- Pronouns
- They/Them
Rei is a good boy, he just looks like an edgy jackass.
Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura
- Thread starter Manic Dogma
- Start date
- Discussion Manga
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
He's one of my favorite characters. There's the obvious appeal of the gap between his edgy ninja surface and his soft lovely core, which would be nice in any series, but he's also a breath of fresh air when contrasted against the rest of the cast. Most of the guys seem almost self-conscious about their masculinity, butting heads and picking fights, but Rei doesn't care. He has more important things to worry about than looking tough in front of people.
I'm not a big fan of the implication that some or all of Rei's simp-ishness can be chalked up to Rino's special "queen bee" thing messing with his reproductive instincts. But that's not for 110 chapters, and even when it comes up it's easy to ignore. It's easy to convince ourselves that Rei is just a softboi ninja among alpha males.
I'm not a big fan of the implication that some or all of Rei's simp-ishness can be chalked up to Rino's special "queen bee" thing messing with his reproductive instincts. But that's not for 110 chapters, and even when it comes up it's easy to ignore. It's easy to convince ourselves that Rei is just a softboi ninja among alpha males.
Interesting factoid: while there are tons of successful fighters who were unreasonably tall for their weight class, you don't get a lot of super successful Really Tall Guys at heavyweight. With some notable exceptions like Tyson Fury in boxing and Semmy Schilt in kickboxing, 6'7" is about the cutoff. My assumption is that if someone's that tall and a genuinely gifted athlete, they're going to be doing a more profitable and less self-destructive sport like basketball.
- Location
- boundless optimism
my high school understanding of physics allows me to know that the force of an effort is multiplied by the distance of the fulcum disney man has got this in the bag as long as he keeps these principles in mind
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Biomechanics are a bit trickier than that, there are other factors...but yeah, having long limbs is definitely an advantage in a fight. It's hard for a shorter guy to get past Nezu's fists, and once he does it'll be harder to hit him anywhere important.
(Except the groin, of course. Crotch shots are probably allowed under what passes for rules in the Kengan Association.)
Chapter 89 - Lightning
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Mikazuchi Rei, the Lightning God, has been a semi constant presence for more than half of the manga by now. Most of this time has been spent snuggled up with his girlfriend providing commentary on the matches, but we've definitely had hints there's more to him. Of all of Hayami's more elite assassins, the one targeting Kurayoshi Rino met with the most catastrophic failure at Rei's deadly hands. So, now that his match is here, the question stands.
What is Mikazuchi Rei's deal?
Chapter 89 begins in Facts With Kengan Asura mode, providing exposition on the Raishin Style. A fictional martial art, the first page spends its time driving home three main points. One, the style is ancient, with a supposed history over 1200 years long, which likely means it's even older. Two, the Raishin Style hates working with temporal authorities, only having taken to the field alongside leaders of men twice in history. And third…that it lives even today. As if we'd ever thought otherwise.
From that, we immediately cut to Flashback Land, and more specifically to the delightful realms of esoteric martial practice. It's the dead of night in the mountains of Tohoku, and the new moon on top of that. It's pitch black, the only light in the world is the glittering stars above, and the only sound the half-dead rasp of a sluggish breeze. And in this void of sensation stands a young man.
Mikazuchi Rei. His skin pulled tight like clingfilm around his muscles, eyes drying up in his skull. Looking like death warmed up, and not by much.
He's been standing there for two days, or so we're told. And before that he'd taken a nine day fast from eating, drinking and sleeping. Now, realistically a human would die after three days without water, but whatever. Rei still isn't in a good way regardless. His lips are desiccated, and his body feels leaden, wracked with a constant, dull pain. He's on the edge of death. And on top of that, the forest in which he's undergoing this trial sits 3500m above sea level, with a sixth of the oxygen content that normally supports human life.
Talk about a bad trip.
Now, with all that said, while his body is about to give out…his mind is focused. Sharper than ever. An extreme state of hyper-awareness that expands as his body falls away from him, similar in nature to practices across the world where people shed consciousness to commune with the divine. His techniques fade. His body dissolves. He even abandons thought. As the boundary between self and other elides into meaninglessness. Bit by bit Mikazuchi Rei fades into the darkness around him, mingling with the world as he becomes part of it, and the world becomes part of him. The ego is freed from the prison of flesh, and the being that is Mikazuchi Rei achieves a state of oneness with the cosmos.
Obliterated by its vastness.
He slowly vanishes.
Into the dark.
