So as someone who's probably got even less of an understanding of what proper human weights for these beefy people should be than the mangakas seemingly pumping them full of helium, what would be a reasonable BMI for them?
BMI is BS. When I need to come up with a plausible-sounding height and weight, I look up photographs of athletes and check their numbers.
But like they said, putting most athletes in the overweight category is usually a good call. It depends on the sport; I did my above method on some gymnasts I found on Wikipedia, and most of them were considered "normal" BMI (with one of the women being slightly underweight). Most sports need lots of muscle, though, and muscle isn't light.
I have my doubts that we'll ever see a mixed gender match in Omega or in Strike It Rich, but I at least take solace in knowing that the women are allowed to be just as completely unhinged as the men.
It's very much like Kengan in spirit and that makes it all the more strange that the original manga only acknowledges Karla as being maybe potentially approaching a decent female fighter.
I'm really interested in seeing if Karla is gonna show up as a fighter in Strike It Rich at some point. I have my doubts, though - she doesn't really seem to be very interested in or passionate about fighting/killing for hire as some other people in her family.
I have my doubts that we'll ever see a mixed gender match in Omega or in Strike It Rich, but I at least take solace in knowing that the women are allowed to be just as completely unhinged as the men.
Strike it Rich is kind of fascinating in a meta-sense in that it's essentially a genderflip of Kengan and for the most part shockingly not cringe, unlike the actual Kengan genderflip chapters which are perhaps the most concentrated form of cringe to ever exist. It builds some serious hype for its fighters, lets them get pretty beat up, and is generally taking the women's fighting league pretty seriously as a concept while giving some relatively good commentary on the kind of challenges they face.
Really illuminating when the incredibly slim, 4'11" long-distance runner Telga Loroupe somehow has the exact same weight as 6′ 0.5" behemoth Sena Riko.
Really illuminating when the incredibly slim, 4'11" long-distance runner Telga Loroupe somehow has the exact same weight as 6′ 0.5" behemoth Sena Riko.
To be fair, Loroupe is 82 lb and Sena is listed as 82 kg. So Sena is 2.2 times Loroupe's weight.
1.8 m and 82 kg isn't a completely unfeasible build for a fighter - they'd just be a bit on the long, rangy side, but that's viable because reach is useful for strikers. It's just that as drawn, Sena should probably be a good 10-20 kg heavier than listed. For comparison, bodybuilder Maria Wattel is 6'1" and weighs between 88 and 95 kg depending on her training cycle.
It has, implicitly, been a while since the end of round 2's first match. But it's done absolutely nothing to affect the audience's sheer enthusiasm. They are hooting, howling and hollering Cosmo's name fit to shake the foundations to dust. And why shouldn't they? This arena just bore witness to a modern fairytale. A young boy faced with overwhelming odds, a monster stronger than him in mind and body with a soul resplendent in its evil. And yet he overcame, growing mid match, the new century's david slaying Goliath, and he didn't even have a sling! Just his bare hands to topple the pillars of heaven. And not even in a story, where the audience can be certain the hero will succeed but allow themselves to be caught up in the illusion of danger, to these people it was a genuine fight. It's exciting! Exciting enough to still be cheering a good while later.
And it's audible a ways away, too. Right down in the Dome's depths, where Akoya is already awake. Broadly perfectly fine, aside from a patch over his right eye he'll probably be able to take off in like a week.
And then he pouts like a scolded child, and it is hilarious.
Look at this giant fucking baby, oh my god.
It's probably not what I'm supposed to be reading it as, he's still radiating malice, but like…fucking look at him. This isn't anything like the serious defeats in round 1, like Rihito and Nezu, there's no tragedy or broken dreams here. This is just an utterly self-righteous man, blinded by his unearned certainty in the validity of his behaviour, now literally blinded by the heel of his would-be victim hitting his eye at terminal velocity. And his reaction after the fight is to sit in the dark and make faces at the opposite wall. It is the second least fucking dignified shit in the manga, only just beaten out by Ohma drooling into the carpet in the last chapter of round 1.
