GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
Seki's blank, almost shocked expression in that first panel says so much. Everything from "this kid is just me isn't he?" to "oh fuck it's happening it's time to pay it forward!"
Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura
- Thread starter Manic Dogma
- Start date
- Discussion Manga
- Pronouns
- They/Them
SEKI-BAYASHI! SEKI-BAYASHI! SEKI-BAYASHI! SEKI-BAYASHI!
Fantastic fight, honestly. Especially coming so close to Wakatsuki's fight, you can feel Sandro getting in his groove to write a genuinely good story between these two. You can almost forget that neither of these guys are the supposed main character; Kiozan is a jobber (doing Gozo proud in the department of people who are there just to take a loss, btw) and Sekibayashi is a returning opponent, but both are treated with great respect by the narrative and given their time to shine and, more importantly, develop. Even Haruo gets a moment of saving grace from it. This here is the kind of thing that makes Kengan Asura, specifically, work so well; how most of the fighters in the tournament, especially as we advance through the story, get treated with respect as characters, both in their styles and in their development.
And honestly, the art, what a show. Ignoring that this fight should have ended with both men dead (especially Kiozan from that powerbomb, Sekibayashi just straight-up killed that man in front of a crowd) we have some of the cleanest (and dirtiest, in a good way) panels of awesome action so far here. Sandro and Daroemon did not go lightly into this one.
There's little I think I could add about this fight, other than that I like how they add a little extra bit of connection by referring to both Kiozan and to the young Sekibayashi as brats throughout the fight, just to make it extra clear that yeah, these two are the same. And Kiozan kinda recognizes it, cuz from now on every time we see him in the stands he's going to be rooting for Sekibayashi, and it's going to be great. That said, I do think this fight goes into an important theme for the manga overall, at least for the fighters: that of staying true to the goals and the dedication you have to win and become the best. A lot of characters have themes centered around Sekibayashi's own story, of being lost and finding themselves through fighting, and through staying true to what they've discovered with it. This honesty, this earnestness, is going to show up a lot still.
Sekibayashi is just the best, and I look forward to seeing him again, both in and out of fights. It's almost a pity to see him leave for now, but then I know who the next fight brings and they are both some of my favorites as well, so I'm well-fed.
Fantastic fight, honestly. Especially coming so close to Wakatsuki's fight, you can feel Sandro getting in his groove to write a genuinely good story between these two. You can almost forget that neither of these guys are the supposed main character; Kiozan is a jobber (doing Gozo proud in the department of people who are there just to take a loss, btw) and Sekibayashi is a returning opponent, but both are treated with great respect by the narrative and given their time to shine and, more importantly, develop. Even Haruo gets a moment of saving grace from it. This here is the kind of thing that makes Kengan Asura, specifically, work so well; how most of the fighters in the tournament, especially as we advance through the story, get treated with respect as characters, both in their styles and in their development.
And honestly, the art, what a show. Ignoring that this fight should have ended with both men dead (especially Kiozan from that powerbomb, Sekibayashi just straight-up killed that man in front of a crowd) we have some of the cleanest (and dirtiest, in a good way) panels of awesome action so far here. Sandro and Daroemon did not go lightly into this one.
There's little I think I could add about this fight, other than that I like how they add a little extra bit of connection by referring to both Kiozan and to the young Sekibayashi as brats throughout the fight, just to make it extra clear that yeah, these two are the same. And Kiozan kinda recognizes it, cuz from now on every time we see him in the stands he's going to be rooting for Sekibayashi, and it's going to be great. That said, I do think this fight goes into an important theme for the manga overall, at least for the fighters: that of staying true to the goals and the dedication you have to win and become the best. A lot of characters have themes centered around Sekibayashi's own story, of being lost and finding themselves through fighting, and through staying true to what they've discovered with it. This honesty, this earnestness, is going to show up a lot still.
Sekibayashi is just the best, and I look forward to seeing him again, both in and out of fights. It's almost a pity to see him leave for now, but then I know who the next fight brings and they are both some of my favorites as well, so I'm well-fed.
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TheFoxsCloak
Professional Otaku
Two things I would like to note. First, that tournament mentioned in the flashback is actually a reference to Fist of the Seeker, Sandro's first ever "published" work. Never heard of it? Not surprising; it was a webcomic he wrote and drew himself, and it's...basically his equivalent of ONE's webcomics vs the actual manga, including the art quality. It is fully scanned on most sites if you care to look, but it is thankfully not required reading. There are a couple of characters in Ashura and a few more in Omega, but the events are not particularly relevant and what is is basically presented as the flashback was, so no context or information is lost.
The second thing, is that while Manic summarized it pretty well, the art is what really sells the Haruo bit this chapter:
It's four panels of build up over one page, but combined with Sekibayashi's reaction it's one of the most heartwarming moments Sandro's ever written.
The second thing, is that while Manic summarized it pretty well, the art is what really sells the Haruo bit this chapter:
It's four panels of build up over one page, but combined with Sekibayashi's reaction it's one of the most heartwarming moments Sandro's ever written.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Mister Bad Guy
Mr Mercury to friends
- Location
- Bay Area
You really gotta appreciate any fighting manga author who manages to take what is essentially Face to Foot Style and make it seem legitimately effective.