Suddenly Rei is within his own flesh once more, panting. A fist passed his head, evaded without conscious thought. The man on the other end of the fist nods. Good. He is pleased. The camera pans to him and we see the hole Rei's fingers left in the skin of his master, a shallow, bleeding pit between his collarbones. A testament to how close Rei came to killing him outright. Mikazuchi Byo, the previous master of the Raishin Style, is a man with an unmoving knot of scarred wood for a face, seemingly incapable of expression, but whatever he feels about it his words are still unambiguously praise. He has witnessed his pupil's lightning.
And, abruptly about facing, now Rei is the master of the Raishin style and bearer of the name Mikazuchi, to do with as he wishes. For Byo is forsaking the fist. He leaves with one more warning. Never forget that it is not enough to merely be as fast as lightning. You must become the lightning. Cut back to the arena, for the first time this chapter.
I'm gonna be completely honest, I don't know if I can judge the first half of this chapter objectively, it is so completely my jam. I fucking love this shit. Practices not intuitively connected to the martial arts, but which expand the limits of the practitioner's senses and awareness via some kind of self-abuse, showing them the way to a technique that language is insufficient to teach, that must be experienced to be understood and mastered. It's genuinely one of my favourite tropes in martial arts fiction, particularly since it allows a writer to skip having to explain in mechanical terms how something works. I regularly come back to this bit as a reference in other projects, I love it so much.
Of course, Nezu didn't see any of that. He's just stood in the arena as Rei enters, posed with his broad, powerful back to the shorter man. Turning dramatically to glare over his shoulder. He can tell Rei is strong. But it doesn't mean shit, right now Nezu feels invincible. It's good shonen trashtalk.
And unfortunately Rei's apparent natural ability to make everything less serious has come with him. Nezu tries to continue his speech, but Sayaka's busy telling Rei off for jumping the Gun, which he sheepishly takes on the chin.
I love this little dork.
Nezu doesn't take being ignored well. Which is fair. When you've been psyching yourself up for a big challenge for ages, abandoning something you love to return to the ring and protect it, this little nerd walking in with his romantic comedy aura and completely deflating everything is going to be really fucking annoying. Yes Nezu, you're being dissed. But think about it this way! The whole point of this arrangement is for you to punch him in the face. So have at it, tiger.
With the introductions done, we move on to the process of actually starting the match. The referee orders both fighters to their starting positions, and Sayaka takes the opportunity while they're lined up just so to compare their heights and…yeah. She compares it to a child facing an adult and it's not a terrible comparison. Rei is 179cm, Nezu is 221, that's a difference of over 40cm. Almost half a metre. And this isn't a manga that's afraid to give big guys their due, either, Nezu's reach advantage is massive. This could be rough.
But that's not the only swerve for this match. Jerry's away calling his mom, which leaves a spot on the announcer's podium empty. Filling in as colour commentator is…
His answer to Sayaka's question, incidentally, is to scream to the fighters that they better both win while Anna Paula wonders how he's louder without a mic than Sayaka is with one. This match is just wall to wall dorks, apparently. And you know what, I'm about it, I'm having fun.
Both fighters take their stance, and as the countdown rocks Sayaka brings the hype. Who will win this clash of passions? The warrior of love? Or the Soldier of Dreams? Will victory go to the world's least Sasuke-like Sasuke lookalike? Or to the punk general of Kingdom Hearts? As the final count drops, Rei dedicates his victory to Rino, as Nezu promises Mockey he'll see his final moments through.
So hey, speaking of Martial Arts fiction tropes I love very deeply…
His chin gently smoking as his eyes bulge sightlessly from his skull, Nezu Masami collapses to the arena floor. "Lightning Flash," Rei solemnly intones, like the massive nerd that he is.
"Lightning can never be evaded."
Both Sayaka and Saw Paing are utterly flabbergasted, the former outright not sure what actually happened. She asks as much over the mic, as Nezu rests in a puddle of his own drool, It went by too fast for her to track. One wonders how much of it even Saw Paing could follow, especially since absolutely noone was expecting anything like this.
Anna Paula, being a professional, calmly checks on Nezu and confirms it. The match is over. The winner is Mikazuchi Rei. And just to put the perfect capper on the delightful clown show this match has been, Rei has a few parting words. What a fool, he says. Dreams always come to an end…but love lasts forever.
I fucking love this boy, what a massive dork!
I'm sorry Hassad, but you've been superseded. There's a new speedy boi in town. End chapter!
Okay so uh…that was match ten, I guess. I wouldn't necessarily blame anyone for calling it an anticlimax, or feeling like the whole arrangement kind of wasted their time, but honestly? I actually really like this one, and even beyond that I think it works on a writing/pacing level. Even if I do regularly forget this match exists.