Fortunately for the story's tone, and unfortunately for Akoya's fucked up sub-variant of something resembling dignity, this doesn't last long. The next page immediately starts with someone off panel telling Akoya he's strong. His good eye snaps toward the voice's source, with slightly haunted fury, and watches Nishihonji approaching him with Cosmo's battered body lying in his arms. The boy's awake, but fuck me he's an absolute mess. Akoya asks what he's doing here, which is a fair question to ask of someone who looks a lot like he's been involved in a car crash. It was Nishohonji who spoke though, and it's Nishihonji who keeps speaking, rattling off the advantages Akoya had in the fight and how nobody has any reason to doubt his strength. Hell, he asserts that Akoya genuinely outclassed Cosmo in every way. And even in loss, he took almost no actual damage, while Cosmo came out of it in a rib brace and more bruise than skin. If he'd followed Hiyama's orders, if he'd gone in for the kill quicker, if he'd not given in to his bloodlust, in all likelihood he would have won.
But he didn't. The ifs won out. Cosmo won. And at the end of the day that's what matters. Adam luxuriates in the sharpness of the barb; he hasn't let go of his grudge.
Cosmo has though. Insofar as he ever held a grudge at all. He's the next person in the scene to speak and of all the words to choose, his first are "Thank you". Specifically he thanks him for the lesson Cosmo has learned. We saw the shift it took in the match, but the fear Akoya inculcated seems to have had a long term impact, and indeed Cosmo notes he'd never felt afraid of a match before Akoya. And now he's encountered that, and overcome it, he's better positioned to understand violence going forwards.
Then he extends his hand, to forgive and forget. He wants to fight Akoya again.
Akoya doesn't even respond. He doesn't know how to process any part of this situation, so he just…doesn't. He leaves, and Hiyama follows with him. Cosmo weakly tries to call after him, but Nishihonji quiets him down. We can't get along with everyone, he says. There are some people who don't know how to live any other way but the pit threatening to bury them.
I figure some people had a moment of fear when Cosmo first extended his arm in friendship, and expressed gratitude toward Akoya. I don't remember my first reaction to it, way back when I read it for the first time, but I understand that fear. It's a classic moment of storytelling, especially in battle manga. A villain is established as horrible, but after defeat puts cracks into their worldview they slowly come across to the hero's side and are redeemed. It doesn't always work, in fact it often raises a lot of questions about the villain's sincerity and how anyone can be willing to work with them after how awful the things they did were, and this is one situation where that would definitely be the case. Kengan Asura has gone to great lengths exploring what a fucking unrepentant monster Akoya is, and flipping based on this alone would be inappropriate. Bad, overly convenient writing. And, to its credit, while I can believe Cosmo would be riding the high of his fresh revelation and victory (also probably a new dose of painkillers) it absolutely does not indulge. Akoya's not available to be helped out of his rut, Hiyama's stuck too tight to him to split off, he may have lost but he's having the same reaction a sad majority of people have when exposed to evidence that they're wrong. He's doubled down, stuck his head in the sand. The next page as Akoya leaves is mournful, but not sympathetic. Nishihonji and Adam watch them go and muse on just how fucked they are, trapped in a spiral of violence. Hiyama won't stop him, she was always more concerned for Akoya's safety, she didn't give a shit about the murders. Neither of them look particularly sad, or speak with anything but judgement. A man who's a slave to murder, and the woman who can't live without him. Pitiful, aren't they?
And that's the note Akoya leaves the story on. Not strident hatred, or a cool moment, or a promise of redemption, not even a dram of hope or credit. Just quiet musing on how utterly pathetic he is, for all his strength. Cold, dry judgement on how he's doomed himself and the closest thing to love in his life with his inability to assume any kind of perspective on his beliefs or behaviour.
In a way it almost seems out of character for a story as bombastic as Kengan Asura, but at the same time extremely appropriate. One of the major strengths of the comic, I'm coming to realise as we get deeper in and it really comes into its own, is extremely strong character writing. At least when it has a consistent sense of who a character is, which isn't always the case. Akoya though? Absolutely is, and the story has been very consistent about what he is since moment one. From his first appearance onscreen, Akoya's been sinister, and only gotten worse since then. He's ACAB man, part of a pattern of onscreen cops consistently being awful people, very specifically in a way where he proclaims himself an avatar of justice. In reality a blood-drenched monster. And it's very clear to everyone but him. Kengan Asura respects his strengths, and the lessons that can be learned from him, but it understands that his example is a negative one. And even if he's cool in the moment, this is his final note. Look at this man, who lies to himself and the world. See how pathetic he is.
