Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 127

With a little bit of inflation, Rasetsu was finally able to "blow up" Gyuuhou of the Sanpousei! But with two more members of Gandhara's bizarre assassin squad remaining, this isn't the time for Otokojuku to monkey around...or is it?

Chp. 127: Sanen Yousoujutsu!!

67.
Toramaru: He’s…done it: Rasetsu won---¡!
Togashi: He punctured that Gyuuhou like a balloon with a hole in it, sending him flying into the sea---!!

68.
(Title Page…about time Raiden fights!)

69.
Gandhara High Priest: Fu, what’s wrong: he was part of the Gandhara Sanpousei…………Gyuuhou had such an unsightly way of losing…………!!
Enpou: His bad habit of taking an opponent easily was fatal. He wasn’t a vessel of the Sanpousei after all.
Ryuuhou: Calm down, young master!! By betting the honor of the Sanpousei, we’ll show you that we’ll truly clear up this humiliation in the next match.
Gandhara High Priest: Fu, I ask you to.

70.
Togashi: Well~~~that was an amazing match!! As expected of being called one of the Otokojuku Shitennou!
Toramaru: Yet even so, he was a rough enemy: for a moment I was thinking of what was going to happen!!
Toramaru: Well, with our senpai over here, you should take a rest!! Please go and leave the rest of them to me.
Togashi: Wh…what—Toramaru!! N…now it’s my turn---!
Toramaru: Huh!?
Rasetsu: We’ve were earnestly unprepared. They are mysterious men, just by having the name of Choujinken………………!! The next person to go out there shouldn’t be ordinary either.
Voice: I feel grateful for your words……!!
Toramaru: Huh……!?

71.
Toramaru: RA…RAIDEN---!!
Raiden: We shouldn’t be deficient taking on these opponents……!! I’ll show them: the essence of Daioujou-ryuu Kenpou……!
(TN: Reminder: “Daioujou-ryuu” = “Peaceful Death-style”)
Toramaru: Ho…hold on, Raiden---!! It…can’t be you---!
Togashi: Right: at this rate, we really won’t be taking part---!!
Toramaru: Wha!?

72.
Togashi: Huh!?
Raiden: HA!!
Toramaru: Ho…hold on--!! Ra…Raiden--!
Hien: Fu, that Raiden, the man who has knowledge of all kenpou in all eras and places and whom he himself has mastered the secrets of Daioujou-ryuu, which has the oldest history in Chinese Kenpou……!!
Date: Even with his loyalty, he is deeply the greatest master of the Sanmenken.
Momotarou: He’s always cool, calm and collective without being showy, but there isn’t an ally who is as trustworthy as him. But when he’s facing the enemy, there isn’t a man as terrible as him!!

73.
Raiden: !!

74.
Raiden: Mu!!

75.
Enpou: My name is Enpou, one of the Gandhara Sanpousei!! And those enshrined here are my faithful servants………!!
(TN: Enpou refers to his “servants” as “shimobe”, which is either “manservant” or a “servant of God”…but it’s sort of hard to take either literally considering…they’re monkeys…though the “servant of God” part can work considering the Buddhist nature of Gandhara)
Enpou: Mizaru!!
Enpou: Kikazaru!!
Enpou: Iwazaru!!
(TN: The three monkeys here, by their name obviously, are in reference to the Sanen, a trio of monkeys used in Japanese Buddhism from China to preach a concept of being of good mind, speech and action. It is explained by using the expression “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. In Japanese, it literally is spoken as “Mizaru (see no evil), Kikazaru (hear no evil), Iwazaru (speak no evil)”, and ended up using monkeys as a means to demonstrate the term due to Japanese word-play whereas “zaru” also can be read as “saru”, which is Japanese for “monkey”)
Raiden: Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru………!?
Enpou: Kukkukku, right. From here, you will be savoring the ultimate terror that you can experience in this world.
(TN: “This world” once again uses the term “gensei”, which is the Buddhist expression for general life or the world which living human life takes place in)

76.
Toramaru: Kakkakka, what is that? I…can’t stop laughing at this. Lo…look, it’s monkeys!! His competition opponents now are those monkeys---!
Togashi: I’ve seen a show that was called “The Monkees” where they sang songs---!!
(TN: Yes, Togashi is referring to “The Monkees”, the made-for-TV rock band of the mid-1960s which actually did also air on TBS in Japan between 1967 to 1969)
Momotarou: …………What’s wrong: your complexion’s gotten bad, Gekkou……!!
Gekkou: I’ve heard tales from my kenpou teacher of a terrifying muderer’s fist said to be historically unrivaled where you can manipulate monkeys; perhaps, this is.............!!
Momotarou: Wh…what………!!

