As an aside, Word of God for the series says that Techniques Raian would totally win against these guys. This is why occasionally you need to disagree with an author on their own work. Wakatsuki would beat Raian easy. He would punch him and Raian would explode like a Kamen rider villain.
Apart from that there's some truly spectacular artwork that helps to sell this fight. If you pay attention to the shading it's actually changed a little so it's emphasizing the tension and power of the muscles as they trade blows. This match really gives a different feel to the others before it. It's not slow but there's this sense of momentum like these two are fucking continental plates crashing into each other.
Here more then anywhere else Kengan just says "Yeah big muscles might be enough to beat martial arts" and actually takes that as a real, serious, question in a way so few other things do. Julius could win the tournament because every time he punches someone it's like getting hit by a train. There's no style or special moves to him, just the application of sheer insane force to make the other guy break before he does.
And arguably this is the match up that loses Wakatsuki the tournament. Kuroki is a hard wall of course but without the damage accumulated just trying to land enough damage on Julius to win he had the combination of sheer physical power and fighting skill to make it a possibility. Wakatsuki clears his other fights with relatively little damage and it's only here he really gets hurt and hurt badly by his opponent.
Julius I would give much less of a chance to even winning this fight. He's ludicrously powerful in a way that counters Wakatsuki but he's incomplete as a fighter and would probably get tripped up by the more complicated or instant kill moves of the higher ups.
You gotta give Techniques Raian some due respect, he stands among the likes of Freeza After Doing One Push-Up and Megumi if he Got Over his Big Raga Addiction in his status as a Potential Man™️
The good news, such as it is, is that I am now gainfully employed. Trading in a certain amount of my week in return for money and recognition as a human being. So hey, I'll be able to afford my own food. That's nice!
The bad news, as you might have guessed, is that two updates a week with this extra burden on my time is not feasible for my ADHD-riddled ass. Even before taking into account the stress of this kind of transition. As such, until further notice, I will only be releasing one update a week. Normal time each monday.
However, given that, I'm also going to be raising the minimum wordcount per update from 1.5k to 2k. If it's only going to be the one from now on, might as well make it worth it each time.
That also made me consider Bryan relative to Raian and why, though Hawk is a one-dimensional sadist at times, he's so much more compelling an antagonist than Raian. Beyond Hawk being explicitly treated by the narrative as loathsome from the get-go, I think it comes from their origins.
Thanks for your effort in bringing this wacky mess of a manga to review, and hope things go well for you. If you're worried about workload you may want to revise down a bit though, one 2.5k update is not much less than 2 updates that add up to 3k, especially in the time your acclimating to a fixed work schedule again. Don't want you to burn out!
Julius' fight in omega is actually good though, there's a few fights in the tournament parts that do hit the same polish and consideration as the good asura parts.
Good luck with the job, Manic! I'll just turn these posts from "part of my lunchtime reading" to "all of my lunchtime reading" on monday, so I'll be fine.
Last time we ended on a swerve, the introduction of a mysterious power, the secret technique of the second most successful fighter in the modern Kengan Matches and one of the greatest in history. A technique that supplements his frame, manifesting his unnatural strength and refining it to its purest destructive form. Blast Core.
So, the question remains. How does it work? And what better time to explain than at the start of a chapter, when we're already slightly disconnected by the publication gap.
Consider the spring.
In somewhat overwrought terms, a vessel of power that struggles harder the more is put into it. Imagine then, a spring squashed, crushed to the limit of its structure. And then released all at once. Consider then this same process applying to the body of one of the strongest men alive, all the muscles in his body compressing down into a single point, curled up into a tight ball with his feet braced against the ground. All his inhuman might concentrated down into a single, white hot core.
Beautiful. Immaculate. Just look at the craft here. The black of the edges of the screen, starkly contrasting and being blown away by the radiant light of Wakatsuki's blow. The man's eyes, stare-ey and terrifying in their focus. The way that for all Julius still occupies most of the panel with his sheer girth, he nevertheless doesn't actually dominate it! Rather, the sheer size of the lad becomes part of the impact of Wakatsuki's blow, which spills out of his fist and consumes all focus. And let's not undersell the body being blown away, the distortion of it is subtle compared to what other blows of this scale have done, including Wakatsuki's own against Murobuchi, but between the sheer size of Julius and his response to every other blow struck against him? It's an image of staggering impact. Even strikes which might kill some fighters outright have simply been absorbed by his overwhelming mass, giving him minor pause at most. But this has taken him clean off his feet and actually stretches his torso, his arms and legs horizontal as if being thrown by a bomb.
