- Pronouns
- They/Them
Either that or he has a whole setup with a harness and some guardrails to do it. Which I can also see people being into
Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura
- Thread starter Manic Dogma
- Start date
- Discussion Manga
- Location
- The North
I'm now picturing a 20-something Kuroki doing the same blank-faced fear-sprinting as Ohma whenever a woman approaches him.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Some of you have what seem like normal tastes in men, but some of you are absolutely incomprehensible. I mean, I don't have any taste in anyone, maybe that makes it harder to understand y'all, but I think even allosexual people would find some of this weird.
Like, what does this mean, and how does it balance out the pride he has calling himself "The Genocider"?
Kensai
我们都是中国人
- Location
- Hel
Gaolang is not only very attractive but a highly adept homemaker. I'm a lesbian, but if he made this dish for me I'd put a ring on his finger.
A proper pad pakrao is bomb.
- Location
- Somewhere on Earth
Kuroki would never be so caught off guard. He effortlessly parries the inexperienced penmanship of a cute girl's proposal. He sweeps their legs out from under them then actually, physically sweeps their legs. Man has untouchable poise.
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
Inaba is definitely up there, as is Cosmo, but I do have a soft spot for Kiryu, as physically he's honestly very cute when he's not doing walking red flags. Rei, also, is a good boy. And Kaneda is pretty cute, especially with his formal and traditional dress. Hajime, uh, also cute, but also Jesus christ I would not risk being unconscious near him.
On the other side of things, there's Gaolang. And honestly, he's a himbo but I feel like he could be a cute boyfriend in Rihito. And Jun, of course, is a giant bear of a man.
Outside of fighters, Retsudo is also pretty cute, as is Yoshioka. I also feel like if I took a decade or two off Nogi you'd have a hell of a man.
On the other side of things, there's Gaolang. And honestly, he's a himbo but I feel like he could be a cute boyfriend in Rihito. And Jun, of course, is a giant bear of a man.
Outside of fighters, Retsudo is also pretty cute, as is Yoshioka. I also feel like if I took a decade or two off Nogi you'd have a hell of a man.
Peanut-007
Hat or Hair? America decides.
- Location
- Maryland, United States of America
It's simple. If they commit war crimes and you think they're hot, morally grey. If not, horribly evil.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...when is that?
I still don't get it, but this does explain some stuff in other fandoms.
- Location
- Surrey
The man is a successful entrepreneur, takes deserved pride in the quality of his work, dresses better than 99% of the planet while blind and helps others dress better, is canonically amazing at sex, is quite personable off the clock, and is rich.
Muteba would be quite the catch even if he had only two of those qualities.
Besides, there is no ethical fucking under capitalism. If your tastes say go for it, go for it.
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- Location
- boundless optimism
It means that he's got drip. He's got game. He's got the sigma grindset to take me on expensive resort dates that have only a 70% chance of me getting put in a hostage situation by people with a grudge after him. I both want to be him and be with him.
Also, I would like officer Akoya to put me under arrest, if you know what I mean.
That is so much worse than "the Genocider."
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
He had that nice conversation with Yamashita and that secretary.
- Location
- Midwest
it is cool that sandovich actually researched a bit about local fashion from muteba's home country when elaborating on his interior life.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fair, I guess.
I'm pretty sure most fucking takes place outside capitalism. Capitalism relies on fucking for reproducing the workforce, but it also relies on nature for everything from fertile soil to ocen fisheries, and you don't hear anyone say there's no ethical nature under capitalism.
Considering what we've seen of his police work? Extrajudicial execution.
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
I'd like to clarify: Long haired Yandere fuckboi, not the terrible fucking haircut we get in Omega. He looks so bad then.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
- Location
- Pennsylvania
We're here for a good time, not for a long time.
Case in point, Agito is my forever blorbo. Give me a chance, I'm sure I can screw his brains back in.
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Peanut-007
Hat or Hair? America decides.
- Location
- Maryland, United States of America
If you don't want him at his Boy Band you don't deserve him at his worst.
Chapter 99+100 - Imitation and Choice
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
For some reason, though we start on the same moment the last chapter ended, Chiba isn't doing his funky Void-face thing. Disappointing, but since it wasn't really happening anyway, I suppose there's nothing for it. Hatsumi isn't super intimidated either way, dismissing the title "the Faceless Man" as cheap. It's not a super intimidating title on the face of it (heh) I suppose, and as Hatsumi dryly points out his face is perfectly visible.
