Imagine if this series dug deeper into criticisms of the capitalist systems which would create institutions like the Kengan Association. If the ways fighters destroy their bodies for their corporate master's profits were framed as exploitation and not just a way to demonstrate their skill. If motifs of finance, loans, interest, etc were sprinkled across other fighters' styles. If this dirty-business vibe was properly harnessed and directed into a proper theme.
I only read 17 chapters before Manic Dogma posted that last post, but I can definitely see the anticapitalism themes. On the other hand, the fight scenes don't have the detailed anatomy of Kengan Asura, and so far they haven't shown any of the attention to martial arts detail as Kengan Asura. So I guess it's kinda like if you removed some of the problems of Kengan Asura and replaced them with strengths, but also removed the stuff that Kengan Asura does well.
(The cast is like 90% male, none of them menstruate.)
It's a weird sort of fatalism…but then what else does Ohma really have to live for at this point? The whole "I just want to prove I'm the strongest" thing, such a symptom of early Ohma, is more and more clearly a lie and beyond fighting Ohma's life is just…empty. I laughed it off as cryptid behaviour at the time, but retroactively the fact he could get by in that dilapidated mansion makes a great deal of sense.
I wonder if the author realized how ridiculous early Ohma was and tried to find a way to make all of that stuff make sense.
After a brief pause to introduce C-block's referee, a woman named Anna Paula who the manga is very eager to clarify is the only female ref attached to the Kengan matches for…some reason...
"He strangled a great white shark."
"Neat."
"He saved everyone on a sinking ship."
"Cool!"
"He sank a ship full of environmental activists."
"Wait, what?"
"He captured a terrorist."
"No, no, explain that other thing."
I can't tell if that's supposed to be a genuinely heroic act like rescuing the sinking ship's crew, or if it's supposed to be him being a hitman sent to protect his boss's fishing business. If it was one I could roll my eyes and move on, if it was the other I could laugh, but the ambiguity makes it...I don't know what it makes it. Remarkable, in the sense that it's worth remarking on?
And this time the caveat was in fucking stealth mode.
In case it isn't obvious, I didn't know a damn thing about Paul Watson so I am currently fucking reeling.
So uh...given I write all these ahead of time by a good few weeks, keep this fact in mind when I talk about Karo Sympathetically in the next few chapters, lol.
You could arguably say that Julius has medically transitioned. As in, he's taken so much testosterone that he's transitioned from a man to something that is to men as men are to women.
It would be hilarious though to find out that any one of those guys is actually a very successfully transitioned trans guy and we've just never been told. Although I fear Sandro would almost immediately start making him the target of some off-color jokes if so
I don't know enough to argue with that point, but I will argue that the series would be a lot weirder with any characters who were trans. Look at how it treated the gay fighter...
I don't know enough to argue with that point, but I will argue that the series would be a lot weirder with any characters who were trans. Look at how it treated the gay fighter...
Sawada also has some depth, though I do indeed wish the writer would stop making jokes about him and lowkey shipping him with Rihito. Not just because it's tastelessly done but because seriously, a guy can do better than Rihito
Sawada also has some depth, though I do indeed wish the writer would stop making jokes about him and lowkey shipping him with Rihito. Not just because it's tastelessly done but because seriously, a guy can do better than Rihito
What is Sawada's type? He doesn't like 'em big and stupid, and he doesn't like 'em vascular nightmares that still hold down a day job as a professor... maybe someone more compact...
If whales didn't want to get vaporized on the atomic level then they shouldn't have been born so big. Everyone knows the mettle of a true fighter is finding the largest animal you can and giving it CTE.
It would be hilarious though to find out that any one of those guys is actually a very successfully transitioned trans guy and we've just never been told. Although I fear Sandro would almost immediately start making him the target of some off-color jokes if so
His name is Yoroizuka Saw Paing, and he is punching a man in the fucking face.
This chapter starts hot off the heels of the last one, as Karo reels from Saw Paing's punch. But not so much that he can't immediately plant his feet and return fire. His fist rams straight into Saw Paing's face. A lot of people would have just died on the spot. A lot of fighters would have folded right then and there. Most speedy, fast offensive fighters can't take a blow like that anywhere, let alone the head.
Saw Paing is not most fighters.
Man fucking ate that hit like a light breakfast.
Saw Paing is not a light, offensive fighter. He's an aggressive juggernaut. And his fighting style is not Muay Thai.