So, here's the thing. Round one of this tournament is just…so fucking long. It's so long! Ridiculously so. To some extent unavoidably, because its primary job is setup. Every match has spent at least one full chapter introducing one or both fighters, and then within the match itself has to introduce and explain fighting styles. This is all necessary, and will see great payoff in rounds two and three, but it's still easy to lose track of time in this one. The energy has to be sustained, and the pacing kept at speed. With that in mind, I feel that this match not only keeps the pacing up but is actually also a strong piece of setup.
Or in short, not every round 1 fight is going to be a dramatic blowout bonanza like Match eight, and I think that's okay. Especially when the more purely setup matches lean into being this fun.
Now, obviously everything I say here should be taken with a grain of salt. Nobody is immune to their favourite tropes, and this one is loaded up with a few of mine, with fun cute comedy on top. But in the end, I feel much more comfortable with the tone I've taken discussing this match than I was with match nine's coverage. There's caveats, as always, you've all seen my problems with some elements of the humour of chapter 88. But this match was a nice snack.
See you all next time, for this match's cleanup. And soon, Rihito's time to shine.
What is Mikazuchi Rei's deal?
Chapter 89 begins in Facts With Kengan Asura mode, providing exposition on the Raishin Style. A fictional martial art, the first page spends its time driving home three main points. One, the style is ancient, with a supposed history over 1200 years long, which likely means it's even older. Two, the Raishin Style hates working with temporal authorities, only having taken to the field alongside leaders of men twice in history. And third…that it lives even today. As if we'd ever thought otherwise.
From that, we immediately cut to Flashback Land, and more specifically to the delightful realms of esoteric martial practice. It's the dead of night in the mountains of Tohoku, and the new moon on top of that. It's pitch black, the only light in the world is the glittering stars above, and the only sound the half-dead rasp of a sluggish breeze. And in this void of sensation stands a young man.
Mikazuchi Rei. His skin pulled tight like clingfilm around his muscles, eyes drying up in his skull. Looking like death warmed up, and not by much.
He's been standing there for two days, or so we're told. And before that he'd taken a nine day fast from eating, drinking and sleeping. Now, realistically a human would die after three days without water, but whatever. Rei still isn't in a good way regardless. His lips are desiccated, and his body feels leaden, wracked with a constant, dull pain. He's on the edge of death. And on top of that, the forest in which he's undergoing this trial sits 3500m above sea level, with a sixth of the oxygen content that normally supports human life.
Talk about a bad trip.
Now, with all that said, while his body is about to give out…his mind is focused. Sharper than ever. An extreme state of hyper-awareness that expands as his body falls away from him, similar in nature to practices across the world where people shed consciousness to commune with the divine. His techniques fade. His body dissolves. He even abandons thought. As the boundary between self and other elides into meaninglessness. Bit by bit Mikazuchi Rei fades into the darkness around him, mingling with the world as he becomes part of it, and the world becomes part of him. The ego is freed from the prison of flesh, and the being that is Mikazuchi Rei achieves a state of oneness with the cosmos.
Obliterated by its vastness.
He slowly vanishes.
Into the dark.
Suddenly Rei is within his own flesh once more, panting. A fist passed his head, evaded without conscious thought. The man on the other end of the fist nods. Good. He is pleased. The camera pans to him and we see the hole Rei's fingers left in the skin of his master, a shallow, bleeding pit between his collarbones. A testament to how close Rei came to killing him outright. Mikazuchi Byo, the previous master of the Raishin Style, is a man with an unmoving knot of scarred wood for a face, seemingly incapable of expression, but whatever he feels about it his words are still unambiguously praise. He has witnessed his pupil's lightning.
And, abruptly about facing, now Rei is the master of the Raishin style and bearer of the name Mikazuchi, to do with as he wishes. For Byo is forsaking the fist. He leaves with one more warning. Never forget that it is not enough to merely be as fast as lightning. You must become the lightning. Cut back to the arena, for the first time this chapter.
I'm gonna be completely honest, I don't know if I can judge the first half of this chapter objectively, it is so completely my jam. I fucking love this shit. Practices not intuitively connected to the martial arts, but which expand the limits of the practitioner's senses and awareness via some kind of self-abuse, showing them the way to a technique that language is insufficient to teach, that must be experienced to be understood and mastered. It's genuinely one of my favourite tropes in martial arts fiction, particularly since it allows a writer to skip having to explain in mechanical terms how something works. I regularly come back to this bit as a reference in other projects, I love it so much.
Of course, Nezu didn't see any of that. He's just stood in the arena as Rei enters, posed with his broad, powerful back to the shorter man. Turning dramatically to glare over his shoulder. He can tell Rei is strong. But it doesn't mean shit, right now Nezu feels invincible. It's good shonen trashtalk.
And unfortunately Rei's apparent natural ability to make everything less serious has come with him. Nezu tries to continue his speech, but Sayaka's busy telling Rei off for jumping the Gun, which he sheepishly takes on the chin.
