Kengan Asura

[dannythm]

It happened in the 2 years timeskip, we were told it happened, but we werent shown it.

Now it seems to be like:

Every character should always be thinking about Koga.

Every character should approach their fights thinking, "How can I use this to teach Koga to be a better fighter?"

When Koga isn't around, other characters should ask, "Where is Koga?"

[shenlong]

It's not out of the ordinary for the MC to be, for whatever reason, the center of the universe, in shonen, really, but its sometimes better negotiated than others. Here, it's not the best, but it's also not improbable. To me, it feels like Koga, through his personality becoming more mature, has managed to make friends with most fighters. There are elements to back that up, like him starting to train with Sekibayashi, who's established as a very popular guy within the Kengan matches community, and getting noticed because Seki will push his pupils forward. Joji being his uncle and a very respected guy in martial arts definitely plays a role. These are two strong ties that make it logical for him to have venues to talk to other fighters on good terms.

It is still a bit of a shame, I think, but not in itself. I think one mistake that the author made in terms of worldbuilding in Omega (and which feeds into Koga being pals with everyone), is how pretty much everyone from the KaT are friends now. Many of them are on very good terms, most of them respect each other, and I really can't think of any that have beef or dislike each other. While it's nice to see them get along, I feel it removes the edge on a lot of those guys that they had in Asura, and so the story loses a lot of tension because of that.

[dannythm]

Don't forget the rivarly with Ohma, as it was the very introduction of the character, but he has sicne overcome that, apparently.

I agree that in KaT the tension was greater, but the fighters were always in for others, little few had personal grudges with others, so I think the friendship is well built, also the new kengan rules (no killing or permanent injury allowed) and Yamashita as intermediary between companies and figherts helped build that circle, in whcih Koga directly stepped.

[shenlong]

I'm guessing the rivalry with Ohma was bait to set up a rivalry with Ryuki.

It's true that the KaT didn't have that many grudges, but in general, fighters didn't seem to know each other that closely, and you had many newcomers. And you still had established rivalries. Not always bitter ones, but definite ones, like Gozo vs Wakatsuki, where the former was very set on challenging the latter. For Wakatsuki, he obviously had a chip on his shoulder for being beaten by Kanoh, and was wary of Hatsumi. One of the reasons why Kanoh was such an engaging character was that on top of wrecking people, he had several characters actively trying to best him. Finally, the stakes of the tournament made things more tense, including individual aspects, like Saw Paing fighting to protect his village.

In general, I'm not a fan of making the Kengan association more family friendly. It's quite justified in the story after Ohma's "death", but it takes away from the general shadiness of those business people gathering in weird places to have strange fighters rip each other to shreds to inform their business decisions. It's a profoundly messed up system and making it less messed up puts it in a weird place where you, as a reader, don't really have to think as much about how morally gray these endearing characters are, which really was a strength of Asura, in my opinion.

[ungora]

I think the author definitively skipped a bunch of character development.
I mean for a big part (before Ohma's return) Kengan Omega was strong on character building, you could see Koga and Ryuki progression and their interaction building their friendship and the world around them.
But since Ohma's comeback and the purgatory tournament, that kind of character development got a backseat.

In the same time the author may be more interested in moving his storyline forward, that may be why it feels so weird that Koga is now so prominent and universally liked by every member of the Kengan cast, as the author took a shortcut regarding Koga's development.

[dannythm]

So, here we go, the new arc has oficially started.

[ungora]

Mar 2, 2023 18:57:00 GMT ungora said:

I think the author definitively skipped a bunch of character development.
I mean for a big part (before Ohma's return) Kengan Omega was strong on character building, you could see Koga and Ryuki progression and their interaction building their friendship and the world around them.
But since Ohma's comeback and the purgatory tournament, that kind of character development got a backseat.

In the same time the author may be more interested in moving his storyline forward, that may be why it feels so weird that Koga is now so prominent and universally liked by every member of the Kengan cast, as the author took a shortcut regarding Koga's development.

Interesting in this chapter, it looks like the characters are noticing how much attention they are giving to Koga

[dannythm]

Well at lest Sandwich is selfaware, but even tho that's not a very good narrative explanation.

Anyway they are basically in though guy land, and it seems that shit is going to hit the fan faster than expected.

[dannythm]

Mar 29, 2023 23:18:55 GMT ungora said:

So the Inside has a giant underground made of multiple levels, and none know or have gone on the bottom level to know what's there.



Finally we got a sight of that Mikaku old man, so at least we know it was not a brainwashing illusion that Ruyki knew him.



A bit silly from that worm guy to underestimate him -that- much.

Unless the worm head wanted to get rid of his guy and sent him to Mukaku without telling him how crazy strong he was

Anyway, the woirld of the inside just became bigh enough for another 150 chapter series.

God no.

[ungora]

Yep, it looks like there's material for a very lot of chapters if the author wants to elaborate a bit on the Inside with all those factions, all those places over and under ground in the Inside and people and their various goals.
But i don't think it will go that way if the author goal is a new Kengan tournament, he's probably going to focus more on the Mukaku/Ryuki then get to the next arc

[dannythm]

lest's bet, multiple gaohs mukakus? personality disorder? This guy does not give the same vive as the one in chapter 203.

[ungora]

It could be the same guy after getting too many punches and kick in the head, in his old age it would make sense that he's got some mental troubles.
Unless there's another case of worms clones and impersonators.

[dannythm]

Story time! Well it seems we got some confirmations this chapter, let's see where this dump will leave us.

[ungora]

Some nice background story about the real purpose of the "inside" , next time we'll finally probably learn what happened in that forest where most of the Niko guys were killed.

[dannythm]

Flashback is over now, can we return to the Koga wank, please?

Guess almost everyone rpedicted correctly, the only suprise is that 3 could still be arround, that can lead to some extra twists... and a new potential master for Koga.