his cool. Shouting about how he's had it with Ohma's cocky attitude (which is fair, if I'm being honest), he hucks a shoe past his opponent and lunges forward as it hits the floor. A feint, in theory, suggesting an attack from behind when he's actually still at his side.
Kaburagi, down a few more teeth, lands on the floor seething and malding. He reaches inside his mouth, indignantly insisting that he's still got tricks ready to go, and with a flick of his thumb launches something at Ohma. He parries it, and the projectile rebounds off his fist with incredible force, cracking the concrete floor and throwing up a plume of dust at the audience's feet.
There's now a tooth embedded in the floor.
Kaburagi tries to play cool for a second, thanking Ohma for the beating, before his face pinches up with fury and he screams about how he's gonna riddle Ohma full of holes. And it's not an idle threat, flicking a tooth with enough force to pierce stone is probably the second most superhuman display of strength in the manga so far, only exceeded by Komada's stomp in chapter 1.
We shift to Ohma's PoV, as he confirms a new sound. The panels black out, a classic visual signifier that we're working without sight here, and he picks out the sound of multiple flying objects moving at him in a straight line. By rights those teeth are moving faster than sound if they're being fired with that much force, but whatever.
I'm still annoyed, but this shit remains cool. Nyoom!
He slips through. "Impossible!" Kaburagi protests, sealing his fate as an early-stage battle manga antagonist. He whinges, questioning how his skills could be outdone by "a little brat." It's a sort of pride he has, I suppose, if an unspoken one. He may not win his matches, but he achieves his goal, usually. Still, it's sad that no real effort is being made to elevate him beyond an early bit-part stepping stone for the protagonist.
Anyway, Ohma's rushing in and opens his eyes, cutting Kaburagi off with sheer terror as he reveals his eyes are just solid red. A demon? Kaburagi asks, shrieking incoherently, as Yamashita cheers Ohma on. He lunges, fast, far too fast for Kaburagi to dodge now he's back on his game. And so, the man gives up outright. Literally screaming Uncle.
I actually like this panel, despite it all. You can feel the air pressure of his fist stopping.
Kaburagi plops to the ground (that's not my wording, it's literally the sound effect they use) and a winner is declared. Tokita Ohma's record is now 2/0, and the crowd goes wild. Yamashita celebrates in his looney tunes way, Akiyama quietly claps, and Nogi crosses his arms with a satisfied smile. Koyama mart's CEO seems almost relieved, interestingly enough, and takes the loss with much more grace than Kaburagi did, congratulating Nogi on finding a fine fighter. One that might take him to the summit of the Kengan Matches. He does something on his phone.
I'm sure it's nothing.
Back with Ohma, he apologises to Kaburagi, noting that he did end up hurting him a bit. Which, while still deeply smug, is still a callback I can appreciate. Even if Kaburagi isn't sufficiently conscious to share my amusement. Ohma wanders off, noting he was right all along.
God, I wish Ohma wasn't such a shithead this early, or this panel would be much more fun.
Also, we get another summary of the match and its stakes. Ohma won after two minutes and eleven seconds by forfeit, winning Nogi Group "Rose", an art piece by Western painter…Van Cough. Which has a market value of 5 billion yen. Lol.
So, that was the second match of the series so far. And it. Is. A letdown.
When I skip the first stretch of the series, the vague, half-remembered shadow of these last four chapters is the spectre that rises in the back of my head. Rereading it now it's not completely without worth or meaning, but it's definitely pretty short on both. The art continued to be a standout quality of the manga, visibly refining in some panels (especially the kick at the start of chapter 11, i mean god damn), but was used for a plot that was just so much more full of holes than the last match. I've gone over the weaknesses of the plot in the prior chapters so I won't labour the specifics, but it's definitely got the scent of a plot that the writer figured was a lot smarter than it actually is, and than he had the ability to execute.
Which isn't to say there isn't the seed of something here. A foe like Kaburagi is a natural early opponent in a Battle manga, someone who challenges and stretches the limits of what's allowed in a match, or even breaks them entirely, in a way that hampers the Protagonist's natural advantages. Something to force them to flex outside of their box, or to reveal the true depth of their skills. We've been over the specific structural and expositional problems of the match, but ultimately what really kills it is a failure to tie it all together at the end. We don't learn anything about Ohma or how he fights in this match, and Ohma doesn't engage with the challenge. Either one the match could maybe have survived, but both just kills the whole thing stone dead. We already knew Ohma had, as the manga would put it, ridiculous physical specs. We didn't need him to just flatly overwhelm Kaburagi to know that. If Ohma had managed to obviate the disadvantage using one of the other techniques of his style, then that would have moved the story forward at least a bit. It's how this sort of martial arts story goes, it's what these early fights are largely for. And if Ohma had been forced to work within his demonstrated moveset and figure out some kind of clever or characterful response, then the fight might at least have been fun to follow even if it didn't teach us anything.