This is Chiba's response.
There's something profoundly disturbing about seeing Gaolang smirk, and I think the man himself agrees.
Chiba immediately sets to work casting his spell, shadowboxing with the air in a display that takes the breath away from the audience. Including one very distinct looking black man who's probably a reference to someone or other, who directly notes that they're a perfect match for Gaolang's strikes. Even as they kick up dust around Chiba with their sheer speed. Hatsumi, watching closely, notes that he isn't just fucking around. Those strikes are dangerous. For half a second he muses on if Chiba's style is boxing before the man suddenly Becomes Okubo, lunging in with an MMA tackle. Except not for real, because next page they still aren't fighting yet, but Hatsumi still looks terrified. Reeling from the perfection of the imitation, as Chiba reveals his true nature he is…
An Actor.
Please, please, hold your applause, I know the twist must shock you to your very core.
That said, he does specify the kind, and it's not the Hollywood sort. Rather he does jobs in the Underworld of society, where he imitates people for the purposes of scams and crimes. Apparently such people are capable of imitating a person so well their closest friends won't be able to tell the difference. Seems more fraught than his dialogue implies to me, but put at pin in it, Chiba's doing a thing here. Hatsumi muses on how he's heard there's Actors who specialise in fight scenes, his face more serious and craggy than its ever been, as Chiba delivers his piece de resistance. He, he claims, is capable of tracing any action perfectly after seeing it only once. Do you have any idea what that means?
He can punch like Gaolang. Wrestle like Sekibayashi. Grapple like Cosmo. Hatsumi's opponent is not Chiba Takayuki, it is a divine chimera of the skills of 24 fighters. Terrifying stuff. He expresses gratitude to Yoshitake for bringing him here to such a smorgasbord of fine warriors for him to feed off, his strength is so much higher than before the tournament. And he's only going to get stronger. By the third round, he's confident even the Fang of Metsudo will be beneath him. Hatsumi is impressed. Chiba's strength is undeniable. But he rallies grandly. What of it? Chiba is but a copycat, counting his chickens before they hatch. He can do as he likes, Hatsumi will still beat him.
So here's the thing. Acting is the feat of lying to the audience, the more convincing and beautiful the lie the more they buy in.
Chiba Takayuki has lied to Hatsumi Sen. In two crucial ways.
First, he can only trace motions, techniques, skills of hand and foot. Inherent physical arts and properties, like the Kure removal and Rihito's Razor's Edge, are impossible for him to imitate. And even with a perfectly traced move, the power of the technique is limited by his own physique. Which isn't shabby, but clearly isn't a match for herculean exemplars like Wakatsuki.
Second, Chiba flatly cannot trace techniques instantaneously. It takes him about two hours of focused effort to fully trace a single movement or combo. You notice how the techniques he demonstrated were of the two most publicly well known fighters? He already had Okubo and Gaolang's techniques down, those resources were already available to him on the way here. And this tournament has been non-stop, he hasn't had time to trace more than a couple of motions, even if he skipped several matches to focus on them. He hasn't even been able to fully trace Gaolang and Okubo's fighting styles, really. But that's fine. Being an actual chimera of fighting arts isn't the goal. The goal is to convince the audience and his opponent that he basically has the sharingan, that he can steal techniques the instant he sees them. Even Yoshitake doesn't know about this strat, it's an act for the whole stadium, and Chiba's performance is of a classic trope that lazy battle manga attaches to its strongest fighters.
And it worked.
There's an element of fighting that a lot of people overlook. Even people who mean to write fight scenes, or are very invested in arguments over which of two fictional meatheads would win in a fight. Mental. Mindgames. In practice Chiba is a one-trick pony, but by god he's going to work that horse's gams off. There's a lot of quite stupid people who'll insist that there's one specific secret to winning fights, be it in using all your best techniques immediately in every fight or in never allowing anyone to see any of your techniques so they'll always take everyone by surprise, and even leaving aside how stupid those ideas are individually the overall philosophy is nonsense. There is no one true way to win. For example, in relation to the second stupid idea a fight is as affected as much by what you know as what you don't know. If you know your opponent is holding a knife, it only stands to reason you'll be focusing on the knife. You'll be cautious of it, of its reach. You won't be as ready for the pocket sand.