Incidentally, at one point in the narration, they surmise about the fact that sumo wrestlers tend to do surprisingly well in the hundred-yard dash, and that Kiozan is actually a bit faster than Murobuchi Gozo when he's mid-charge. So have this footage of sumo wrestlers sprinting.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESVWherecKk
Incidentally, at one point in the narration, they surmise about the fact that sumo wrestlers tend to do surprisingly well in the hundred-yard dash, and that Kiozan is actually a bit faster than Murobuchi Gozo when he's mid-charge. So have this footage of sumo wrestlers sprinting.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESVWherecKk
Rancorious
Continue? Yes or No.
I've got the mother of all Rocky clips to post but I can't because it would only work at the freaking FINALS, so I've got some waiting to do.
Anyways, GOATed fight, GOATed characters, GOATed storytelling, not much else I could add.
And as for next time... YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
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Kensai
我们都是中国人
- Location
- Hel
This has been an amazing ride so far, and thanks for doing it. I'd already read Kengan Asura a while back, and found it superb in a flawed way... and really Sandro is on his own journey here, leaning hard into his style for all its good and bad. Kengan Omega just doesn't hit the same precisely because it's pulled back on both. It has its own charm but it's a lot more mid, and it's gotten too caught up in a draggy overarching plot instead of the tight narrative of Asura. Hopefully Sandro can rediscover the deep passion that Asura evokes, while losing the ick. That would be a hard balance to strike, but his ceiling is really high so we can hope, right?
Lone Courier 6
Devilish Fool
- Location
- United States of Quests
Caught up to this, and I find myself glad that I did so here, on this fight this is probably one of my top 5 fights in Ashura, Sekibayashi is one of my all time favorite characters and all of his fights are a blast to watch.
- Location
- Leeds
Sorry, back on chapter 48 the images stop linking correctly, trying to open them in a separate tab raises a permissions error.
Images begin behaving correctly again on chapter 63.
Has anyone else had an issue here?
Images begin behaving correctly again on chapter 63.
Has anyone else had an issue here?
Kensai
我们都是中国人
- Location
- Hel
Yeah, I had the same problem.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Those would be May updates, which coincide with the same timespan for which I lost the pictures a while back in my own Let's Play thread. I think Manic is using the same gdoc-based workflow as I am, in which case the problem is that for a period time in May of this year Google changed the way hosted image URLs are rendered when copy-pasting from a doc into the reply box, before reverting it eventually.
Simply re-uploading the same update from the same gdoc draft document should fix the pictures.
Simply re-uploading the same update from the same gdoc draft document should fix the pictures.
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Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Agh god, I was wondering when this would happen.
I'll get it fixed.
EDIT: Job's done, those chapters should be fully visible now. Thanks for the warning.
I'll get it fixed.
EDIT: Job's done, those chapters should be fully visible now. Thanks for the warning.
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- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This is an excellent summary of an odd battle manga. I read the whole thing in basically one sitting. (I should not have done that. I should have gone to bed four hours ago.)
...if it was the work of one dude. If it was the work of the other 117 fighters, plus the five survivors? Not so much. Four or five rounds of single-elimination duels would reduce the 123 to five, and 3-4 minutes is an entirely reasonable amount of time for those duels to take, even if they were slowed by combat sport safety stuff. And of course, the actual time would be shortened even further if some of your competitors are de facto superhumans who can knock out two or three guys in a single charge without breaking a sweat.
That is all.
It's kinda like saying Fifty Shades of Gray has wasted potential because a billionaire boyfriend who uses BDSM as an excuse for his controlling, abusive behavior would make a great villain for a horror novel. Raian isn't that bad, but saying he has wasted potential feels like it has the same sort of category error.
I don't know where to put this, but this kind of summary is tough for people who have trouble with names. No shade on Manic Dogma, there's not much he could do about it, but it's still frustrating.
One quirk of how Romans thought about politicians and generals is that, while they obviously recognized them as two different jobs, they assumed that the things which made a man good at one would make them good at the other. (This is less absurd than it sounds, considering what generals needed and were unable to do in a pre-radio world, but that's off-topic.) A good officer would make a good statesman and vice versa.
Kengan Asura seems to operate on a similar wavelength. It doesn't suggest that the CEOs could literally pose a physical challenge to even the lowest jobbers, but it frames them in the same way and gives them the same kind of respect. With how Manic Dogma has been framing the manga's narrative and themes, it's hard not to read this as more Alpha Male Bullshit. If you're the right kind of aggressive, selfish male, you're going to Make It. You'll dominate the betas and claim what's yours by right. CEOs and warriors are just two different ways of expressing one's position on the totem pole of male virtue. (Or virtus, as the Romans would call it.)
Anyways, yeah. Kengan Asura buys into capitalist self-hype pretty hard; they are strong, they are cool, the economy can't function without them. That makes it hard to read the shitty capitalist institutions as being an expression of of genuine anticapitalist sentiment.
