This fight, moreso than the others, feels like it's specifically here to hype up a single guy, and that's Saw Paing. There's a reason the story focus is so heavily on Karo instead of him; he's the guy we're going to spend the least amount of time with, thus he requires the most developing in a short time. Personally I'm a big fan of Saw Paing, the meathead, but I like the concept of what's being done with Karo even if I wish he got to last around a bit longer. A lot of other characters, even ones who do go down in the first round, are still going to be hanging around and interacting with folks (see Haruo for one of the better examples) but Karo is just going to appear in the background here and there from now on and then vanish completely. At least we don't see him killing Greenpeace protestors I suppose.
As for the fight itself, I think it could have done with a second pass through. Maybe another chapter or something? It just feels like it lacks a big punch, metaphorically speaking, which the other fights had done better. The starting and middle bits for this one are good, but whereas for example Sekibayashi's fight ended on a strong note, this one ends on a more technical, understated one. Sandro is going to nail this exact kind of thing later on, but here it feels a bit too simple. Knowing what happens in Saw Paing's next fight I think I understand the reason he does that, but it still robs this fight of a big wham to close it.
Anyways, the next fight is... oh right. I'll have thoughts about that one.
And then, in the fight after that... him. I've been looking forward to that one.
This harbour is one of the most prolific in japan, it's the foundation of the entire local economy, if it shuts down this entire stretch of coastline is all but dead!
Manic seems to have focused onto the actual human cost of jobs lost, however saying the issue is that the coastline is "fallow" suggests the true tragedy is that nature isn't being exploited for maximum profit. Which seems like a plausible thing for the author to believe given his feelings about Whaling.
The exact quote is "the local economy will be in ruins", or at least that's what the translation says. No idea if that in turn is slightly different from whatever it is in the original Japanese. I was just paraphrasing. The exact text does seem to imply a smaller section of japan being affected than "stretch of coastline", as the local economy - probably Atami (which won't be in ruins, it's a bedroom community for Tokyo and has the hot-springs, but it might be different in Kenganverse where MR FISHING THE GREATEST FISHER works there) - probably isn't a huge chunk of people. But, you know, that's just my interpretation, Manic's certainly is a valid read of the text.
That particular line was cut from the anime, so I can't offer an easy alternative translation. I do know a place to get the raws if anyone can/wants to take a stab at it:
As a bonus, the same guy who covered Cosmo vs Adam way back also covered this fight with an equally excellent breakdown:
Saw Paing annoys me. 'Hotblooded shonen protagonist who bulls ahead' is an industry staple, so seeing a bit of the human cost left in his wake seems like a fresh idea. But he's just... so shallow? At least so far.
I'd honestly rather have seen Adam Dudley go on to round 2. At least I emotionally engage with that shithead.
I mean look Sekibayashi absolutely killed Kiozan by slamming the back of his neck onto the ground and Wakatsuki scooped all of Murobuchi's organs out, we just kind of ignore those kinds of minor injuries
Saw Paing annoys me. 'Hotblooded shonen protagonist who bulls ahead' is an industry staple, so seeing a bit of the human cost left in his wake seems like a fresh idea. But he's just... so shallow? At least so far.
I'm alright with this on account that Saw Paing has literally not been informed of it, but also, coming with knowledge of what happens later, there are more layers to him as well, so if nothing else I'd give him the chance to turn things around characterization-wise.
The actual conspiracy behind it, Hayami's betrayal, is kind of unwieldy and blunt? But as has repeatedly come up, Unwieldy and blunt are pretty good words for Hayami when he's on his bullshit, so that only hurts this match insofar as I'm wondering why the fuck the government signed off on basically condemning a significant stretch of the japanese coastline to certain economic death.
I'm also questioning whether replacing a thriving fishing area with a power plant is really the most profitable use for the area. You can build a power plant most anywhere you can get fuel to (unless it's something like geothermal or solar), but a fishing dock needs to be built on the coastline. Also, the fishing facilities are already built; demolishing them is a waste of resources compared to just letting them continue to catch fish.
Just buy a bunch of Ajiro Fisheries stock, and maybe pressure them into distributing more dividends than they can really afford to pay out. If the fisheries are declining like Estro suggests, maybe this could be described as an effort to wring a bit more value out of the fishing village before demolishing its decrepit facilities. If not, it's just corporate ghoulishness, wrecking a small fish (or a dying porpoise) to generate a bit of capital for an ambitious shark.