77.
Enpou: What’s wrong……!? You’re not coming at me with that stance that you’ve taken. But then, if you have a bit of information of kenpou, then you can feel the tremendous blood thirst being emitted from these three monkeys, so hesitation is natural.
Raiden: There truly is a blood thirst that’s this bizarre……!! What exactly is this……………!
Enpou: In that case, we’ll go from here.
Enpou: Show him my faithful servants: Gandhara Hiougi: Sanen Yousoujutsu!!
(TN: “Sanen Yousoujutsu” = “Sanen (Three Monkey) Twinkling-Manipulation Technique”)
Raiden: !!

78.
Raiden: !!
Toramaru: Wh…what the!? The…three monkeys have flown high into the air and united---!!
Togashi: And…further, there’s some weapon attached to the tips of their tails---!!

79.
Togashi: Aah, now they’re diving aiming for Raiden while they’re spinning--!!
Raiden: Muu!!
Enpou: MIZARU!!
Enpou: KIKAZARU!!
Enpou: IWAZARU!!

80.
Toramaru: Ra…Radien---!!
Togashi: Those monkeys attacked with their tails while spinning, damaging the three points of the eyes, ears and throat--!!
Enpou: Well, do you understand? As they are named, these three have been trained to respectively attack: Mizaru to the eyes, Kikazaru to the ears and Iwazaru to the throat.

81.
Enpou: And thus, this attack doesn’t stop until both your eyes have been pecked out, your ears sliced away and your windpipe completely cut!! You will die while squirming in pain in a world of darkness, without seeing with your eyes, hearing any sounds or even releasing your voice.

82.
Raiden: Nun!!
Raiden: KU!!

83.
Raiden: !!
Raiden: Ugu!!
Toramaru: Ra…Raiden---!!
Togashi: This…is bad--!! Those monkeys are attacking with incredibly nimble movements and tails ever-changing in appearance---!

84.
Enpou: Kukkukkku, can you till see with your eyes? Hear with your ears? At any rate, this next attack will already decide the match.
Raiden: ……………………!!
Raiden: I understand: I can’t defeat you as long as I can’t clear away those particulars monkeys.

85.
Raiden: Great monkeys, I shall be dispatching this technique for you……………!!
Enpou: ………………!!
Raiden: Now watch: DAIOUJOU-RYUU HIGI: RINSHOU RENGE!!
(TN: “Rinshou Renge” = “Wheel-Reed Lotus Flowers”; while “Renge” is just “Lotus” in Japanese, I chose to differentiate it using the two kanji; likewise, while “rin” is “wheel” or “ring”, the first kanji can also be seen as a counter for flowers)

TN: Ladies and gentlemen, let me just make a brief aside about the chapter you've just read to make a small comment about why I got into "Sakigake!! Otokojuku". When I first came across this series from the knowledge I knew from stuff like "Jump Ultimate Stars" and Wikipedia, I sort of didn't quite know what to think. Sure Otokojuku looked like another action series, what was the big deal? As I went through the early volumes, it did look impressive and had a lot of memorable moments even untranslated. But then it got weirder...and crazier...and the battles became more and more bizarre and insane with all the new abilities and attacks and weapons manipulated by ally and enemy. But I have to say, out of all the fights when untranslated that I looked at, there were two that clinched me as a huge fan that needed to see Otokojuku translated. The first was a couple volumes back with Senkuu vs. Achilles...but some could say that was merely just a weird gimmicky fight and meant nothing really considering most of the fights up until Olympus were weird but not unrealistic. (of course it was epic as we saw by the translation)

However, this fight that is starting now is the one that truly made me an Otokojuku fan...and made me want to translate this as soon as possible. I mean...LOOK AT IT! It's a powerful, skilled martial artist...FIGHTING MONKEYS!!! LITERAL...ACTUAL...MONKEYS...WHO ARE TRAINED IN MARTIAL ARTS!!!! And of course we all know that old reliable axiom: monkeys make anything better...but for Otokojuku, which was already insanely cool before this fight, it just took the series to me to a completely different level! If a manga can have a martial artist control monkeys, than who knows what else will be coming soon!!! Of course, we'll probably get more into why else this fight is cool soon enough but...I just had to get it out of my mouth: it's monkeys...fighting a martial artist...you don't need anything more!

Well alright, I'll elaborate a bit further: in a weird way, having Raiden fight the "Sanen" is sort of something that probably seemed to have been set-up by Miyashita since way back when he first fought J in the Kyoura Daiyon Kyousatsu...well maybe not that far back but he was compared to a monkey with his acrobatics and bizarre movements even that early on. So essentially, this is probably going to be his most "symbolic" fight considering we have "monkey man vs. monkey man...and monkeys". And as for that weird "tops spinning on a stick" trick that reminds me a bit of some variety show performance...that will be explained next time. But until then...let's just bask in the monkeys...