And that's Chiba's gambit. As Hatsumi whines in his mind about facing an "Agito class opponent" in the first round and muses over how to avoid Chiba straight up stealing his techniques mid match, the Actor smirks. Doubt breeds caution, and caution is hesitation. And as I'm sure everyone who's played Sekiro to the end knows, Hesitation is Death.
Now cower in terror before a Monster that doesn't exist.
Incidentally, the referee for this block is a guy called Cheetah Hattori, I just think that's delightful.
That said, Chiba is pretty aware that this is his most vulnerable point. He's faking it until he makes it right now, and isn't confident he'll actually be able to deliver on his promises until the second round. Until then, he'll make do with what he's already got. And begins the fight in the stance of a well known master Karateka, who Hatsumi recognises as the late Andrews Filho and decides he can't afford to pull his punches.
Chiba has guessed this is what he'll be thinking. And is very confident that if he's right, Hatsumi will never win. The Nogi Group's strongest fighter and the Apex of Acting charge each other.
26 seconds into the match, the battle is over. And so is the chapter.
Let's see how that actually played out, shall we?
The first move is a right straight from Chiba, which Hatsumi easily parries. 21 seconds until the end of the match he unleashes a scything high kick which Chiba leaps over, rocketing back down with a flying roundhouse that nearly strips the skin from Hatsumi's nose. Now on the floor he turns into…Bruce Lee? And rushes Hatsumi for all he's worth, chaining a blazing flurry of blows together.
16 seconds until the end of the match.
Hatsumi is hard pressed. His hesitation is so strong that Chiba manages to get a grip on his wrist, some kind of Aikido grip that tries to leverage Hatsumi's own joints against him. Seven seconds until the end of the match.
But it's already over.
With a single casual motion Hatsumi forces Chiba to his knees via his own grip. Eyes boggling, Chiba has no idea what's happening. Later, he would reflect it was at this exact moment that he knew he fucked up.
Match thirteen goes to the Floating Cloud, Hatsumi Sen, as he grumbles that he hadn't intended to let Chiba tag him. What a pain in the ass.
Over in the entry corridor, Wakatsuki muses on the precise way in which Chiba fucked the hell up. That very last move was an Aikido technique, probably an attempt to flex on an opponent who seemed pressured. The problem with that is that Hatsumi's specific martial art is itself a form of Aikido. Chiba all but handed the match to Hatsumi on a silver platter with a single move by moving the fight to a playing field where Hatsumi is basically unmatched. Then we find out that middle age has done nothing to Wakatsuki's hearing, because he was following their whole conversation and reckons that Hatsumi was so rattled that Chiba could actually have won if he played his cards right. But he didn't. And the single opening he left was enough for the far superior fighter to end it in one. That's the Kengan Matches.
So hey, remember my little aside on the many stupid ways that people who don't know how fighting works think you can easily win every fight? Here's another one for the people who think an automatic copycat process like Chiba was pretending he had is an automatic win. It isn't as scary as it sounds.
It's all in the application, baby.
Have you ever tried to get into a fighting game, hammered out combos in the training room until you can do them in your sleep, then gotten walloped anyway in ranked because you couldn't get the opportunities to actually fire off your TODs? Same basic principle. If you just throw out attacks and techniques willy nilly without thought for your context or the state of the fight then you're going to get folded. And Chiba clearly wasn't completely fucking us around, those techniques he was firing off were serious business, I believe Wakatsuki when he says Chiba had a shot at winning. But even if he did, Chiba was flying in defiance of something one of the very people he copied said. A thousand kicks once, rather than one kick a thousand times. Chiba's understanding of the techniques he was using was relatively shallow, in large part because of his strategy. He wants to overwhelm frightened opponents using sheer versatility. And it's a strat, sure, but even if Chiba hadn't spoken a single lie in that match then it would have ended the same way. His application was thoughtless. He'd still have tried to Aikido Hatsumi. And Chiba's execution was never going to outpace someone who is actually dedicated to the art. So yeah, Chiba had a shot…but that's all it was. It was up to him to land it, and that's a long, long shot.