The third fight in the series had someone get up after having his larynx smashed. He was suffocating enough to fall unconscious, but not so badly that he couldn't recover within a couple minutes.
When I read through this stretch of Kengan Asura, I got the impression that the second half of round 1 did that a lot more than the first. The big example being Raian beating Nezu absurdly fast, though Rihito's defeat was only slightly less one-sided.
While I'm talking about my recent experience reading Kengan Asura...one weird thing I noticed is how unmemorable it was? Or maybe "unmemorable" is the wrong word.
I finished reading one fight, left to do some other stuff, and by the time I started reading again I thought the loser had won. I remembered some of the turning points in the battle, but I'd forgotten which turning point had been the decisive one. That's weird, because that fight probably had the most unique conclusion out of any of them. One of the fighters forfeited—willingly! And yet, that detail slipped out of my head once I'd finished reading.
Which made me think about how most of the fights in Kengan Asura have a whole bunch of twists, each shifting the fight from "Oho, X has the advantage!" to "Aha, Y took the initiative!" and back again. Obviously not all of them, but a lot. And surprisingly often, the things which cause the twist are foreshadowed barely or not at all. Maybe the fighter will say "I'm glad I didn't have to use my trump card" one fight, or we'll get a brief mention of Muteba's fancy new eyes or whatever, and then we get an explanation of how that affects the fight either during or immediately after it happens.
And sometimes "how that affects the fight" is just "the last twist is negated". Like how Karo's special fisherman's technique was negated by the reveal of Saw's mallet-face training, or how Saw landing a powerful blow to Karo's head is a turning point in Karo's favor, not Saw's, because Karo's been landsick this whole time.
This might be Kengan Asura's biggest problem (if we ignore all the elephants in the room and focus on the action scenes). The fights don't feel strategic or dynamic or whatever, they feel like a series of twists. Some of the twists are cool, as is most of the manga action between those twists, but there are just so many twists. The winner sometimes feels like they won because of their superior technique or their opponent's fatal flaw (Sekibayashi Jun vs. Kiozan Takeru is a good example), but a lot of the time it's just whoever gets the last twist (friggin' Raian vs. Robinson).
And that was just one sneaky little application. Imagine if this guy were to kick you and instead of hitting you with his instep or shin, he can direct all that force through his toe.
Paul apparently started running for office as an anti-immigration population-reduction fuckhead after his direct action save the whales days. I wouldn't mind watching Sandro fight him even if he's mad about the wrong bit.
Chapter 88 begins completely divorced from the ominous way 87 ended, situated in one of the brightly lit, concrete corridors threading through the Kengan Dome. Yamashita is here, grazing on one of the vending machines littering the place, finding himself suddenly joined by Matsuda Tomoko, the secretary for Koyo Academy. They recognise each other, and I wonder when that happened, but more importantly she's joined by a pretty young man Yamashita doesn't recognise.
Yes that's right, it's Chill Kiryu. Much like Chill Ohma, he feels like a very distinct character from his worse self. A sort of narrative orphan left here briefly by the better, less jagged-glass-on-the-brain version of Kengan Asura that must exist in some blessed alternate reality. The snappily dressed queer young adult with a cute friendship with his employer's secretary, who correctly identifies Yamashita's middle aged good boy vibes. Eventually Problematic Kiryu will return, but for now let's enjoy his Chill brother's company.
And speaking of frightful things approaching with grim inevitability, what's that ominous shadow in the background?
FNAF has a lot to answer for.
True to the horror tinged presentation and sudden dark gloom to the corridor, Yamashita and Matsuda's reactions are tinged with shock. As the page goes on and this horrendous rat thing ambles down the corridor, Matsuda particularly goes pale, and rivulets of sweat begin to run down her face as recognition begins to sink its gnarled claws into her soul.
Yeah nevermind, it's a fakeout. The joke is old and worn, but enough of a classic that it gets an idle chuckle out of me. She happily squeals as the person in the mascot costume, seemingly operating on pure muscle memory wordlessly returns the cuddle, loudly expressing her fandom and indeed her ownership of a probably-expensive lifetime pass to Tochigi Destiny Land. Fairly obviously a Disney stand in. This doesn't really strike me as out of character for her, and yet I do find myself side-eying it, particularly in context of the two men in the scene having a sort of dubious and condescending reaction of confusion. There's definitely an angle of infantilisation intended here, for all I personally don't feel like judging people who want to enjoy Disney Land as adults.