This is the weapon Wakatsuki Takeshi conceived to defeat the Fang. A sudden blow of inconceivable destructive force. And you know, I can believe it. Can't adapt to something if it cleans your clock the moment it's unleashed. Assuming he could land it, of course.
Julius staggers back, every muscle visibly tensed, blood pouring from his mouth as his eyes boggle in shock. He's baffled, completely. I can readily believe based on these pages alone that he's never felt anything like this, never been hurt by a blow this badly. He's shaking, clutching his side.
Wakatsuki's CEO, though, isn't celebrating. Indeed, Heihachi (no not that one) looks positively grim, as he notes this is the first time he's used the Blast Core in an official match. Which we probably could have guessed, but the clarification is fair, it doesn't take up much space, and highlights a potential point of friction going forward. One that Wakatsuki noted at the end of last chapter. It isn't a surprise weapon anymore. Now that said…well. You'll see.
We step now into Julius' head as we get a full page spread of him groaning as he pushes himself back to his feet, very accurately cursing that he got careless. Which is frankly understandable, if I grew to the size of a semi-truck made of beef I'd probably get a bit laissez-faire about self defense too. If that had hit his vitals…he doesn't finish the sentence but you get the idea. This match could be over already. He finishes rising to his feet, a process I have to assume was quicker than the pages made it look since Wakatsuki hasn't followed up, and reassumes his guard as the beeflords stare each other down again.
Wakatsuki is the first to move, once again. Briefly stretching the limits of human sight in his charge, he makes his own massive tackle against Julius. The results aren't as impressive as the one he ate last update, but Julius is still sent skidding back a damn long way, enough that the audience speculates about the Blast Core's effects on him. It doesn't last long though, Julius has the height and frame advantage, and he wraps his arms around Wakatsuki's upper body, throwing him off. This time though, he doesn't follow up. Wakatsuki regains his feet crouched, with his right arm cocked and ready, and Julius immediately backs off. Which is incredible in its own right, that anybody could make him of all people wary of spacing. One idiot in the audience yells to stop being a chicken, but someone more situationally aware theorises that he's on guard against another hit like that. Which…yeah, we don't even need the clarification, that's totally right.
The page breaks in the middle for this match's equivalent of the peanut gallery, the most prominent close watchers. Gaolang notes to himself that he made a mistake, judging Wakatsuki so harshly before. He'd never anticipated Wakatsuki was hiding something like this. And you know, I gave him shit for it last time, but on further thought I suppose of all people here, it kind of makes sense he'd have that reaction? He's a fighter of the public sphere, and an extremely technique focused one at that, for all his body is certainly strong. He likely only heard of Wakatsuki when he arrived here, the basics of his record and who he is. Based on that alone, and his phenomenal power, it's probably easy to assume he's a straightforward brute. More close thought would, I think, have dissuaded that notion, but we do have pre-existing examples of Gaolang judging someone hastily, before he has all the relevant facts. So yeah, not too shabby.
Muteba grumpily insists Julius not go down just yet, he still needs more intel. He's still fucking, and I hate it. Moving on.
Wakatsuki pauses in thought, testing his stance. We cut down to his ankle, and we see it red. Swollen. One shot has already fucked him up this badly. And hey, in the name of attrition, one more example. Not even damage he took in this tournament, but an old wound that never quite healed right. A souvenir of his fight with the Fang? Or perhaps his other loss. Still, it's something that one of the oldest Fighters going should have, really. War scars, as it were. Even the best aren't getting out of all their fights scot free, someone eventually is going to give them one hard enough for it to stick. And we already know this isn't a world where wounds always heal quickly and cleanly. At least so far as there isn't a wizard involved.
This is a fun moment, to me. The heckling washing off the fighters backs, Julius looming large in Wakatsuki's anxiety-warped vision, Julius having clearly regained his breath and focus. It's a neat little package of contrast. And afterwards, Wakatsuki affirms it. The strain is immense, but so what? He was never going to reach Agito unharmed to begin with, if he thinks like that he's just going to panic and lose. He just needs to pay the price right now, and get the win. What matters is reaching his goddamn grudge match.
