I think she's talking about one of the seven techniques under Ouka Nanashiki which was used by Sayuri in the first chapter and her fight with Yodaka. Just for the heads up, Sayuri also was shown using another one of those techniques, which is called the "Shimai no Tachi" (The Last Sword) in Kurogane's fight with Shidou though it's pretty much cut out.
While it would be nice for Kurogane to do something, and Yodaka might not be expecting too much because it's Kurogane, but he more or less casually defended against the old lady, so I just can't expect too much.
Yes, Kurogane can probably defeat 99% of the kendoists in the series, but most of them are fodder noobs...It is kind of sad that there don't seem to be too many strong opponents. I just don't see how far this series can go.
It's not as if we're starting off against bad schools or anything. Hakurei is literally the best, but if they're really the best, they don't seem that great. I mean, they seem intent on just ensuring that they win two matches and then letting Yodaka finish it. While that's a great plan, I'm not seeing the amazing high level kendoists that we were told about...It's not even that that I'm talking about. It's more that unless we don't see Hakurei for 200 chapters (it can't go that long), it would seem terrible and unrealistic that Kurogane can rise up that fast. Kendo matches aren't very long to begin with, so...
i think this fight will be a Draw and everyone is surprised that Kurogane manage to hit his opponent and that will become a very good plot for the next chapters
and i hope this manga will not end like Sengoku Arms
Well, Sengoku ARMORS ended at chapter 17, and Kurogane's having it's 18th next issue. I think SA's record's not even close to Kurogane's. SA ended with no center CP privilege after chapter 2. Kurogane had one and now will have another next week. SA's been dwelling at the bottom of the magazine for the rest of it's serialization while Kurogane's always been at the upper half of the mag except this one time it's one step close to being at the bottom 5. I think there's not much to be worried for now. It's been fairing well (as proof is the "Thank you for the support!" colored page next week). All it needs right now is chart-topping tankobon sales.
It was a nice ending, in that Kurogane sort of gained Yodaka's respect and has a new focus towards kendo. However, I was a little bit surprised that Kurogane didn't do something flashy. Although, to have actually made contact with Yodaka's armor was more than anyone had done in ages, so that's a positive.
Them color pages... Y U SO MANY? \o\ \o/ /o/ That's 4 color pages, even more than what KuroBas, the Lead CP, had.
It was a pretty good chapter. Kurogane did as well as one can possibly do against the best player in the country. I like how Yodaka acknowledged him, and even gave him some advice. Though the audience didn't understand what he just did, it's okay since it's more exciting if people get surprised for when the competitions actually start. Also, that show of determination at the end of the chapter is always welcome in a Jump manga. A+ chapter overall.
Honestly, I feel somewhat slighted with the loss as its not so much a matter of skill but a sudden introduction of the weakness of his foundations. When I find that the fact that the guy DID have weak foundations - aside from his eyesight - to be what made him an interesting fighter as the skill his sword provided would compensate for that. Using that as a reason for his defeat actually felt like my fears for Shidou's injury being a convenient way to handicap or excuse his loss as being transferred ironically to Kurogane. Yes, he's a noob but again I think that what set him apart from other noobs was that Sakura One Style was very friendly towards people like him with very weak foundations, now in the end being told that he could improve like Kamiya just feels disappointing. Lets look at it this way his stamina was somehow brought up as being his issue - when he had a whole other myriad of issues that I feel is far more believable for a loss than stamina given how little he's moved.
Further to that I just didn't feel any tension to the fight at all its hard to say why but there just wasn't depth into making it quite exciting, I like short fights and plain ones but this one just felt lacking as compared to last week. A good comparison of a short but sweet sword fights would be Gamaran - especially in the early chapter. Even if the enemies were obviously fodder and one shots happened left and right it was equally as interesting and exciting as the drawn out battles. Not too happy with this chapter. I guess I was expecting something more from Kurogane or even Yodaka for that matter and I just didn't see it. Probably again due to how stamina was a reason for Kurogane not being successful with his strike since it just cheapens Yodaka's win. Sure he acknowledged him but really big deal we knew that was going to happen same with Kurogane's loss but the events leading to that were just too anti-climactic.