People in this thread have said that other works by this author (these authors?) indicate that their conscious beliefs don't line up with this pattern of thought, but...there's a crapload of garbage in here, and it lines up with a reactionary worldview pretty well. At best, the author is uncritically regurgitating a disgustingly old-fashioned vision of what badassery looks like.
Losing his house as part of paying off his ¥5.1 billion debt is a rather more meaningful stake.
This might just be me, but Yamashita sometimes looks like how I'd expect Ben Garrison to draw an aging liberal accountant, minus the label. Not always, but the more worried he is and closer the "camera" is to his face, the more likely I am to think of Garrison. I'm not sure why; maybe it's the shading, or the texture.
These panels are peak Garrison Yamashita. Or at least the peak of what's in this thread.
Some Kaburagi panels also have that Garrison vibe, but I think that has more to do with the fact that he looks like a caricature of someone you don't like. Come to think of it, maybe it's the caricatured stylization of Yamashita's reaction faces that gives him that political cartoon vibe. I don't know why I thought of Garrison, specifically. I only read Garrison cartoons when someone else is pointing and laughing at how bad they are.
And following that logic, if we kept the mugging scene, Yamashita wouldn't be oblivious—he'd be worried about Ohma's reaction to his tardiness. He doesn't ignore the muggers because his exposure to raw alpha testosterone deadened his response to these beta wannabes, but because he knows an irritated Ohma is more dangerous to him than two angry muggers. Which would really be buying into Ohma's hype, but at least it paces Yamashita's character development better.
Or just stick these events after Yamashita's been put directly in harm's way a few times.
I can't speak to characters that show up later in the manga; this thread might be the first time I've heard of Kengan Asura. But Hell's Angel Sekibayashi Jin is definitely the best character concept so far, and in a close race for best character.
(They're just so different from what people with bones can do, you know? Boxing and karate aren't very different because they're both limited by having elbows. And if you have enough tentacles, you can attack from several different directions, basically outnumbering your opponent on your own.)
So much of this manga could be brilliant if this kind of thing was intentional and built up to something. But that's not the vibe I get from the commentary.
...
Wait, that's worse.
Some Kaburagi panels also have that Garrison vibe, but I think that has more to do with the fact that he looks like a caricature of someone you don't like. Come to think of it, maybe it's the caricatured stylization of Yamashita's reaction faces that gives him that political cartoon vibe. I don't know why I thought of Garrison, specifically. I only read Garrison cartoons when someone else is pointing and laughing at how bad they are.
At first, I assumed the point of this sequence was to show that Yamashita's priorities were changing. He wasn't afraid of his boss any more, because he needed to focus on avoiding Ohma's wrath. Mr. Manager isn't the threat, Ohma is. Which would recenter Ohma's terrifying power again, but at least it makes a bit more sense in the context of stuff that's already happened.
And following that logic, if we kept the mugging scene, Yamashita wouldn't be oblivious—he'd be worried about Ohma's reaction to his tardiness. He doesn't ignore the muggers because his exposure to raw alpha testosterone deadened his response to these beta wannabes, but because he knows an irritated Ohma is more dangerous to him than two angry muggers. Which would really be buying into Ohma's hype, but at least it paces Yamashita's character development better.
Or just stick these events after Yamashita's been put directly in harm's way a few times.
I had gotten used to this manga only having ideas ranging from basic to repulsive. But this? This use of the art of pro wrestling, finding a positive spin on the differences between WWF and MMA? This is genius!
I can't speak to characters that show up later in the manga; this thread might be the first time I've heard of Kengan Asura. But Hell's Angel Sekibayashi Jin is definitely the best character concept so far, and in a close race for best character.
I mean, he's not wrong about that. He's just wrong about the implication that this makes him small fry.
That's the kind of dialogue authors use when they want to convince the audience that a romantic subplot between two characters is plausible. I don't know why; it has literally never worked.
Speaking as someone with only superficial understanding of martial arts, the idea of someone finding inspiration in military hardware the way ancient martial artists found inspiration in the natural world is a pretty neat idea. Nowhere near Sekibayashi Jin's level, but it makes more sense than the guy whose grip strength is high enough that his fingers are basically knives, or Niko making his skin knifeproof by clenching his muscles. It's goofy, but so are a lot of battle manga character concepts.
At this point, Akoya's boss has earned more heat than either of the actual fighters. Two chapters of backstory dump is a bit much on paper, but it's unfortunately necessary in this case.
Super Saiyan is Super Saiyan, no matter how lame a particular cultivar is. He's right to be cautious. (Even if Red Raian makes Super Cyan look interesting.)
This whole chapter (and his extra chapter) makes more sense if Inaba's hair is secretly tentacles. But I like tentacle-based combat styles, so I'm not complaining.
Ugh god, can you imagine how that feels? Also I'm not entirely certain how that stopped Ohma's kick from actually hitting Inaba, it seems more like it'd pull the kick in onto his head harder if anything.
(They're just so different from what people with bones can do, you know? Boxing and karate aren't very different because they're both limited by having elbows. And if you have enough tentacles, you can attack from several different directions, basically outnumbering your opponent on your own.)
It's not even a catfight between the 5% and the 1%. It's, generously, a catfight between the 1% and the 0.1%.
