- Location
- in the trash
He replaced his vital organs with superior science.
Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura
- Thread starter Manic Dogma
- Start date
- Discussion Manga
Kensai
我们都是中国人
- Location
- Hel
OMG he's a LED Mirage
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm also pretty distant from the subject, but as an American who was alive (though young) during 9/11, I assume that throwing in an expy of a nation-shaking terrorist attack for no real reason is probably not a good look. Maybe it's edgy, but it mostly sounds dumb.
It's basically just an evil thing done by another minor evil faction, and in a world with Saturday morning cartoon factions like the Kure clan or the Captain Planet villains of the Kengan Association, associating a new faction with a real-world tragedy isn't something you should do frivolously. At least let them perform a novel act of terrorism, like kidnapping Shinzo Abe and forcing the Japanese government to recognize the Salvation Yen as legal tender.
He's legally recognized as "sufficiently advanced technology".
No, no, nothing like that. If I recall his gimmick correctly, he's basically a biological cyborg. When I said he was the sufficiently advanced technology, I was not exaggerating.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
I'd just like to note that the total number of votes in the poll as of this writing is 69.
Nice.
Nice.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
My reaction whenever Hanafusa is on screen:
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
With a single vote's margin, the Christmas Special will cover The Dragon, The Hero and the Courier.
Chapter 102+103 - Murder and Reconstruction
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Once again, unto the past.
30 years ago, a fresh-faced 26 year old Yamashita Kazuo is out for lunch at some kind of small restaurant, probably a noodle bar given the hefty, steaming bowl of them he's vigorously slurping up. He pauses, however, as something strikes his attention. On a shelf near the ceiling sits a television, tuned in to national news. There's a very special broadcast ongoing. One of the new biggest names in crime programming and the probable subject of any number of future True Crime Podcasts. Bando Yohei, fresh from becoming one of Japan's most notorious spree killers, being led away by the police.
You know, it's been a while since Yamashita's age has been used at all by the manga, hasn't it? Also holy shit, it doesn't half make clear how cruel the years have been to him, look how shrunken and ragged he looks compared to his 20s. Although it's possible that Bando stole his meat, since he's undergone the opposite transformation. Man looks in the best shape he's ever been, face filled out and everything. Granted his hairline hasn't endured the same, but I think he wears the baldness well.
We pivot away from the man of the hour to the audience, who are reacting in the various ways one might expect. Some are anxious, recoiling from him. Others are disgusted, reacting to a mundane murderer in a very different way than they have to any of the assassins so far. Some actually react with confusion, or haven't heard of him at all. Which, well, yeah. It was thirty years ago, plenty of people in the audience won't even have been born yet, or have been too young to remember it. One member of the audience says as much, and an older member explains that there was a huge uproar at the time…but notes the same thing Yamashita and I have. Bando looks very different to the news broadcasts. This is all solid tone setting I feel, and true to Bando's history within the fiction. A lot of the other fighters must have seemed larger than life, especially with Sayaka's commentary…but this is someone a lot of the audience knows. And those that don't will be affected by the reaction of those that do. It's a whole different vibe, and I like it.
Down in the arena the two fighters stare each other down, and even through Hanafusa's idle request to dissect Bando something radiates from the two of them. Something that actually penetrates Ohma's disaffected air enough for him to admit to Yamashita that he's actually getting creeped out. Like, that's his specific phrasing.
Call this a late Halloween update, I guess.
The referee, our majestically named Cheetah Hattori, tells the two of them to take their stances. But neither of them do, each claiming that they aren't a martial artist, so whatever. No need. Which is interesting, because even if we don't know how Hanafusa fights, we have seen Bando square up for one. And he definitely had a specific stance. Why isn't he using it, I wonder? Setting up to reveal what it was actually for later in the fight? I suppose we'll see. The Referee rings in the start of the fight, and Bando starts walking toward Hanafusa, musing on how he feels kind of bad about, and I quote, "killing this kid." Bit rude, but I guess there's no reason he'd know that Hanafusa has spent the whole day being a clown car of medical miracles down in the infirmary and is otherwise an accomplished professional.