And so, he does it again. Light blooms from Julius' chest once more in a flower of destruction, Wakatsuki's fist sinking into his stomach as his eyes bulge in their sockets. He grits his teeth…and snags Wakatsuki in a bear hug. It's an extremely sudden reversal, another fantastic use of the- fuck, what's it called, the thing where you see one thing, turn the page and the situation has reversed or drastically changed. It's great for dramatic effect, and I completely don't know if it has a name, god damn it. Whatever, let's call it Page-turn Juxtaposition. This is a great example, Julius seems like he's reeling from the blow, but the twist can be predicted if you're paying close attention. Both to Julius' expressions and the art itself. Julius wasn't blown back this time, the strike didn't stick.
Wakatsuki's expression at the start there is just perfection, Daromeon makes this guy so fucking expressive. And yeah, this page reminds us of something vital. For all Julius is a wall of meat, he's also smart. Just by spacing Wakatsuki and the fact the fight isn't already over he figured out Wakatsuki's ankle is fucked up. As Julius crushes Wakatsuki within his grip, Hayami offers confirmation. He isn't just a strongman, his contribution to his physique wasn't just doing drugs and drinking protein shakes. He did his own share of the actual science behind building his body, sports physiology, medicine, psychology, even a grounding in advanced physics. He has the ultimate body, and the ultimate understanding of how to use it.
All technique is meaningless before Julius Reinholdt.
Well. Let's just fucking see about that, shall we?
The next chapter is rung in by the sound of grinding bone as Julius holds a man almost as strong as he is in his arms and does his level best to squeeze out his organs like a tube of toothpaste. Wakatsuki looks like he's screaming, but we see no sound beyond the sound effects of the crushing force he's under, it's just his face going 100% as always. He punches at Julius' side as best he can, but with his arms cinched against his body it just doesn't do much. Julius grunts, his glare almost eager. He has this, he's sure.
Then his eyes widen in shock. He's confused. Wakatsuki Takeshi is…shrinking? He doesn't understand what's happening, but his instincts are screaming that it's not good.
This is great, I love a technique that isn't a strict pattern of movement, but more a principle that can take a variety of forms depending on the context. Using the same ideas as behind the Blast Core to curl yourself up inside someone's grip and then explode out of their arms in a wave of force like someone going super saiyan? Absolutely fantastic defensive repurposing of an offensive technique, I love it. Also just…forgive me if I'm a broken record, but I love the expressions here. Wakatsuki's is obviously a standout, you can smell the adrenaline wafting off him, but Julius' "Oh Fucking Hell" expression as he staggers back is almost as good.
But getting free isn't going to win the fight on its own, and Julius wastes no time following up. He grabs Wakatsuki's arm and is immediately met by a body-shot, a mean hook from Wakatsuki right into the welt his first Blast Core left behind. We get a brief shot of Julius' eyes, veins standing out.
Then the chimpanzee behaviour begins.
He grabs hold of Wakatsuki's other arm and winds up for a vicious headbutt, and as Wakatsuki is reeling Julius grabs hold of his head. Then lifts him bodily and uses Wakatsuki's face to obliterate the Arena floor. And he doesn't even pause there! Julius immediately charges for the arena wall, Wakatsuki trailing behind him like a carelessly carried doll, and rams his face again but into the wall. The concrete shatters, but more importantly Julius arm swells grotesquely with effort as he winds up to drag Wakatsuki's face through the arena wall for a not insignificant proportion of its circumference.
Yeah, get the fuck out of here Raian. This guy's got your whole "linear brute disinterested in technique" schtick beat a dozen times over, this is more brutal than anything you did in your entire screentime. We don't see it clearly for a bit, but this actually skins the entire right hand side of Wakatsuki's face.
Just for good measure, Julius proceeds to make a print of Wakatsuki's face in the floor again, before baseball pitching him into his own crater. Wakatsuki, much like a baseball, bounces across the floor for a good ways before coming to rest in the middle of the arena, Julius Hulk-leaping for his ass. Descending like the terrible fist of a wrathful god.
When he hits, the both of them sink into the arena floor, and the devastation spills out from him like a flood. Stone ripples like water, and surges in tidal waves.