Kengan Asura tells us that Lethwei, or Burmese boxing, is the traditional martial art of Myanmar. It's similar to Muay thai in many ways, such as the nature of its blows and the particulars of its throwing techniques. The main crucial difference from which its other differences spread like cracks is that it is practised entirely bare knuckled. Which makes it…difficult to properly guard in an active way. So they just don't fucking bother.
As far as I can tell from brief research this isn't actually accurate, but Lethwei is indeed a real thing practised in Burma, aside from a period where (who fucking else) the british banned its practise. Fun fact, in addition to the previously noted names, it is also called The Art of Nine Limbs. And why is that, you ask? Well, we'll get to it in good time, don't you worry.
Anyway, what we do get immediately is a justification for Saw Paing's obscene resilience, in the form of another session of hyperreality and Facts with Kengan Asura. Because, the manga notes, the human body is not naturally built to endure a fist fight comfortably. And it's true! We'll hurt ourselves doing it even if we win. It's also true that, when subjected to repeated fractures and given time to heal, the bone heals stronger in that area. To an extent.
"The Skeleton becomes so strong that it could be said to belong to a different breed of humanity" might be slightly overselling it, though. Mildly questionable phrasing aside, I'm down.
Saw Paing follows up his counterattack with a kick that damn near folds Karo in half, and very much sends the man to his knees. Then we get an honestly kind of funny cut to the audience where Harada Tokujiro is watching the fight. Remember him? He's the guy Karo fucking steamrolled in the preliminaries, and he's feeling kinda shitty.
Don't worry man, you did better than most of the guys there. At least you lost in a 1v1, and not on the humiliating end of a 5v1.
That said, Saw Paing has no intention of letting an opening like this go, hot blooded shonen guy or not. He rushes in with another brutal scything kick. And hits nothing but air. Karo Yoshinari, somehow, slides under the blow like a fucking limbo bar. And comes up behind Saw Paing. The younger man does handily spin around to correct his facing, but Karo isn't aiming for a traditional blow. He isn't a martial artist, after all.
Saw Paing hurtles across the arena, to the ringing music of crushed bones. Sayaka wonders if he can even get up from that as, back in the observers box, Mr Ajiro apologises profusely to the mayor. If they don't win this tournament, he screams, they're through! We don't get to hear what he means by that yet though, 'cos this chapter's pacing is on a roll and two veterans of the kengan matches have noticed something important. Sekibayashi points out something's up, and Wakatsuki agrees. Karo Yoshinari is more than just a strongman.
That initial strike hit Saw Paing in the spinal cord. Specifically, the stretch of it just at the base of his skull. A hit like that is like a reset button, the brain briefly blacks out. Coincidentally, there's a practise in fishing called Ike Jime, a part of processing the catch where you destroy just such a stretch of the fish's spine. Stops it from flopping about, causing trouble and damaging itself, while leaving the rest of the fish alive for a while. Cruel, but it maintains the freshness of the meat. Karo Yoshinari just performed Ike Jime on a human being, to set him up for the uppercut of a lifetime.
He is a man with no Martial Arts, but he still performed a Masterful Strike. Sick.
Too bad it wasn't Saw Paing's bones that were being crushed, there. Hard cut from the Masterful Strike page, the first panel is Karo staring at his own mangled fist. Sayaka is shocked, pointing out to the audience the destruction. Gaolang is not. He grouses about how reckless Saw Paing is.
If that blow had landed anywhere but the head, this match would be over.
Saw Paing pops back up with blood streaming down his face and a massive grin, to tell Karo just how much that punch hurt. And he's real eager to explain what happened and why. Remember that point earlier about bones and the strengthening thereof? Yeah, basically that.
I'm…pretty sure this is child abuse?
Anyway, questionable treatment of children aside, Saw Paing's pretty proud of his solid steel skull and talks it up for a bit longer, until Karo finally cuts him off. You think you've won already, he asks? With just these injuries, he goes on as he clenches his maimed fist. Don't get so cocky, we're just getting started. And Saw Paing is nothing if not excited. It's a fun dynamic honestly, especially with the context floating around them. If these two men fought at all under normal circumstances it'd be much less bitter.
But we aren't done either, on to chapter 86.