But in the end he shrugs it off. He doesn't have much of a choice in the matter, does he? He takes a swipe, trying to grab Hanafusa's head and end it in one stroke.
The Doctor of Death dodges it handily. And retaliates.
His muscles twitching, a dozen pulsating welts in his flesh, Bando muses on what bullshit it was when Hanafusa claimed to "not be a martial artist". He's striking Bando's acupuncture points, in classic martial fashion. Chin Na, right? Hanafusa congratulates him for doing his homework, amusingly flexing on him a little by calling him an "Ex-med school student". Specifically he's using Lingshu style Chin Na, which a quick panel of Facts With Kengan Asura claims to be the oldest form of the art. Capable of crippling opponents with pain in a single blow.
Bando, ever the good sport, compliments Hanafusa on the logic of the fighting style, specifically in its efficacy as a means to fight and defeat physically superior opponents. And Hanafusa agrees wholeheartedly. That's exactly right, exactly how he treats martial arts. Not a lifestyle or a pursuit of betterment. A means to and end. And his end, he crows as he dodges a bearhug? Is to dissect Bando. He applies three more Chin Na to Bando's ribs, leaving even more painful welts, and the commentators look on with awe at how Hanafusa buzzes around him like a fly. One more swipe as Bando grumbles about what a pain in the ass this is, and one more line of Chin Na up Bando's leg ensues. "You really are a pain", he tells Hanafusa.
And Hanafusa, immovable smile still in place, ponders Bando's placid irritation. Any normal person would be utterly incapacitated from the pain by now. But Bando barely seems to have noticed. So what does that mean? Are his muscles preventing the strikes from penetrating? The mystery strikes something primeval in Hanafusa, and he begins to dart around Bando with redoubled fervour, pelting him with a rain of Chin Na strikes, feverishly repeating in his head how much he wants to dissect him. He must keep Bando Yohei as intact as possible.
Can't be doing with a ruined specimen, after all.
Such is Hanafusa's agility advantage that he manages to circle around the back for his final target. The Yamen, an acupuncture point on the neck, where it meets the skull. He goes for it, and some sort of feeling enters Bando's eyes for the first time this match as his head rocks backwards with the impact.
Or perhaps not just the stab. Hanafusa backs away, chortling to himself about how Bando will never regain consciousness, taking a long moment to realise his fingers have been completely mangled. Oh Dear, is his only reaction, before Bando lists off the damages and notes any normal person would be incapacitated by that kind of pain. Doctor Hanafusa isn't quite normal himself, he wonders, as everyone in the audience wonders how it took him this long to notice.
Those Chin Na welts really do look painful though, fuck.
End chapter. Incidentally, this one contains Chiba's profile, which comes with the interesting note that in early drafts of the tournament brackets he was supposed to fight the guy Meguro Masaki replaced. Which would have ended in him fighting Sekibayashi in round 2! Mildly disappointed we didn't get that, it sounds like it would have been fun. But then it would also have meant Muteba would have been knocked out in round 1, which would deprive us of his better moments after he stops being gross onscreen.
Anyway, as is increasingly the norm for the tournament, one chapter of a match isn't a full update's wordcount. So let's keep going.
Going into chapter 103, Hanfusa is musing on what exactly just happened. He's pretty sure he struck Bando's cervical vertebrae, and that's somewhere you can't exactly build muscle to shield. Which, to his mind, leaves only one possible explanation. Bando has an abnormal range of motion. There's a quick series of panels of Facts With Doctor Hanafusa, going over the notion of a joint and its range of motion, how exceeding that range will break the joint, followed by the big conclusion. The instant Hanafusa struck Bando's Yamen point, he flung his head backwards far enough to pull those vertebrae out of reach of Hanafusa's fingers, while crushing them with the back of his skull. Then he prods Bando for a yae or nae.
And Bando obliges.
That's more than just his neck, Sayaka. Also why are his hands suddenly so big?
