I'm a bit late for it, but I will add my voice to those saying that Setsuna is problematic but I love him anyway. Like, the baseline tropes he is constructed from are toxic but… aaaah, I really want to say more, but he is a character I am very invested in.
Chapter 14 opens on a sickle moon menacing the tokyo skyline, every star in the sky obliterated by the overwhelming force of the city's light. We narrow down, through the window of a high rise office, to see two men facing each other across a conference table. One of the men, a bald fellow with steely eyes and forehead creases like a craggy escarpment recounts the facts of the matter in terse doubt. Your company is wagering 50 billion yen on this, with full knowledge that their foe is the legendary Sekibayashi Jun.
He asks the other man. Are you really sure about this? The implication is clear. To even call what he's planning a gamble borders on madness. In this fight he risks a great deal, and all he stands to gain is yet more trouble. Nevertheless, he is resolute.
Next page, we're at the venue of the match.
…Oh, I'm sorry, were you expecting another chapter of setup? Maybe a bit of trash talk, while Akiyama makes implications about the opponent's gimmick? Not this time kids, we're picking up speed. The ominous foreshadowing is thick enough, this time Kengan Asura's gonna lay things out during the goddamn fight.
Anyway, the match is being hosted in the underground parking area of a company called Kimura Security, presumably another Association member. Ohma's in his element, hopping up and down with his usual battle-smirk, a full head shorter than his opponent even at the top of his hop. The crowd is thick, but pulled back a long way from the fighters, and among them squirms Yamashita. We know where Nogi is, but he doesn't, and as usual he's anxious. This time for specific reason, though. The last two people Ohma fought were powerful in their way, but they were strictly underground warriors. Unknowns, in the wider world. But today Omha is fighting the one and only…
That's right, he's an honest to god motherfucking pro wrestler. A public figure and headliner of one of the biggest wrestling promotions in this fictional version of Japan, which runs events of all kinds. This manga is absolutely, unironically going to the fucking hilt on trying to sell a pro wrestler as a big deal powerhouse.
Usually I'd scoff at the idea, but for Sekibayashi? I kinda buy it. You'll see.
Yamashita's getting hyped too. We know he watches combat sports already, he's familiar with SJPW and Sekibayashi, framing the match in his head as Public Combat Sports vs Underground Martial Arts. An unmissable clash of worlds. While he ponders on how lonely it is to be cheering the fighters on alone, Sekibayashi takes the opportunity to engage in a little trash talk (he's probably a heel, right? That feels like his thing). Flexing his muscles, he calls out "the rookie" and gives him something to keep in mind. To him, the victories Ohma's won so far were chump change. He's on a whole other level from "Saturday morning blunder boy" and "the smog-shitting senior citizen".
Look at Ohma's face. He may not respond, but we know he enjoys good trash talk, and Sekibayashi's a pro.
They take their stances. And the ref can barely get the last half of the starting command off before Ohma is off like lightning. He crosses the space between them in a blink.
Ohma isn't impressed. Sekibayashi's defense is like a sieve, nothing but holes. With Ohma's fist still pressing into his cheekbones, Sekibayashi effortlessly turns to apologise. Habit of the trade, he says, before whipping his arm under Ohma's shoulder and lashing him into the concrete hard enough to crack it. Yamashita recognises the move as an arm whip, but Sekibayashi isn't done. Ohma darts away from the followup stomp, which further shatters the floor, earning compliments from Sekibayashi on his reactions. He handily ducks the Mongolian Chop that follows, with space for several return shots to Sekibayashi's body, but the man stands unshaken.
And that gives him the opening he needs to land his first blow on Ohma. A brutal high kick. Ohma's eyes bug wide open, his first expression of genuine shock so far, he clenches his teeth and raises both arms to block. As Sekibayashi's shin makes contact, Ohma's feet lift off the floor.
And then Ohma's back crumples the side door of a parked car, some 20 feet away.
I wonder how many association members got put in the hospital by Ohma bowling them over, there.
Phenomenal sheer power. But Sekibayashi isn't done, he's landed a physical blow and now he goes for a mental one. He encourages Ohma to make use of his "rights". Ohma is confused, as intended, so Sekibayashi explains. Most people have the right, yes.
The right to avoid a one way ticket on the pain train.