So much of this manga could be brilliant if this kind of thing was intentional and built up to something. But that's not the vibe I get from the commentary.
And yet, somehow the same author also wrote Raian.
To be fair, it's not just manga that's consistently weird about gender nonconformity.Manic Dogma said:
...
Wait, that's worse.
This feels more like bad math to me. By my calculations, 118 fighters were eliminated in 15 minutes. That's seven or eight fighters per minute, which is pretty fast. That would require a truly superhuman fighter...
...if it was the work of one dude. If it was the work of the other 117 fighters, plus the five survivors? Not so much. Four or five rounds of single-elimination duels would reduce the 123 to five, and 3-4 minutes is an entirely reasonable amount of time for those duels to take, even if they were slowed by combat sport safety stuff. And of course, the actual time would be shortened even further if some of your competitors are de facto superhumans who can knock out two or three guys in a single charge without breaking a sweat.
I like this simile.
That is all.
I'm not sure "wasted potential" is the right way to describe a situation where the author's intent is so disconnected from what could have made the character interesting. In your words, "the author doesn't actually condemn him". His flaws aren't recognized as such, or at least aren't recognized as being as bad as they are; the author can't write an arc which utilizes these flaws if he doesn't see them for what they are.
It's kinda like saying Fifty Shades of Gray has wasted potential because a billionaire boyfriend who uses BDSM as an excuse for his controlling, abusive behavior would make a great villain for a horror novel. Raian isn't that bad, but saying he has wasted potential feels like it has the same sort of category error.
I don't know where to put this, but this kind of summary is tough for people who have trouble with names. No shade on Manic Dogma, there's not much he could do about it, but it's still frustrating.
The way Kengan Asura handles its badass super-CEOs—and the complimentary pathetic-drowned-cat phony CEO—reminds me a bit of some Rome trivia.
One quirk of how Romans thought about politicians and generals is that, while they obviously recognized them as two different jobs, they assumed that the things which made a man good at one would make them good at the other. (This is less absurd than it sounds, considering what generals needed and were unable to do in a pre-radio world, but that's off-topic.) A good officer would make a good statesman and vice versa.
Kengan Asura seems to operate on a similar wavelength. It doesn't suggest that the CEOs could literally pose a physical challenge to even the lowest jobbers, but it frames them in the same way and gives them the same kind of respect. With how Manic Dogma has been framing the manga's narrative and themes, it's hard not to read this as more Alpha Male Bullshit. If you're the right kind of aggressive, selfish male, you're going to Make It. You'll dominate the betas and claim what's yours by right. CEOs and warriors are just two different ways of expressing one's position on the totem pole of male virtue. (Or virtus, as the Romans would call it.)
How dare you make that comparison seven months before me, just because you read this thread when it was timely?
Anyways, yeah. Kengan Asura buys into capitalist self-hype pretty hard; they are strong, they are cool, the economy can't function without them. That makes it hard to read the shitty capitalist institutions as being an expression of of genuine anticapitalist sentiment.
Argh, this. This valorization of primitive life and demonization of the modern—"reject modernity, embrace tradition"—is comorbid with virtually every kind of reactionary garbage. Even the stuff that, on paper, should contradict it. To anyone with an ounce of skepticism, adoration of Silicon Valley billionaires and noble savages should be mutually exclusive, but by careful framing and wild assumptions about how the free market works, a surprising number of self-proclaimed sigma males make it work.
People in this thread have said that other works by this author (these authors?) indicate that their conscious beliefs don't line up with this pattern of thought, but...there's a crapload of garbage in here, and it lines up with a reactionary worldview pretty well. At best, the author is uncritically regurgitating a disgustingly old-fashioned vision of what badassery looks like.
Forcing the specific individual(s) who called the Annihilation Tournament to divest themselves of ownership in their company would probably work. But even with straight dissolution, Yamashita should be fine. It's not like they're going to physically destroy all facilities owned by the Nogi Group if he loses; there would probably just be a bunch of forced sales, with most employees at Yamashita's (former?) level barely noticing that their office was owned by a new company.
Losing his house as part of paying off his ¥5.1 billion debt is a rather more meaningful stake.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Coming back to these three panels after reading the update again, I have to draw a parallel between this strike and the strike handed out by Wakatsuki that defeated Murobochi. The amount of respect Kengan Asura gives to its jobbers is genuinely one of its high points and it seems to be where some of the best writing shows up.
Chapter 81 - Dreaming
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
We begin in a dark space, void of light or definition. An old man, his face divided by a great scar-cross, kneels at the feet of a much younger. He tells his lord that everything is in place. Nikaido Ren congratulates his vassal on a job well done, and declares the time has come. Today will stain the wolf's fangs crimson with blood. Whatever the fuck that means, you gigantic dork.
Next page cuts immediately away to the medical office, where Sawada Keizaburo is receiving some visitors. He's immediately combative, asking Rihito if he's come to mock him before his first match, as Doctor Hanafusa is dragged away from a sleeping patient in the background. Rihito's answer is a question.
Who did this to you.