I love this little dork.
Nezu doesn't take being ignored well. Which is fair. When you've been psyching yourself up for a big challenge for ages, abandoning something you love to return to the ring and protect it, this little nerd walking in with his romantic comedy aura and completely deflating everything is going to be really fucking annoying. Yes Nezu, you're being dissed. But think about it this way! The whole point of this arrangement is for you to punch him in the face. So have at it, tiger.
With the introductions done, we move on to the process of actually starting the match. The referee orders both fighters to their starting positions, and Sayaka takes the opportunity while they're lined up just so to compare their heights and…yeah. She compares it to a child facing an adult and it's not a terrible comparison. Rei is 179cm, Nezu is 221, that's a difference of over 40cm. Almost half a metre. And this isn't a manga that's afraid to give big guys their due, either, Nezu's reach advantage is massive. This could be rough.
But that's not the only swerve for this match. Jerry's away calling his mom, which leaves a spot on the announcer's podium empty. Filling in as colour commentator is…
His answer to Sayaka's question, incidentally, is to scream to the fighters that they better both win while Anna Paula wonders how he's louder without a mic than Sayaka is with one. This match is just wall to wall dorks, apparently. And you know what, I'm about it, I'm having fun.
Both fighters take their stance, and as the countdown rocks Sayaka brings the hype. Who will win this clash of passions? The warrior of love? Or the Soldier of Dreams? Will victory go to the world's least Sasuke-like Sasuke lookalike? Or to the punk general of Kingdom Hearts? As the final count drops, Rei dedicates his victory to Rino, as Nezu promises Mockey he'll see his final moments through.
So hey, speaking of Martial Arts fiction tropes I love very deeply…
His chin gently smoking as his eyes bulge sightlessly from his skull, Nezu Masami collapses to the arena floor. "Lightning Flash," Rei solemnly intones, like the massive nerd that he is.
"Lightning can never be evaded."
Both Sayaka and Saw Paing are utterly flabbergasted, the former outright not sure what actually happened. She asks as much over the mic, as Nezu rests in a puddle of his own drool, It went by too fast for her to track. One wonders how much of it even Saw Paing could follow, especially since absolutely noone was expecting anything like this.
Anna Paula, being a professional, calmly checks on Nezu and confirms it. The match is over. The winner is Mikazuchi Rei. And just to put the perfect capper on the delightful clown show this match has been, Rei has a few parting words. What a fool, he says. Dreams always come to an end…but love lasts forever.
I fucking love this boy, what a massive dork!
I'm sorry Hassad, but you've been superseded. There's a new speedy boi in town. End chapter!
Okay so uh…that was match ten, I guess. I wouldn't necessarily blame anyone for calling it an anticlimax, or feeling like the whole arrangement kind of wasted their time, but honestly? I actually really like this one, and even beyond that I think it works on a writing/pacing level. Even if I do regularly forget this match exists.
So, here's the thing. Round one of this tournament is just…so fucking long. It's so long! Ridiculously so. To some extent unavoidably, because its primary job is setup. Every match has spent at least one full chapter introducing one or both fighters, and then within the match itself has to introduce and explain fighting styles. This is all necessary, and will see great payoff in rounds two and three, but it's still easy to lose track of time in this one. The energy has to be sustained, and the pacing kept at speed. With that in mind, I feel that this match not only keeps the pacing up but is actually also a strong piece of setup.
Or in short, not every round 1 fight is going to be a dramatic blowout bonanza like Match eight, and I think that's okay. Especially when the more purely setup matches lean into being this fun.
Now, obviously everything I say here should be taken with a grain of salt. Nobody is immune to their favourite tropes, and this one is loaded up with a few of mine, with fun cute comedy on top. But in the end, I feel much more comfortable with the tone I've taken discussing this match than I was with match nine's coverage. There's caveats, as always, you've all seen my problems with some elements of the humour of chapter 88. But this match was a nice snack.
See you all next time, for this match's cleanup. And soon, Rihito's time to shine.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
As cool as this fight is, there's a part of me that hates it.
Because it makes Nezu basically impossible to use in fantasy Kengan tournaments!
But seriously, Rei is super fuckin' cool and this is an amazing way of building heat for him. In a series that has made it a mission to avoid easy curbstomps wherever possible, pulling that card out for a special occasion like this makes it feel genuinely special. In another series, Rei winning instantly with one move would just be par for the course. Here? It's something genuinely exceptional.
Because it makes Nezu basically impossible to use in fantasy Kengan tournaments!
But seriously, Rei is super fuckin' cool and this is an amazing way of building heat for him. In a series that has made it a mission to avoid easy curbstomps wherever possible, pulling that card out for a special occasion like this makes it feel genuinely special. In another series, Rei winning instantly with one move would just be par for the course. Here? It's something genuinely exceptional.