Like, consider a similar sort of fight in Bleach. Zaraki Kenpachi is a massive juggernaut of a character who bulldozes through most fights he's involved in with direct, overwhelming power. Kaname Tousen is a much more deft and deliberate fighter and, importantly, completely blind. They fight late in the Soul Society arc, and Tousen uses his Bankai mode to transform the rings hanging off his sword into a huge zone where anyone except him experiences near total sensory deprivation. No sight, hearing or spiritual senses, just touch and your internal spacial senses. Kenpachi is near helpless, in a similar way to Ohma in this match. This example, a shonen manga where Kenpachi is already the sort of character who overwhelms people with sheer power, could almost get away with what Kengan Asura pulled, but no. After a while keeping his wounds to only shallow cuts by dodging as soon as he feels steel, Kenpachi deliberately lets Tousen stab him. And then grabs the sword hand to hold him in place. Knowing where his opponent is, he carves him like a christmas turkey, winning the fight. That's much more interesting and creative, and tells us things about what a terrifying weirdo Kenpachi is.
And, well, it'd be remiss of me if I didn't at least talk a bit about the fatphobia thing. It's hardly a unique problem to Kengan Asura, or indeed to Manga. As far as I know, basically every first world nation uses fatness as coding for various forms of moral decay, and that's 100% what's happening here. Kaburagi is a squalid little shithead, and then by the end of the fight what little integrity he has melts away in favour of wild, pathetic squealing. Despite his occasional displays of athleticism, the manga's fantastic art is turned against Kaburagi, using his weight and sweatiness to try and make the reader uncomfortable. I can at least say future overweight characters won't be as extreme as him in their design being used to scream "look how disgusting this fat fuck is, holy shit" but…they aren't exactly going to be kind either. It's a rare thing in media of any nation to see plus size characters who are heroic, skilled, or just flat out good people in ways that aren't dopey and infantilising. And that's just for the men, it's even fucking worse for women. At least you do occasionally see men in media, if rarely, who's weight has a variety of connotations or is just not remarked upon. Plus size women? Objects of ridicule, damn near 100% of the time.
None of this is to say you can't have plus size villains, or plus size women who are funny, in your story. Just practise some care, and maybe have more than one or two people with thicker waistlines going on. This is generally good practice for any social group treated problematically in media honestly, the more there are in your story the harder it is for any one of them to come off as a statement on their entire group.
So, there it is. At least with my foreknowledge of the manga to come, I know that this is the nadir of Kengan Asura's fightin' writin'. But one last note, before I sign off. This is another chapter that ends with a character profile, Nogi specifically. It doesn't say all that much of interest (aside from his age. Holy shit, my dude looks good for 61!) but right at the end it notes that he seems to be planning something. And he does seem to be, doesn't he? The people turning up to the Rihito match, the long work setting up the seemingly relatively low stakes Koyama Mart match. The tests for Ohma, his weird preoccupation with Yamashita.
Next chapter marks where my previous, private reading of the Manga began. The point at which the little seeds of foreshadowing we've been getting here and there begin to sprout. Buckle your seatbelts kids, this is where things start to pick up. In terms of the plot, the fights, and in fascinating new vistas of problematic bullshit. Yes sir, we're leaving the dank woods of mostly just Alpha bullshit for wide open fields of varied grossness soon, don't you worry.
See you next time.
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BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It really is a damn shame about this fight. And honestly a lot of the reactions Ohma could have made to Kaburagi's final needle attack, that I can think of, are actually relatively simple and kinetic; things that play to Kengan's artistic strengths.
Or even before that, honestly. I think part of the issue with this fight is that the author put themselves into a bad position to write from when they had Ohma turtle up. Once he turtled up, it kinda seems like they couldn't think of good options there or simply didn't see the need. Instead if they'd done something else after the head dribbling Ohma got, they wouldn't have undercut the Mosquito set up.
Or even before that, honestly. I think part of the issue with this fight is that the author put themselves into a bad position to write from when they had Ohma turtle up. Once he turtled up, it kinda seems like they couldn't think of good options there or simply didn't see the need. Instead if they'd done something else after the head dribbling Ohma got, they wouldn't have undercut the Mosquito set up.
1337Procrast
Fire Emblem Enjoyer
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You know my memories of this fight told me that someone outside of the fight went and helped by destroying the amp. (mostly by accident) Apparently my brain just saw this thorough lack of any actual dramatic tension or resolution and inserted a different plot in place instead lmao.
Chapter 12 - Intruder
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Well folks, it's a brand new arc. We've had the introductory meathead, we've had the shockingly pointless rulebreaker, now who's going to face our lord and sigma ne-
Oh.
Oh, we're doing something different this time. A brand new location, and not for a Kengan battle or socialisation between preexisting cast members. It's time to expand.
Welcome to Koyo Women's university, in all its glory. It's clearly phenomenally rich, even aside from its beautiful front we see wide open spaces, and pass through them to a building styled on the god damn Colosseum. Ringed by trees and immaculately clean, this is the Main Lecture hall of the University. Presumably where the most prominent speakers lecture audiences of hundreds and ceremonies are held, rather than where day to day classes happen. But there's none of that happening today, the doors are barred with a sign, announcing that for now the space is being used as an Applicant Testing venue. Unauthorised entry is forbidden, for the entire day.