Hanafusa, ever cheerful, celebrates his own deductive reasoning. Perhaps he should start doing detective work on the side? Bando, claiming to be sad about it, disagrees. Not necessarily because of any particular disagreement about Hanafusa's deduction, but more because he doesn't actually know how to win a fight without killing his opponent. I'd think breaking all of someone's limbs would be within the reach of his imagination, but I suppose that's easier said than done.
Now, all this leaves Hanafusa in a dilemma. His hand's fucked, so he can't use Chin Na anymore (I mean, you still have your other hand, why not?). He has the speed advantage, but that shit's on a timer. Bando's built like a truck, and goes for killshots without hesitation, once Hanafusa wears through his stamina all it'll take is one failed dodge. And on top of all that, Bando's weird joints make a lot of avenues of attack nonviable on their own. Out loud, he wonders if this is how David felt facing Goliath, and Bando is happy to carry on the reference. David had his sling. What have you got? He clearly thinks the answer is nothing, as he leans in and reaches to kill the smaller man.
And pulls his hand back, a fresh, bleeding gash dividing his palm. He studies it, confused, as Hanafusa leaps in and stabs him in each shoulder. This is Hanafusa's sling.
Motherfucker's a cyborg?
Yes that's right, at some point Hanafusa implanted honest to god fucking arm blades into himself. Blades that he carved out of his fucking femurs (which I'm pretty sure would actually suck, isn't that bone porous and full of marrow?) and then slotted in between his ulna and radius. And, once again, he did all the surgery himself. He says it was fun.
Bando questions if this is even legal, which is fair, and Hanafusa claims it totally is. He cites the same rule that Kaburagi abused way back when, any weapons that make it through the weapon check can be used with impunity. I still fucking hate that stupid rule and the quote unquote "logic" behind it, but in this case at least it makes more sense. Hanafusa doesn't have a noted history of playing silly buggers with this, and who the fuck would guess that he has surgically implanted arm blades. How would you even check for that?
And then he points out that, being made of a piece of himself, they're technically part of his body anyway. Merrily waggling the blades in the air, he dryly notes that he's quite upset they'd be considered weapons. The referee rightly calls him a fucking Sophist for this bullshit.
Of course he just finds it funny.
With his answer literally in hand, Hanafusa resumes his offensive, forcing Bando into a defensive scramble. Bladed weapons my friends, they're fucking dangerous. That said, Bando's attention isn't wholly on the risk of getting slit up like a turkey. He's reflecting on Hanafusa's reactions through this match. The obliteration of his fingers, and now these blades, sprouting from his flesh and shoving bones aside.
Hanafusa doesn't feel pain, does he?
There's no in character response, but the audience are nondiegetically informed that, yes, he's right on the money. In another absurd feat of Actual Fucking Magic, Hanafusa had his brain surgically altered to choke his hypothalamus' ability to transmit neural signals. I'm pretty sure more than just pain goes through there, but fucking whatever. Fine. He just can't feel pain anymore, but can still feel other things and didn't just turn himself off like a misbehaving television. Bando finally catches him during this offense, a brutal right hook. Hanafusa tries to block, but the blow simply bulldozes right through to crack both his arm and several ribs. He's still grinning as he counterattacks, cutting a great, sucking wound across Bando's chest. Hanafusa Hajime, the narration is eager to tell us, cannot be defeated without being killed.
Once again, I feel like "obliterate all his limbs and leave him flopping helplessly on the floor like a salmon" is an option to render him unable to fight, but I guess I can understand just killing him being the easier option for some people.
With things equalised again, Hanafusa laughs even as he asks Bando to cut him a little slack. He's quite pleased after all, to meet a "Kindred spirit." Sanity apparently leaving him entirely, he claims not to care about the outcome anymore, calls "this euphoria" quite addicting, and finally asks Bando to die for his pleasure.
I…guess he's caught the battle-lust bug? Or might be playing it up for the mindgames. Who can say. End chapter.
See you all next time, for the conclusion of match 14.