Julius briefly pauses in pace to rain blows on Wakatsuki, but the Wild Tiger simply glares back from the other side of his fist. So he gets up, snags one of Wakatsuki's legs, and swings him like an olympic hammer. His back hitting the wall at a straight-line angle, buckling the concrete. Just a point for the art here too, the second panel of the page does a lot to present Julius as an inhuman force of nature. A lot of strong foreshortening presenting his frame as biblical in scale, but especially an old trick I love of reducing the eyes to bright, circular lights in a shadowed face. Great for intimidation purposes, and this is a hella intimidating moment for him. It's Julius on top, rage filled form, rampaging like the Kaiju he was compared to last update.
And then, one more tackle. Wakatsuki tries to guard, but it's shaky after the beating he's taken, and he's driven into the wall like a stake by Julius' shoulder. It's unclear if it's a blackout, or nondiegetic emphasis, but we get a string of panels loosely connected by time. Moments from his past. First getting employment with Heihachi (not that one), fighting a match with Hatsumi Sen (which I guess is his other loss. Hey, Wakatsuki had black hair back then!), the promotion of his fight with the Fang, and then the aftermath of the fight itself. Wakatsuki's ankle bent to a really uncomfortable to look at angle, before Agito tells him he is too dull. We get an excellently placed and paced panel of Wakatsuki's eyes looking up in terror, and we understand. Wakatsuki is in that moment and this one, at the same time, fear and indignation mingling in a horrible, seething cocktail in the pit of Wakatsuki's gut. He winds up. It's the blast core.
Julius' stomp fucking obliterates the wall.
An entire, quiet page of reaction shots follows. Heihachi (not that one) with eyes tense and teeth bared, shock and fury. Muteba whistling, as one might after watching an especially large bomb go off. Gaolang watching imperiously. The usual Peanut Gallery in varying expressions of shock. Agito watching, focused, in close interest. Sayaka and Jerry in speechless awe. And then, muscle and sweat.
The human leg, you know, is three times more powerful than the arm. But you know what's even more powerful? Misdirection based on your opponent being over-cautious of one technique, so he forgets you're more than a one-trick pony.
This is the other side of a particular part of a diatribe I frequently go on in this Let's Read, the many ways whiteroom versus debaters just tend to not know shit about how fights actually work. I've already been over a bunch of the reasons why opening with your ultimate move and spamming it is dumb, but there's another, equally stupid school of thought in online fight discourse that believes that if an opponent knows about your move at all then it's useless. Chuck it in the garbage, they know how to beat it now, so it's never going to work on anyone again. Even leaving aside the obvious note that not everyone will know how to beat the knowledge check, the execution element of creating opportunities and how a well placed technique can be impossible for an out-of-position opponent to stop, it completely ignores something this fight demonstrated to perfection. An opponent who is aware of a technique is expecting it, which is its own psychological pressure and additional point of mental overhead they're having to calculate. And the more devastating that technique is, the warier they become of it, the more weight it'll put on their mental stack. The more it'll dominate their thoughts. And that, as happened here, can present opportunities. And well, it's not like they can just ignore the possibility of you busting it out, can they? It's fearsome for a reason. Too much focus one way or the other, and an opponent can leave themselves open to a devastating blow.
Not to understate the value of a surprise trump card. That's still dangerous. But a technique being a known quantity doesn't deprive it of value, it just takes on new life as part of decisionmaking and mindgames.
As the manga notes, and as Wakatsuki finishes Julius off with one more kick to the head, what made the ultimate difference was tactics. Julius was smart…but not where it counted.
End chapter. And the match.
Well god fucking damn. What can I even say? This isn't necessarily a top 5 match or anything, but it's way up there in my esteem, and it is wholly unique in the entire thing. Nowhere else in the manga, or the series as far as I remember, do we get a fight this uniquely focused on raw, overwhelming physicality. A lot of it is in how that physicality is used, and victory ultimately went to the more experienced fighter specifically because of his experience and quick wits, but the main character of this match was absolutely the utter fucking ruin these men wrought on the arena. It was a simple fight, without much of a character arc on either side, but the choreography and art were on top form for what they were trying to depict and the effect is fantastic. This doesn't leave me much space for wrapup commentary, lacking any really complex ideas or nuanced flaws to discuss, but I'm honestly fine with that. Not everything needs to have deep character resonance.