There's just one thing marring the image of a perfect, upper class institute of higher learning. Distant booms and cracks of bone on flesh, and a cloying miasma of hostility emanating from the building's doors.
Within, at the amphitheatre's centre, dozens of men beat each other senseless.
Can it possibly be? New female cast members?!
So yeah, another Association member is hosting a screening process for new Fighters. Interesting as it is that a University would have the capital to engage with the Kengan Association's business focus (but then, I suppose transactions frequently being remanded to Trial by Combat would help make that feasible) it doesn't seem to be going well. Tomoko is confused, she's mostly just sort of overwhelmed by the violence, but Shion clarifies that there was no point to this exam. Mostly because of one guy.
She points to two young men, clearly individuals of skill and focus, boxing to one side of the arena before they are blown away in an instant by a third man. Tomoko is awed by the impact, and Shion has yet to demonstrate any emotion beyond vague irritation.
This man is Koyo Women's University's main affiliated fighter, Ozu Toshio, with a record of 11 wins and 0 losses.
…what, were you expecting the Women's university to have a woman fighter? Hohoho, how droll. Everyone knows women can't fight. That simply wouldn't be realistic. I am very intelligent.
Anyway, after a brief aside to discuss Ozu's Clark-Kent-esque public image, something he's very meticulous about, a bunch of the fighter candidates get exactly the wrong idea. You'd think that, given they're being tested for their ability to be useful in a 1v1 context, some of them might guess that ganging up on their examiner would be a failstate. And, well…
Look at that vanishing arm, the motion blur over the victim's entire body, and the trailing arc of blood. Gorgeous lines of action.
Tomoko, as our hapless outsider for the chapter, is confused as to why all this is even necessary. This certainly looks like sufficiently overwhelming violence for Shion's purposes. And, well, Shion doesn't disagree, he's served perfectly well in the past. His record is, after all, perfect. The problem is something that's been steadily built up over the last few chapters. Shion notes that someone's stirring up the Kengan matches, pulling some kind of shenanigans, and they need to be ready. She needs immediate strength to spare, and she needs it now.
All this is in a panel with Nogi in the background, in case there was any ambiguity as to what she's talking about.
Apparently it's not Toxic Masculinity if a woman says it?
So yeah, this seems like a wash. But then, out of the corner of her eye, Shion notices something. A guy sitting against a wall on the edge of the Amphitheatre. He's lean, very pretty and watching the fighting with a sort of melancholy smile. Shion asks Tomoko what she thinks of him, and the younger woman flounders a bit, not sure what Shion wants from her, right up until he notices he's being discussed and gives them a wave.
Tomoko, with a blush, immediately changes her tune to noting he's absolutely her type, while waving back to him. Which isn't what Shion was asking at all, and she says as much, wondering what she's on about.
She still waves back too though, albeit with a bored expression. Just being polite, I guess.
Back down in the Amphitheatre, Ozu's finished with the other Examinees and turns to the Twink. He reads the situation as the young man saving his stamina, which is both an interesting first assumption in terms of his mindset, and a fair one. He's a veteran of at least a year, going by the usual fights-per-year averages in the Kengan matches, and he's clearly immersed in the mindset. Twink, still looking placid and melancholy, finally stands to meet Ozu's fist as it descends on him with all the power in Ozu's body. A body which has already demonstrated the ability to scatter men like paper ornaments.
Obviously Twink makes a single, graceful motion, and the fist is turned aside. We all knew that was going to happen.
But that's not the only swerve.
Shion is surprised, but her reaction is reserved as usual. Tomoko is shocked, but not by Twink's display of skill. She's been counting bodies, and 35 people registered for this exam. Counting Ozu, there should be 36 people in the Amphitheatre. She's double checked her maths, and there's 37 people in there now.
And then both women notice this.
Ohoho, you try to punch me? Mayhaps I twimst your arm around mineself, and end your whole damn career!
That is not the result of a delicately placed parry. Something's fucky here, and Ozu knows it. You don't get a perfect 11 match win streak in the Kengan matches while also being an idiot, and this man's a university lecturer on top. He knows his shit, he's in the realm of fighters who can feel an opponent's strength, the culmination of thousands of little signifiers of well built form and puissant skill.
An oily aura, eh. I wonder if this coding for uncleanness and moral decay might be relevant later.
Shion makes a snap judgement, commanding Ozu to stand down. But he doesn't. He swears upon the muscles and intellect he's built over the past 25 years that he will fulfil his responsibility as examiner. What he actually means, I reckon, is that his pride has been wounded and he's throwing his better judgement out of the window. Or, at least, that is how it reads to me.
Shion, by her expression, clearly knows what comes next. It's not clear if Ozu does.
Even after his neck has been twisted 540 degrees.
We cut to a short time later. All the bodies have been cleared from the amphitheatre, both unconscious and dead, and Shion gets straight to the point. How did Twink find out about this test? As he slips on a shirt, leaving it open so we can see his delightfully chiselled body, he hums noncommittally before leaving it at "people will talk." Shion doesn't push it, despite it being clear bullshit. She's playing a dangerous game here and she knows it, she's not going to provoke him if she can help it. Instead she moves on to another question. Why. He clearly broke in for a reason, so what is it? Generally promoting himself for the Kengan matches?