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This definitely feels like a low-stakes comic relief breather match, I assume we're going to ratchet up the intensity as we close out the final round.
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- Location
- boundless optimism
It's kind of fucked that Sasuke (Rei) has no interaction with Ohma (Naruto) but Naruto (Ohma) actually does fuck with Sakura (Raian) down the line. How is this allow. Shounen Jump please file lawsuit.
TheFoxsCloak
Professional Otaku
And with both fighters properly introduced, here are their entrance theme! ...a bit too late to matter but such is life when facing the Raishin Style.
For The Man from the Land of Dreams, we have It's All Over by NEPHILIM:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLsQF7A47iw
A surprisingly sombre intro leading into an excellent rock/metal ensemble that nonetheless perfectly underscores Nezu's character and purpose.
For The Lightning God, we have MEGABULLETS by FATE GEAR:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j93mkIAqODc
Notable for being one of the few (only? I've been relistening to the OST as we go so I genuinely forget) with a female main vocalist. Combined with a blistering drum that sets the pace of both the song and any fight Rei is in.
Also, one of the weirdest quirks of the translation so far:
The wiki page for the Raishin Style, citing this exact same chapter, instead claims:
The anime sub says it "holds contempt for authority", so I'm more willing to trust that interpretation, but it's still a weird disconnect on how the wiki could somehow get the exact opposite meaning.
For The Man from the Land of Dreams, we have It's All Over by NEPHILIM:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLsQF7A47iw
A surprisingly sombre intro leading into an excellent rock/metal ensemble that nonetheless perfectly underscores Nezu's character and purpose.
For The Lightning God, we have MEGABULLETS by FATE GEAR:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j93mkIAqODc
Notable for being one of the few (only? I've been relistening to the OST as we go so I genuinely forget) with a female main vocalist. Combined with a blistering drum that sets the pace of both the song and any fight Rei is in.
Also, one of the weirdest quirks of the translation so far:
The wiki page for the Raishin Style, citing this exact same chapter, instead claims:
The anime sub says it "holds contempt for authority", so I'm more willing to trust that interpretation, but it's still a weird disconnect on how the wiki could somehow get the exact opposite meaning.
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Brightflame
Lord of the Dance
- Location
- Inkopolis
Been binging this, and gotta say I am enjoying myself!
I watched the anime before, but it doesn't do it enough justice (even if it kinda did better with the more problematic parts in some cases). Thanks for this!
also good to see my hatred for Akoya is still justified
Moving on to the chapter...honestly it was the most let-down fight for me in the anime and still is here too. I always love the thugs with the funny hairstyles in these things and Nezu's whole schtick was something I found interesting. The manga even hypes him up more by giving him more scenes before his one and only fight, usually with impressively detailed shot of him with his mask on. I mean come on!
I accepted it though, it only seems natural for the one with alot more screentime to end up winning after all.
...Oh how wrong I would be.
I watched the anime before, but it doesn't do it enough justice (even if it kinda did better with the more problematic parts in some cases). Thanks for this!
Moving on to the chapter...honestly it was the most let-down fight for me in the anime and still is here too. I always love the thugs with the funny hairstyles in these things and Nezu's whole schtick was something I found interesting. The manga even hypes him up more by giving him more scenes before his one and only fight, usually with impressively detailed shot of him with his mask on. I mean come on!
I accepted it though, it only seems natural for the one with alot more screentime to end up winning after all.
...Oh how wrong I would be.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Look at this softboy master assassin dork, he's great. I can see why Rino likes him. Though for her sake I hope he's not this quick in bed.
Honestly I like this chapter a lot, not specifically because of the match but because we have in fact just been introduced to everything we need to know about Rei, while setting up massive heat for him. He just won a fight in a very fantastical way, in a series that has otherwise been very respectful of the harsh physical realities of a fighting tournament, at least in the sense of how finishing a fight in a single massive move is exceedingly difficult and most likely both sides of a fight are gonna come out hurt and tired. It sets him up to be a big deal other fighters are going to have to deal with... but it also sets up what his main problem is going to be going forward, which the story is going to gleefully indulge in later, as well as explaining why this is a problem for him and how he thinks he should deal with it. Rei is a surprisingly carefully constructed character.
That said, someone else mentioned it last update and I agree: Nezu on the other hand gets basically no respect as a jobber. He'll get a bit to chew on still as a character but as a fighter, he's here specifically to get one-shot merced and that's it. It's a pity, given how much setup went into him only to be wasted. Best I can say is, Omega gave him something nice by completely not having him in the plot aside from a mention of how he's doing. He's happy. Good for him.