In fights defenses are critical and most fighters, martial artists or not, place a great deal of emphasis on them. Blocking, parrying, evasion, there's a vast number of ways to avoid damage. But pro-wrestlers don't have that. They have a responsibility. Fists, even weapons, they have the responsibility to accept all attacks, and overcome them. And so, they must be capable of that overcoming. That, he says, is the difference between Ohma's rights and Sekibayashi's responsibility. That resolve. So go ahead and make use of your "rights," civilian.
It's a taunt. It's very obviously a taunt. Yamashita falls for it, aghast that he's looking down on everything but Pro-wrestling. And Ohma falls for it too. His eyes tighten, and he walks up to Sekibayashi. Who, being a good sport, allows it without attacking.
Then Ohma pinches the skin on his arm. Hard.
"I am a genius!"
Outrage! Fury! Sekibayashi grabs Ohma by the shoulder and makes to turn his tremendous strength against the smaller man's smug, definitely-not-still-a-little-angry jawline, but for the first time since Rihito the Redirection technique takes center stage. Sekibayashi's own strength and rage is turned against him as a tiny movement throws him off balance, and Ohma is set up to uncork a devastating high kick right into his jaw. He reels, blood showering from between his lips, in his own language he is on the figurative ropes and Ohma isn't fool enough to let the opportunity slip. He rushes Sekibayashi with a blazing barrage of strikes, punches that toss Sekibayashi's head back and forth like a ship in a typhoon. And then as his foe's brain is surely scrambling to catch up with what's happening to it, Ohma pivots on his heel and spins into the matches' final, spectacular roundhouse ki-
"OH NO"
I bet some of you have been scoffing at this the whole time. I bet at least some of them specifically called out Pro Wrestling as, essentially, a form of acting. Fake, if you will. And you know what?
Sekibayashi wouldn't disagree.
This. Is Sekibayashi Jun. End chapter.
Fucking hell, what a step up. This is exactly the sort of fight Ohma needed to take the edge off his persona, a fight where he isn't just blase about an opponent's gimmick, or explicitly not at fault, a fight where he flat out fucks up and gets taken in by an opponent's rhythm. A fight that actually challenges him.
And what an interesting opponent to use for that fight.
We already had the revelation of Sekibayashi's win record, but we haven't had any details of how he fights, which sets all this up perfectly by giving the chapter the opportunity to mislead us and its own characters. The start of this fight sets up Sekibayashi as a straightforward physical juggernaut, and that isn't a lie per say. His mass and raw power are certainly part of why he's dangerous. And then his lecture lays it on a little more, emphasising his toughness and his pride in it. The final stroke is Ohma perfectly setting the stage for Sekibayashi's act, a proper little tirade of elegantly feigned rage, right down to the red in his face and the veins on his temple.
This is what Sekibayashi's lecture was actually setting up. Yeah wrestling is an act, and he sells that act with his own body. He's not just tough, he's phenomenally good at selling the hit without really getting seriously hurt. He takes the hits, and takes them safely, drawing the opponent in and making counterattacks easy to land. I've seen other pieces of media try to run Pro Wrestler characters, but all the ones I've tried to engage with just play them as direct physical brutes, which always struck me as weak. Especially since they're usually in context with other, actual martial arts. Sekibayashi Jun though takes the notion of Pro Wrestlers as actors and leans into that as a strength, extrapolates the skills that make pro-wrestling work and with a little fantastical realism spins them out into a legitimate fighting style. And it's such a well written act too. He doesn't just steam up after a single punch to the face, he manipulates Ohma into thinking he has an easy handle on Sekibayashi's pride, knowing the smug little shit will act on it! Played like a goddamn fiddle!
Rihito was basic. Not bad, really, but a pretty by the numbers first fight. Kaburagi's gimmick was underbaked, and much less clever than it thinks it is regardless. But this. This is a fantastically executed start. Let's see where it goes next!
Incidentally, this chapter is where we get Kaburagi's production commentary page, and well…
Jesus christ. I guess it can always be worse, right?
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.
Something that comes across when you watch media about wrestling is just the tremendous physical work that goes into it. You can fake a punch to the head, but a lot of moves involve being tossed around, falling off things, and gravity and momentum. A 110kg dude falling on you from a high place is a 110kg dude falling on top of you from a high place regardless of how planned and rehearsed it all is. These are massive dudes with muscle, massive stamina, and considerable pain tolerance. Their fitness regimen might not be focused on the best way to achieve strength, but it's not like they're bodybuilders who are doing it purely for the aesthetic. It's "fake" in the sense that the outcome is planned in advance, but the physical performance is very much real, and wrestlers often end their matches looking absolutely wrecked because they are, in fact, exhausted as shit from all the athletics they have to go through to sell the performance (although obviously, actual injuries are kept as minimal as possible).