Togawa almost answers before she's cut off by Sawada, whose pride is getting even further bruised. He wants to know why Rihito asks. Is he going to get satisfaction for him? Who the fuck do you take him for? He rants for a bit longer on the subject, with a quick aside to Togawa, going on at length about…well, essentially projecting. He's responding to any amount of empathy as an attack on his ability to self-determine. Diversity win! Even the femboys are full of Toxic masculinity!
Now, Rihito's eyes have been in shadow this whole time. Being uncharacteristically patient as he gets ranted at. This is where that stops, as his teeth grit and he reaches forward to grab Sawada by his ruffled collar…and completely miss the point.
…friendship? Question mark?
Look at how fucking serious he is, lol. Even if you can say nothing else about Rihito (and there's almost nothing else positive to say) at least he's earnest, I guess. Sawada's faces here are especially funny too, as his sheer shock at Rihito's oblivious stupidity gradually dissolves and he gives up being mad as a bad job. He can at least grant that Rihito is better than Toyo electric, and he isn't wrong about that. Rihito's a thug, but his assholery is at least smaller scale.
Now for some actual burgeoning friendship, as we cut to outside the medical office where Karla and Elena are ambling along, chatting merrily. Specifically Karla's escorting her around between visits to the medical office, and explicitly says she'd rather hang out with her than watch the matches, which is quite cute.
Then she bumps into someone tall, dark and handsome.
The man isn't a wrothful sort, he just condescendingly pats her on the head and tells her to be careful. He does have more words than that for Karla though.
It's a funny question to ask, isn't it, given how animated he's been a lot of the time when we see him. But then, crucially, most of the scenes he's been in previously have directly related to Ohma, either in person or fuckpillow form. This is more like the man he was in the Koyo Academy Fighter trials, half-there and barely paying attention. I appreciate that Karla's instincts pick up on his bullshit like this, noting what an empty motherfucker he is emotionally, rather than going all catty over someone else liking Ohma. I know she doesn't know, but I swear to god in some media people like this can just fucking smell it.
Still sucks that one of the only gay-coded fighters is a venomous yandere who thinks what he feels is something transcendentally beyond love and this justifies everything he does, but we've already been over that. Moving on.
And I hope you have your earplugs in because up next is a full page of Saw Paing. Which is less Saw Paing than it sounds like, because it basically means his broad, ball-swinging stance and jet-engine level screaming is taking up half the page as the mayor of his home village…quitely apologises to him in the background. Huh. I smell shenanigans afoot.
Especially since on the next page the CEO of Ajiro Fisheries, Mr Ajiro himself, is reacting with shock to something Yoshinari has said. Do you mean it? Ajiro asks, and Yoshinari confirms. He's sorry, but he's going to make some trouble. This will be his first and last self indulgence.
Shenanigans indeed. Definitely something going on there, especially given how the two pages are arranged next to each other.
And then we cut to a yankee woman in a sarashi poking sweatily out of a half-removed Not-Donald-Duck costume.
Okay.
Oh my god, there's so many edgelords in here all of a sudden. And why are you fuckers in costume?
I do kind of love this page though, if I'm being completely honest, and for the very obvious and intended reason. The long shadows, the ominous speech bubbles and overwrought spooky bullshit dialogue contrasted against the dead-eyed budget mickey mouse outfit is just very funny all on its own. Especially alongside the insistence on kayfabe.
Next we get another single page burst, this time of Rei and Kurayoshi, giving a brief window into their backstory. Specifically, Rei is reminiscing on how they met. He swept in through the window of her bedroom, ready to drive a piece of sharp metal into her spinal column, she was in bed, their eyes met across the room. Tale as old as time. Rei, his head in Kurayoshi's lap, turns over and promised he'd give his life to protect her, as he wiggles happily on the floor and gives her a great big cuddle.
Kurayoshi's secretaries claim that he ruined a cool line with this behaviour, like a pair of humourless harpies. Fuck you, that shit's cute.
And then the next one-page splash of character goes on to…oh hey it's the assassin guy we've gotten like two or three panels of so far. I wonder if the manga's finally decided to give him some heat-
…is that a fucking Nio statue? Bored into a wall with, as far as I can tell, his bare hands?
Alright, that's uh…that's some fucking implications all of a sudden.
Without going too deep into it, are you familiar with those unbelievably ripped statues of really fuckoff mad guys you'll see in Buddhist temples in media? Often in pairs, flanking something? Yeah, same deal, to my knowledge they're manifestations of a particular Bodhisattva, and particularly relevantly to this scene symbolise a bunch of battle-relevant things including justifying the use of violence to protect important values and such against evil.
Incidentally, among the many things this specific one with the closed mouth (called Ungyo in japanese sources. Yes, this is what Sekiro was referencing with the buff sugar) , one is the notion of Latent Power.
Example of both, from the Tsz Shan Monastery, in Hong Kong. Note the one on the right.
Intentional symbolism? Just drawing on a common, cool visual commonly associated with especially old and enlightened martial artist? Who the fuck knows, but it's gonna be a struggle to keep up my feigned disinterest any longer. What a cool panel.