Edit: I would have honestly preferred Yodaka actually evading than simply hitting Kurogane mindlessly. Fact is he never moved since there was not too much reason or threat on his part - sure he was careful at one point but that was more of the fact that he knew how the move would go and already knew the distance and trajectory of the attack. Basically it cheapens Yodaka's win in that yes he was going to gain his second point since as we know the vertical slash is about to hit already but adding the fact that his opponent ran out of steam at such a convenient time just feels unnecessary. Had he dodged or blocked or even also taken a counted his would be much better in revealing Kurogane as a more worthy opponent that he would need to be more careful off. Reason being that looking at Chihayafuru's latest episode it at least shows off the strong point of the underdog/obvious loser had they been able to make a hit or take a point since you could analyze much better what gives the style its punch. Here I realize we didn't really see what made Sakura One Style so awesome - part of which is that it is something that could take weaker constitutions into account but that didn't happen here - by revealing other facets of it.
I'm just hoping that Shidou's injury doesn't become too much of an issue.
Ignoring that, I just don't want this new member. Ouka could've just won 3-2, but now that they'll have a fourth useful member, things just aren't fun. Seeing Kurogane struggle was what I looked forward to, not this.
Kurogane is following a pretty classic member introduction scenario here used in other sports manga like Slam Dunk and Eyeshield 21. Honestly, I prefer it because I feel that when any member of the team (especially a five-member team) is unknown fodder basically, it really makes it hard to care for some of the matches. In the long run, this new potential member gives the author a chance to add in additional drama other than just kendo which is extremely important to making us really care about each member in my opinion. Aspects like this are what made manga like Rokudenashi Blues, Slam Dunk, and Rookies the amazing manga they were outside of their respective sports matches.
Kurogane is following a pretty classic member introduction scenario here used in other sports manga like Slam Dunk and Eyeshield 21. Honestly, I prefer it because I feel that when any member of the team (especially a five-member team) is unknown fodder basically, it really makes it hard to care for some of the matches. In the long run, this new potential member gives the author a chance to add in additional drama other than just kendo which is extremely important to making us really care about each member in my opinion. Aspects like this are what made manga like Rokudenashi Blues, Slam Dunk, and Rookies the amazing manga they were outside of their respective sports matches.
I totally agree. I don't want to waste 2 matches that Ikezawa Haruto can't possibly skip every single time. Watching just fodder every single time, DNW. D: Not to mention Kurogane's bound to lose sometimes, since he's just a beginner, and since Shidou's injured, it's also possible for him to lose. It's a team doomed for failure if they don't have any extra good members. Besides, all sports anime had an ensemble depending on how many is needed for a team. There are only 5 people in a team shiai, why waste 2 of those slots on fodder?
So basically Kurogane is setting up similar to slam dunk...
Akagi = Kamiya (high level captain whose team sucks)
Sakuragi = Kurogane (lead who started in 1st year HS)
Rukawa = Hazakura (famous player in middle school)
Miyagi = Aoharu? Basically that new guy (was absent for the first few weeks of school for some reason)
Mitsui = ??????
Ayako = Shiratori (team manager that the Miyagi character has a crush on)
haha if i'm right, this is gonna be good. i don't think kurogane's school has a lot of delinquents though, so of course ikezawa haruto's gonna spin something else to insert that (in theory) Mitsui character.
well Kurogane has always been cliche. doesn't stop it from being entertaining though. I like Slam Dunk, so if it's really trying to emulate the Shohoku team, I won't complain.
---------- Post added January 27, 2012 at 07:59 PM ---------- Previous post was January 24, 2012 at 10:15 AM ----------
So Ebana sucked. I'm not really that surprised. I felt disappointed when I first saw him, but if we're now going to have Kurogane screaming, "Oh, he's my precious friend" left and right, I'm going to scream.
I feel like MH just hates Kurogane, as virtually no one posts here.
Well it's not with friendship chapters that Kurogane will attract fans here...
I read the 20 chapters recently because I was surprised of the relative good polls and numerous color page. I can't say I love it, it's quite full of cliché in particular the last chapters but there is worse.
Maybe not here, but in Japan (which is, in fact, where it really matters) it will. This is all the japanese readers want to see. At least the Shonen Jump's japanese readers.
Kurogane's had decent rankings, passable sales, and an okay story. It's been pretty cliche so far and adding in Ebana is terrible, but the Japanese eat it up. At least Kurogane didn't lose to Ebana, because that would've been even worse.
On the whole, Kurogane's still better than 90% of the shit that WSJ does publish, so...Look at Jump's current drive to find a romcom. Not one of them have actually been anywhere close to good. Jump wants to replicate the success of Ichigo 100%, but that's just not going to happen.
Look at Dois Sol, Sengoku Armours, Kagami, or any number of Jump series in the past 18 months. It's been one of the worst crops of series that I've ever seen.