This, he has a specific answer for. He wants to see…him.
Manga Don't Be Weird About Gender Nonconformity Challenge: Difficulty Impossible.
Second dude in the manga who isn't strictly masculine, and he's a fucking Yandere superkiller. I'm not surprised, and you shouldn't be either.
Anyway, Shion immediately takes him on board as her fighter. Tomoko protests, before shakily pulling back on the throttle to ask her boss if she's actually sure about it, but Shion is firm. He's dangerous and she knows it, but if they can keep him under control he's clearly phenomenally powerful.
…and more practically, he just stone cold murdered Koyo's main fighter. They need a replacement.
They shake on their new business agreement, and we finally get a name for what's obviously a new villain. Kiryu Setsuna. He'd like to know when his debut match will be, but Shion asks him to hold on for a bit. There's going to be a massive wave in the Kengan Association soon, and she wants him to ride that wave. End chapter.
So, absolutely no familiar faces this chapter. And, it seems, no setup for a new match in the format of the previous two mini-arcs.
Of the new faces this chapter, I think I like Soryuin Shion the most. This manga is badly in need of a more diverse cast, and while she's not exactly rocking the boat in terms of body type, she's still a woman in a position of authority who wears that power like a familiar coat. She's canny and firm, in control of her surroundings and secure in that control. Unflappable in much the same way as Nogi is, which tells me that the manga thinks highly of her. At least for now. As for the other two major introductions, Matsuda Tomoko is…okay? She's a perfectly serviceable character for her role for now, another Yamashita figure for situations where he isn't present to have things explained to him. Not exactly elegant, but at least she isn't unblinkingly swallowing long lectures on neomasculinity, so you know what I'll fucking take it. As for our third…
Let's have a little talk about CODING.
No, not as in programming, I mean the creative and critical tool. Coding is, at baseline, a value-neutral term referring to the uncountable number of little flourishes in behaviour, visual and audio cues, character voice, and other means fiction uses to communicate to the audience that play on pre-existing concepts within the cultural zeitgeist. Fuck me that was a long sentence, how about an example to maybe make it a little clearer? When trying to communicate that Scar in Disney's Lion King is a villain, someone unpleasant and meant to be hated, they have him behave a specific way. He's obsequious, a little flirty, uses effeminate gestures and lilts to his speech, has a much sleeker and more lovingly maintained mane than the other Lions. He, to put it short, uses cues at the time associated with gay men to communicate that he's bad and wrong and not to be trusted.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Setsuna is the second gender nonconformative man to be introduced in the cast, and while his actual design might not be as extreme as Yoshitake's it's still leveraged in attempts to make the audience uneasy. And that's before he turns to the screen and makes a fucking yandere face while talking in fucky crazy text about how much he'd like to see "Him" again. Obviously referring to Ohma. Coding is, on its own, neither good nor bad, it is simply a tool. And in contexts like this it's an extremely useful tool for explaining what's wrong with how a character is executed. Objectively stupid people might object to my distaste for Setsuna as a character by asking if I simply don't believe gay people should ever be bad guys, which is obviously ridiculous. The problem is, as it is in so many cases, that the character's gay coding is being used to inform the audience how they should feel about the character. It's at once being framed as bad and used to tell us that he is bad. His presence is terrifying and unclean, he's unstable, a murdering maniac, and pushed to these extremes explicitly by his feelings for another man, which are in part exposited by a panel of him with his lips highlighted as if painted and the lighting shadowing his face as if fiercely blushing.
And the worst part is, we haven't seen anything yet. This specifically? Is going to get so much worse.
As for the chapter as a whole…well, more good art but you knew that already. If it weren't for the coding issue I just described, Setsuna's presence being portrayed as slick and acidic would have been great, and the panels of Ozu's death get across the shocking suddenness very well. Outside of the gross characterisation of Setsuna, the chapter is mostly an unexciting setup thing. We're here mostly to do two things. One, introduce Setsuna and make clear he's a dangerous villain, which I suppose was technically accomplished. And two, continue to build up heat for Nogi's schemes. Which I'm a good bit happier with. I love a good, subtle buildup to a main character shaking up the status quo.
See you all next time.
Oh.
Oh, we're doing something different this time. A brand new location, and not for a Kengan battle or socialisation between preexisting cast members. It's time to expand.
Welcome to Koyo Women's university, in all its glory. It's clearly phenomenally rich, even aside from its beautiful front we see wide open spaces, and pass through them to a building styled on the god damn Colosseum. Ringed by trees and immaculately clean, this is the Main Lecture hall of the University. Presumably where the most prominent speakers lecture audiences of hundreds and ceremonies are held, rather than where day to day classes happen. But there's none of that happening today, the doors are barred with a sign, announcing that for now the space is being used as an Applicant Testing venue. Unauthorised entry is forbidden, for the entire day.