30 years ago, a fresh-faced 26 year old Yamashita Kazuo is out for lunch at some kind of small restaurant, probably a noodle bar given the hefty, steaming bowl of them he's vigorously slurping up. He pauses, however, as something strikes his attention. On a shelf near the ceiling sits a television, tuned in to national news. There's a very special broadcast ongoing. One of the new biggest names in crime programming and the probable subject of any number of future True Crime Podcasts. Bando Yohei, fresh from becoming one of Japan's most notorious spree killers, being led away by the police.
You know, it's been a while since Yamashita's age has been used at all by the manga, hasn't it? Also holy shit, it doesn't half make clear how cruel the years have been to him, look how shrunken and ragged he looks compared to his 20s. Although it's possible that Bando stole his meat, since he's undergone the opposite transformation. Man looks in the best shape he's ever been, face filled out and everything. Granted his hairline hasn't endured the same, but I think he wears the baldness well.
We pivot away from the man of the hour to the audience, who are reacting in the various ways one might expect. Some are anxious, recoiling from him. Others are disgusted, reacting to a mundane murderer in a very different way than they have to any of the assassins so far. Some actually react with confusion, or haven't heard of him at all. Which, well, yeah. It was thirty years ago, plenty of people in the audience won't even have been born yet, or have been too young to remember it. One member of the audience says as much, and an older member explains that there was a huge uproar at the time…but notes the same thing Yamashita and I have. Bando looks very different to the news broadcasts. This is all solid tone setting I feel, and true to Bando's history within the fiction. A lot of the other fighters must have seemed larger than life, especially with Sayaka's commentary…but this is someone a lot of the audience knows. And those that don't will be affected by the reaction of those that do. It's a whole different vibe, and I like it.
Down in the arena the two fighters stare each other down, and even through Hanafusa's idle request to dissect Bando something radiates from the two of them. Something that actually penetrates Ohma's disaffected air enough for him to admit to Yamashita that he's actually getting creeped out. Like, that's his specific phrasing.
Call this a late Halloween update, I guess.
The referee, our majestically named Cheetah Hattori, tells the two of them to take their stances. But neither of them do, each claiming that they aren't a martial artist, so whatever. No need. Which is interesting, because even if we don't know how Hanafusa fights, we have seen Bando square up for one. And he definitely had a specific stance. Why isn't he using it, I wonder? Setting up to reveal what it was actually for later in the fight? I suppose we'll see. The Referee rings in the start of the fight, and Bando starts walking toward Hanafusa, musing on how he feels kind of bad about, and I quote, "killing this kid." Bit rude, but I guess there's no reason he'd know that Hanafusa has spent the whole day being a clown car of medical miracles down in the infirmary and is otherwise an accomplished professional.
But in the end he shrugs it off. He doesn't have much of a choice in the matter, does he? He takes a swipe, trying to grab Hanafusa's head and end it in one stroke.
The Doctor of Death dodges it handily. And retaliates.
His muscles twitching, a dozen pulsating welts in his flesh, Bando muses on what bullshit it was when Hanafusa claimed to "not be a martial artist". He's striking Bando's acupuncture points, in classic martial fashion. Chin Na, right? Hanafusa congratulates him for doing his homework, amusingly flexing on him a little by calling him an "Ex-med school student". Specifically he's using Lingshu style Chin Na, which a quick panel of Facts With Kengan Asura claims to be the oldest form of the art. Capable of crippling opponents with pain in a single blow.
Bando, ever the good sport, compliments Hanafusa on the logic of the fighting style, specifically in its efficacy as a means to fight and defeat physically superior opponents. And Hanafusa agrees wholeheartedly. That's exactly right, exactly how he treats martial arts. Not a lifestyle or a pursuit of betterment. A means to and end. And his end, he crows as he dodges a bearhug? Is to dissect Bando. He applies three more Chin Na to Bando's ribs, leaving even more painful welts, and the commentators look on with awe at how Hanafusa buzzes around him like a fly. One more swipe as Bando grumbles about what a pain in the ass this is, and one more line of Chin Na up Bando's leg ensues. "You really are a pain", he tells Hanafusa.