Guile
Having a really great time right now
I think this might have been the last fight I read in the manga. I'd been feeling for a bit like the more interesting fighters kept losing and the ones I cared about very little kept advancing, and Nezu jobbing that hard was especially frustrating.
That horror movie blocking that followed Nezu around will be missed.
That horror movie blocking that followed Nezu around will be missed.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Revealing that the last two pages were expositing about a dead, irrelevant martial art could be a pretty funny joke. But yeah, no.
The idea that inflicting suffering on yourself is an effective way to train is a common idea, and one I find frustrating. Not as frustrating as eugenics, but only because more people actively support that.
Part of why it's frustrating is because it's almost always taken to such extremes that you'd deal permanent damage to yourself. Being aware that the source of a martial artist's power would realistically leave them weaker than if they'd watched TV at home is gonna take you out of the mood.
But...
...it's mostly frustrating because of how it plays into a pattern of belief that I've heard referred to as "the cult of the badass". An obsession with men (and the occasional, actively unfeminine woman) who embody a specific ideal of masculinity—strong, tough, apathetic to hardship, willing to use violence when needed, or sometimes even if not.
It's not just an isolated bit of absurdity, either. It's comorbid with all sorts of martial bullshit. Not martial like "martial arts," martial like "martial law". Or more relevantly, like lionization of war criminals, support for police brutality, and outright fascism. Turns out that people who adore violent men are usually in favor of more violence, or at least can easily be talked into it.
Not all Sparta fanboys are nascent fascists; some just listen to Spartan rhetoric about equality and don't consider whether that applies to the like 95% of Spartans who aren't citizens. Or to the kings. Or to Spartiates with worse land—I'm drifting into a second tangent. My point is that I can usually tolerate dumb ideas, but I'm way less tolerant of dumb ideas that tie into cruel ideas.
It's not just an isolated bit of absurdity, either. It's comorbid with all sorts of martial bullshit. Not martial like "martial arts," martial like "martial law". Or more relevantly, like lionization of war criminals, support for police brutality, and outright fascism. Turns out that people who adore violent men are usually in favor of more violence, or at least can easily be talked into it.
Not all Sparta fanboys are nascent fascists; some just listen to Spartan rhetoric about equality and don't consider whether that applies to the like 95% of Spartans who aren't citizens. Or to the kings. Or to Spartiates with worse land—I'm drifting into a second tangent. My point is that I can usually tolerate dumb ideas, but I'm way less tolerant of dumb ideas that tie into cruel ideas.
I'm gonna respectfully disagree with Manic Dogma here. There are two things I like about Rei's habit of defusing any tension he comes across.
First, it's an unorthodox method of building heat. Someone who treats the high-stakes tournament arc so casually is either an arrogant fool or has the power to back up his confidence, and this match dispels any question about which one of those Rei is. We could argue about whether it's more or less effective than, for instance, telling the audience about incredible feats of strength or martial prowess...but that's kinda irrelevant, because a series with dozens of martial artists should try to differentiate between them. Building Rei's heat in a way shared by one other participant instead of most of them is a good idea.
Second, it's funny. The badass ninja dude who by all genre conventions should be stoic if not outright cold, is actually a big softie who's more worried about his GF than the fight. Maybe it's a dumb idea, but if so, it's a dumb idea I like.
I like how Kengan Asura usually avoids this sort of curb-stomp battle, even for the strongest fighters in the tournament...but if you're gonna do it, might as well do it in a fight that establishes that the casual dude is strong and not dumb.
Yeah. The Kengan Annihilation Tournament is a reminder of why most tournament arcs have no more than 16 competitors.
...well, can't fault the title for accuracy.
Wikis with hundreds or thousands of active users are pretty good about catching that kind of thing. Wikis with (judging by the Recent Activity page) one active user and a few occasional editors, not so much.
- Location
- USA
Tourney fight opening rounds are kind of the definition of driving to the fireworks factory. You are building up one of these guys to either fight your MC or someone that the MC is going to fight, and that can be ridiculously indirect.
~Ok, Naruto is gonna fight Gaara, but before that Gaara will fight this Guy dude, and so we are now in the process of the fight that picks which of two jobbers gets to fight Guy before he loses to Gaara before he loses to Naruto. When we introduce the loser of that fight, our goal is to make the winner look strong so that Guy looks strong for beating him so that Gaara looks strong for beating him so that Naruto looks strong for beating him. Gaara is bad, so Guy must be good, so his oppo must be bad, so that guy's first oppo (the Nezu of it all), must be good. It's not something you put a lot of effort into.