Cosmo still feels grateful to him, but I'm comfortable reading that as just the kind of boy he is. And also maybe the painkillers. He's still on what he's learned from Akoya, how he's advanced as a fighter. And it's a legitimate thing to be happy about, even if ideally he could have learned it in a better way. Makes for damn good drama, at least.
Hard cut! Off somewhere else in the arena's depths, Okubo and Himuro are ambling along talking up the match they just watched (Agreed, it slapped hard) when they ran into Kaneda. They welcome him back and ask how Ohma's doing respectively, so I guess we know what Kaneda went off to do. He doesn't have a clean answer for them though. He umms and ahhs for a moment before deciding to say they don't seem like themselves, concluding that they better leave them alone for now. Which is interesting. This is not a manga short on emotionally intelligent people. And sure enough, once we turn the page half of it is consumed by a single panel of Ohma stretching with an oddly expressionless look on his face, Yamashita stood behind him facing away from the camera. Posture upright and quiet. Now, Ohma being stoic isn't unusual, even before he acquired some chill. But this does feel different. His lack of expression comes off more tense here, thoughtful. And Yamashita seems especially off. There's definitely something wrong, that's almost always what it means when visual media hides a characters eyes like this and has them speak in such a flat affect, but he's incredibly composed for it. The most anxiety ridden man in Japan is acting as stoic as Ohma. And then he leaves, to wait for Ohma at his entrance corridor, as the stretching fighter continues to think.
Then we see Yamashita's face, as Ohma laments for him. And he is all but made of grim stone. What could possibly have happened to calcify him like this?
We turn back the clock a little, to the end of chapter 119. Remember that little chat? A really lovely moment between Yamashita and Ohma, but for one little problem. A certain crotchety old man who, immediately after the camera turned away from our heroes, stepped in. And we return now to that moment, as he asks for a word with Yamashita. Ohma wonders who he is, as Yamashita responds with a confused "sure?" And sure enough, it finally twigs for Ohma as he looks at the man's eyes, noting their similarity to the one Kure clan member he's met, Karla. And then his eyes flash wide, his senses going wild.
And one of my favourite moments of stylised imagery in the manga unfolds.
[Manic takes a deep breath and releases it, slowly and wearily]
I don't need to tell you why I specified my love for this full page spread is for its visual element. You all know it's Raian's match next, Kure Erioh is right there, I've talked at enough length about my feelings about him.
But fuck me, what a page.
Several of my favourite tropes and cross-medium artistic flourishes are in play here. We'll get to the specifics in a moment, but this is clearly a stylistic representation of a character's presence, their bloodlust, their intent to kill communicated across the barrier of the fourth wall. The characters obviously don't see an immense demon god grinning fiercely with fangs like swords, eyes like lightning and breath that coils and burns like the pillars of heaven set alight in devilish arson, as it holds the protagonist's lives in the palm of its wickedly taloned hand. But this visual, the scope of it, the sharp contrast of colour between the spark of bright white aura and the pitch black figure at its centre, the page-consuming ferocity of it, communicates the intended vibe incredibly well. And it's something the manga has done before, within the first round even, but never with this much lavish scope and attention to detail. It's metaphor so intense it eats up a whole page, and in a vacuum it's incredibly effective at selling the idea at hand.
If I seem overly enthusiastic about this, it's only because it's a method I use myself in my own work. Yes, I'm writing a novel as the main thing that occupies my productivity day to day, and sometimes I need to communicate the sheer overwhelming presence and danger of a given character. When that happens, well, I do this! Prose lacks a lot of the benefits of visual media, but those benefits are broadly in efficiency of conveyance in motion, environment and expression, but one thing it's uniquely good at is occupying the head of its focus characters. And that makes metaphor and simile, stylised and outlandish descriptions to convey unearthly sensations and intense emotions, extremely effective tools. In the same way that moments of grand destruction or feats of skill and strength can be conveyed using a mythic tone. It's one extremely powerful point where the artistic mediums of prose and visual art actually share methods, and where they both work to the same end. For the duration of this page, we are in Yamashita's mind more intensely than in any of the conversations in the manga. Even without the thought bubbles on the next page where Yamashita explicitly gets chills, we know what he's feeling.