In that sense a wrestling match is as real as, say, a gymnastics routine or figure skating.
The secret sauce that Sekibayashi's fighting style brings in that really sell it is that all the inherent weaknesses that would make a real-life wrestler poorly suited to fighting an actual professional fighter have been turned into strengths: he uses the fact that pro wrestling doesn't involve parrying and blocking to play mind games with his opponent, while using the actual techniques a wrestler does to minimize injury to make these blows not hit as hard they actually look like they do, and you believe that it actually works because this is a manga and we're used to much less plausible skillset being turned into effective fighting techniques.
Given how a lot of shounen manga tropes draw from pro wrestling, and the language of pro wrestling has given us many of the terms we use when talking about manga (building heat, no sell, etc), I appreciate that one of the best characters in Kengan Ashura is giving it some respect.
While not the start of the trend in and of itself this is also where Kengan starts to pick up on interesting spin on the fantastic realism. Weight classes matter and they matter a lot. That kind of came up with the previous fight against Rihito and in chapter one but this is the first to actually follow it up.
Sekibayashi is simply so much larger then Ohma that he can take his strikes without to much damage and literally blow through his guard by lifting him off his feat with hits. Ohma has to go for massive telegraphed attacks like a full roundhouse kick and use Redirection just to stay in the fight. Sekibayashi doesn't just let him get away with either easily and is more then willing to press the advantage given by size and reach.
One of the more interesting themes Kengan will keep touching on is the sheer physicality of fighting. It's a common refrain in fighting manga for the actual build of the fighters to be essentially disconnected from their raw strength or for sufficiently high skill to overcome any level of physical gap. That's fine because it's just not the kind of story they're telling with fighting.
As the youngest of many brothers, this image as a valid fantasy.
But Kengan does actually demonstrate and try to untangle just how important raw physical condition is to fighting and I think it's one of its more engaging ideas. Some people are just born heavier, taller, and stronger then others and that does in fact give them a pretty astounding advantage in a fight. Where in most fighting manga "Can enough skill overcome enough strength?" is pretty clearly answered with a strong yes right from the start Kengan will keep coming back to it.
Something that comes across when you watch media about wrestling is just the tremendous physical work that goes into it. You can fake a punch to the head, but a lot of moves involve being tossed around, falling off things, and gravity and momentum. A 110kg dude falling on you from a high place is a 110kg dude falling on top of you from a high place regardless of how planned and rehearsed it all is. These are massive dudes with muscle, massive stamina, and considerable pain tolerance. Their fitness regimen might not be focused on the best way to achieve strength, but it's not like they're bodybuilders who are doing it purely for the aesthetic. It's "fake" in the sense that the outcome is planned in advance, but the physical performance is very much real, and wrestlers often end their matches looking absolutely wrecked because they are, in fact, exhausted as shit from all the athletics they have to go through to sell the performance (although obviously, actual injuries are kept as minimal as possible.
This is a fantastic point, and it's really something that I've come to appreciate the more I get into professional wrestling. Like, sure, sometimes the punches and kicks hit nothing but air and look kinda goofy, but there's no way you could ever 'fake' spectacle like Angelico's leap. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP7tVo6DZ8
The man is putting himself in genuine danger! Even if the outcome of the match is known and rehearsed in advance, it's a genuine athletic achievement every time a wrestler does something like this.
And that's not even getting into the in-ring psychology, the pacing and plotting of wrestling matches, and most especially the acting and performances of the wrestlers involved. I'm really glad that Kengan Ashura turns the acting ability of pro-wresters into its own sort of superpower, because the ability to act physically with your entire body is something really special. That kind of dynamism is very much at home in shonen manga, where a lot of information about characters can be succinctly and powerfully conveyed through their posing, their movement, and their presence on the page without even a word of spoken dialogue.
I love Sekibayashi Jun, and this - plus some of the replies - are an excellent explanation of why.