Anyway, back in the Kengan Dome, Yoshitake has cornered Nogi in one of the observation corridors and is positively seething. With his full, mincing, knees-together posture too, so we can be sure this scene isn't going to be kind to his dignity. Nogi though has dignity for days, musing on how the loser wishes to speak to him, and asking Yoshitake what he wants with a legendarily smug smile. Yoshitake insists he'll take Nogi down one day, and, well. Nogi closes the trap on him. Word is Yoshitake engaged in physical violence before the match. Yoshitake takes the bait, he knows that was Nogi's assassin, he'll get a statement out of the man and Nogi group will be disqualified. Nogi isn't sure Yoshitake wants to do that.
He'll lose his Association membership if he does, after all.
Yoshitake loses all his piss and vinegar, left sputtering on the back foot as Nogi explains. The man Yoshitake's bodyguards assaulted is Honma Kiyoshi, an ex-mercenary cleaner. He'll do any kind of job, so long as the pay's good. But note the Ex-cleaner bit. Because he isn't a merc anymore. He's a member of the Kengan Association as of the previous day, on Nogi's referral. And fights directly involving Association members are strictly forbidden. That's exactly the kind of chicanery the Matches are supposed to be an outlet for, after all. If this gets out Yoshitake Real Estate will be blacklisted.
Yoshitake gets it. The plan was to fuck him over all along. Nogi smugly calls that slander, all he did was refer the man, but Yoshitake doesn't buy it and neither should we. Why do this? Why go through with the match? He could easily have made Yoshitake forfeit, why not keep Hatsumi in peak condition?
Nogi walks away as Yoshitake collapses to his knees. You're nowhere near as seasoned as I am, he says.
Now, I'd prefer if this whole scheme happened to someone other than Yoshitake. As a character he's pretty much exclusively been used over the manga's course as the punching bag of the more classically masculine men Sandro clearly places above him. But beyond the simple fact of his design, this little outflanking maneuver was much more targeted at qualities of Yoshitake that actually are classically masculine. His bluntness and brute force tactics, his recklessness and lack of hesitation to respond to perceived attacks with violence. And in that way, I actually kind of like this whole little sub-arc this match has had. Especially with that last comment on the fighters, it strikes me as exactly the sort of ruthless, multilayered gambit that should be happening in the Kengan Matches. It's a bit convenient that the rules shake out this way, and that Nogi could just refer someone into the Association on such short notice, but the way it specifically targets its victim's foibles still manages to sell this chicanery to me and in turn sell Nogi's canny backroom maneuvering.
It'd still be nice if Kengan Asura could be normal about gender nonconformity, though. End chapter.
One last note before I sound off, chapter 99 was the last chapter of volume 12, and as such was followed by an Extra. This time it was a side story centering around Rihito, that lets us know what happened to Komada and Ivan. Specifically their employment troubles, after losing to Ohma, and how they form a friendship with Rihito after he hires them for his Cold Storage facility. It's a nice little reinforcement of what sets Rihito apart from more normal fighters, and a look at what he's like outside of a competitive context and the company of women. A sort of Slice of Rihito's life, if you will. It's not bad, even if the specific phrasing of his mindset is…questionable. Feel free to check it out, but it's not a big deal for the purposes of this Let's Read.
See you all next time, for the leadup to the…weirdest match of the first round. Buckle up kids, it's time for references to modern stochastic terrorism.
This is Chiba's response.
There's something profoundly disturbing about seeing Gaolang smirk, and I think the man himself agrees.
Chiba immediately sets to work casting his spell, shadowboxing with the air in a display that takes the breath away from the audience. Including one very distinct looking black man who's probably a reference to someone or other, who directly notes that they're a perfect match for Gaolang's strikes. Even as they kick up dust around Chiba with their sheer speed. Hatsumi, watching closely, notes that he isn't just fucking around. Those strikes are dangerous. For half a second he muses on if Chiba's style is boxing before the man suddenly Becomes Okubo, lunging in with an MMA tackle. Except not for real, because next page they still aren't fighting yet, but Hatsumi still looks terrified. Reeling from the perfection of the imitation, as Chiba reveals his true nature he is…
An Actor.
Please, please, hold your applause, I know the twist must shock you to your very core.
That said, he does specify the kind, and it's not the Hollywood sort. Rather he does jobs in the Underworld of society, where he imitates people for the purposes of scams and crimes. Apparently such people are capable of imitating a person so well their closest friends won't be able to tell the difference. Seems more fraught than his dialogue implies to me, but put at pin in it, Chiba's doing a thing here. Hatsumi muses on how he's heard there's Actors who specialise in fight scenes, his face more serious and craggy than its ever been, as Chiba delivers his piece de resistance. He, he claims, is capable of tracing any action perfectly after seeing it only once. Do you have any idea what that means?