But the manga doesn't linger, cutting immediately back to the peanut gallery in their upper walkway. Various parties react with shock to the fact Ohma has apparently buggered off to take a nap. The fighters are blase about it. He did just fight his first match, he's gotta be tired. Akiyama grants the idea, but can't help wondering if something's wrong. In the end it turns out neither group is right. Ohma's fine, certainly. But he isn't sleeping.
He's practising image training.
As we drop into his mind, Murobuchi Gozo charges at him at all speed, and Ohma absorbs his sprinting knee strike with the Adamantine Kata. Noting that Murobuchi drops his guard after that technique for the briefest of moments, he imagines a scything high kick knocking Murobuchi's teeth out. Then Adam Dudley fades into view.
Oh hey, welcome back Heightened Reality. It's been a hot minute, hasn't it?
So yeah, this kind of training is an established Trope within martial arts media, and is…sort of rooted in reality? Nothing so extravagant is remotely possible in real life, but as the page notes learning gets ingrained during sleep, and the theory behind it is…verisimilitudinous? At least as I understand it, it doesn't improve muscle memory or actual technique, and relies entirely on the trainee actually having seen shit to practise against, but going over the skillsets and physical properties of potential opponents in this kind of detail definitely helps formulate plans and countermeasures. And that's exactly what we see here, Ohma is going over the demonstrated capacity of different opponents and thinking through how they'll respond to his skills, and how he might counter their countermeasures.
For example, over the next page he uses Weeping Willow to redirect Adam's haymaker…but he knows about Adam's incredible core strength, and thus knows that Adam won't be thrown off balance that easily. So he changes tack, instead twisting Adam's strength against him more directly, and as Adam recoils from his own strength straining against his joints, Ohma capitalises with an Ironbreaker punch.
Optimistic, perhaps. But it's better than nothing, and assuming it works it's still a form of training he can do without tiring himself out. Which is possibly some of the best, most understated execution of Ohma's martial obsession so far. Never let a moment go to waste, always be progressing toward your best, most skilled self. It's good stuff.
But Ohma is not a particularly stable fellow. He's not alone in here.
He looks genuinely frightened, which is rare. But then, I think most of us would be scared if we heard a voice other than our own inside our head.
The shadow condescends some to Ohma after the praise. He can't give full marks on this, training with those chumps doesn't mean shit. But hey, here he is. Ohma's next opponent will be him. And Ohma recognises him. We don't get to see his face, or any features beyond the smile and masculine silhouette. But Ohma definitely knows who he is.
Also god damn Ohma, if this is who I think it is, please for the love of god see a Therapist. End chapter. And volume!
Casual bit of setup this time, lining up the fighters for the next half of the first round. Which I'm thankful for, it's nice to have some easy, breezy stuff to comment on after the goddamn novella the last match was.
Incidentally, after this chapter is the second Street Fighter crossover chapter. Which i will not be commenting on in full, but I will leave you with this. A Metsu Hadoken, as drawn in Kengan Asura's art style.
Fucken sweet.
See you all next time.
Next page cuts immediately away to the medical office, where Sawada Keizaburo is receiving some visitors. He's immediately combative, asking Rihito if he's come to mock him before his first match, as Doctor Hanafusa is dragged away from a sleeping patient in the background. Rihito's answer is a question.
Who did this to you.
Togawa almost answers before she's cut off by Sawada, whose pride is getting even further bruised. He wants to know why Rihito asks. Is he going to get satisfaction for him? Who the fuck do you take him for? He rants for a bit longer on the subject, with a quick aside to Togawa, going on at length about…well, essentially projecting. He's responding to any amount of empathy as an attack on his ability to self-determine. Diversity win! Even the femboys are full of Toxic masculinity!
Now, Rihito's eyes have been in shadow this whole time. Being uncharacteristically patient as he gets ranted at. This is where that stops, as his teeth grit and he reaches forward to grab Sawada by his ruffled collar…and completely miss the point.
…friendship? Question mark?
Look at how fucking serious he is, lol. Even if you can say nothing else about Rihito (and there's almost nothing else positive to say) at least he's earnest, I guess. Sawada's faces here are especially funny too, as his sheer shock at Rihito's oblivious stupidity gradually dissolves and he gives up being mad as a bad job. He can at least grant that Rihito is better than Toyo electric, and he isn't wrong about that. Rihito's a thug, but his assholery is at least smaller scale.
Now for some actual burgeoning friendship, as we cut to outside the medical office where Karla and Elena are ambling along, chatting merrily. Specifically Karla's escorting her around between visits to the medical office, and explicitly says she'd rather hang out with her than watch the matches, which is quite cute.
Then she bumps into someone tall, dark and handsome.
The man isn't a wrothful sort, he just condescendingly pats her on the head and tells her to be careful. He does have more words than that for Karla though.
It's a funny question to ask, isn't it, given how animated he's been a lot of the time when we see him. But then, crucially, most of the scenes he's been in previously have directly related to Ohma, either in person or fuckpillow form. This is more like the man he was in the Koyo Academy Fighter trials, half-there and barely paying attention. I appreciate that Karla's instincts pick up on his bullshit like this, noting what an empty motherfucker he is emotionally, rather than going all catty over someone else liking Ohma. I know she doesn't know, but I swear to god in some media people like this can just fucking smell it.