Martial arts based on or inspired by non-combat skillsets are a relatively common idea in manga and even movies - things like "cooking kung fu" or whatever. Ranma plays with it to the point of absurdity, for example, and you can arguably tie it into schools or depictions that draw a link between, say, calligraphy strokes and sword techniques. Kengan Asura doesn't do this TOO often, but it engages with the idea a few times - and sells it with all the same sincerity and heat it affords actual combat styles, while lending as much plausibility as it can through pseudoscience and sheer artistic physicality. Sekibayashi's the first and subtlest example of that, sitting as pro-wrestling does on the border of "non-combat", but just like with those who'll follow in his wake, Kengan Asura isn't interested in presenting his fighting style as weak and gimmicky compared to real (or specially-invented) martial arts, or in making him a "performer who also fights".
Sekibayashi's also the first real example of something else Kengan Asura does remarkably well - creating menacing, competent opponents who are sold with such complete conviction and genuine appeal that they could be the protagonists of their own story, and who are treated with continued respect and agency even after their "role" is over. Sekibayashi isn't a disposable obstacle, he's not going to be power-scaled out of relevance, and he's got his own deal going on. Kengan Asura wants us to respect him, and his skills and strength, and his conviction (or ambition), in a way that a lot of stories just don't bother with.
We open without missing a beat on Ohma in the greatest challenge of his career so far. Pro Wrestler Sekibayashi Jun played him like a whole-ass orchestra and set him up for the throw of a lifetime. Ohma's back hits the floor with incredible, ground shaking force, driving the air from his lungs in one great, wheezing heave. Yamashita cringes back with his hands over his ears, gritting his teeth against a sound he'd never heard the like of before.
I have to imagine there's some really good resurfacing firms in the Association.
Sekibayashi doesn't miss a beat, immediately going in for the finish. He hoists Ohma up by his hair, loops his arms under Ohma's, and rips him out of the concrete to bring him crashing back down like a falling star. Sekibayashi flips over Ohma, preserving the momentum of the slam into his next suplex.
"One more for the road!"
Yamashita is horrified, howling for Ohma to hang in there as he gets ripped once more from the ground's embrace right into a terrific clothesline. Ohma's not reacting, he realises, the younger man could well be unconscious. The revelation is this close to sending him into a paroxysm of distress until his train of thought is cut off by another member of the audience. A doughy looking drunk (with comically small hands in one panel, holy shit) cheers on Sekibayashi, and heckles Ohma. You better call uncle soon, he says. You don't stand a chance anyway! Give up before you die!
Yamashita is already caught up in an emotional high. His barriers of restraint are already fractured.
Drunk guy is confused, which is fair honestly, this is kind of an extreme reaction. He seems to understand a little better when Yamashita insists that, even up against a legend like Sekibayashi, Ohma will never lose. Not that it convinces him, he points out…well, the obvious. Just look at the state Ohma's in, he's getting tossed around like an unwanted toy. Yamashita isn't in the mood for it though, and his objection is more axiomatic. Tokita Ohma is simply not the sort of man who falls here, in his eyes. It's just not who he is.
It's…a little undeserved? I feel like this would fit more comfortably in a later fight, when Ohma has fought more foes who, particularly some who actually push him. The man simply hasn't fought any real monsters yet, before Sekibayashi. But at the same time, it doesn't feel as out of nowhere as last chapter's attempt to present a shift in Yamashita's character. At least in terms of the emotional landscape of the scene, it does feel appropriate for Yamashita to freak out a little, do and say things he normally wouldn't. And in that state, it's not completely out of the question that the image he has in his head of Ohma would turn out to be an invincible pillar. Implacable and mighty in holding up heaven. Compared to Yamashita himself he might as well be. If Yamashita's outburst here is actually intended to be read as kind of desperate and unreasonable then I'd be on board with this reading 100%, but the manga has used Yamashita as an uncritical mouthpiece of some real fucking bullshit already. So I'm not convinced.
And neither is the drunkard. Though he's impressed by the gumption of Yamashita's speech, he points out that Ohma's situation hasn't really gotten any better. Sekibayashi is hoisting Ohma up over his head, declaring that it's time to end the fight. With a bang, no less. Yamashita, flipping back to horror, recognises the move. Sekibayashi's famed finishing move.
Return of the disproportionately small feet.