He can punch like Gaolang. Wrestle like Sekibayashi. Grapple like Cosmo. Hatsumi's opponent is not Chiba Takayuki, it is a divine chimera of the skills of 24 fighters. Terrifying stuff. He expresses gratitude to Yoshitake for bringing him here to such a smorgasbord of fine warriors for him to feed off, his strength is so much higher than before the tournament. And he's only going to get stronger. By the third round, he's confident even the Fang of Metsudo will be beneath him. Hatsumi is impressed. Chiba's strength is undeniable. But he rallies grandly. What of it? Chiba is but a copycat, counting his chickens before they hatch. He can do as he likes, Hatsumi will still beat him.
So here's the thing. Acting is the feat of lying to the audience, the more convincing and beautiful the lie the more they buy in.
Chiba Takayuki has lied to Hatsumi Sen. In two crucial ways.
First, he can only trace motions, techniques, skills of hand and foot. Inherent physical arts and properties, like the Kure removal and Rihito's Razor's Edge, are impossible for him to imitate. And even with a perfectly traced move, the power of the technique is limited by his own physique. Which isn't shabby, but clearly isn't a match for herculean exemplars like Wakatsuki.
Second, Chiba flatly cannot trace techniques instantaneously. It takes him about two hours of focused effort to fully trace a single movement or combo. You notice how the techniques he demonstrated were of the two most publicly well known fighters? He already had Okubo and Gaolang's techniques down, those resources were already available to him on the way here. And this tournament has been non-stop, he hasn't had time to trace more than a couple of motions, even if he skipped several matches to focus on them. He hasn't even been able to fully trace Gaolang and Okubo's fighting styles, really. But that's fine. Being an actual chimera of fighting arts isn't the goal. The goal is to convince the audience and his opponent that he basically has the sharingan, that he can steal techniques the instant he sees them. Even Yoshitake doesn't know about this strat, it's an act for the whole stadium, and Chiba's performance is of a classic trope that lazy battle manga attaches to its strongest fighters.
And it worked.
There's an element of fighting that a lot of people overlook. Even people who mean to write fight scenes, or are very invested in arguments over which of two fictional meatheads would win in a fight. Mental. Mindgames. In practice Chiba is a one-trick pony, but by god he's going to work that horse's gams off. There's a lot of quite stupid people who'll insist that there's one specific secret to winning fights, be it in using all your best techniques immediately in every fight or in never allowing anyone to see any of your techniques so they'll always take everyone by surprise, and even leaving aside how stupid those ideas are individually the overall philosophy is nonsense. There is no one true way to win. For example, in relation to the second stupid idea a fight is as affected as much by what you know as what you don't know. If you know your opponent is holding a knife, it only stands to reason you'll be focusing on the knife. You'll be cautious of it, of its reach. You won't be as ready for the pocket sand.
And that's Chiba's gambit. As Hatsumi whines in his mind about facing an "Agito class opponent" in the first round and muses over how to avoid Chiba straight up stealing his techniques mid match, the Actor smirks. Doubt breeds caution, and caution is hesitation. And as I'm sure everyone who's played Sekiro to the end knows, Hesitation is Death.
Now cower in terror before a Monster that doesn't exist.
Incidentally, the referee for this block is a guy called Cheetah Hattori, I just think that's delightful.
That said, Chiba is pretty aware that this is his most vulnerable point. He's faking it until he makes it right now, and isn't confident he'll actually be able to deliver on his promises until the second round. Until then, he'll make do with what he's already got. And begins the fight in the stance of a well known master Karateka, who Hatsumi recognises as the late Andrews Filho and decides he can't afford to pull his punches.
Chiba has guessed this is what he'll be thinking. And is very confident that if he's right, Hatsumi will never win. The Nogi Group's strongest fighter and the Apex of Acting charge each other.
26 seconds into the match, the battle is over. And so is the chapter.
Let's see how that actually played out, shall we?
The first move is a right straight from Chiba, which Hatsumi easily parries. 21 seconds until the end of the match he unleashes a scything high kick which Chiba leaps over, rocketing back down with a flying roundhouse that nearly strips the skin from Hatsumi's nose. Now on the floor he turns into…Bruce Lee? And rushes Hatsumi for all he's worth, chaining a blazing flurry of blows together.