There's just one thing marring the image of a perfect, upper class institute of higher learning. Distant booms and cracks of bone on flesh, and a cloying miasma of hostility emanating from the building's doors.
Within, at the amphitheatre's centre, dozens of men beat each other senseless.
Can it possibly be? New female cast members?!
So yeah, another Association member is hosting a screening process for new Fighters. Interesting as it is that a University would have the capital to engage with the Kengan Association's business focus (but then, I suppose transactions frequently being remanded to Trial by Combat would help make that feasible) it doesn't seem to be going well. Tomoko is confused, she's mostly just sort of overwhelmed by the violence, but Shion clarifies that there was no point to this exam. Mostly because of one guy.
She points to two young men, clearly individuals of skill and focus, boxing to one side of the arena before they are blown away in an instant by a third man. Tomoko is awed by the impact, and Shion has yet to demonstrate any emotion beyond vague irritation.
This man is Koyo Women's University's main affiliated fighter, Ozu Toshio, with a record of 11 wins and 0 losses.
…what, were you expecting the Women's university to have a woman fighter? Hohoho, how droll. Everyone knows women can't fight. That simply wouldn't be realistic. I am very intelligent.
Anyway, after a brief aside to discuss Ozu's Clark-Kent-esque public image, something he's very meticulous about, a bunch of the fighter candidates get exactly the wrong idea. You'd think that, given they're being tested for their ability to be useful in a 1v1 context, some of them might guess that ganging up on their examiner would be a failstate. And, well…
Look at that vanishing arm, the motion blur over the victim's entire body, and the trailing arc of blood. Gorgeous lines of action.
Tomoko, as our hapless outsider for the chapter, is confused as to why all this is even necessary. This certainly looks like sufficiently overwhelming violence for Shion's purposes. And, well, Shion doesn't disagree, he's served perfectly well in the past. His record is, after all, perfect. The problem is something that's been steadily built up over the last few chapters. Shion notes that someone's stirring up the Kengan matches, pulling some kind of shenanigans, and they need to be ready. She needs immediate strength to spare, and she needs it now.
All this is in a panel with Nogi in the background, in case there was any ambiguity as to what she's talking about.
Apparently it's not Toxic Masculinity if a woman says it?
So yeah, this seems like a wash. But then, out of the corner of her eye, Shion notices something. A guy sitting against a wall on the edge of the Amphitheatre. He's lean, very pretty and watching the fighting with a sort of melancholy smile. Shion asks Tomoko what she thinks of him, and the younger woman flounders a bit, not sure what Shion wants from her, right up until he notices he's being discussed and gives them a wave.
Tomoko, with a blush, immediately changes her tune to noting he's absolutely her type, while waving back to him. Which isn't what Shion was asking at all, and she says as much, wondering what she's on about.
She still waves back too though, albeit with a bored expression. Just being polite, I guess.
Back down in the Amphitheatre, Ozu's finished with the other Examinees and turns to the Twink. He reads the situation as the young man saving his stamina, which is both an interesting first assumption in terms of his mindset, and a fair one. He's a veteran of at least a year, going by the usual fights-per-year averages in the Kengan matches, and he's clearly immersed in the mindset. Twink, still looking placid and melancholy, finally stands to meet Ozu's fist as it descends on him with all the power in Ozu's body. A body which has already demonstrated the ability to scatter men like paper ornaments.
Obviously Twink makes a single, graceful motion, and the fist is turned aside. We all knew that was going to happen.
But that's not the only swerve.
Shion is surprised, but her reaction is reserved as usual. Tomoko is shocked, but not by Twink's display of skill. She's been counting bodies, and 35 people registered for this exam. Counting Ozu, there should be 36 people in the Amphitheatre. She's double checked her maths, and there's 37 people in there now.
And then both women notice this.
Ohoho, you try to punch me? Mayhaps I twimst your arm around mineself, and end your whole damn career!
That is not the result of a delicately placed parry. Something's fucky here, and Ozu knows it. You don't get a perfect 11 match win streak in the Kengan matches while also being an idiot, and this man's a university lecturer on top. He knows his shit, he's in the realm of fighters who can feel an opponent's strength, the culmination of thousands of little signifiers of well built form and puissant skill.
An oily aura, eh. I wonder if this coding for uncleanness and moral decay might be relevant later.
Shion makes a snap judgement, commanding Ozu to stand down. But he doesn't. He swears upon the muscles and intellect he's built over the past 25 years that he will fulfil his responsibility as examiner. What he actually means, I reckon, is that his pride has been wounded and he's throwing his better judgement out of the window. Or, at least, that is how it reads to me.
Shion, by her expression, clearly knows what comes next. It's not clear if Ozu does.
Even after his neck has been twisted 540 degrees.
We cut to a short time later. All the bodies have been cleared from the amphitheatre, both unconscious and dead, and Shion gets straight to the point. How did Twink find out about this test? As he slips on a shirt, leaving it open so we can see his delightfully chiselled body, he hums noncommittally before leaving it at "people will talk." Shion doesn't push it, despite it being clear bullshit. She's playing a dangerous game here and she knows it, she's not going to provoke him if she can help it. Instead she moves on to another question. Why. He clearly broke in for a reason, so what is it? Generally promoting himself for the Kengan matches?