Yamashita loses his temper again, this time with Ohma. In a tone he probably wouldn't be willing to take if he were in less of an adrenaline high, or Ohma were conscious, he screams at him. Is he kidding? Is he just going to let himself suffer defeat here? Move! Fight Back! Don't you dare lose you moron!
Yeah no, I'm not kidding, that's how the translation puts it. It sells how unsettled he is, if nothing else.
And we zero in on Ohma's eyes, descending through them down into the black. Down, down, and down some more into the depths of his mind. Where his feet find ground again.
Memory issues, hm. I wonder if that's going to come up again.
Ohma scans the candles around him, thoughtfully. Before drawing a deep breath, and in a burst of dream logic, blowing out dozens of candles in a single, sweeping breath. It's a clearly symbolic move, and he muses that it's about time he "borrowed" again.
In the real world, Sekibayashi and Yamashita are taken equally by surprise. A strange, booming rumble begins to echo through the parking lot as Ohma arches his back, his chest pulsing.
The hold breaks, and Ohma launches himself a dozen feet in the air. Sekibayashi, with a poleaxed expression, watches him go. What the fuck did you do, he asks, holding out his hands. Three of his fingers are broken, two on his right one on his left, mangled beyond useability.
No I'm not posting a fucking picture of that, I can barely stand looking at it.
Anyway, Ohma's flexing, as Sekibayashi asks his question. And he's undergoing a transformation, of sorts. His skin is darkening, his hair is standing on end, and his blood vessels bulge grotesquely under his skin. And when he darts back into range it is like a bullet loosed from a gun. His fist slams into Sekibayashi's face again, but this time he takes it seriously, noting how heavy the strike is. What did he do, Ohma mirrors mockingly?
Definitely no ominous implications to that terminology, none at all.
Sekibayashi doesn't get it, but that's okay because neither do we. Or maybe it isn't okay, because Ohma wastes no time in applying this new, terrible strength. He rushes the Wrestler in a blazing, berserk frenzy, actually pushing the giant back with the cumulative force of his blows. The drunk from before notes as much, brows raised high in shock. He seems impressed, even!
Yamashita though, isn't comforted. He looks at how Ohma is fighting now and sees someone other than the Ohma he knows. And he's not wrong. Even in his most aggressive combinations up to this point Ohma's been drawn with a great deal of poise, placing his attacks deliberately for maximum impact. He's been drawn, essentially, as a martial artist. This time though? He's fighting like a feral animal. As many blows as he can push out, as hard as he can make them, anywhere he can reach. And his expression…he's looked kinda blood drunk before, but nothing like this. What the hell is happening?
As fits him, Sekibayashi isn't concerned, though. For him, Ohma has just made things a hell of a lot more interesting. End chapter.
Little more of a mixed bag, this chapter. But honestly, even its worst moment is itself a mixed bag that could be better or worse depending on how much faith you have in the writer. Even if we probably didn't need all of those suplexes, and those pages could probably have been better spent elsewhere. But I imagine you're bored of me going on about the pacing by now, so I'm not going to make a big deal of it in future unless it's already a big deal. And really, as last minute swerves go to save the protagonist from certain defeat, you can do a lot worse than framing it as not only a mystery, but also something with uncertain, potentially concerning implications. It's actually a very efficient use of a twist, completing immediate narrative goals while also setting up future complications. All you have to do is practise enough restraint to not immediately blow your load explaining your cool powerup all over the place. Which I know can be hard for mangaka, I admire the effort.
Now, the thing with this chapter is that it has a thing stuck on the end. Not one of the character profiles with commentary, rather a bonus chapter included with the tankoubon that the translators I'm reading stuck on the end of chapter 15. Because this was the final chapter of the volume, even if I'm definitely not treating it like that.
The bonus chapter is called Extra: Conversion, and it's a genderswap. Yamashita is the same, but every other named character in the manga so far has been flipped.
And I hate it. I hate it deeply. I hate it with every mote of my soul. I hate that it turns Ohma into a tiny gothic lolita. I hate that it treats the idea of older women as a joke. I hate that it treats the idea of muscular women as a joke. I hate that it turns Ohma into a generic flirty "ooh you rip my dress you make me mad" moe girl rather than keeping her some flavour of cryptid. I hate that Ohma has so many fucking panty shots. I hate that we have to endure the return of obnoxious horny Yamashita.
Akiyama becoming a very put-together twink with a goatee was a good choice though, I'll grant that.