After another promise to Gaolang that they'll fight, Saw Paing is once again the first person to move. But now he's actually playing with a little strategy. For all noone in the room thinks he has a second braincell to rub against the first, he's entirely capable of a feint like the one here, where he lowers his center of mass at the last second to smoothly transition into a sweeping kick right into Karo's knee. And he definitely feels it, even if he hasn't got the same wasted weight issues Haruo has he's still a big fella, and for the second time this match he's brought to his knees. Saw Paing takes a moment to breathe, expression turning serious for the first time this match. Before going completely fucking apeshit.
ORAORAORAORAORAORA-
I guess he's got that emotional runup thing going. Whenever he looks serious, it's actually his brain taking a runup.
The rush is a telling one, and Karo seems largely helpless to shift his position, pushed back further and further across the arena as his beef gets tenderised. Right up until one of the most important moments in the fight.
Saw Paing lands a full-force high kick on Karo Yoshinari's head. Sending the man off balance, and throwing his head toward the ground. It's a vicious, crushing blow.
So hey, y'all notice the title of this chapter?
As Facts With Kengan Asura is quick to clarify, landsickness is a common…not even condition really, just a natural consequence of the human ability to adapt. People who spend a long time on a boat adapt to it, the constant rocking and shaking. They develop sea legs, as the saying goes. But in the process of adopting that as a new norm, the body can forget what it feels like to exist on stable ground. This can result in landsickness, where the body rejects the stillness of soil as unnatural and creates unsteadiness and illness.
Karo Yoshinari has been a fisherman for over 40 years. He's spent the vast majority of that time on the sea. He's got landsickness for days.
When Saw Paing kicked him in the head, it caused some damage. His balance centers were thrown out of whack, as the blow literally dizzied him. It makes the ground seem to rock and roil under his feet.
It's just like returning home.
Is this kinda silly? Yeah, it is.
Is this the least bit realistic? No not really, I'm fairly certain this couldn't actually work, and the balance fuckery from blows to the head doesn't work that way. Also it'd fuck up everything else about how you fight.
Is it close enough that your brain goes "I can believe that"? I'd say so.
Is the above screencap sick as hell? You better fucking believe it.
Also Karo did this on purpose to restore his sea legs, the mad bastard. Imagine letting a top tier practitioner of Lethwei kick you in the fucking head on the belief that it'll give you the advantage, and then it fucking working. And it's worked before, apparently! We're told that in this state, noone he's ever fought has been able to match him, and Jerry dips in to reinforce that notion by directly comparing him to some previous fighters. He has core strength on par with Adam Dudley anyway, and in this state his proprioception and weight control is a match for Sawada Keizaburo. He obviously doesn't have the techniques of either, but he can be thought of as a physical monster in the same class as Haruo…but with much greater self control and tactical wherewithal. Jerry is terrified of him, and honestly I buy it.
Just look at this utter nonsense.
The lashing force of his kick rips open Saw Paing's eyebrow. Looming like an Umibozu he calls Saw Paing a dog of Toyo, and tells him to prepare to sink. Like a keel-broken ship into the abyssal depths. You will all suffer your dues.
I'm not sure how Karo still thinks Saw Paing is consciously on board with the fixing plan, he very obviously only has space for a single thought in his head and that thought is FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. Case in point? His response to this threatening display is to hunker down and scream about how fucking awesome Karo Yoshinari is.
This time Goalang actually credits him with good strategy. Karo outranges him significantly, and is agile enough that a midrange fight isn't viable. Can't beat him by outfighting, so bunker up, run in, and infight on that motherfucker. Give him body shots that he'll feel next week.
Like any decent fightmonkey, Saw Paing is at his most focused in this moment. His drive to win honed to its finest point. He has decided that his next combo will end it. Karo Yoshinari senses this.
Can you tell the artist loves drawing Older Men?
They charge each other…and that's where the chapter ends.
See you next time, for the conclusion of the battle between the Folk Hero, and the Unknowing Villain.
As far as I can tell from brief research this isn't actually accurate, but Lethwei is indeed a real thing practised in Burma, aside from a period where (who fucking else) the british banned its practise. Fun fact, in addition to the previously noted names, it is also called The Art of Nine Limbs. And why is that, you ask? Well, we'll get to it in good time, don't you worry.
This is Japanese favoritism. Adam Dudley (real American hero) needs a freak genetic mutation to do his Naseem Hamed bullshit, and Yoshinaro can just do it because he's a fisherman. Either the Japanese are on to something with the mystical properties of eating whale flesh or they've copied honest American IP again. Uncritical Support to Saw Paing from the whales.