Sometimes it's fun to just watch two giant monsters beat the absolute dickens out of each other, flattening a city in the process.
In real time, all of that would have happened in about 40 seconds.
Also GOD Julius is cool. Giant fuckin' genius. And not only are Wakatsuki's expressions amazing in this fight, but his ankle injury basically completes his whole Achilles thing - he's basically a superhuman who stepped straight out of mythology. Just look at how much punishment the man takes over the entire fight in that stick figure animation!
Edit: Also also, this fight kinda does the Naruto vs Kiba thing where it's mostly just one side getting the shit beaten out of them until they land a single blow...but it's also different in that said blow is established at the very start of the fight to be Wakatsuki's win condition. If he can land a solid Blast Core against Julius, the fight will end, and they both know it. That single fact shapes the entire fight, and it makes it so that even when Waka lands the single, match-winning blow it doesn't feel like a cop-out but rather that he overcame the odds to actually pull it off for the win.
There's an old series of fantasy books I read where at one point the bad guys summon up a monster, basic reptilian thingy. The good guys go to fight it and there's a problem. This beast is *from a denser world*. They are clouds to it, barely present.
Wakatsuki gives off that vibe. His skull is dragged through a wall, well, that's bad luck for the fucking wall, eh? Julius throws him around? Rough luck to whatever he lands on. The lad is just built different.
Julius is bigger, but he is a pillow person, a sand person, by comparison. Wakatsuki wins out because, in the end, nothing Julius can do hurts him beyond a surface level. Even if that stomp had landed, it wouldn't have been any worse than the 'using him as a flail' or the romp through the wall. Wakatsuki is not made of human stuff, superman syndrome has forged a terminator.
If this was a simulation, I'd pick him for left side winner with no hesitation. As it is, I guess he's the answer to the question of 'after Ohma vs Raion, how can there ever be another exciting match featuring the protagonist?'.
Edit: Also also, this fight kinda does the Naruto vs Kiba thing where it's mostly just one side getting the shit beaten out of them until they land a single blow...but it's also different in that said blow is established at the very start of the fight to be Wakatsuki's win condition. If he can land a solid Blast Core against Julius, the fight will end, and they both know it. That single fact shapes the entire fight, and it makes it so that even when Waka lands the single, match-winning blow it doesn't feel like a cop-out but rather that he overcame the odds to actually pull it off for the win.
Eh it's easy to harp on people taking blows without flinching and then suddenly going down but at the same time... I've been punched in the chest before. I've been kicked in the head before. One of them hurts. The other one you're suddenly wondering why you're looking at the ceiling in the middle of a fire drill.
Julius takes a couple of hits to the noggin this fight but all of them clearly effect him way more then the body blows. It tracks to me that an unexpected roundhouse kick is just going to turn off the lights.
Yeah, there's a little bit of the panel left, but you can see it it in the full page of the last image and it is probably the most visceral injury in the manga I can think of; you can see the individual muscle fibres and little flaps of skin. Muteba was more brutal, but everything in that fight was brutal so it was kind of muted a bit. This was a far cleaner match up until that so the contrast makes it hit harder.
And, while I may be reading too much into it, I do think @Walter was on to something with Wakatsuki's physiology. His muscles fibres being so dense is probably what saved him from being straight up Zorin'd, which would be a neat bit of subtlety to his absurd capabilities.
It is really, really hard to convey impact in a static visual medium. It's doubly so when both characters involved eat knockout blows like it's nothing. Daromeon deserves so much credit for making it immediately obvious that these are the functional equivalent of getting hit by a cement truck at approximately Mach 1.3.
There's no question that any other fighter in the tournament would be carried out of the ring in a bucket. The only other mangaka I'm aware of who's as good at "oh Jesus, that had to hurt" is Yusuke Murata. I actually think it's more impactful on the page than in the anime, since the use of static 3D models prevents the exaggeration of size, impact, and deformation that Daromeon uses to great effect.
There's an interesting comparison to be made between this and the fight between Raiden Tameemon and Shiva in Record of Ragnarok. In terms of its place in the story, it's framed fairly similarly to this one: no weapons, just two dudes trading concussions until someone falls over. The problem is that the Fearsome Haymakers of the Gods look like the correct onomatopoeia is a lower-case "bonk."