If you want to read that dross you can find it yourself. I'll note the existence of future bonus chapters like this but I refuse to review any of them.
Personally, I just like to imagine the genderswap chapters as Yamashita's neurotic boomer brain trying to grapple with his latent bisexuality. That's about the only value they have.
Personally, I just like to imagine the genderswap chapters as Yamashita's neurotic boomer brain trying to grapple with his latent bisexuality. That's about the only value they have.
We know that, but he does not. He knows he only likes women, obviously, he's totally straight and doesn't at all fantasize about all of these rippling hunks, no sirree.
So the only way he can process his attraction to these yoked dudes is by dream-warping them into almost unrecognizable, non-yoked women. Well, that or Kengan is just kinda schlocky.
Oh, shit, a Kengan Asura read-through? Man, I love the manga, but… well, just the chapters that've been shown so far tell you exactly how I feel about it. I couldn't agree with Manic more that it's not a series I can feel comfortable recommending, even while I do dearly love quite a few parts of it.
At least I found this during Sekibayashi's introduction, though. Dude's the best.
Ohma may have been used to tenderise the asphalt. And Sekibayashi may have three broken fingers. But neither has it in them to give up.
We return to the fight with Ohma still looking like an overcooked prune, and the staccato report of his fists hammering Sekibayashi's flesh filling the parking lot. The Wrestler is grinning, despite the punishment, despite acknowledging that Ohma's giving him a hard time. Because this man isn't just a fighter. He's a motherfucking showman. He's been driven to the ropes? All the better.
Yes, that is indeed another chop with his left hand. The one with two broken fingers. And he neither flinches nor grimaces. In fact he grins, he took Ohma completely by surprise, caught him dead centre. That should stop him in his tracks, at least for a moment.
But no. Not in this state. Ohma is far too veiny to stop for something so simple, and cracks Sekibayashi right in the kisser with a massive haymaker.
The audience is baffled. Sekibayashi, the dreadnought of the Kengan matches, is being pushed back as he simply absorbs Ohma's assault with sheer Meat. Ohma's making almost as much noise, an ominous booming continues to reverberate from his chest. Someone in the audience even asks if there's an engine running. But the gladiators pause for none of it, lost in their own world. Sekibayashi takes a step forward, through the rain, only to be pushed back again by a crushing kick to his gut.
And as Yamashita continues to reflect on how different this is from the Ohma he knows, someone's watching from the sidelines.
Interesting that we don't get Wakatsuki's win record.
Two veteran fighters are here, observing the new blood. Imai cheerily compliments Ohma's power, but Wakatsuki corrects him. That's not power, it's torque. His speed has escalated massively, and since his mass has remained the same that makes for a massive increase to the force of his strikes. To say nothing of how many more punches he can throw at those speeds.
After a little banter Wakatsuki, who's only seen Ohma fight once before, echoes Yamashita's concerns about how different he seems now. One could call it the insight of a veteran, but given how stark the shift is, I don't know how many points I should offer. Even if Ohma weren't all red and veiny it'd be a big shift, and Yamashita recounts the specifics.
I appreciate that this isn't being framed as a good thing. That's a real concern for any piece of media which shows even a hint of sympathy for Alpha nonsense. But Yamashita isn't even in terrified cartoon mode, this is treated deathly seriously. When he considers the notion that this might be the real Tokita Ohma the panel isn't a thing of grandeur or majesty, it's Ohma with his face entirely obscured in shadow, his eyes and mouth reduced to indistinct gashes of white. His identity and personhood obliterated under a torrent of naked, feral aggression.
That said, for all that this Ohma is doing a damn sight better against Sekibayashi than he was before. The man is reeling, even his mythical resilience buckling under the whitewater river of this onslaught. The audience begins to show real concern, commenting on how many hits he's taking, demanding that he raise his guard. Sekibayashi is not mad, but he is disappointed by this. They don't get it. This is what he is.
And then he finds his moment. For just an instant, as Ohma winds up and uncorks a full-on roundhouse kick, he slows. This is just what I talked about in chapter 14's wrapup, Sekibayashi takes the necessities of his role, and in forging a body to meet the challenge finds a unique strength. He's smart, he's patient…
…and he is powerful.
