Capitalism ho! Let's Read Kengan Asura

One of the most delightful things, preceding this fight, was watching everyone say who they thought would win this fight. I saw a lotta folks theorizing on how Kiryu could overcome Kuroki, how his role in the plot was important, how his destructive power would probably be underestimated by Kuroki, how he would come up with some new idea to win the fight the way that Rihito failed to. And every time I read that, my mind flashed back to those words by Kuroki.

"I cannot be defeated by improvisations."

Here's the thing about Kuroki: he's a very deliberate narrative spike and hammer. Manic already mentioned this, that Kuroki is being used very deliberately here. Because we all know how tournament arcs go. Kengan Asura is already unusual in that the main character kind of disappears for long stretches of the manga and other characters become just as important within their own stories, but it's still a tournament arc. It's going to be about Ohma's story, and the characters around him. It's going to be featuring the rival and the antagonist and several other characters who come in and gain heat for the sake of building up to the big finale where Ohma will triumph over all of these strong, seasoned characters.

And then, Kuroki. While quietly building up heat that we all expect him to transfer, Kuroki arrives and breaks one of the most fundamental parts of the tournament arc narrative. Twice so, if you consider Rihito's loss as important to it. So now here we are, starkly aware that the narrative can, and will, skillfully, ignore the conventions to write a more interesting outcome. The rival has lost, possibly died, to the old master in the tournament. Kuroki has established, beyond shadow of a doubt, that he's real for the narrative, that he represents more than just an old guard here to be surpassed in the early stages. Every character is now much more real for the narrative than they were five chapters ago, because of this. Kuroki will break the established narratives, and by consequence, so might anyone else in the tournament. Please pick up your complimentary piece of the destroyed plot armor as you exit the arena for today, and come back tomorrow, as we see what else the plot is about to do, because we can now be reasonably certain in the future that in a fight between two equal warriors, it's going to be their skill, and not narrative convenience, that gets them the victory.

Gods Kuroki rocks so much. And he gets to fight Rei next! Now there's a fight worth being hyped for for the next round.

...
...fine. Yes, Kiryu was also here, as more than just the guy Kuroki beats to remain being the biggest badass ever. He was cool, and admittedly I like a lot of his imagery when divorced of the context he'd been given to start out with. Kind of a pity he doesn't get to fight Ohma anymore. But honestly I just don't have much to say about the guy. The plot would be entirely better and barely changed if he was replaced by a guy who wasn't a creep. I don't really got anything to add to that.
Not yet, anyway.
 
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I appreciate the spotlighting on how sick of a name MINGLING OF THE FOX AND TIGER is. So sick. And it's touching on the fact that Koei = Fox and Niko = Two Tigers! It feels like a genuine fusion of both styles, and the kind of thing that probably filters half this tournament's roster. That move will turn you into pasta unless you can full parry like Daigo. Now, it's somewhat blunted by us seeing that move in the context where it will be absolutely least effective, but it's still given its due as a very impressive technique.
 
Okay yeah, this match convinced me.

If there were a kengan ashura fighting game, Kuroki would be the bullshit secret boss that input reads all your moves, gets armor on all his specials, has frame 1 counters for everything, and who you can just pick on the character select screen.
 
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And with it came possibly the rawest line in the manga.

"I cannot be defeated by improvisations."
Clenches hand
It's so good.

This line is, in a way, Kuroki Gensai boiled down to his essence. His thesis statement, as a person and as a narrative presence. He is the wall, he is the manga's respect for fundamentals made manifest. You better have done your fucking homework before you rocked up, because trying to throw together some new shit mid fight is only going to give him a bigger opportunity to break you apart. There's only so many ways a human body can move, after all, and you're inevitably going to be at least a bit slower with your new fancy bullshit. Against someone like Kuroki? Someone as practised, as experienced, as canny, who has trained until his hands bled, let them heal, and then come back and trained more? You might as well be handing him an opening. If you wanted to win, you should have trained more, and harder. It's as simple as that.

