Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Sharpandpointies]

Hilarious. 113 chapters of Weird Manga Martial Arts, the two top guys start fighting and suddenly there's textbook BJJ, MMA, and so forth going on in the grappling. ^_^

Edit: Although Agito was too high on the scarf hold, which explains why the other dude went with rolling him over as the escape. Like I said: textbook. Colour me impressed.

[Siriel]

I liked it.

Sure, there were the usual manga tropes SEEMINGLY in play, and Kaneda has this magical ability to predict stuff. But it made the point that when it's a normal human facing a superhuman...that's not enough, even with 'I will become stronger!' and 'I will not lose!' being bandied about.

Plus, Kaneda's emotion felt real and rather compelling, as did Gaolang's chagrin at discovering he had acted 'poorly', given the situation.

Also liked the art, and how the fight was presented. The way they showed Kaneda ALMOST poking Gaolang in the eye during a dodge, that was neat, and stepping on the foot was gold.

Enjoyed it -- one of the better fights so far, for all its brevity.

I enjoyed it a lot myself. A lesser manga in terms of martial arts would probably have made Kaneda win to have an upset of the underdog defeating the favourite, but instead Kengan kept to its own story beats - Gaolang is one of the strongest fighters in the world, Kaneda is a guy with average constitution, so ultimately all that Kaneda can do is prolong how long he has before Gaolang defeats him.

And on the flip-side, Gaolang earnestly apologizes for looking down on him because despite his relative weakness, Kaneda's attempt was real - and instead of looking down on Kaneda's 'cheap' tactics everyone just takes them as a matter of course. It's a match with no rules, so of course he'll go for eye-pokes if an opportunity comes.

It's one of the most realistic case of two people becoming kind of friends through a fight, it just works well with their personalities.

As for Kaneda's prediction, while it's obviously exaggerated, they did make it a point that he'd been studying Gaolang for a long time to figure out the timing of his moves, so I can let it slide.

Hilarious. 113 chapters of Weird Manga Martial Arts, the two top guys start fighting and suddenly there's textbook BJJ, MMA, and so forth going on in the grappling. ^_^

Edit: Although Agito was too high on the scarf hold, which explains why the other dude went with rolling him over as the escape. Like I said: textbook. Colour me impressed.

Yeah, as we've just seen with Gaolang's boxing, Kengan doesn't present gimmicks as superior to regular MMA at all.

[Lord Falcon]

I think Gaolang is my favourite overall so far, he has two of my favourite moments in the entire manga, but Gensai was indeed a great surprise to get.

spoilers:

"Since when have 'we' been fighting Gaolang Wongsawat?" is probably my favourite panel in the entire manga thus far, with "I cannot be defeated by improvisation!" as a strong contender.

end of spoilers

Imai has been my favorite overall. Being a genius doesn't automatically negate how tiny he is compared to his opponents, and he gets a lot of great character development for a guy with no major personal hangups going into the tournament.

[Sharpandpointies]

I enjoyed it a lot myself. A lesser manga in terms of martial arts would probably have made Kaneda win to have an upset of the underdog defeating the favourite, but instead Kengan kept to its own story beats - Gaolang is one of the strongest fighters in the world, Kaneda is a guy with average constitution, so ultimately all that Kaneda can do is prolong how long he has before Gaolang defeats him.

Absolutely, one reason I enjoyed it.

And on the flip-side, Gaolang earnestly apologizes for looking down on him because despite his relative weakness, Kaneda's attempt was real - and instead of looking down on Kaneda's 'cheap' tactics everyone just takes them as a matter of course. It's a match with no rules, so of course he'll go for eye-pokes if an opportunity comes.

Agreed. I'm not exactly one to complain about that. Now, eye-pokes are nigh-impossible to get in a fight against a skilled person (and can be dangerous to attempt), but Kaneda has that quasi-combat-precog thing going for him, so I didn't have a problem with him actually trying and nearly getting one in. The second one got contemptuously slapped away by Gaolong.

It's one of the most realistic case of two people becoming kind of friends through a fight, it just works well with their personalities.

As for Kaneda's prediction, while it's obviously exaggerated, they did make it a point that he'd been studying Gaolang for a long time to figure out the timing of his moves, so I can let it slide.

It's a manga with people using all kinds of weird-ass stuff; I'm very forgiving of Kaneda's 'predicting', it's one of the least outlandish abilities. And I liked that it wasn't presented as 'Trump card that takes anything!'. Put another way, even with the weird abilities, the fight proceeded in a realistic manner for people with those abilities. ^_^

Yeah, as we've just seen with Gaolang's boxing, Kengan doesn't present gimmicks as superior to regular MMA at all.