Ohma is thrown to the other end of the ring by the biblical force of every ounce of Sekibayashi's prodigious weight being thrown behind a single flying dropkick. Both men are left kneeling on the floor, huffing and wheezing. Both have fans now, cheering them on, caught up in the heat of contest, feeling the conclusion begin to creep close as each has so little left to give. Searching for that last bit of energy to close out the match.
Sekibayashi finds his first. As befits the tireless beast he's been this whole match. He rises to his feet, chiding Ohma that now isn't the time for a break. He charges with the implacable force of a charging elephant, arm extended wide for the clothesline to end all clotheslines.
And Ohma…
…for the first time since his chest began to roar…
…focuses.
Ohma reappears several metres past him, and for an instant silence reigns. Imai is shocked, not quite believing what he just saw, but Wakatsuki confirms his suspicions. The audience is baffled, it happened too quick for some to even properly register that the match is over. Sekibayashi had taken a beating, sure, but he clearly still had plenty left in him. What happened? Yamashita is standing in gobsmacked shock. But as Ohma ends his transformation and Yamashita sees his right hand, three of his fingers horribly mangled, the humble salaryman gets it.
Ohma hit Sekibayashi's windpipe.
No amount of toughness can overcome your brain being deprived of oxygen. That gets cut off and your brain is shutting down, no questions asked. Not that it was going to be a simple matter anyway, when they were simply exchanging blows it's likely Sekibayashi would have done something to mitigate the blow's force, even if his personal code forbid truly dodging it. It's only here, with him charging to close out the match against a near-finished opponent, with the force of his own charge doubling the impact of Ohma's strike, that it could have worked.
Obviously a crushed windpipe is a death sentence in real life, but let's just ignore that. Keep it a secret between you and me, like.
I appreciate how Kengan Asura really sells how fucked up people get in these fights. Y'know, implausibly survivable injuries aside.
The winner is declared, Tokita Ohma, 3 for 3 in the Kengan matches. Yamashita goes ballistic, sure that he must have had the wrong idea all along. And the manga does seem to be framing Yamashita as right, that harmony of ferocity and tactics is Ohma's core, but…we saw those panels. Ohma's expression. I don't really buy it, but that's my magical future knowledge at work. In this moment, Ohma's triumph is real and genuinely felt. He's overcome one of the true heavyweights of the Kengan matches.
Yamashita gets a hearty clap on the shoulder from Drunk Guy, who congratulates him on his insight. Drunk Guy was wrong, and is wholeheartedly willing to grant the point. He actually equates Yamashita's judgement to Tokita's skill in impressiveness, before inviting Yamashita out to drinks sometime. He wanders merrily off into the crowd, leaving a baffled Yamashita to wonder who on earth he is, before dropping the subject. Fight's over, he better pick up Ohma, dude probably needs medical attention.
"Most excellent."
The room goes deathly quiet. Ohma turns to the speaker, uncomprehending. Even Wakatsuki wears a curious frown, wondering what on earth this turn of events could mean.
End chapter.
Okay so yeah, that's the end of the Sekibayashi match! I do feel like this fight lost steam after the first chapter, and its fantastic pitch for a Pro Wrestler as a serious, powerful threat, but overall it's still head and shoulders above any of the other fights so far. It pushed Ohma to his limits, and did so in a way that plays into what we know about him. He's kind of arrogant, willing to think through his fights but prone to punching first and rethinking his snap judgements later, which has gotten him in trouble twice now when he underestimated an opponent. Granted, with Kaburagi he pretty much could have overwhelmed him at any time, but against Sekibayashi that flaw was brought into sharp relief.
Ohma's transformation is simple in its effect, but compensates for it by essentially being as much of a black box as the man himself, adding new layers of mystery to be peeled back later. Particularly effective given the ominous tone with which it's introduced, and the specifics of its presentation, which might have given some of you an idea of how it works already. Introducing it as another setup element for later reveals might be somewhat frustrating as a story beat if not for the fact that the end of this chapter clearly denotes something coming to fruition. We already had a sense that this fight would be a major shift in the story's context from Nogi's scene at the start of chapter 14, but the chairman of the entire association turning up is a solid way to imply much wider consequences than was anticipated.
So yeah. Things are looking way up. This is the beginning of Kengan Asura as I know it, the manga I keep coming back to despite its…tendencies.