I've seen friends describe Kuroki Gensai as the embodiment of martial arts, within the Kengan Asura setting. And that is an accurate descriptor. He isn't flashy, he has no big gimmick, what he has is dedication and focus. The Discipline to keep to his training for as long as it takes. Fuelled by no small amount of talent, certainly, but we've already talked about that in previous matches. In a way, he could be the ultimate form of what I said, there. He is the peak of talent and the peak of hard work. He may not be entirely unsurpassable…but it'll only be done by patiently building up your strength thoroughly. Kiryu has talent for days, but he's hasty and unfocused. Martial arts isn't his end, just the means by which he gets his way, and we've seen how he spends so much of his time not bothering with it. He's used to picking things up quickly, not having to try. So he has an idea, and heck. It'll work fine. It always does.

Not here. Not at the true peak. Where talent only comes to full fruition when watered by the true madness that people who truly belong up here carry with them. Where thoroughly complete warriors walk, whose power is born from a day by day passion to become the strongest version of themselves.

Who cannot be defeated by improvisation.
Is there even anything I can add to this? It's so, so rare to see hard work and the experience of age be glorified like this, in a genre and medium that has always favored talent and youth. But this is just a man who knows karate.

  • It's not the result of modifying your body via science - he's not surgically modified to make his bones come out like swords or having poison breath or prosthetic eyes or has taken super steroids or is the result of magic eugenics.
  • It can be replicated - he does not have a unique biology like superman syndrome or an incredible finger grip or is able to rotate his joints a lot or having incredible innate reflexes or being able to compensate for being blind with your other senses or gigantism.
  • It's not the result of hyper-specialized training like the Raishin style's incredible speed or the Inaba clan's weird prehensile hair thing or Chiba imperfectly "imitating" other people.
  • It's not very flashy - sure, Kuroki's spear-hand is exaggerated by the manga's hyperreal nature (it's easier to break outstretched fingers than a closed fist) but for this manga it's practically tame for your fingers to behave as a spear (although I think the better comparison is a punch-dagger).
  • It's not a particularly deadly style, or at least not in real life - certainly, it would not be used all that much by even bare-handed assassins compared to all the other options out there.
it's just a real-life martial art that everyday people can learn, just taken to an absurd degree and with an exaggerated technique. This is just pure respect for the classics that have endured the ages.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Kuroki and some of the more realistically-grounded fighters like Naoya or Gaolan is that he has waaaaay more experience in using his style in more serious fights.
 
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Just hard work and being able to poke a hole in a steel beam. Not a gimmick in sight. :V

Kuroki gets away with the Devil Lance, I find, because it's not his focus. It's barely his finisher; so far the Devil Lance has been entirely deployed strategically as a way to hobble the opponent so Kuroki can finish them with his actual skills and experience. He's not throwing big finisher punches or using incredible flashy techniques to break a guy, he has this one, important, named technique, that doesn't act like a win button and depends entirely on him being able to strategically deploy and take the best advantage from. If he hadn't been a master of defense and both skilled and focused enough to deflect Kiryu's last blow, there was no Devil Lance that could save him.
 
Just hard work and being able to poke a hole in a steel beam. Not a gimmick in sight. :V
Manic Dogma specified big gimmick, this time. The steel-poking is a gimmick, but it's a very small gimmick. It's just enough of a gimmick to make a jobber stand out before his inevitable defeat to the friendly rival before his fight with the "friendly" rival.

Except he beats the friendly rival. And the problematic rival. And while Kuroki's gimmick isn't irrelevant to those victories, it's less significant than his mastery of fundamentals.
 
Ahh there it is, the main reason I always keep coming back to this manga. Can you imagine, if you were reading Naruto during its hayday and during the Chunin exams we get to the part where Gaara is going apeshit with the one tails, only to have Gai show up and open a Gate of whoopass on him before Naruto can even do crap about it?
 
Other people have broken down why Kuroki Gensai is the Master but I also want to say that this twist is really amazing and is what makes this manga special.

I do want to say a word for Kiryu, who really, really had it in him to be a fascinating and equally groundbreaking character, of the author could have been even a little bit normal about sexuality. I guess in that regard this matchup is a perfect example of the highs and lows of Kengan Asura, ho hum.
 