~Ok, Naruto is gonna fight Gaara, but before that Gaara will fight this Guy dude, and so we are now in the process of the fight that picks which of two jobbers gets to fight Guy before he loses to Gaara before he loses to Naruto. When we introduce the loser of that fight, our goal is to make the winner look strong so that Guy looks strong for beating him so that Gaara looks strong for beating him so that Naruto looks strong for beating him. Gaara is bad, so Guy must be good, so his oppo must be bad, so that guy's first oppo (the Nezu of it all), must be good. It's not something you put a lot of effort into.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A good tournament arc gives a lot of the side characters something interesting going on, like how Sekibayashi Jun ends up instructing Kiozan and Haruo during and after his first fight, so that fights involving them aren't just building heat for whoever ends up fighting the important characters. Well, it could also just put less focus on the fights that don't matter as much, but that's not as popular for some reason.
Kengan Asura's tournament arc is...not bad. Most of the fights at least have interesting fight choreography or something like that.
But I've mentioned before that most of the fights slipped out of my mind as soon as I finished reading them. I checked the wiki's page for the tournament (to make sure I spelled Sebikoyashi correctly), and there are some fights where I don't even remember who either of the fighters are. Luckily it's a wiki, so I can just go "Oh right, the shogi player and the Thai guy," but that didn't help me remember anything substantial about the fight itself.
Some fights (like Jun vs. Kiozan, or the first half of Robinson vs. Raian) have more going on; they're more memorable, more interesting. But it's not consistent.
Kengan Asura's tournament arc is...not bad. Most of the fights at least have interesting fight choreography or something like that.
But I've mentioned before that most of the fights slipped out of my mind as soon as I finished reading them. I checked the wiki's page for the tournament (to make sure I spelled Sebikoyashi correctly), and there are some fights where I don't even remember who either of the fighters are. Luckily it's a wiki, so I can just go "Oh right, the shogi player and the Thai guy," but that didn't help me remember anything substantial about the fight itself.
Some fights (like Jun vs. Kiozan, or the first half of Robinson vs. Raian) have more going on; they're more memorable, more interesting. But it's not consistent.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
See this is why I like Kengan Asura so much. Aside from some outliers like Nezu here, almost every single fighter is being given their own story and development and heat, even if they're a round 1 chump whose job is establishing heat for the guy who's gonna establish heat for the guy who's gonna fight an actually important guy. Everybody here has a story, everybody here is good, and they all get treated with respect by the story, for the most part. You can almost forget, for a large chunk of the manga, that Ohma is the main character. It's really fun.
- Location
- Leeds
Just reading this, I'm 90% certain there must be some algorithm can be used to precisely describe what traits every person in the tournament needs to have in order to satisfy the constraints.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah I also understand that perspective of it being seen as a waste of time - in the context of only this fight I can see it. However, in the wider context that includes the later fights Rei has, this match does something very important by establishing the expectation that Rei will finish his fights absurdly quickly which is then overturned deliberately in all of his following fights to give them more weight - particularly against the monster that is Saw Paing.
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Rancorious
Continue? Yes or No.
Weird, the manga says that it straight up doesn't "appear on the stage of history" aside from those two times, implying that it mainly kept to the shadows.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's not even hard. Well, two steps are—figuring out what a good opponent to a given character is, and creating the protagonist (here defined as "the dude who wins the tournament"). But once you've got that, and one other thing, I can think of two ways to loop through the other fighters.
Let's start by assuming that we have such a protagonist (call him Ace) and some opponent-generating algorithm (or OGA). Let's also assume that the tournament arc we're generating only has eight contestants, since that makes things a lot faster. Let's assign them letters, to make this simple.
The first algorithm loops through each round of the tournament backwards, propagating fighters from the prior (next?) round backwards and generating any missing fighters. For instance:
- The last "round" is just Ace. As per our assumptions, we already know he'll win and what he's like. Probably a generic shonen protagonist that likes fighting, friendship, and food, here mostly to have a good time and fight some strong opponents.
- The finals is Ace and B. We don't know who B is, so we have to generate him.
- Our OGA comes up with Badguy, a mean warrior who doesn't care about others and wants to use the tournament prize for nefarious ends.
- The semifinals are Ace, Badguy, C, and D. We don't know who C or D are, so we have to generate them. OGA comes up with:
- Chump (Badguy's opponent): Ace's childhood friend who wants to prove herself, but doesn't have the strength to make it past the second round.
- Dadguy, (Ace's opponent): A mean father who doesn't care about others and wants to use the tournament prize for nefarious ends.
- The first round is Ace, Badguy, Chump, Dadguy, E, F, G, and H. You know the drill:
- Error (Dadguy's opponent): Dadguy's son, who he considers a failure because he wasn't useful as a tool.
- Freak (Chump's opponent): A comedic foe with an amusing and memorable gimmick, who nobody except Chump takes seriously.