And Hanafusa, immovable smile still in place, ponders Bando's placid irritation. Any normal person would be utterly incapacitated from the pain by now. But Bando barely seems to have noticed. So what does that mean? Are his muscles preventing the strikes from penetrating? The mystery strikes something primeval in Hanafusa, and he begins to dart around Bando with redoubled fervour, pelting him with a rain of Chin Na strikes, feverishly repeating in his head how much he wants to dissect him. He must keep Bando Yohei as intact as possible.
Can't be doing with a ruined specimen, after all.
Such is Hanafusa's agility advantage that he manages to circle around the back for his final target. The Yamen, an acupuncture point on the neck, where it meets the skull. He goes for it, and some sort of feeling enters Bando's eyes for the first time this match as his head rocks backwards with the impact.
Or perhaps not just the stab. Hanafusa backs away, chortling to himself about how Bando will never regain consciousness, taking a long moment to realise his fingers have been completely mangled. Oh Dear, is his only reaction, before Bando lists off the damages and notes any normal person would be incapacitated by that kind of pain. Doctor Hanafusa isn't quite normal himself, he wonders, as everyone in the audience wonders how it took him this long to notice.
Those Chin Na welts really do look painful though, fuck.
End chapter. Incidentally, this one contains Chiba's profile, which comes with the interesting note that in early drafts of the tournament brackets he was supposed to fight the guy Meguro Masaki replaced. Which would have ended in him fighting Sekibayashi in round 2! Mildly disappointed we didn't get that, it sounds like it would have been fun. But then it would also have meant Muteba would have been knocked out in round 1, which would deprive us of his better moments after he stops being gross onscreen.
Anyway, as is increasingly the norm for the tournament, one chapter of a match isn't a full update's wordcount. So let's keep going.
Going into chapter 103, Hanfusa is musing on what exactly just happened. He's pretty sure he struck Bando's cervical vertebrae, and that's somewhere you can't exactly build muscle to shield. Which, to his mind, leaves only one possible explanation. Bando has an abnormal range of motion. There's a quick series of panels of Facts With Doctor Hanafusa, going over the notion of a joint and its range of motion, how exceeding that range will break the joint, followed by the big conclusion. The instant Hanafusa struck Bando's Yamen point, he flung his head backwards far enough to pull those vertebrae out of reach of Hanafusa's fingers, while crushing them with the back of his skull. Then he prods Bando for a yae or nae.
And Bando obliges.
That's more than just his neck, Sayaka. Also why are his hands suddenly so big?
Hanafusa, ever cheerful, celebrates his own deductive reasoning. Perhaps he should start doing detective work on the side? Bando, claiming to be sad about it, disagrees. Not necessarily because of any particular disagreement about Hanafusa's deduction, but more because he doesn't actually know how to win a fight without killing his opponent. I'd think breaking all of someone's limbs would be within the reach of his imagination, but I suppose that's easier said than done.
Now, all this leaves Hanafusa in a dilemma. His hand's fucked, so he can't use Chin Na anymore (I mean, you still have your other hand, why not?). He has the speed advantage, but that shit's on a timer. Bando's built like a truck, and goes for killshots without hesitation, once Hanafusa wears through his stamina all it'll take is one failed dodge. And on top of all that, Bando's weird joints make a lot of avenues of attack nonviable on their own. Out loud, he wonders if this is how David felt facing Goliath, and Bando is happy to carry on the reference. David had his sling. What have you got? He clearly thinks the answer is nothing, as he leans in and reaches to kill the smaller man.
And pulls his hand back, a fresh, bleeding gash dividing his palm. He studies it, confused, as Hanafusa leaps in and stabs him in each shoulder. This is Hanafusa's sling.
Motherfucker's a cyborg?
Yes that's right, at some point Hanafusa implanted honest to god fucking arm blades into himself. Blades that he carved out of his fucking femurs (which I'm pretty sure would actually suck, isn't that bone porous and full of marrow?) and then slotted in between his ulna and radius. And, once again, he did all the surgery himself. He says it was fun.