This, he has a specific answer for. He wants to see…him.
Manga Don't Be Weird About Gender Nonconformity Challenge: Difficulty Impossible.
Second dude in the manga who isn't strictly masculine, and he's a fucking Yandere superkiller. I'm not surprised, and you shouldn't be either.
Anyway, Shion immediately takes him on board as her fighter. Tomoko protests, before shakily pulling back on the throttle to ask her boss if she's actually sure about it, but Shion is firm. He's dangerous and she knows it, but if they can keep him under control he's clearly phenomenally powerful.
…and more practically, he just stone cold murdered Koyo's main fighter. They need a replacement.
They shake on their new business agreement, and we finally get a name for what's obviously a new villain. Kiryu Setsuna. He'd like to know when his debut match will be, but Shion asks him to hold on for a bit. There's going to be a massive wave in the Kengan Association soon, and she wants him to ride that wave. End chapter.
So, absolutely no familiar faces this chapter. And, it seems, no setup for a new match in the format of the previous two mini-arcs.
Of the new faces this chapter, I think I like Soryuin Shion the most. This manga is badly in need of a more diverse cast, and while she's not exactly rocking the boat in terms of body type, she's still a woman in a position of authority who wears that power like a familiar coat. She's canny and firm, in control of her surroundings and secure in that control. Unflappable in much the same way as Nogi is, which tells me that the manga thinks highly of her. At least for now. As for the other two major introductions, Matsuda Tomoko is…okay? She's a perfectly serviceable character for her role for now, another Yamashita figure for situations where he isn't present to have things explained to him. Not exactly elegant, but at least she isn't unblinkingly swallowing long lectures on neomasculinity, so you know what I'll fucking take it. As for our third…
Let's have a little talk about CODING.
No, not as in programming, I mean the creative and critical tool. Coding is, at baseline, a value-neutral term referring to the uncountable number of little flourishes in behaviour, visual and audio cues, character voice, and other means fiction uses to communicate to the audience that play on pre-existing concepts within the cultural zeitgeist. Fuck me that was a long sentence, how about an example to maybe make it a little clearer? When trying to communicate that Scar in Disney's Lion King is a villain, someone unpleasant and meant to be hated, they have him behave a specific way. He's obsequious, a little flirty, uses effeminate gestures and lilts to his speech, has a much sleeker and more lovingly maintained mane than the other Lions. He, to put it short, uses cues at the time associated with gay men to communicate that he's bad and wrong and not to be trusted.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Setsuna is the second gender nonconformative man to be introduced in the cast, and while his actual design might not be as extreme as Yoshitake's it's still leveraged in attempts to make the audience uneasy. And that's before he turns to the screen and makes a fucking yandere face while talking in fucky crazy text about how much he'd like to see "Him" again. Obviously referring to Ohma. Coding is, on its own, neither good nor bad, it is simply a tool. And in contexts like this it's an extremely useful tool for explaining what's wrong with how a character is executed. Objectively stupid people might object to my distaste for Setsuna as a character by asking if I simply don't believe gay people should ever be bad guys, which is obviously ridiculous. The problem is, as it is in so many cases, that the character's gay coding is being used to inform the audience how they should feel about the character. It's at once being framed as bad and used to tell us that he is bad. His presence is terrifying and unclean, he's unstable, a murdering maniac, and pushed to these extremes explicitly by his feelings for another man, which are in part exposited by a panel of him with his lips highlighted as if painted and the lighting shadowing his face as if fiercely blushing.
And the worst part is, we haven't seen anything yet. This specifically? Is going to get so much worse.
As for the chapter as a whole…well, more good art but you knew that already. If it weren't for the coding issue I just described, Setsuna's presence being portrayed as slick and acidic would have been great, and the panels of Ozu's death get across the shocking suddenness very well. Outside of the gross characterisation of Setsuna, the chapter is mostly an unexciting setup thing. We're here mostly to do two things. One, introduce Setsuna and make clear he's a dangerous villain, which I suppose was technically accomplished. And two, continue to build up heat for Nogi's schemes. Which I'm a good bit happier with. I love a good, subtle buildup to a main character shaking up the status quo.
See you all next time.
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- Location
- The North
This shit is prolly my number one contender for 'least favorite tropes in a battle manga'. Like... for Fuck's sake, guys. C'mon.
Setsuna's introduction really worked for me the first time I read Kengan, and I've remembered it fondly ever since. I think for me it's the very unsettling nature of his moves - how he twimsts his foes in a manner that seems physically impossible but is horrifically well-detailed nevertheless. Daromeon's art is popping the hell off here.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Oh yeah, certainly. If not for the fact Setsuna is one of the only three GNC guys in the manga (who are also all semi-explicitly gay, btw) then this chapter would probably be a great introduction for a villain. Unfortunately that's not the manga I'm reading, even before it starts throwing around the archaic english term for a bundle of sticks.