16 seconds until the end of the match.
Hatsumi is hard pressed. His hesitation is so strong that Chiba manages to get a grip on his wrist, some kind of Aikido grip that tries to leverage Hatsumi's own joints against him. Seven seconds until the end of the match.
But it's already over.
With a single casual motion Hatsumi forces Chiba to his knees via his own grip. Eyes boggling, Chiba has no idea what's happening. Later, he would reflect it was at this exact moment that he knew he fucked up.
Match thirteen goes to the Floating Cloud, Hatsumi Sen, as he grumbles that he hadn't intended to let Chiba tag him. What a pain in the ass.
Over in the entry corridor, Wakatsuki muses on the precise way in which Chiba fucked the hell up. That very last move was an Aikido technique, probably an attempt to flex on an opponent who seemed pressured. The problem with that is that Hatsumi's specific martial art is itself a form of Aikido. Chiba all but handed the match to Hatsumi on a silver platter with a single move by moving the fight to a playing field where Hatsumi is basically unmatched. Then we find out that middle age has done nothing to Wakatsuki's hearing, because he was following their whole conversation and reckons that Hatsumi was so rattled that Chiba could actually have won if he played his cards right. But he didn't. And the single opening he left was enough for the far superior fighter to end it in one. That's the Kengan Matches.
So hey, remember my little aside on the many stupid ways that people who don't know how fighting works think you can easily win every fight? Here's another one for the people who think an automatic copycat process like Chiba was pretending he had is an automatic win. It isn't as scary as it sounds.
It's all in the application, baby.
Have you ever tried to get into a fighting game, hammered out combos in the training room until you can do them in your sleep, then gotten walloped anyway in ranked because you couldn't get the opportunities to actually fire off your TODs? Same basic principle. If you just throw out attacks and techniques willy nilly without thought for your context or the state of the fight then you're going to get folded. And Chiba clearly wasn't completely fucking us around, those techniques he was firing off were serious business, I believe Wakatsuki when he says Chiba had a shot at winning. But even if he did, Chiba was flying in defiance of something one of the very people he copied said. A thousand kicks once, rather than one kick a thousand times. Chiba's understanding of the techniques he was using was relatively shallow, in large part because of his strategy. He wants to overwhelm frightened opponents using sheer versatility. And it's a strat, sure, but even if Chiba hadn't spoken a single lie in that match then it would have ended the same way. His application was thoughtless. He'd still have tried to Aikido Hatsumi. And Chiba's execution was never going to outpace someone who is actually dedicated to the art. So yeah, Chiba had a shot…but that's all it was. It was up to him to land it, and that's a long, long shot.
Anyway, back in the Kengan Dome, Yoshitake has cornered Nogi in one of the observation corridors and is positively seething. With his full, mincing, knees-together posture too, so we can be sure this scene isn't going to be kind to his dignity. Nogi though has dignity for days, musing on how the loser wishes to speak to him, and asking Yoshitake what he wants with a legendarily smug smile. Yoshitake insists he'll take Nogi down one day, and, well. Nogi closes the trap on him. Word is Yoshitake engaged in physical violence before the match. Yoshitake takes the bait, he knows that was Nogi's assassin, he'll get a statement out of the man and Nogi group will be disqualified. Nogi isn't sure Yoshitake wants to do that.
He'll lose his Association membership if he does, after all.
Yoshitake loses all his piss and vinegar, left sputtering on the back foot as Nogi explains. The man Yoshitake's bodyguards assaulted is Honma Kiyoshi, an ex-mercenary cleaner. He'll do any kind of job, so long as the pay's good. But note the Ex-cleaner bit. Because he isn't a merc anymore. He's a member of the Kengan Association as of the previous day, on Nogi's referral. And fights directly involving Association members are strictly forbidden. That's exactly the kind of chicanery the Matches are supposed to be an outlet for, after all. If this gets out Yoshitake Real Estate will be blacklisted.
Yoshitake gets it. The plan was to fuck him over all along. Nogi smugly calls that slander, all he did was refer the man, but Yoshitake doesn't buy it and neither should we. Why do this? Why go through with the match? He could easily have made Yoshitake forfeit, why not keep Hatsumi in peak condition?
Nogi walks away as Yoshitake collapses to his knees. You're nowhere near as seasoned as I am, he says.