No amount of toughness can overcome your brain being deprived of oxygen. That gets cut off and your brain is shutting down, no questions asked. Not that it was going to be a simple matter anyway, when they were simply exchanging blows it's likely Sekibayashi would have done something to mitigate the blow's force, even if his personal code forbid truly dodging it. It's only here, with him charging to close out the match against a near-finished opponent, with the force of his own charge doubling the impact of Ohma's strike, that it could have worked.
Obviously a crushed windpipe is a death sentence in real life, but let's just ignore that. Keep it a secret between you and me, like.
It's also not really how a lack of oxygen works. Sekibayashi just drops like a sack of potatoes here with none of the usual struggling to breathe. It's more akin to strangulation or a straight up knock out blow. Oh well.
It's gonna be… it'll be something. So far it's been super interesting seeing you bring up the more like, low-key forms of misogyny and manly man obsession that I never really took note of, and that I'm saying 'low key' in reference to women literally being set dressing for Rihito and the treatment of nonconformining people is perhaps a bad sign for what's being teed up.
It's...interesting how we're getting more and more names of Kengan fighters and how the manga seems to be leaning into the trope of 'S-tier badasses getting overpowered by even more S+-tier superbadasses. We've been introduced to a number of fighters with impeccable records:
Rihito: 5-0
Kaburagi Koji: 7-9 (but opponents were always incapacitated)
Ozu Toshio: 11-0
Sekibayashi Jun: 57-0
Imai Cosmo: 21-0
Unless I've missed something somewhere, every fighter we've seen a match history for is undefeated, with the asterisk next to the cheating fat guy who was deployed more to nix fighters' overall careers.
I don't know if this is the story zooming in on the top 1% of Kengan fighters, or if it's worldbuilding towards something, but it seems to imply that the Kengan roster consists of a tiny slice of fighters who are cream-of-the-crop and mostly spend their days mopping floors with newbies. Which unfortunately threatens to take me out of the story as the more that seems the case, where most of these matches are one-sided roflstomps against random schmoes, it dilutes the badass quality of the characters and makes these boastful match records look hollow; you can't have a slate of fighters where everyone is an S-tier badass with an undefeated record unless there's a massive amount of churn underneath them that you don't talk about.
I don't know if this is the story zooming in on the top 1% of Kengan fighters, or if it's worldbuilding towards something, but it seems to imply that the Kengan roster consists of a tiny slice of fighters who are cream-of-the-crop and mostly spend their days mopping floors with newbies.
It's very much zooming in on the top 1%, an earlier chapter explicitly notes that the Kengan matches involve...a little under 2000 fighters iirc? We do see some normal Kengan Fighters, particularly in the sequel, and they still make a living, but Kengan Asura is not about an underdog newbie rising to prominence through the ranks. It's about the top tier badasses and the top tier CEOs that employ them. Which will become much more significant in the chapters to come.
The manga is kind of pulling our leg with these X-0 win records not so much because it's unlikely as because it suggests none of these guys ever fought each other before, since if a 10-0 badass and a 22-0 badass fight each other someone is walking out with their zero turned to a 1 by simple law of math no matter how elite they both are, and I find that inconsistent with their characterization as portrayed in the latter chapters of the manga. The Kengan elites very obviously have relationships with each other which include rivalry and past matches.
That said, it's an exaggeration of an absolutely real thing. Muhammad Ali retired with 56-3 wins, Mike Tyson 50-6, Floyd Mayweather 50-0. At least in boxing, when you are one of the Greats, you basically just nearly always win.
(Of course part of it is that established great boxers are protective of their records and strategically pick their fights to minimize the odds of adding more losses to it, but you still gotta fight some time.)
Yeah, the win records are basically like loose power levels. I think of it like the pseudoscience stuff manga often pulls, no it's not really strictly realistic but it feels rooted in enough ideas that feel right-ish that I'm willing to just skate over it, mentally.
(Of course part of it is that established great boxers are protective of their records and strategically pick their fights to minimize the odds of adding more losses to it, but you still gotta fight some time.)
Now that you bring it up, this sort of thing seems like it'd happen in the Kengan Matches, albeit for a slightly different reason? It's a capitalist hellscape's Trial by Combat system, I figure at least on the CEO's side the most successful players are the ones who pick their fights the best, which probably artificially distorts the win records compared to a more traditional combat-sport league, where the goal is testing skill rather than deciding who gets the juicy business deal.
Probably not the intent though, I don't think that much thought went into the win records.