Bando questions if this is even legal, which is fair, and Hanafusa claims it totally is. He cites the same rule that Kaburagi abused way back when, any weapons that make it through the weapon check can be used with impunity. I still fucking hate that stupid rule and the quote unquote "logic" behind it, but in this case at least it makes more sense. Hanafusa doesn't have a noted history of playing silly buggers with this, and who the fuck would guess that he has surgically implanted arm blades. How would you even check for that?
And then he points out that, being made of a piece of himself, they're technically part of his body anyway. Merrily waggling the blades in the air, he dryly notes that he's quite upset they'd be considered weapons. The referee rightly calls him a fucking Sophist for this bullshit.
Of course he just finds it funny.
With his answer literally in hand, Hanafusa resumes his offensive, forcing Bando into a defensive scramble. Bladed weapons my friends, they're fucking dangerous. That said, Bando's attention isn't wholly on the risk of getting slit up like a turkey. He's reflecting on Hanafusa's reactions through this match. The obliteration of his fingers, and now these blades, sprouting from his flesh and shoving bones aside.
Hanafusa doesn't feel pain, does he?
There's no in character response, but the audience are nondiegetically informed that, yes, he's right on the money. In another absurd feat of Actual Fucking Magic, Hanafusa had his brain surgically altered to choke his hypothalamus' ability to transmit neural signals. I'm pretty sure more than just pain goes through there, but fucking whatever. Fine. He just can't feel pain anymore, but can still feel other things and didn't just turn himself off like a misbehaving television. Bando finally catches him during this offense, a brutal right hook. Hanafusa tries to block, but the blow simply bulldozes right through to crack both his arm and several ribs. He's still grinning as he counterattacks, cutting a great, sucking wound across Bando's chest. Hanafusa Hajime, the narration is eager to tell us, cannot be defeated without being killed.
Once again, I feel like "obliterate all his limbs and leave him flopping helplessly on the floor like a salmon" is an option to render him unable to fight, but I guess I can understand just killing him being the easier option for some people.
With things equalised again, Hanafusa laughs even as he asks Bando to cut him a little slack. He's quite pleased after all, to meet a "Kindred spirit." Sanity apparently leaving him entirely, he claims not to care about the outcome anymore, calls "this euphoria" quite addicting, and finally asks Bando to die for his pleasure.
I…guess he's caught the battle-lust bug? Or might be playing it up for the mindgames. Who can say. End chapter.
See you all next time, for the conclusion of match 14.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Oh, yes! I forgot to mention, I also did some work in Canada."
Motherfucker's a cyborg?
"During a stint at Ultratech."
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
I love my mad medicine boy and his fucking arm blades. Just no respect for anything close to the nominal purpose of the tournament, not doing unarmed martial arts here, nope, just straight to bringing a sword to a fist-fight.
It's also a bit amusing that the sheer degree of other bullshit has taken away from "acupuncture points" being apparently a valid fighting style in this mad biology world, but then again, uh, "I made my leg bones into arm-blades". Yeah.
It's also a bit amusing that the sheer degree of other bullshit has taken away from "acupuncture points" being apparently a valid fighting style in this mad biology world, but then again, uh, "I made my leg bones into arm-blades". Yeah.
- Location
- boundless optimism
WHO WOULD WIN
Hajime Hanafusa with an implanted arm gun
OR
Jerry Tyson (Xing Yi Quan: Tomahawk Stance)
Hajime Hanafusa with an implanted arm gun
OR
Jerry Tyson (Xing Yi Quan: Tomahawk Stance)
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I actually think the "technically I should be allowed these blades because they were made from my own bones and integrated within my body" clause is the most hilarious bullshit and should totally be allowed. I mean, did Hanafussa just remove a third of the bone mass of his forearms to turn them into blades? Boy must have bird bones now.
God, I love him. What an awful, awful little wizard, stretching the boundaries of Kengan's "heightened reality combat" subgenre as far as it will go and just a little further.