- Ghump (Badguy's opponent): Ace's friend from the forrest who wants to prove himself, but doesn't have the strength to make it past the first round.
- Hadguy (Ace's opponent): A mean old master who doesn't care about others and wants to use the tournament prize for nefarious ends.
The "other thing" this algorithm needs is some way to consider previously-generated fights (from later in the tournament), and generate something distinct from those opponents. So when generating Ace's semifinals opponent, the OGA takes both Ace and Badguy as inputs, and generates someone different than Badguy for him to fight—maybe Dear, one of Ace's ex-friends who he doesn't want to hurt. And when generating his first round opponent, it takes Ace, Badguy, and Dread as inputs, generating Hubris, an arrogant kung fu guy. Badguy would be the same, generating Green, an eager prodigy who Badguy can cripple to show how evil he is.
The second algorithm doesn't generate characters individually. Instead, it calculates the number of opponents it needs for the current character, and then generates an "arc" for that character, with that number of opponents. (That's the "other thing" this algorithm needs, which is more like a loop-ey modification of the OGA.) Then repeat that process for each remaining opponent. For instance:
- Ace needs three opponents—H, D, and B.
- Harbinger, a minion of Badguy who Ace struggles to defeat, foreshadowing that his master must be even greater.
- Dire, a sympathetic character who desperately needs the tournament prize to save his neighborhood. After beating him, Ace promises to let him have the prize.
- Badguy is still a mean warrior who doesn't care about others and wants to use the tournament prize for nefarious ends.
- Harbinger doesn't need any opponents.
- Dire needs one opponent—Engine.
- Engine, a representative of the institution that put Dire's neighborhood in danger. Beating him is a moral victory for Dire, but it's not enough to save the neighborhood.
- Badguy needs two opponents—G and Chump.
- Green is an eager prodigy who Badguy can cripple to show how evil he is.
- Chump is Ace's childhood friend; she wants to prove herself, and crushing the monster who crippled Green would be a good way to do that.
- Engine doesn't need any opponents.
- Green doesn't need any opponents.
- Chump needs one opponent—F
- Freak is a comedic foe with an amusing and memorable gimmick, who nobody except Chump takes seriously.
- Freak doesn't need any opponents
- The list is empty; save the output and terminate the program.
Both algorithms would have an optional last step to scramble the bracket. There would be a 50/50 chance to swap the top and bottom halves of the bracket, repeated down each branch, down to the first fight (where there's a 50/50 chance of—for instance—Harbinger vs. Ace instead of Ace vs. Harbinger). Not necessary, but it makes the bracket look less artificial.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
i take back all the credit i gave here kengan asura is dogshit 0/10
Peanut-007
Hat or Hair? America decides.
- Location
- Maryland, United States of America
I'll hold my thoughts on the structure of Kengan's tournament for much later but in general Tournament Arcs almost always rely on some twist of the formula to actually be good. They become very boring and very predictable if it's just the hero beating a series of incrementally stronger opponents and eventually the big bad of the arc. Fortunately there's a bunch of ways to twist things around.
Which isn't to say tournaments don't have their strengths even when played pretty straight. They let the author twist around narrative convention around a bit with the brackets; they lay out a clear series of challenges for the heroes to overcome, they add some weird conditions to fights to keep them interesting, big fights can come very early on, friends can go all out against each other without needing mind control or the like, and they're a natural way to show off how powerful the opponents will be. To get to his fight with Naruto, Sasuke needs to clear Garra and we just saw him take out the strongest other contender in the qualifiers. How will he manage that?
The twists though are where I think the real juice comes in for a Tournament Arc. It lets the reader get lulled into a sense of how things will progress which can then be broken. You know that everyone is going to be fighting and the protagonist will get to the finals. Then they lose and the whole thing is thrown off track. Or a war breaks out. Or there are backroom deals for someone to throw a fight.
Which isn't to say tournaments don't have their strengths even when played pretty straight. They let the author twist around narrative convention around a bit with the brackets; they lay out a clear series of challenges for the heroes to overcome, they add some weird conditions to fights to keep them interesting, big fights can come very early on, friends can go all out against each other without needing mind control or the like, and they're a natural way to show off how powerful the opponents will be. To get to his fight with Naruto, Sasuke needs to clear Garra and we just saw him take out the strongest other contender in the qualifiers. How will he manage that?
The twists though are where I think the real juice comes in for a Tournament Arc. It lets the reader get lulled into a sense of how things will progress which can then be broken. You know that everyone is going to be fighting and the protagonist will get to the finals. Then they lose and the whole thing is thrown off track. Or a war breaks out. Or there are backroom deals for someone to throw a fight.
Rancorious
Continue? Yes or No.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean, one of those things already happened. Twice, kinda. (Both fights happened anyways, though.)