And then Kure Raian steps onscreen.
But he doesn't speak much, aside from his usual flavour of greeting. Erioh immediately steps back in, with a malicious smile, and for a moment the family resemblance is actually effectively resonant. He asks Yamashita if he'd care to play a game.
Well fuck. Guess the jig is up, eh? Turns out trying to play silly buggers with an ancient clan of superhuman assassins who've probably seen people trying to pull one over on them before is kind of a bad idea. Who'da thunk.
Chalk another one up to hubris, folks. End Chapter.
Look at Kazuo, he even has his back straight right now. That's how you know something's seriously wrong.
A thing I'd like to point out, because it always confused the shit out of me: when the chapter opens we see some of Akoya's memories of the end of the fight/post-fight, and this is one of the panels:
Which is very cute, Sayaka and some other of the showgirls helping Cosmo stand up when he clearly can. My question is... where the hell are the paramedics? This arena has paramedics. We've seen them before. They have stretchers and big guys who help carry knocked-out fighters. Guys who take injured fighters to the doctor for treatment. Why are Sayaka and some random showgirl the ones carrying Cosmo here? Are they braver than the paramedics when it comes to standing close to Akoya?
Which is very cute, Sayaka and some other of the showgirls helping Cosmo stand up when he clearly can. My question is... where the hell are the paramedics? This arena has paramedics. We've seen them before. They have stretchers and big guys who help carry knocked-out fighters. Guys who take injured fighters to the doctor for treatment. Why are Sayaka and some random showgirl the ones carrying Cosmo here? Are they braver than the paramedics when it comes to standing close to Akoya?
The Kengan Association saves time & money by only hiring ring bunnies directly out of paramedic training. Cuts down on response time since they're close to the ring already AND easier on the eyes to distract from the human wreckage!
Or maybe the thirst for Cosmo overrides fear of Akoya idk.
The real answer is probably that Sandrovich thought it would be more dramatic to have Cosmo carried of by a couple of concerned women than a few professional paramedics.
I find this less plausible. The medical field is not a place for the faint of heart, even if your employer is a pediatric hospital or something and not an illegal fighting ring. I admit I haven't seen any of the medical professionals I know interact with pissed-off law enforcement officers, but they all work in normal hospitals and the like.
Which is very cute, Sayaka and some other of the showgirls helping Cosmo stand up when he clearly can. My question is... where the hell are the paramedics? This arena has paramedics. We've seen them before. They have stretchers and big guys who help carry knocked-out fighters. Guys who take injured fighters to the doctor for treatment. Why are Sayaka and some random showgirl the ones carrying Cosmo here? Are they braver than the paramedics when it comes to standing close to Akoya?
given Akoya was unconscious over Cosmo and weighs like, a hundred and ten kilos, I think the paramedics are probably the ones who've manhandled Akoya off of Cosmo so the girls can drag him away.
Given the sheer level of damage it might have been faster for Sayaka to jump over the announcers table and get Cosmos out of there herself. Maybe Jerry used Trebuchet Style to launch her there.
But he doesn't speak much, aside from his usual flavour of greeting. Erioh immediately steps back in, with a malicious smile, and for a moment the family resemblance is actually effectively resonant. He asks Yamashita if he'd care to play a game.
Well fuck. Guess the jig is up, eh? Turns out trying to play silly buggers with an ancient clan of superhuman assassins who've probably seen people trying to pull one over on them before is kind of a bad idea. Who'da thunk.
Chalk another one up to hubris, folks. End Chapter.
The Kure's actually acting like a clan of competent and ruthless assassins who don't take being played well? Someone check for flying pigs. We'll get to Raian's actual fight soon and his presence in the rest of the manga but I actually do really like the setup for it. It's both comically ludicrous and exactly the kind of backroom dealing that actually makes use of the CEOs for the tournament.
He had Cosmo beat at one point, no if ands or buts.
But he threw it away to be a sadistic monster.
Its all on him and I think deep down he knows it. Also, I'm honestly glad he just leaves. Quite frankly he brings the mood down wherever he goes an I think everyone excluding Cosmo is glad to see the bastard leave.
Knowing now that a fighter with every possible advantage can in fact snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by acting like a total idiot, I'm very excited for Raian vs Ohma.