But of course because Hanafussa is a fucking wizard the only thing he needs to do is survive a fight at all and then the fact that he didn't notice five internal hemmorages and multiple puncture wounds to his liver or whatever won't matter because he will magically stitch himself together into a fully operational medical gremlin within half an hour, so all the reasons why it would be the worst possible idea for a person with congenital analgesia to participate in an MMA tournament don't apply to him.
In a similar way, the Millenium series (Girl With A Dragon Tattoo etc.) had one antagonist who suffered from both congenital analgesia and muscle hypertrophy, so he didn't feel pain but was also so impossibly jacked from birth and with extra-sized bones that he never actually suffered meaningful injuries and he grew into the goddamned Hulk instead of dying to a childhood head injury.
What a trope to see come up again and again.
God, I love him. What an awful, awful little wizard, stretching the boundaries of Kengan's "heightened reality combat" subgenre as far as it will go and just a little further.
I love this. Every time Congenital Insensitivity to Pain or its fictional artificially-induced equivalent show up in fiction it's a fucking superpower. This is a real medical condition! And it does mean you don't feel pain but still feel normal physical stimuli, just like Hanafussa. You can tell if something is hot but not if it's burning you, you can tell if something is cutting your skin but it doesn't hurt. And it's extremely dangerous! Life expectancy for it is very low and most people who have it die as children!
But of course because Hanafussa is a fucking wizard the only thing he needs to do is survive a fight at all and then the fact that he didn't notice five internal hemmorages and multiple puncture wounds to his liver or whatever won't matter because he will magically stitch himself together into a fully operational medical gremlin within half an hour, so all the reasons why it would be the worst possible idea for a person with congenital analgesia to participate in an MMA tournament don't apply to him.
In a similar way, the Millenium series (Girl With A Dragon Tattoo etc.) had one antagonist who suffered from both congenital analgesia and muscle hypertrophy, so he didn't feel pain but was also so impossibly jacked from birth and with extra-sized bones that he never actually suffered meaningful injuries and he grew into the goddamned Hulk instead of dying to a childhood head injury.
What a trope to see come up again and again.
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- Location
- boundless optimism
When you consider that Kengan allowed Julius "Reinmetal Steroids" Reinhold in, letting Arm Knives Hanafusa in isn't that big of a stretch, let's be real.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I just want to note that as a person with a hyperflexible left shoulder, doing that too much really hurts. As in like, cuts off bloodflow, and you'll be having brief periods of numbness both afterwards, then off-and-on for a while, in addition to stiffness and sprains if you happen to ignore those other warnings your body gives you and keep doing it; in my experience, at least. Which is why whenever I see people like Bando in media I instantly cringe in sympathy, though I don't imagine he cares too terribly much about it since this is Kengan Ashura.
- Location
- USA
Honest question, what do you think the Kengan tournament would do in the Vega case?
Like, someone is like 'hey, my martial arts style is I carry a chainsaw, can I play?'. Cuz on the one hand, clearly no, on the other hand, ever saying that someone can't be in Kengan is the exact opposite of their 'dominate all things with fite force' vibe.
Bonus points for 'the chainsaw is his artificial hand' after you answer the above.
Like, someone is like 'hey, my martial arts style is I carry a chainsaw, can I play?'. Cuz on the one hand, clearly no, on the other hand, ever saying that someone can't be in Kengan is the exact opposite of their 'dominate all things with fite force' vibe.
Bonus points for 'the chainsaw is his artificial hand' after you answer the above.
- Location
- Leeds
... Would they require you to remove them in future matches?
The sophistry is actually a smarter argument as long as you're planning on not being immediately disqualified in the next round.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We actually do get an answer to that.