Still sucks that one of the only gay-coded fighters is a venomous yandere who thinks what he feels is something transcendentally beyond love and this justifies everything he does, but we've already been over that. Moving on.
And I hope you have your earplugs in because up next is a full page of Saw Paing. Which is less Saw Paing than it sounds like, because it basically means his broad, ball-swinging stance and jet-engine level screaming is taking up half the page as the mayor of his home village…quitely apologises to him in the background. Huh. I smell shenanigans afoot.
Especially since on the next page the CEO of Ajiro Fisheries, Mr Ajiro himself, is reacting with shock to something Yoshinari has said. Do you mean it? Ajiro asks, and Yoshinari confirms. He's sorry, but he's going to make some trouble. This will be his first and last self indulgence.
Shenanigans indeed. Definitely something going on there, especially given how the two pages are arranged next to each other.
And then we cut to a yankee woman in a sarashi poking sweatily out of a half-removed Not-Donald-Duck costume.
Okay.
Oh my god, there's so many edgelords in here all of a sudden. And why are you fuckers in costume?
I do kind of love this page though, if I'm being completely honest, and for the very obvious and intended reason. The long shadows, the ominous speech bubbles and overwrought spooky bullshit dialogue contrasted against the dead-eyed budget mickey mouse outfit is just very funny all on its own. Especially alongside the insistence on kayfabe.
Next we get another single page burst, this time of Rei and Kurayoshi, giving a brief window into their backstory. Specifically, Rei is reminiscing on how they met. He swept in through the window of her bedroom, ready to drive a piece of sharp metal into her spinal column, she was in bed, their eyes met across the room. Tale as old as time. Rei, his head in Kurayoshi's lap, turns over and promised he'd give his life to protect her, as he wiggles happily on the floor and gives her a great big cuddle.
Kurayoshi's secretaries claim that he ruined a cool line with this behaviour, like a pair of humourless harpies. Fuck you, that shit's cute.
And then the next one-page splash of character goes on to…oh hey it's the assassin guy we've gotten like two or three panels of so far. I wonder if the manga's finally decided to give him some heat-
…is that a fucking Nio statue? Bored into a wall with, as far as I can tell, his bare hands?
Alright, that's uh…that's some fucking implications all of a sudden.
Without going too deep into it, are you familiar with those unbelievably ripped statues of really fuckoff mad guys you'll see in Buddhist temples in media? Often in pairs, flanking something? Yeah, same deal, to my knowledge they're manifestations of a particular Bodhisattva, and particularly relevantly to this scene symbolise a bunch of battle-relevant things including justifying the use of violence to protect important values and such against evil.
Incidentally, among the many things this specific one with the closed mouth (called Ungyo in japanese sources. Yes, this is what Sekiro was referencing with the buff sugar) , one is the notion of Latent Power.
Example of both, from the Tsz Shan Monastery, in Hong Kong. Note the one on the right.
Intentional symbolism? Just drawing on a common, cool visual commonly associated with especially old and enlightened martial artist? Who the fuck knows, but it's gonna be a struggle to keep up my feigned disinterest any longer. What a cool panel.
But the manga doesn't linger, cutting immediately back to the peanut gallery in their upper walkway. Various parties react with shock to the fact Ohma has apparently buggered off to take a nap. The fighters are blase about it. He did just fight his first match, he's gotta be tired. Akiyama grants the idea, but can't help wondering if something's wrong. In the end it turns out neither group is right. Ohma's fine, certainly. But he isn't sleeping.
He's practising image training.
As we drop into his mind, Murobuchi Gozo charges at him at all speed, and Ohma absorbs his sprinting knee strike with the Adamantine Kata. Noting that Murobuchi drops his guard after that technique for the briefest of moments, he imagines a scything high kick knocking Murobuchi's teeth out. Then Adam Dudley fades into view.
Oh hey, welcome back Heightened Reality. It's been a hot minute, hasn't it?
So yeah, this kind of training is an established Trope within martial arts media, and is…sort of rooted in reality? Nothing so extravagant is remotely possible in real life, but as the page notes learning gets ingrained during sleep, and the theory behind it is…verisimilitudinous? At least as I understand it, it doesn't improve muscle memory or actual technique, and relies entirely on the trainee actually having seen shit to practise against, but going over the skillsets and physical properties of potential opponents in this kind of detail definitely helps formulate plans and countermeasures. And that's exactly what we see here, Ohma is going over the demonstrated capacity of different opponents and thinking through how they'll respond to his skills, and how he might counter their countermeasures.
For example, over the next page he uses Weeping Willow to redirect Adam's haymaker…but he knows about Adam's incredible core strength, and thus knows that Adam won't be thrown off balance that easily. So he changes tack, instead twisting Adam's strength against him more directly, and as Adam recoils from his own strength straining against his joints, Ohma capitalises with an Ironbreaker punch.
Optimistic, perhaps. But it's better than nothing, and assuming it works it's still a form of training he can do without tiring himself out. Which is possibly some of the best, most understated execution of Ohma's martial obsession so far. Never let a moment go to waste, always be progressing toward your best, most skilled self. It's good stuff.