Fun stuff, and accurately drawn and presented this time.

[Siriel]

Imai has been my favorite overall. Being a genius doesn't automatically negate how tiny he is compared to his opponents, and he gets a lot of great character development for a guy with no major personal hangups going into the tournament.

This is all just talking about the fighters participating, of course. I think we all know who the real best and strongest character is. Fortunately he's opted not to participate in the tournament to leave some ambiguity on who the winner is.

[Siriel]

Oh yeah, another thing I found surprisingly fun about Kengan is the copycat character that Hatsumi fought.

When he showed up and talked about how he could imitate anyone after seeing them once I was rolling my eyes.

Cue two panels later "Of course it doesn't actually work that way, it's just mind-games.".

[Nik Hasta]

Oh yeah, another thing I found surprisingly fun about Kengan is the copycat character that Hatsumi fought.

When he showed up and talked about how he could imitate anyone after seeing them once I was rolling my eyes.

Cue two panels later "Of course it doesn't actually work that way, it's just mind-games.".

I loved that bit but also noted it was a hilariously poor plan.

Step 1) Convince Hatsumi, who is far and away my physical superior but also a lazy guy who doesn't like to try, that I am actually the potentially strongest guy ever so he actually tries.

Step 2) ... Wait I fucked up...

[Sharpandpointies]

Oh yeah, another thing I found surprisingly fun about Kengan is the copycat character that Hatsumi fought.

When he showed up and talked about how he could imitate anyone after seeing them once I was rolling my eyes.

Cue two panels later "Of course it doesn't actually work that way, it's just mind-games.".

I loved that bit but also noted it was a hilariously poor plan.

Step 1) Convince Hatsumi, who is far and away my physical superior but also a lazy guy who doesn't like to try, that I am actually the potentially strongest guy ever so he actually tries.

Step 2) ... Wait I fucked up...

Yeah, that was awesome. I was hoping at least for 'but the copy isn't quite as good as the original!' and him losing, and instead got something that exceeded my wildest dreams. ^_^

[Sharpandpointies]

Fusui is hilarious, I've decided.

[Siriel]

Fusui is hilarious, I've decided.

She is, a great background character.

I love that even Agito isn't immune to comic relief moments, with the author having fun with the fact that his obsession with being strong means that he doesn't understand things like the concept of a final boss since he has no real exposure to common entertainment.

[Sharpandpointies]

She is, a great background character.

Doesn't show up a lot, but manages to juxtapose normality in her discussions and observing people through a sniper sight. ^_^

I love that even Agito isn't even immune to comic relief, with the author having fun with the fact that his obsession with being strong means that he doesn't understand things like the concept of a final boss.

Yeah, that was good. And the fact that he has no idea about other pop culture stuff. It breaks the whole 'supercool villain' thing in a way, making him a little more human.

[Siriel]

Doesn't show up a lot, but manages to juxtapose normality in her discussions and observing people through a sniper sight. ^_^


Yeah, that was good. And the fact that he has no idea about other pop culture stuff. It breaks the whole 'supercool villain' thing in a way, making him a little more human.

It's just little things that make them feel more fleshed out than the always intense fighters that show up in a lot of stories; Kengan characters aren't afraid of just relaxing sometimes.

Even something utterly mundane like him coming to the party and enjoying the food is a nice detail.

[FistofIron]

I think Wakatsuki my favorite so far. Even though he’s physically gifted he’s still had to work his ass off. Plus the fight with Julius was just manly.

Kengan gets a sequel next year. Hopefully we get so see more fight scenes with the bodyguards.

[Lord Falcon]

This is all just talking about the fighters participating, of course. I think we all know who the real best and strongest character is. Fortunately he's opted not to participate in the tournament to leave some ambiguity on who the winner is.

He's the heart of the series for me. It's like if King was the main character of One Punch Man, except Kazuo is even funnier and more compelling.

[Siriel]

I loved that bit but also noted it was a hilariously poor plan.

Step 1) Convince Hatsumi, who is far and away my physical superior but also a lazy guy who doesn't like to try, that I am actually the potentially strongest guy ever so he actually tries.

Step 2) ... Wait I fucked up...

The idea was to overwhelm Hatsumi with possibilities and take him down while he was psyching himself out.

It actually worked until he tried to use the thing Hatsumi is the best at, and then it didn't.