Now, I'd prefer if this whole scheme happened to someone other than Yoshitake. As a character he's pretty much exclusively been used over the manga's course as the punching bag of the more classically masculine men Sandro clearly places above him. But beyond the simple fact of his design, this little outflanking maneuver was much more targeted at qualities of Yoshitake that actually are classically masculine. His bluntness and brute force tactics, his recklessness and lack of hesitation to respond to perceived attacks with violence. And in that way, I actually kind of like this whole little sub-arc this match has had. Especially with that last comment on the fighters, it strikes me as exactly the sort of ruthless, multilayered gambit that should be happening in the Kengan Matches. It's a bit convenient that the rules shake out this way, and that Nogi could just refer someone into the Association on such short notice, but the way it specifically targets its victim's foibles still manages to sell this chicanery to me and in turn sell Nogi's canny backroom maneuvering.
It'd still be nice if Kengan Asura could be normal about gender nonconformity, though. End chapter.
One last note before I sound off, chapter 99 was the last chapter of volume 12, and as such was followed by an Extra. This time it was a side story centering around Rihito, that lets us know what happened to Komada and Ivan. Specifically their employment troubles, after losing to Ohma, and how they form a friendship with Rihito after he hires them for his Cold Storage facility. It's a nice little reinforcement of what sets Rihito apart from more normal fighters, and a look at what he's like outside of a competitive context and the company of women. A sort of Slice of Rihito's life, if you will. It's not bad, even if the specific phrasing of his mindset is…questionable. Feel free to check it out, but it's not a big deal for the purposes of this Let's Read.
See you all next time, for the leadup to the…weirdest match of the first round. Buckle up kids, it's time for references to modern stochastic terrorism.
HamSandLich
MEAT WIZARD
- Location
- Somewhere in NOVA, possibly, maybe, presumably
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Overall, this is probably one of my least favorite fights. I think Sandrovoch was trying to hype up Hatsumi Sen, but in practice its more illustrative of how superficial Chiba's skill is, IMO. Since Chiba goes down so quickly instead of truly showcasing any of his copied skills, it gives the impression that his mimicry is little more than hot air.
Rihito vs Gensai probably did a better job of showcasing the victor's strength relative to his opponent, even if the gap between Chiba and Sen is probably smaller than the one between Rihito and Gensai
Rihito vs Gensai probably did a better job of showcasing the victor's strength relative to his opponent, even if the gap between Chiba and Sen is probably smaller than the one between Rihito and Gensai
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If Chiba had been smarter he'd have done this on someone whose moveset he understood to make it so their behavior was more predictable and he could just use pre-prepared counters without worrying too hard about strategy. Then again, he didn't really get to pick who his opponent was so I suppose that's mostly luck. I'm still going to blame him for trying Aikido against Mr. Aikido, Sen might not be a public fighter like Sekibayashi but he's done enough matches that the basics of his style shouldn't be a total mystery.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I like this match. It's very quick and stupidly gimmicky, but I enjoy it a lot. It not only demonstrates a clear case for how gimmicky fighters aren't going to cut it, but also shows why they make it this far in the first place. Chiba has a very hackneyed strategy but it is regardless one that works. Ohma basically fell for a similar trick when he fought Sekibayashi, after all. Not just that, but this fight is also a good bit of writing on Sandro's part for that "this fight will end in x seconds" thing; he sets up that things moved quickly and then just draws the fight, with barely any commentary happening during it. It's a good show of Sandro knowing how to plan things to make a fight enjoyable.
Speaking of which, the next match! ...is certainly going to happen. Oh boy is it ever going to happen.
...hooooooh boy is the next match a thing that happens indeed...
Speaking of which, the next match! ...is certainly going to happen. Oh boy is it ever going to happen.
...hooooooh boy is the next match a thing that happens indeed...
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
Yeah even though I really appreciate how Chiba was written, this fight was 100% about his failings as a fighter rather than Hatsumi's strengths. Honestly, I don't think Chiba has a hope in hell of winning any fight in the second round, especially in the absolutely stacked right block. In the first round he's probably the weakest fighter in the lineup, and in the second round his lack of focus, inability to match the specialised physiques of the people he's copying and poor tactical decisions mean that his gimmick won't hold up.
However, him getting to the second round with his mystique intact would mean that the mere threat of him would affect the entire tournament, since almost EVERYONE would start fighting very differently, and he wouldn't be eliminated until the second last match of the round.
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