One thing I do find interesting about that line is that this fight and the prior one actually do reveal Kuroki's key weakness: he's so incredibly well-seasoned in martial arts that he can see several moves ahead, but that also leaves him vulnerable if an opponent can genuinely surprise him. We see more of this later but I think it's a point in his favor to not just be absolutely unstoppable. If there's no crack in a wall, there's no intrigue in watching people smash into it. If there's a tiny crack, there's always that possibility, which keeps things interesting.
 
I'm reminded of when I was actively training in the Fior di Battaglia. There was this young chap in our group, very eager and dedicated, quite talented as well - he was very twitchy, really quick, lithe and mobile. I was, of course, already sporting a dad-bod and slow as molasses. I joined a year or two after he did, so he was technically my senior although much younger in years.

Said young man had one weakness: he was always looking for a special move, a gimmick, a trick that would elevate him above the rest of the historical fencing world. The plays of Fiore's Masters weren't good enough for him, because everyone had access to them. Everyone knew and trained them. He needed to create something different, unique, a fight-winner and finisher.

Meanwhile, I took to heart our teacher Guy Windsor's words. "The old masters knew what they were doing because they had to do it for real. If they taught it, it works. If they didn't teach it, it's because they didn't need to."

Anyone hear an echo in here?

"I cannot be defeated by improvisations."

So while aforementioned chappie spent a lot of his training time speculating about how to wield his sword in a way that nobody had thought to before in several hundred years, I trusted that the dude who fought and won five longsword duels out of armour had already figured it out. And had very helpfully laid out his system in no less than four separate illuminated manuscripts.

A year after I joined the club, I was regularly pasting this senior in freeplay. It really didn't make sense. He was way faster than I was, could almost take two steps to my one, could react quicker than I could, and he was really quite inventive in coming up with various tricks and tactics. Meanwhile, I was seriously boring. I had basically two parries (the cover in frontale and the sottano riverso ascending cut) and two or three counters, but mostly I defaulted to closing to grappling range and putting my pommel in my opponent's face.

What infuriated this chap was that although I had a really limited range of techniques, I was mostly able to block off all his fancy maneouvers and get my hits in. It was particularly humiliating that those hits usually involved his sword arm being locked up and me introducing my pommel to his fencing mask repeatedly. There's a sense of helplessness in that position that's really galling. And I found that I didn't have to react much to his moves - it really felt like I was seeing what he was trying to do almost before he did it, and I only had to move very little to forestall it.

Now, I tell this tale not to brag about my prowess - which, to be very clear, was and is very limited - but to note how focusing on the fundamentals takes you further even without the advantage of decades of practice. By drilling a few moves really well and working hard to understand the principles that underlay them, I was able to overcome an opponent who, on paper, had all the advantages of youth, talent, and even experience. Now extrapolate that to the decades that someone like Kuroki has put in, and his feats don't look that unfeasible.
 
"I cannot be defeated by improvisations" is a cold-ass line, but give props to the more orthodox "apologize to Genzan in Hell."

To expound on this use of wrestling booking terminology in writing (which is new and strange to me as a wrestling weirdo), what Kuroki did to the Problematic Prettyboy is called a swerve. It's when a booker deliberately goes against the expected result to shake up a complacent audience and inject chaos into the proceedings.

When done well, it creates a reaction like this; shock and/or jubilation over a result you didn't believe in, but hoped for. When done poorly, it makes the audience feel like you have ADHD or worse, you're deliberately fucking with them.

E: You put that Bruce Lee quote into practice, @Kensai "Fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 strikes once, but the man who has practiced one strike 10,000 times".
 
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I'm a fan of the narrative subversion and how it was executed in this chapter, but I'm getting distracted by nitpicks. First, I can't actually tell if Kiryu is dead. From Kuroki's line of sending him to hell, it seems like yes, but there also doesn't seem to be much reaction if he is dead? Or maybe that's the point to further emphasize the subversion; if so, this falls flat to me. Second, we had the dangling plot point that Kiryu somehow knows Niko techniques. Unless I missed something, this didn't really come up after it was introduced. If Kiryu's dead, maybe this will get resolved when we explore Ohma's backstory more.
 