- Location
- The North
There is no sorrowful react that I can add to your post so I'll just express my exhaustion with the way that queer people are treated in a lot of media in this post: - _ - And it's not even specifically Japanese media - it seems to be the style these days to call out Japanese creators for being uniquely weird about queer people and that's not a band wagon I'm eager to jump on.
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
While I do love Setsuna as a character, he is a bit iffy, although I also love Yuno Gasai so my tastes are completely non-problematic, obviously.
This, uh, this thread is actually what's gotten me to read Kengan Asura, and I'm not yet all the way finished, but damn, this is a lot of fights, and a lot of weird shit.
A lot of weird shit.
But let's discuss that when we get there, instead let's focus on Tomoko who is honestly one of my favourite minor characters in the series, for the way she nervously goes along with everything but still manages to just... kind of ride it all out.
This, uh, this thread is actually what's gotten me to read Kengan Asura, and I'm not yet all the way finished, but damn, this is a lot of fights, and a lot of weird shit.
A lot of weird shit.
But let's discuss that when we get there, instead let's focus on Tomoko who is honestly one of my favourite minor characters in the series, for the way she nervously goes along with everything but still manages to just... kind of ride it all out.
Chapter 13 - Change
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
The sun is shining, clouds drift overhead on a languid breeze, the power lines hum a paean to the beating heart of industry, and Yamashita's boss is screaming bloody murder at him. It's a perfectly normal day at Nogi Publishing.
Or, well, almost. The tone of the screaming fit is different to the talking to Yamashita got all the way back in chapter 2, and their colleagues can tell. It's proper venting now, and one worker theorises that the manager simply cannot handle the special treatment Yamashita's been getting from the CEO. To a certain extent that's a fair thing to take issue with, but you can be damn sure Mr Manager would have absolutely no issue lording it over people if he were getting that special treatment, so y'know. Fuck him!
Not that it's having any particular effect on Yamashita. There is absolutely nobody home, he is staring off into fairyland without a single neuron firing. He does briefly wake up when the manager says his name again.
To ask if he said anything.
I find it very funny. The manager doesn't, though.
God, that expression. He just looks kinda sad for him.
Yamashita then immediately about-faces and legs it out of the door. Mr Manager objects, obviously, stammering that he's not done talking with a pretty desperate expression, but Yamashita is unmoved. It's urgent and, in his own words, "we'll have to pick this up when I have the time!" Mr Manager, in a very mature display of his discipline and evenness of temper, kicks his bin across the room.
Yamashita really doesn't mean it that way, I know, but christ what a power move. The angle here is clear, contrasting this with the last time Yamashita was in this position is the point, and in that lens there's a clear shift. It's not drastic, Yamashita isn't suddenly an unflappable badass business shark, but he isn't desperately scraping either. He's still anxious and flighty, he still clearly thinks of Mr Manager being in a position of superiority to him, but there's an edge of fear of the man that's been entirely lost. He's tuning him out now, caught up in his new concerns and duties.
I honestly really like these first few pages. Even leaving aside the continued dense, lived in quality to the art of the office, Yamashita's character development is delightfully understated and smooth. No one liners or forced Cool Moment, just a normal guy who's less overwhelmingly terrified of his own shadow after some new experiences.
I really, really wish the beat just stopped here, and I could leave that praise unqualified. But I can't. We get another 12 pages belabouring the point, in much sillier ways.
Just take a deep breath. We can get through this.
We rejoin Yamashita on a busy high street, dense with shops, signs and people all. He's wheezy and drained, rushing to meet his urgent calling, and complaining to himself about how abrupt 'he' is whenever he calls. Being himself, he's jittery and frantic, so in his rush he accidentally clips someone with his shoulder. Being himself still, he immediately apologises. The tattooed thug he clipped takes it personally. Because of course he does.
Very clearly Yamashita's PoV, those upper panels. His eyes locking onto the scary bits.
Angry Lad and the Sneer, a comedy double-act. Neither is impressed by Yamashita's continuing oblivious lack of fear, and though Angry Land is perfectly happy to just smack him one, the Sneer holds him back. He prods Yamashita to prove he's sorry, show a little sincerity, very obviously asking for money in return for zero broken bones. Yamashita asks if he's being shaken down, even phrasing it as explicitly as Extortion, and the Sneer very facetiously disagrees. He just wants a little sincerity! But if he wants to give them some money, well, they'll happily accept it.
Okay, it's kind of silly, but that panel still makes me laugh. The good natured tone to his response really makes it. Even if this whole scenario is still rather…well, we'll get to it.
Angry Lad takes Yamashita's complete dismissal of him as a threat extremely badly, and pulls an actual, honest to god knife over it. This, finally, gets an actual response out of Yamashita, who begins melting into his usual puddle of Looney Tunes fear goop. The Sneer, clearly the brains of the operation, asks if it's really a good idea to pull a knife in public. And it's a fair question given the entire street is now backing away from them and watching. Angry Lad doesn't care though, he feels disrespected and no amount of good sense is going to talk him down at this point.