Because, the manga notes, the human body is not naturally built to endure a fist fight comfortably. And it's true! We'll hurt ourselves doing it even if we win. It's also true that, when subjected to repeated fractures and given time to heal, the bone heals stronger in that area. To an extent.
"The Skeleton becomes so strong that it could be said to belong to a different breed of humanity" might be slightly overselling it, though. Mildly questionable phrasing aside, I'm down.
I've been reading spoilers on TV Tropes, and the most absurd forms of this trope are yet to come.
That initial strike hit Saw Paing in the spinal cord. Specifically, the stretch of it just at the base of his skull. A hit like that is like a reset button, the brain briefly blacks out. Coincidentally, there's a practise in fishing called Ike Jime, a part of processing the catch where you destroy just such a stretch of the fish's spine. Stops it from flopping about, causing trouble and damaging itself, while leaving the rest of the fish alive for a while. Cruel, but it maintains the freshness of the meat. Karo Yoshinari just performed Ike Jime on a human being, to set him up for the uppercut of a lifetime.
He is a man with no Martial Arts, but he still performed a Masterful Strike. Sick.
From a narrative standpoint, Kengan Asura's habit of making every path to martial prowess valid if you pursue it earnestly is one of its strongest points. Not only does it make individual fighters more unique and interesting than "quirky jobber" or "another martial artist," not only does it help support Kengan Asura's other strength of treating its fighters with universal respect, it's a great way to support its core themes.
And it arguably downplays the lionization of violent alpha males, compared to the early volumes. That's kinda nice.
I think it's closer to attempted murder. Though he's not trying to kill the kid...
Lawyers: Is there a word for something that wasn't intended to kill the victim, and didn't kill them, but would have without an incredible stroke of luck?
This is Japanese favoritism. Adam Dudley (real American hero) needs a freak genetic mutation to do his Naseem Hamed bullshit, and Yoshinaro can just do it because he's a fisherman. Either the Japanese are on to something with the mystical properties of eating whale flesh or they've copied honest American IP again. Uncritical Support to Saw Paing from the whales.
It is kinda odd how each fighter has one primary source of strength, all of which are roughly equal. You have your genetic freaks, you have people who conditioned their bodies to be exceptionally strong/tough, you have a noble savage, you have people who bring unique skills or conditioning from their professional backgrounds, but you don't see a lot of overlap. Rihito has superhuman grip strength, but he didn't undergo an exceptional finger-training regimen or hone his grip strength while working in, I dunno, construction or something.
I mean, it gives each fighter a clearer identity, so it's not surprising. But it's kinda odd.
I do love the "Whunk" panel. The 'camera' tracing all the way up Saw Paing's body from his heel to his head at full extension, you feel the power of his lunge.
And then Yoshinari at the end with, well, "Whunk." Not a slow punch, it's still all speed lines, but it's still the only part of his body that's moving compared to the full-body freight train of Saw Paing.
This matchup was awesome, but did touch on one of my martial arts bêtes noires though.
Bones do not heal back stronger after they're broken. They just don't. They are structurally weakened, permanently and irrevocably. Every time.
What you can do with bone is to subject it to mechanical stress. When placed under stress, the bone responds by becoming denser and harder. This happens naturally to some degree under gravity (which is why astronauts have problems maintaining bone density in microgravity) but you can intensify the process by increasing the forces to which the bone is subjected - for example, through loading it with weight by doing resistance training (a good idea for everyone who wants to avoid osteoporosis), or higher-impulse stresses from hitting stuff with it or vice versa. As long as the bone isn't actually broken, it will become denser.... eventually.
Which means that some of the hardcore hardening stuff does work - but it has to be done with care, because you want to stress the bone almost to breaking point but not past it. And you need to let it heal in between sessions.
I used to know a guy who was heavily into this sort of thing, and he did a couple of hardening sessions a week at most, and followed those with very careful herbal massage treatments. He could throw his full weight and structure into punching a granite block. Legit if you threw a punch at him he could break your fist just by blocking your strike. And yet he was really, really cautious about doing anything that would actually damage his bones. A lot of people who do hardening stuff have misshapen knuckles and reduced range of motion in their fingers; he had very soft, supple fingers and could give incredible massages. You wouldn't be able to tell from looking at or feeling his hands - but you'd literally have a better chance of surviving a rando stabbing you than taking one of this guy's punches.