On the bright side, Yamashita and Kiryu have a pleasant, civil conversation while that's happening. Yamashita's being hit with a wave of nostalgia, and apparently was born into significantly more money than his career earned him because apparently he used to go to TDL "all the time" in his childhood. Maybe the Tokyo Disney Land is just cheaper than the one I visited as a kid? Either way, with a slightly sad look on his face, Kiryu admits he's not really familiar with the place. Which…well. If you know you know. He pivots away from thinking about his backstory to instead ask if Yamashita thinks the guy in the costume is going to fight, and Yamashita's dismissive. It's a mascot, not a fighter.
Matsuda's been taking a selfie with Mockey while this is happening by the by, it'd be kinda cute if I didn't feel like the manga was trying to tell me to find it weird.
Anyway, at this point a new character turns up on the scene. Another person in a mascot costume, this one a tic-tac shaped riff on Donald Duck, the disney character's sailor outfit reimagined into that whole sailor fuku thing and renamed…honald? At least this one's wearing something on their bottom half. Predictably, Matsuda's a fan of this character as well. Yamashita doesn't remember them, but she's eager to inform him that Honald is Mockey's best friend. Kiryu notes how much she seems to know about them and…
[long, powerfully weary sigh drawn up from the writer's very bones]
Okay, so, to be clear I don't personally have anything against slashfic written and enjoyed by straight women, which Matsuda presumably is. I say this as a bisexual mostly man. There is a lot of complicated discussion surrounding it in terms of objectification of gay men, expression of sexuality through unconventional avenues when conventional ones are closed off or intimidating, and a bunch of other factors, but that generally isn't my field or really within the scope of this project to discuss.
With all that said, this panel is 100% a "Hahah fujoshi, how gross amirite" joke and I am not about it. Look at that flush, the profuse sweating and starey eyes. There is a focused effort in these first few pages to make Tomoko a creepy weirdo and it's a little bit fucked.
Moving on, after a reflexive professional hug of their own, the person in the Honald costume asks Mockey if he's ready. And, for the first time this scene, he speaks.
Psyche! The horror vibes were waiting to ambush you all along!
And before we go on, I just want to take a moment to really drink in how fucking good this full-page spread is, like holy shit. All the contrasting curves and lines in the perspective and the weird angle put the whole thing on this super weird and offputting kilter, and my god the use of foreshortening. You can theoretically tell he's human, but the perspective makes his feet and forearms look fucking massive and unnatural around his tiny torso, an effect only heightened by the mascot costume head which now seems massive and bloated. And it looks even bigger than that, thanks to the sarashi he's wearing on his stomach shortening his visible torso even further. In the details he's clearly just a super tall human, but the immediate, visceral response to the page is to squirm at how the image distorts your perception and it's so. Fucking. Good. Just amazing art, perfectly set up by the few pages we spent getting used to Mockey's presence and the double fake-out. The edgy lines and speech bubbles are just a cherry on top.
Matsuda screams and passes out, but you all knew that was coming. I like that Kiryu takes the time to catch her, at least, even if he immediately starts pondering on how the massive bloke could have fit into the mascot costume once she's safe.
Hard cut to the Kengan Dome's arena, where a fighter's entrance is beginning, heralded by…theme park parade music? Yep, several members of the audience recognise it as "Eccentric Parade", apparently the song played at TDL when they're doing one of those big mascot parades. The arena's screens are even showing a little animation of the main TDL characters doing a little dance. Including, I think, a weird version of Pluto? I say Pluto, 'cos I really hope that funky looking Daschund thing isn't supposed to be Goofy.
Anyway, off the Arena's immediate limits Hatsumi and Soryuin are coincidentally smoking around the same ash bin thing, and the music has Hatsumi coming over all nostalgic. Apparently, when they were dating, he took her to TDL.
…I feel like this panel undersells how gross that is.