It's made pretty clear later in the manga that people who practice weapon-based martial arts to equivalent levels of proficiency than Kengan fighters do unarmed combat exist, and that the advantage of being Kengan Asura-level good with an actual weapon is an overwhelming advantage that allows one dude to hold back three Kengan fighters at once. "A dude with a sword" is no match for a Kengan fighter, but "a guy who has trained as much with a sword as a Kengan fighter has with his bare hands" objectively has an enormous advantage that can only made up with a massive difference in skill or raw power like the Advance. Hence why weapons aren't allowed; the setting isn't egalitarian, at equivalent level sword beats fist every time.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
As an example, Muteba With A Knife would be a way more dangerous opponent than Muteba With Only His Bare Hands. And god help you if it's Muteba With A Gun. (spoilered because the bit I'm responding to is under a spoiler)
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
This fight is wild, and I will say that although I tend to forget about it as soon as it ends, it is also rather fun. It's bullshit on toast in a way that feels almost opposite to what Omega eventually pulls, because this all feels way more science-y than the more mystical vibe Omega is going for right now. Dude Who Has All The Science And No Drawbacks vs Dude Who Can Bend His Body However He Wants..
I do kinda wish though that Hanafusa had a more grounded fighting style, if only because I was curious what perfectly normal non-combat thing Sandro was going to turn into a legit fighting style with him, but that never materialized.
I do kinda wish though that Hanafusa had a more grounded fighting style, if only because I was curious what perfectly normal non-combat thing Sandro was going to turn into a legit fighting style with him, but that never materialized.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
- Location
- Pennsylvania
Frankly, if the setting of a fight is in a non-controlled environment, with stealth, temporary retreats and all weapons allowed, and a week of preparation beforehand, Muteba is arguably the strongest character in the franchise under those conditions. He's a soldier, not a warrior; he just happens to be such an amazing soldier that he's a pretty good warrior by default.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Kinda like how the Kure Clan looks down on Muteba because he kills people for money, instead of killing people to uphold family traditions (and also money).
Kinda odd that someone whose fighting style is at least 60% cutting-edge medical technobabble would fill another 15% with martial arts renowned for being archaic. It feels like he should at least have a personal Chin Na style, produced with a modern understanding of the human nervous system or something.
I wish the comic had stuck with this justification. It makes sense that there wouldn't be a rule against implanted weapons, since even the greatest mad scientists couldn't implant useful blades in someone without f*king up their arms until recently. Hanafusa might be the very first person with this kind of nonsense, and he's definitely the first to fight in a Kengan match. Besides, what's the referee going to do? Confiscate his arms?
Doping is something the Kengan Association should have had conversations about already, but letting fighters take drugs that can wreck their overall health to boost combat performance seems up their alley. The anti-dopers will probably try to take advantage of Hanafusa's BS to change that, though!
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
- Location
- Pennsylvania
Realistically, a lot of the bigger fighters are probably doping. Sekibayashi almost certainly, and probably Meguro given Hayami was treating him like a lab rat anyways. Murobuchi probably isn't on a steroid cycle since he needs to take drug tests, but I wouldn't be surprised if he took other PED's on game day that get out of your system fast enough to not be caught. Agito is quite likely; his win-at-all-costs mentality would demand he do everything he can to get stronger. Adam's a maybe. He seems like the type to juice but he's already been established to have a weird body so he could just be that big naturally.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
Afaik the actual listed weights of most of the fighters aren't that outside the realm of normal biology. The art's stylisation of anatomy just makes them look way bigger and bulkier than they actually would be irl.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
On paper he's 192 centimeters. On-panel, either he's three meters tall or the other guy is a meter tall.
Either way, it makes more sense than Saw Paing getting an invulnerable skull because he was hit in the face with a sledgehammer every day, or Rihito having a grip strength that turns his fingers into knives, or Raian.
Either way, it makes more sense than Saw Paing getting an invulnerable skull because he was hit in the face with a sledgehammer every day, or Rihito having a grip strength that turns his fingers into knives, or Raian.
Daromeon pretty consistently exaggerates size differences. To good effect, in my opinion; Julius and Wakatsuki are only like half a foot apart in height, but drawing him towering over Wakatsuki makes for a great effect when they square off in round two. The anime using fixed 3D models loses a lot in that respect.