I'm a fan of the narrative subversion and how it was executed in this chapter, but I'm getting distracted by nitpicks. First, I can't actually tell if Kiryu is dead. From Kuroki's line of sending him to hell, it seems like yes, but there also doesn't seem to be much reaction if he is dead? Or maybe that's the point to further emphasize the subversion; if so, this falls flat to me. Second, we had the dangling plot point that Kiryu somehow knows Niko techniques. Unless I missed something, this didn't really come up after it was introduced. If Kiryu's dead, maybe this will get resolved when we explore Ohma's backstory more.
Kiryu's alive, Kuroki was just being extra. Kinda like that time he randomly carved a statue.

Kiryu combined Rakshasa's Palm with Niko techniques, so there isn't zero payoff. I don't get the sense that that's what you were looking for, though...
 
Kiryu's alive, Kuroki was just being extra. Kinda like that time he randomly carved a statue.

Kiryu combined Rakshasa's Palm with Niko techniques, so there isn't zero payoff. I don't get the sense that that's what you were looking for, though...
Oh no he very much thinks Kiryu is dead after getting repeatedly stabbed in the heart. Everyone did, it's why they sent him to the morgue.

EDIT: Also, what were the circumstances around Genzan's death again?
 
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Kuroki's strength comes from his mastery of the Perfect Parry.

Cosmo would sweep him. You can't parry throws. Stop throwing out crazy combinations, you're just losing poise!
 
Oh no he very much thinks Kiryu is dead after getting repeatedly stabbed in the heart. Everyone did, it's why they sent him to the morgue.

EDIT: Also, what were the circumstances around Genzan's death again?

Kiryu manipulated Genzan into killing Niko, who was badly injured from stopping Ohma's rampage, than killed Genzan in turn IIRC
 
Okay yeah, this match convinced me.

If there were a kengan ashura fighting game, Kuroki would be the bullshit secret boss that input reads all your moves, gets armor on all his specials, has frame 1 counters for everything, and who you can just pick on the character select screen.
His skill floor is crazy high and he looks like that one forgettable C-tier, but once pros have figured out how he works he suddenly becomes a meta-defining character.
 
I'm reminded of when I was actively training in the Fior di Battaglia. There was this young chap in our group, very eager and dedicated, quite talented as well - he was very twitchy, really quick, lithe and mobile. I was, of course, already sporting a dad-bod and slow as molasses. I joined a year or two after he did, so he was technically my senior although much younger in years.
It feels like you're always bringing the most interesting stories to this thread.
 
Chapter 158 - Forbidden
We begin in the morgue. Soryuin is here, smoking as usual, but possibly this time for the very specific purpose of calming nerves. She's sweating, the edges of her composure being tested by what's before her.

Kiryu, she whispers in horror.


Bro is just chilling, idk what the big deal is.

Oh right, the whole "got stabbed in the heart by the fingers of a craggy old man" thing. Yeah, I remember that.

Well, we don't get any immediate resolution to that question, rather an explanation for a clearly living man being in the morgue. The long and short of it, they just completely fucking ran out of space in the Infirmary. Which is pretty strange for such a rich organisation, and Kiryu actually does call them out for being unprepared. So yeah, with no space to put him in there, the morgue was used as backup space. Kiryu muses on how it's an appropriate place for someone who just got stabbed in the heart.

Though I guess, thinking about it, is it any wonder a bunch of CEOs cheaped out on the medical facilities? As long as there was enough space for them they probably don't care. Anyway, Tomoko fucking passed out when Kiryu got up, and he has a good natured giggle over the funny pose she's stuck in. He begins poking her to try and wake her up, it's cute.

Anyone else find it interesting how Kiryu is so chill right now, when only moments ago his entire psyche was dissolving? I like it, it's a better sell for his instability and madness than any amount of random boners over Ohma. But the chill atmosphere could only hold out for so long.

What are you actually here for, Soryuin asks. It's a very fair question, given his behaviour. He doesn't answer, though. He just apologises and goes on a strange little tangent expressing what seems to be genuine platonic love for Soryuin and Tomoko. If he'd had sisters, he likes to imagine they'd have been just like them.