But Ohma is not a particularly stable fellow. He's not alone in here.
He looks genuinely frightened, which is rare. But then, I think most of us would be scared if we heard a voice other than our own inside our head.
The shadow condescends some to Ohma after the praise. He can't give full marks on this, training with those chumps doesn't mean shit. But hey, here he is. Ohma's next opponent will be him. And Ohma recognises him. We don't get to see his face, or any features beyond the smile and masculine silhouette. But Ohma definitely knows who he is.
Also god damn Ohma, if this is who I think it is, please for the love of god see a Therapist. End chapter. And volume!
Casual bit of setup this time, lining up the fighters for the next half of the first round. Which I'm thankful for, it's nice to have some easy, breezy stuff to comment on after the goddamn novella the last match was.
Incidentally, after this chapter is the second Street Fighter crossover chapter. Which i will not be commenting on in full, but I will leave you with this. A Metsu Hadoken, as drawn in Kengan Asura's art style.
Fucken sweet.
See you all next time.
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
As much as I love Gensai, and I do love Gensai, what the fuck does "I have no blind spots" have anything to do with your bare-handed statue crafting. Who are you even talking to? Are you just muttering to yourself? This is weird, especially in light of later characterisation.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Still disappointed that Kengan Asura's equality in this regard doesn't extend to women.
I'm serious. Both the series's treatment of women and its testosterone-poisoned attitude would be more tolerable if at least some women were warriors on equal footing with the men, in terms of both strength and attitude. I'm not gonna say a world built on macho posturing would be good, but if you detach it from gender stuff, it wouldn't be as infuriating.
I am curious to see how this manga makes Mockey Moose into an intimidating opponent, like it has for almost everyone so far.
He didn't even carve the statue while facing a different direction.
- Location
- [REDACTED]
You really do have to appreciate how seriously Kengan takes almost everyone in its cast of characters. Normally, Rihito would be some early loser who gets stomped by the protagonist to demonstrate that they're even more prodigious than the prodigies. Here, not only has he come back for a rematch, having been placed in the bracket across from Ohma so they can have a dramatic showdown at the finale, but he's also getting to engage with Hayami's plot, swearing revenge for his dear friend - which Ohma has no clue about. He's even got his own group of friends among the fighters who he hangs out with in the same way Ohma... doesn't. Actually, does Ohma have any friends here?
Guile
Having a really great time right now
Ohma, /firming his stance and facing his fear: "Ah, somehow I always knew it would come to this. My true enemy... Sigma Ohma! Today will be our final battle!"
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Favorite character of mine though he may be, I have no idea what the fuck that scene with Gensai was going on about. 's like he knows he's on camera and needs to do/say a cool thing for the scene. Very odd.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yamashita. And if we count unrequited friendships, he has loads of friends!
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
If I had to guess, the original intent of the line is something like "I am fully prepared". Like, he's fully conditioned and on top form, as demonstrated by being able to exert enough force to chisel stone with enough precision to turn it into religious art. He has eliminated all weaknesses an opponent could take advantage of, that kind of blind spot.
And this, kiddywinks, is why transliterating is a bad idea. Even if the basic idea is still technically intact it reads...weirdly.
TheFoxsCloak
Professional Otaku
Yeah, the thing about Ashura is that it's only ever really been fan-translated, albeit probably the highest effort one I've ever seen. Even the official ComiKey release for Ashura is literally just the fan-translation that was around for years. More specifically, how I would put it is "a fan-translation that tries to emulate an official localization". I'll explain that more when we get to a certain character's particular speaking quirk, but there have been minor instances even up to this point. Individually they aren't all that noticeable (outside of a few obvious ones *cough*Kelp-thulu*cough*) but they do pile up.
Not to say it's a bad thing! Like I said, I don't know if I've ever seen as much obvious effort put into such a comparatively obscure series. The double page spread of Kiozan's Raging Vigor hitting Sekibayashi? You'll notice how the text fades over the course of the sentence, a charming touch that the translation team faithfully emulated. Most other scanlators probably wouldn't have bothered, not to mention all of the insane redrawing even or especially outside of that. And while the actual translation can be a bit hit-or-miss, whether regarding accuracy or otherwise, for the most part it all flows well. Which, in a way, makes the misses all the more jarring.
Not to say it's a bad thing! Like I said, I don't know if I've ever seen as much obvious effort put into such a comparatively obscure series. The double page spread of Kiozan's Raging Vigor hitting Sekibayashi? You'll notice how the text fades over the course of the sentence, a charming touch that the translation team faithfully emulated. Most other scanlators probably wouldn't have bothered, not to mention all of the insane redrawing even or especially outside of that. And while the actual translation can be a bit hit-or-miss, whether regarding accuracy or otherwise, for the most part it all flows well. Which, in a way, makes the misses all the more jarring.
Even with the hiccups, the effort Hokuto no Gun (and subsequently Scans of Metsudo) put in is genuinely incredible, to the point where the eventual official translation was specifically advised to emulate them. Their daily releases on Mangadex are probably what got this series the attention to merit an anime adaptation.