There's a panel I can't find at the moment where they're trading repeated headbutts, which should be the tightest shit ever except that all I can hear in my head is the sound of two coconuts being lightly tapped together.
The strain is immense, but so what? He was never going to reach Agito unharmed to begin with, if he thinks like that he's just going to panic and lose. He just needs to pay the price right now, and get the win. What matters is reaching his goddamn grudge match.
I do love how, in the panel he's saying that, Wakatsuki is clearly and violently trembling. The physically second strongest fighter in the tournament is having a small panic attack. It's wonderful.
But anyhow, now I can talk about Julius! I love Julius so much
He's basically a physicist and biologist by hobby, entirely for the sake of getting really swole! He knows strategy, he has actual brains! He's not jsut a big beefy fucker, he studied to be able to use those muscles to their best! And the only reason it doesn't work for him all of the time is because in the process of doing that he became too proud of the fact he's both huge and smart, so he fucks up by underestimating people and techniques! Also, this is going to come up in a very minor way in the future, but he's not a bad guy either. He sticks around for Omega and becomes friends with Muteba in the background, and even starts getting along with Wakatsuki! They share a high-five at one point and I swear if you put a piece of charcoal in their hands at that point you'd have a diamond after.
Julius is just great, I wish more stories used this kind of character for their big beefy meathead enemies.
Oh also, remember how a problem in the last fight was the pacing, and how long it took? Yeah, this fight took 4 chapters. And I think it highlights a structure that Sandro uses quite often in the best fights of the manga:
- Both fighters are introduced and fight for a bit so we can get an idea of who has the upper hand
- Both characters demonstrate their respective trump cards, be it a special technique or just revealing what their fighting style/special attribute is
- And then suddenly there's no more dialogue and the fight just happens, and we can tell by what we've been told before what happens in the fight and why the victory happened the way it did.
Look at this fight: one chapter of Waka and Julius beating each other up, one chapter to introduce Waka's trump card, one chapter to explain it and then show why Julius can counter it, and then one chapter of just maniacal, fightmonkey battle, leading to Waka's victory because he has the experience to leverage all the elements we've seen so far. Clean, simple, well-written.
This fight's great, start to finish, and it continues the streak of Wakatsuki having some of the best fights in the manga.
That said! Next up is a contender for best fight in the round, and I can barely wait.
Eh it's easy to harp on people taking blows without flinching and then suddenly going down but at the same time... I've been punched in the chest before. I've been kicked in the head before. One of them hurts. The other one you're suddenly wondering why you're looking at the ceiling in the middle of a fire drill.
Julius takes a couple of hits to the noggin this fight but all of them clearly effect him way more then the body blows. It tracks to me that an unexpected roundhouse kick is just going to turn off the lights.
Amusingly, Julius himself walked out of this fight pretty lightly injured. Much like the Cosmo vs Akoya fight, Julius walked out of this with like two actual injuries, while the guy he fought looks like he tripped on a live grenade.
Julius is unironically just so cool. He's not as cool as Waka, but Waka is pretty peak.
One other thing I love is we don't get fifty pages about the stupid plot Hayami is trying, despite the fact it's the first fight his fighter is in. That nonsense is firmly shelved in favour of GOZILLA VS ULTRAMAN, TITANS CLASHING IN A BATTLE FOR THE AGES
I gotta say, every time I see the Around-the-Ring facegrind, I flash back to myself, at 10, watching Ridley do the same to Samus in the Subspace Emissary.
Julius is bigger, but he is a pillow person, a sand person, by comparison. Wakatsuki wins out because, in the end, nothing Julius can do hurts him beyond a surface level. Even if that stomp had landed, it wouldn't have been any worse than the 'using him as a flail' or the romp through the wall. Wakatsuki is not made of human stuff, superman syndrome has forged a terminator.
Amusingly, Julius himself walked out of this fight pretty lightly injured. Much like the Cosmo vs Akoya fight, Julius walked out of this with like two actual injuries, while the guy he fought looks like he tripped on a live grenade.
I actually think it's more impactful on the page than in the anime, since the use of static 3D models prevents the exaggeration of size, impact, and deformation that Daromeon uses to great effect.
It absolutely is. This was my most anticipated match simply because of how lackluster I felt watching it compared to people in this thread getting hype at the thought of it.