They muse for a bit on how they broke up immediately after that, Hatsumi cheated on her because of course he did, and then a moment of awkward silence descends over them. They linger on it. Then Hatsumi leans in to ask a question, and before the words can even pass his lips Soryuin refuses. She isn't going out with him again, even if he were the last man on-
A lanky cryptid passes blithely before their eyes, hunched over to keep its bulbous, cartoon head from scraping against the ceiling.
The two of them silently watch, the soul leaving their eyes as they struggle to process what they're seeing. Hatsumi clarifies he was going to ask if he could borrow a cigarette, what was she saying no to? She denies everything, blushing and refusing to make eye contact. I'd probably be more willing to just enjoy this dynamic if there weren't such a dearth of powerful women in the cast. Two terrible people who're terrible for each other but can't escape the unhealthy attraction.
Anyway, I believe there was a match?
Sayaka's on top form again, stance wide, mic in both hands, hair fluttering in the phantom winds of her own enthusiasm as she lets the hype motherfucking FLOW. Here he comes! The mighty warrior from the land of dreams, the ultimate weapon of Tochigi Destiny Land's first appearance in the Kengan Matches! Behold, a firsthand display of Destiny Magic!
Nezumi translates to rat, btw. Puns!
Holy fucking shit, 221 centimetres? That's significantly more than 7 feet, and once again the art is selling the sheer, sky-raking height of this fucker right to the hilt. It's using similar ideas to the horror-themed reveal of the guy from before, the feet and hands made massive by foreshortening, but in this spread there's a consistent narrowing effect right to the top, giving his whole shape a triangular cast. He isn't hunched over, so the lines of his body going up incorporate the Sarashi rather than clashing with it to shorten his torso. And even the mascot head itself is now almost proportionate to the rest of him, which contrasts with its presentation in previous pages to sell how far away it is from the camera. God, these aren't even action shots, but the art is so good this chapter.
Next page, cut to an observation box where the CEO of TDL, Yumeno Kunihiro, and his massive butt chin are merrily peering down into the arena as they finalise a deal. Yep, it's Hayami again, this time promising infinite free electricity to TDL with no contractual endpoint in return for TDL winning their first match. Which seems absurd, but Hayami is an arrogant tosser who wields his wealth like a two year old child wields a toy hammer, so whatever. I can buy that he'd waste that much money just to fuck over Kurayoshi. And in addition, Mr Kunihiro doesn't have any actual intentions of throwing in with Hayami anyway. Yes indeed, an actual whisper of shenanigans that isn't all on Hayami is happening! We don't get any details, he only notes a connection to a nebulous "them", but it's something! It's even kind of foreshadowing!
Back down in the arena, the crowds are ever so slightly uncomfortable, and we get a little row of reactions shots. Cosmo isn't quite sure he believes what he's seeing. Wakatsuki is grimly focused, as ever. Haruo is in Cosmo's camp, and Sekibayashi just finds it funny. Doctor Hanafusa has to be informed that that's a stuffed mascot head so please don't…
Sayaka, nervous in close range to this creature, informs him that he can't actually fight in costume. But Nezu already knows as much. He just wanted one more moment in the land of dreams, before he has to say farewell. With a deafening crack, his leg moves, and Sayaka flinches away. What just happened? She felt a gust of wind. The guise of Mockey, split in two by some ungodly force, falls away from Nezu's head.
This is the true Nezu Masami. A man who can kick hard and fast enough to cut fabric and framing.
Mr Kunihiro snickers to himself, as he prepares to drop some worldbuilding on us. For you see, while it might be the biggest promotion, the Kengan Matches don't have a monopoly on underground combat sports. The japanese underground is actually riddled with the fuckers, and he drops several of the biggest names. Underground -1, based in east japan. The Armed deathmatches called Death Fight, which are apparently funded by the Yakuza, and seem liable to me to run out of fighters any day now. And a promotion which somehow has even more brutal rules than that, the Slaughter Coliseum. But the third biggest, following the Kengan Matches and Purgatory, is a promotion called Bishamon.
And the reigning champion of Bishamon is Nezu Masami. Mr Kunihiro basically headhunted the headline fighter of another promotion, the strongest fighter in that arena. A biker gang boss in his off hours, who joined the Underground Fighting world at only 18. And a massive Tochigi Destiny Land fan. Yeah, that's why he was in the Mockey suit, part of how the CEO got him onboard was letting Nezu live his dream of being Mockey.
When we become an adult, we let go of childish things. Most of all, the fear of looking childish. You do you my man.