He asks Soryuin to look after Tomoko…and not to try and stop him. He doesn't want to lose any more people he loves. She is, if anything, even more unsettled. And finds herself wondering as he wanders off down the corridor if she's broken a Taboo.

This scene is so fucking emblematic of why I hate the problems with Kiryu so intensely. If he'd been more thoughtfully written, if he hadn't been so gross in his implications and commentary, if he didn't prime the reader so well for disgust and disinterest…this would be, unqualified, one of the best scenes in the manga for subtle, understated storytelling. And just genuinely great even in manga as a whole. There's something palpably wrong throughout the whole damn scene, even in the panels that are more comedic. Even the initial bait and switch, you think Soryuin is reacting to Kiryu's corpse but surprise he's alive, becomes recontextualised by the slowly growing sense of underlying danger threaded throughout the scene. She feels it, and now you're starting to feel it too and just…god it's so fucking good. Except, as always, it's dragged down by the past writing of the character. And there's just no escaping that with Kiryu.

God, even some of the awful parts of this match show how they could be redeemed here. Like, imagine a version of Kiryu's backstory where, even with the facts unchanged, the reality of what he did to survive was left largely to implication. Told largely in panels like the one we see above, none of the direct schlocky shock factor of the backstory we got, but rather the suggestion of the shape of a history that breaks someone's underlying sense of their own value. There'd still be a debate on its validity as a writing choice, but I think it'd be much more of an actual debate, rather than the obviously bad decision it is now.

Moving on from that intensity, we return to the ring, where the shattered Peanut gallery is musing on events. Specifically Okubo and Himuro are chilling in the Peanut Gallery's usual spot, Okubo noting that the crowd sure is going wild, and Himuro kind of scoffs. Of course they are.


Well, that answers precisely none of our questions. Fortunately Sandro is aware of that, and the characters keep questioning. Kuroki's Devil Lance was perfect, Himuro notes. Why isn't Kiryu dead? Okubo shares this curiosity, but right now has a different question occupying his mind.

Specifically he's watching Rihito approach Kuroki and wondering what the fuck is that pillock doing.

We don't get an immediate answer to that, but we do get a different one. Kuroki's CEO, Takakaze, is asking the Kiryu question and apparently entirely on reflex Kuroki's sensei instincts turn on and it becomes a teachable moment for Rihito. Who does in fact have a theory ready. The instant Kiryu got got with the Devil Lance, he hit his own chest with a weakened Rakshasa's palm. Hard enough to shift the position of his heart while not having so much force as to destroy it. Right Master? He asks.

I don't take students, Kuroki insists. But Rihito is correct.

With that said, Takakaze does admit he feels kind of bad for Kuroki. He had his friend's murderer right there dead to rights. Kuroki has a funny kind of reaction. Initially his features are kind of obliterated as Takaze says it, rendered in an almost impressionistic style of shadows and light that make it impossible to see what he's feeling, almost like he's overwhelmed himself…but then we immediately get a focus panel of his eyes looking away from Takakaze, expression almost…sad. Before he admits he's relieved. Genzan cared for his students, unlike Kuroki (lol), and he did feel some apprehension about killing a student of Genzan's. Even if that student killed him.


Look at that expression. That is the face of a man who knows his friend is talking some bullshit, but is swallowing it anyway because he knows that friend is going somewhere positive and is supporting him to the hilt. It's so cute, I love it. And for once Rihito's bullheadedness is actually endearing as well, as he asks Kuroki if his injuries are okay, calling him Master in the process. Kuroki continues to insist he isn't Rihito's Master, before immediately launching into a detailed lecture. First he explains how intense the Kaiwan style's hand training is, he can deal with broken fingers with no issue. And as for the shoulder, the hand Kiryu used for that strike was the same one Kuroki pierced earlier, halving the power of the blow. He's still a little screwed up, but he should be fine by the next round. Rihito is in awe of Kuroki's foresight and forward planning, and expresses as much to Takakaze, who laughs along with it. Your master is one hell of a guy, eh? Kuroki, once again, tells Rihito not to call him master.

And then, after telling Rihito he utterly lacks experience, tells him to watch. He doesn't take students, but if the young man wants to watch him fight, well. That's up to him.

