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Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura

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Hiyama: "...you fools... I was HOLDING HIM BACK!!"

I'm sorry but the power-up which is actually a limiter is always peak.
 
Manic Dogma said:
I don't cover it, because the Extra chapter it happens in is smack dab in the middle of a double-chapter update but we do get to see how they met and what the deal is. Gonna put it in a spoiler.

Six years before the manga's start, Hiyama became CEO of her company after her father passed away. An inexperienced teen at the time, she was obviously pretty overwhelmed and leaned heavily on her cousin, and the vice-president of the company. He taught her the ropes, made sure she was okay, helped her close out deals, all that shit. Things apparently got romantic, because the next page we see them together with Hiyama in a little nightgown and he's also half-dressed.

Unfortunately he also has a garotte around her throat.

He was the one who had her father killed, and also killed his own father, the previous Vice President. All part of a plan to seize the company. That's when Akoya stepped in and snapped his neck. The chapter is framed as part of Hiyama talking to a therapist, and where we learn that the two of them know for a fact Akoya's killed innocent people during his crusade. Neither of them care.

Fun fact, Akoya intends to kill her eventually too, since she's related to the evil cousin. She's fine with this. Shit's fucked.
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Yikes.

On one hand, unpacking the bundle of entangled psychological/personal-ethical issues those two are could fill its own spin-off manga series. On the other hand, I don't think I'd want to read that series.

Kinda makes me hope for some kind of anarcho-communist Robin Hood to break Hiyama out of her death spiral (after kidnapping her as leverage against Wakasa Life Insurance or something?). There's probably a story in there. I haven't spent thirty seconds processing that impulse, might be garbage. I just kinda want to move on. Just four more chapters.
 
Walter said:
This reminds me a lot of Kenshin, to be honest, with the cannibalism and the murder cop (though they were different guys in that show). Regardless, I'd say anime, in general (psycho pass, etc), has immense regard for the cop who breaks the rules to get the job done, hard man making hard choices, etc. Light in Death Note is basically motivated by this, and the manga spends like half its length basically presenting this as a reasonable reaction to the entirely fictional (to the point of being the plot of Shaft) problem of 'defense attorneys too stronk, no way to get justice, if only our system could be a bit more carceral)

The reason I bring that stuff up is mostly just to say that defending Dirty Harry has a long and storied tradition in anime/manga, and wouldn't raise an eyebrow in polite manga author circles. Long way to say I think the author is basically not an irony guy, and Akoya is supposed to be read as presented. It's all the fault of that dang abyss, team, can't nobody tell when it gonna gaze into ya.
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…what?

Death Note??? Death Note presents Light as a reasonable person? Did we read the same manga? He's shown as having become corrupted into a giggling maniac like 10% of the way through the story. When he loses his memory we literally see his character design change before our eyes into one that looks much more innocent.
 
Manic Dogma said:
I don't cover it, because the Extra chapter it happens in is smack dab in the middle of a double-chapter update but we do get to see how they met and what the deal is. Gonna put it in a spoiler.

Six years before the manga's start, Hiyama became CEO of her company after her father passed away. An inexperienced teen at the time, she was obviously pretty overwhelmed and leaned heavily on her cousin, and the vice-president of the company. He taught her the ropes, made sure she was okay, helped her close out deals, all that shit. Things apparently got romantic, because the next page we see them together with Hiyama in a little nightgown and he's also half-dressed.

Unfortunately he also has a garotte around her throat.

He was the one who had her father killed, and also killed his own father, the previous Vice President. All part of a plan to seize the company. That's when Akoya stepped in and snapped his neck. The chapter is framed as part of Hiyama talking to a therapist, and where we learn that the two of them know for a fact Akoya's killed innocent people during his crusade. Neither of them care.

Fun fact, Akoya intends to kill her eventually too, since she's related to the evil cousin. She's fine with this. Shit's fucked.
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It's actually a pretty important piece of characterization for Akoya, because it makes it clear that to him, at least as Hiyama perceives it, actual crime isn't necessary to deserve punishment, people who are related to criminals are potentially evil and so need to be killed as well, they're just lower-priority. So he's not just a crazed vigilante targeting criminals for murder, he is also (or eventually will be) just a plain old serial killer targeting the innocent.

Which pretty much shows him to be a massive hypocrite!

Brightflame said:
...Jesus Christ, this nutjob is going try to exterminate the whole damn human race if that's enough to make people evil in his eyes.

His moral compass is a goddamn roulette wheel.
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He kills the therapist too :V
 
Honestly, I like Hiyama as one of the more interesting and honestly sympathetic CEOs in the show. She's not really here by choice - she inherited her position and she's inherited having ULTRACOP near her and trapping her in like, one of the most abusive relationships in the series.

Plus I love her style and design. Manga needs more short women who don't look like children.

Now when it comes to "what does Sandro think about ULTRACOP, I think the recent spate of chapters where he beats someone he really shouldn't and the stretch before that with Ryuki is indicative. Akoya is portrayed as corruptive in his own right, but also like... weirdly effective, so I don't think Sandro is actually disclaiming punisher/dirty Harry esque stuff here.
 
Laplace said:
It's obvious that external oversight sappens the high Cop Power Akoya's got. Without body cam and with a friendly judiciary Unleashed Akoya is S tier.

You live in HIS WORLD now, ILLEGAL FIGHT RING GOONS
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I'm starting to formulate the S-Tier list, and I'd be happy to see additions.

- Techniques Raian
- Muteba with a gun
- Akoya with no bodycam and a friendly judiciary
- Kaneda with a good body
- Jerry Tyson (Xingyiquan Shape: Tsar Bomba)
 
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Personally I think Physique Kaneda should be replaced with 'Kaneda, but both him and his opponent are in plate and armed with knives.'

Honorable mention for 'Karla, but is actually allowed to punch someone. '
 
Laplace said:
Kaneda with a kitchen knife should replace this one imo. Other than that I strongly believe Juicer Watasuki would make it in a big way. Oscar Chiba would also make it too.
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Really, Chiba's acting was never the problem--the problem was his bad combat instincts that caused him to use a move poorly-matched to his opponent. Therefore, I suggest that instead, he should be Chiba but Not Stupid.
 
Hatsumi With Shonen Hero Willpower is another terrifying top-tier now that I think about it.
 
Mister Bad Guy said:
I'm starting to formulate the S-Tier list, and I'd be happy to see additions.

- Techniques Raian
- Muteba with a gun
- Akoya with no bodycam and a friendly judiciary
- Kaneda with a good body
- Jerry Tyson (Xingyiquan Shape: Tsar Bomba)
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Kaneda but he and his opponent are both in samurai armor and Kaneda has a knife.

edit: lmao multiple people beat me to it. glad to see that other people recognize the power of armored!Kaneda
 
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