Not that this special interest is given much more respect than Matsuda's. Kunihiro's dismissive treatment of him as a Strong Idiot, and thus a handy tool, is certainly framed as callous but the overall framing of the entire sequence is more in agreement with him than anything else. The contrast between Nezu and his special interest isn't being used for gap moe or endearment, it's a joke. The initial horror tinged comedy could have transitioned into respect and understanding, but instead his attachment is this ridiculous thing his strength is presented in contrast to. Like, how can this ludicrous moron be so strong, the manga asks, laughing.
Fortunately at least one person does seem to agree with me. Without any offhanded dismissal, Nezu's opponent steps into the ring before his intro, complimenting Nezu on that kick. It was sharp, heavy, and quick, says Mikazuchi Rei as he cracks his knuckles. The Lightning god doesn't want to keep his girlfriend waiting.
Kengan Ashura has a gift for the quick intro. Rei has had a LOT of development, so getting his opponent hyped up in one chapter is a really big lift, but KA is game to try.
God, the art dedication that Nezu gets to him is so good, some of these panels are the best in the entire manga. And then it amounts to nothing
The cute moment with Hatsumi and Soryurin is nice, and there's a followup in an extra chapter several volumes down the line which is fairly cute. And seems to imply that Soryurin has a daughter by him, which is interesting. Doesn't judge Soryurin for being a single mother at all, really, and she's certainly successful at it.
This man could make billions balling on the court, instead he pretends to be Mockey. Basketball lost one of its greatest stars, because of that mouse demon, Mockey.
Ah yes, Hatsumi Sen, everybody's favorite... possible ephebophile. Why did you have to specify he was an adult at the time, Kengan? Why this?
Anyhow, Nezumi is a fun character and honestly I like the bit with Matsuda too, but I do feel the need to personally divorce them from how the manga seems to be treating them, because for some reason this is all gross and weird to the manga. And it goes away about as quickly as it appears too so it's basically just a quick cheap shot at some types of people with no particular motive or message to it. Just randomly calling out fujoshis and people who really like cartoon characters as adults.
I'll save their personal themes for next chapter when Rei is properly introduced, but as the first chapter with an explicit song mentioned in it, here is the titular Destiny Land theme, Eccentric Parade:
Seeing Kiryu looking nervously over his shoulder as something even weirder than he is approaches ominously from a nearby corner is possibly peak comedy. It's not played as hard as Ohma's reaction to Karla (understandably) but for an antagonist like him it's still the kind of moment you'd expect from a yankoma gag, not the actual story.
This doesn't really strike me as out of character for her, and yet I do find myself side-eying it, particularly in context of the two men in the scene having a sort of dubious and condescending reaction of confusion. There's definitely an angle of infantilisation intended here, for all I personally don't feel like judging people who want to enjoy Disney Land as adults.
In some stories, the one woman in the room being a huge fan of legally-not-Tokyo-Disneyland and also buying into the keyfabe while the two men are more skeptical would not be worth remarking on. Sadly, the treatment of female characters and weird/"deviant" behavior elsewhere in the series means that this isn't just a character beat for Matsuda, but another instance of a deeply unfortunate pattern.
He pivots away from thinking about his backstory to instead ask if Yamashita thinks the guy in the costume is going to fight, and Yamashita's dismissive. It's a mascot, not a fighter.
I guess the panels we saw of the various fighters as they were announced were non-diegetic, since Yamashita would have remembered that one of them was wearing a mascot costume if he'd been shown photos.
With all that said, this panel is 100% a "Hahah fujoshi, how gross amirite" joke and I am not about it. Look at that flush, the profuse sweating and starey eyes. There is a focused effort in these first few pages to make Tomoko a creepy weirdo and it's a little bit fucked.
On the other hand, this should be left out. Whatever the mangakas' personal beliefs, the narrative doesn't consider this anywhere near as deviant as (checks notes) people not being straight or adults liking Disneyland.
I wouldn't say nothing. Nezu gets some heat built, so it's somewhat impressive when Rei takes him down in a split-second.
But...yeah, I know what you mean. Nezu doesn't get much respect as a jobber. Contrast Murobuchi and Okubo, who are jobbing for the two highest-ranked fighters in the tournament, but still get a decent bit of fight choreography first.