He's like a fucking cat, it's great.

Hard cut! We're back in the dome's depths now, as two fighters socialise. Wakatsuki is here, one half of his head thoroughly bandaged up to the point he looks a little bit like a novelty mummy costume, watching with an expression of perfect seriousness. Hatsumi Sen is here across from him, stood in a tall, stable stance with hands pressed together in meditation. Long ago, he says, a Martial Arts Master said that the Purest form of self defense is to make friends with the enemy out to kill you. Stop the conflict before it can begin. That is the mindset of a Martial Artist.


Wakatsuki, stable man that he is, points out that it's more about pursuing a state of mind. Hatsumi immediately asks why he has to go all honours student on him, like the lazy dipshit that he is. He then spins off on this intensely spurious line of logic on how those old masters were all hellions back in their youth, and then they have the nerve to talk like saints now? He can't stand it. We fight because we want to win, right?

Now, this is a funny little diatribe, because there's a few conflicting factors going on. One, given the framing and the tone of the last panel, he's clearly supposed to be right. That dismissive purity of purpose is something Kengan Asura exalts, be it in Kuroki's focus and discipline or Hatsumi's circular thoughts. Which in this case are nonsense, for a variety of reasons. But at the same time, the simple facts of what's said can't really be called bad writing because…yeah. This is exactly the sort of half-baked thought process I expect out of Hatsumi, this is the flaky bastard we've been getting familiar with all this time. He fucking would immediately get caught up in the expectation of self-reflection and effort and refuse to engage with the notion in good faith, not even arguing against the notion that maybe these old masters have developed this knowledge through experience but just sidestepping the whole discussion. Because it's not my intention to try and claim old masters are right by default because they're old, that's obvious dogmatic bullshit, but to throw around this kind of non-logic and claim immediate hypocrisy just because they pointed out you could be better? It's so perfectly Hatsumi Sen. If we know one thing about him it's that he fucking refuses to better himself except in the field of violence.

Funny given that, that he'd specialise in Soft martial arts. A Notoriously difficult field reliant on a lot of training and familiarisation with the forces at play. Sort of enlightened laziness, I guess?

Anyway, Wakatsuki doesn't actually respond, though he does eye Hatsumi with a flat expression that I choose to interpret as him choosing to just not engage the bullshit. Then, as Hatsumi leaves, we get a little insight into him from the perspective of someone who's been around for pretty much Hatsumi's whole career. Even Wakatsuki isn't aware of any fighter as thoroughly fickle as Hatsumi, with peaks and valleys of performance of extreme unpredictability and depth. In poor condition, even a normal Kengan Fighter could push him to his limits.

At his peak, Wakatsuki couldn't even approach him, let alone touch him. And then we get hard confirmation, straight from the horse's mouth. Of the two losses Wakatsuki has suffered, Hatsumi Sen delivered the one we didn't know about. I don't know how much of a spike in heat we can really say this is, it's been implied for a long time, but it's definitely something. Especially given the panel, Wakatsuki when his hair was still black on his knees ragged and beaten before an entirely untouched Hatsumi. Standing easy and smug.

Now, given this, what does Hatsumi do in a situation like the Annihilation Tournament, when there's more riding on his loss than a single business deal? This is probably one scenario where Nogi is actually putting the boot in on him. Well, Wakatsuki muses on how Hatsumi does actually have a sort of pre-fight ritual to get back in condition…sort of. Rather, it's to get into repeated matches in quick succession, knocking the rust off with a rapid series of knocks. Which, you know, sounds a hell of a lot like being in a tournament, doesn't it? Wakatsuki muses on how Hatsumi's moves were a bit lacking in his opinion through the first round…but what about now? How much rust has he actually knocked off for match 2-7?

And more importantly…


Who the fuck is this? Takarada has clearly exercised his right of substitution, but who will Hatsumi Sen be fighting in the second round? It's not like we're lacking in fighters, a lot of standouts have been knocked out of the running already. Some of whom could even be final round contenders if not for unfortunate matchups. We'll find out next week. End chapter.

See you all next time, for who dared face the Floating Clouds above.
 
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