Unfortunately, both for them and my opinion of this scene, Yamashita's fear response wasn't for the knife. He starts babbling past them, about how "these kids" wouldn't leave him alone.
There's a whole page between these screencaps I skipped, which ended in these grown men literally pissing themselves.
So yeah, Ohma was just mad that Yamashita was late to lunch. Yamashita scrapes and apologises, Ohma is grumpy about it, and the two thugs fade off into the background. Forgotten but for a quick agreement that they need a shower.
Only in the next page do we get a real spark of reaction from Yamashita, specifically to ask if he's stopped reacting to things. We get a brief montage of panels of Yamashita being screamed at, bowing and scraping, ending in him alone in the dark at the bottom of an office stairwell, sat with his work bag clutched to his chest. Crying frustrated, helpless tears.
Damn.
Is he just not affected by things as much anymore?
He muses on the…lemme check my notes…two actual Kengan matches and one street fight he's witnessed. Framing that frankly tiny amount of stuff that he was barely directly involved in as a wide array of strange events, that before he knew it desensitised him until he had nerves of steel.
One thing's for sure, he thinks, staring at Ohma. This man is the primary cause.
Ugghhhh…okay. Here's the thing.
The idea of this first half or so of the chapter is sound, it makes sense for Yamashita to have changed some since chapter 2, but there's two problems here. One, as usual, Kengan Asura spun things out way longer than they needed to be, making it less than the sum of its parts. And two, it's way too fucking early for this! It's too early!
The clearly intended arc here is Yamashita, in being around Ohma and his relentless drive, developing a backbone. And while I don't think they succeeded, the writer clearly knew this was just going to be an interim moment, a minor thing pointing out that Yamashita is changing even if he isn't here yet. But even with that in mind, the thirteenth goddamn chapter, right after one that was completely unrelated to him, is just way too early for a status update like this. He can't possibly have changed enough in two Kengan matches for this chapter to have anything meaningful to demonstrate, and you can see that in how it struggles to reconcile the reality of itself with how early it is. Rather than any degree of additional backbone, Yamashita is just…comically oblivious. And that could have worked if it had just been the initial scene with his Manager, but then we move into the second scene and we're expected to believe he's suddenly not just unbothered by being mugged by two pretty beefy men, but also completely unmoved by the threat of being fucking knifed? It's completely ridiculous, especially given Yamashita was never once personally threatened by the circumstances he attributes his new resilience to.
And then, frankly, even if it had been twelve matches rather than chapters since Yamashita first settled in as basically our main PoV character, these scenes together are just unwieldy. There's strong moments here, for sure. The first three pages work on their own, there's the gag where he takes the facetious framing of the shakedown as optional at face value, and the 4-panel silent montage. But there didn't need to be two separate scenes, unrelated but for their purpose, it just bloats the scene. We didn't need the mugging to escalate to a knife being pulled, it just makes Yamashita look completely gormless. We didn't need the explicit musing on how it must be this manga stuff what he's been in what done it, it just highlights how little has actually happened. So much of it is superfluous and counterproductive, weakening the story by its presence.
Honestly, if it had been up to me, I'd have stuck with just the mugging. Leave the explicit allusion to chapter 2 for later, and start on page 4 with Yamashita walking down a busy street to an urgent appointment. He bumps into the thugs, and then they start shaking him down. He's not so much oblivious as unreactive, and clearly confused by his own lack of reaction, until the thugs start openly threatening violence. At which point the reality of the situation sinks in and he crashes back into the present, actually afraid of the thugs. Then, reflecting his own fear, Ohma appears behind the thugs and intimidates them away. After trying to wrangle Ohma into accepting his apology, Yamashita thinks for a page on how he didn't react at first to the thugs, and it's left at that. Leaving to implication that he's getting used to how scary Ohma is at baseline. It'd probably mean more effort in filling out the rest of this chapter with its other major component, but whatever. That's how editing works.
Anyway, there was supposed to be more chapter, where was…ah, right. Ohma wants to eat at a fancy Beef place, but has somehow spent all his fight money already despite living in a hovel, so he wants Yamashita to cover it. Yamashita laments for his wallet, doubtful he can get the expense covered.
Hard cut, new scene, thank god.
We're in Nogi group headquarters now, the CEO's office, and Akiyama is aghast. She asks if Nogi is kidding, and he is not. Their next Kengan Match will be in five days. Their opposition is Gandai Incorporated. And their fighter? Is the man. The Myth. The legend.
He gets a full page spread to himself, by the way.
He has a Kengan match record of 57 wins. And not a single loss. One of the top fighters in the entire Kengan Association. Akiyama states, with confidence, that Ohma will be crushed. Nogi claims not to care, if he does crumble under the might of Hell's Angel then Nogi will just have to find another fighter.
Privately, he notes that this is Ohma's final trial. End chapter, on a page of Ohma obliterating a huge rack of beef.
Okay, so maybe it would be significant effort to flesh out this last bit. That wasn't much at all. Well, whatever. This was a weak chapter, but aside from the lightness of its last stretch I've already gone over why the rest of it doesn't particularly work. I'm hopeful for the chapters to come, though.
See you all next time.