HSDK Battle 542 Released

You know it's a real Shigure fight when all her clothes get torn apart. I'm really interested in that kimono wearing master, though. Is that master's weapon a spear of some sort?

I wonder how the Elder's war with that other guy is going.

i...uh...am not sure what that technique did.  

Some of y'all might be worried that Shigure's success here diminishes the power of the the bladed masters.  However, on two occasions, we've seen the short blade master successfully evade Superman.  

I didn't think capture was a possibility.  Small surprise.

The only thing Shigure was able to do was let Kenichi and Miu escape with Mycroft and Chris' help. If it wasn't for that knight dude, she would've gotten killed. I think that demonstrates their power pretty well.

Also, I think this is the first time we've seen Shigure shout.

I'm really interested in that kimono wearing master, though. Is that master's weapon a spear of some sort?

 

I think it's a Naginata, like the one which is always shown being carried by Makoto Himeno (Yuka Izumi's mate). It's always used by women in manga don't know why...*looks up* Oh in the Edo period, it became a status symbol for women of the Samurai class and has been part of public school's female physical education since 1912. That explains it.

rescue shigure arc?

I'm kind of worried for Shigure. A "Rescue Shigure" arc would be a little bit different than anything I would ever expect, but I could see something like that as a time for major development for Kenichi. I would just be scared of how it would end.

Hopefully the other masters arrive in time to save her, though and big battle between Ryozanpaku and the Hachiou Executioner Blade starts, ending, of course, with Elder showing up.

To give some background on the naginata, there are currently at least four major arts taught in the Japanese school system for PE. they are karate, judo, kendo and naginata.  For the most part naginata  is practiced by women (but some men do it too) And of the four mentioned naginata is the strongest due to range of the weapon, and because the rules for naginata fighting are more versatile than kendo, for example a person can attack the shins in naginata but in kendo one cant attack lower than the hip, there are also locks and other things practiced in naginata.  In the old days of the samurai, the sword and the naginata where practiced everyday and used very often in the battled field.  And by the way, japanese style swordsmen ( such as myself ) are always wary of advance practitioners of naginata.  The odds are not in our favor. lol

Oh, and i'm down for a rescue shigure arch!  

She did great!

Went down swingin!

She lost...damn

it's shocking

she gave it all she got too

It's completely logical, and thank the kami Matsuena-san handled it logically this time. Even with an all out technique, Shigure is still fighting 7, while protecting someone. She could not possibly win that battle.

This is the first time that "after images" in super master fights are explained in any level of details though, and I kinda like the explanation...

So it's not that the super masters move DBZ fast, but their stances and subtle body motions make even other super masters think that they are fighting a real person, even if they are just reacting to the suggestion of motions.

At the absolute highest level, these "ki feints" work on even very seasoned masters (or perhaps they work so well BECAUSE of the automatic reactions of super master opponents)

To give some background on the naginata, there are currently at least four major arts taught in the Japanese school system for PE. they are karate, judo, kendo and naginata.  For the most part naginata  is practiced by women (but some men do it too) And of the four mentioned naginata is the strongest due to range of the weapon, and because the rules for naginata fighting are more versatile than kendo, for example a person can attack the shins in naginata but in kendo one cant attack lower than the hip, there are also locks and other things practiced in naginata.  In the old days of the samurai, the sword and the naginata where practiced everyday and used very often in the battled field.  And by the way, japanese style swordsmen ( such as myself ) are always wary of advance practitioners of naginata.  The odds are not in our favor. lol

Oh, and i'm down for a rescue shigure arch!  

She did great!

Went down swingin!

Thanks for the Naginata knowledge!

Shigure. 

"It's completely logical, and thank the kami Matsuena-san handled it logically this time. Even with an all out technique, Shigure is still fighting 7, while protecting someone. She could not possibly win that battle."

I have to whole heartedly agree with this. Against 7 other masters by herself there's no way victory was achievable. Besides she wasn't trying to win, just create an opening, a distraction if you will.

Thanks for the Naginata knowledge!

My pleasure;) Glad you appreciated it:) Im a martial arts guy, so i love to talk about martial arts and compare and contrast reality with the fictional world, the HSDK fictional world is especially cool to look at!

So they want to capture Shigure to make weapons for them and/or learn the secret behind her father's weapons? I don't see it happening...don't see anyway to force her to do any of that, unless someone close to her is in danger or better yet, her father is alive (doubtful).

It does look like Ryozanpaku is in a pinch though. Elder is still fighting and Shigure is kidnapped. 

I can't see a reason for capturing Shigure instead of killing her except perhaps due to past ties, something crazy like the Ax guy being a former associate of her father (or perhaps the first disciple of grandpa Kousaka, which explains why he knows so much about the Kousaka style).

I'm quite impressed with French pastry man and Sherlock's brother, by the way. It seems that had they been matched better, they might have fought toe to toe with a master of the Hachiou.

Match Mycroft with the Ax guy, and his armour-ignoring force-transfer attacks would work wonder, while the axe is just a bit slower, enough for him to dodge effectively.

Eclair would probably go toe to toe with bow girl or Michael. Althought Michael's scythe can bend like a willow, Eclair is significantly faster than Mycroft. In fact, going back to his fight with Sasaki, he was actually slightly faster on his feet than Sasaki even...

My pleasure;) Glad you appreciated it:) Im a martial arts guy, so i love to talk about martial arts and compare and contrast reality with the fictional world, the HSDK fictional world is especially cool to look at!

You know Karate as well don't you? Maybe you can answer this for me. Sasaki's karate style to me looks like it's inspired by Shotokan so does that mean Hongo's is made to look like a different style (something like Wado/Gojo-ryu) or are their styles just designed to emphasise different moves present in all the styles?

You know Karate as well don't you? Maybe you can answer this for me. Sasaki's karate style to me looks like it's inspired by Shotokan so does that mean Hongo's is made to look like a different style (something like Wado/Gojo-ryu) or are their styles just designed to emphasise different moves present in all the styles?

 

That is a great question! to answer your first. I have a black belt in a traditional style karate that is very much like shotokan called ryobu-kai karate, and i have a black belt in kyokushin karate, which is sometimes called bare-knuckle knock down karate.  to move on to the next questions:

Sakaki and Hongo supposedly knows all of the different styles of karate, which is why Sakaki is called the 100 dan,whatever the hell that means, it could mean that he has a dan in a 100 different styles of karate ( which is my bet ) or that he is ranked 10th dan in 10 styles who knows. lol,  but from what i have seen especially in the arch where he fights Hongo, he certainly does use shotokan moves. He even used a shotokan form called tekki or naifanchin when fighting the stupid girls in bird armor before squaring off against hongo.  So it would be a safe bet that the answer to your question is that, Sakaki knows all and prefers the harder shuri-te style attacks and hongo deffently uses the naha- more circular and piercing moves that are found in goju.  

 

also on a side note i prefer using muay thai, and boxing and my tkd kicks to karate when sparing. I like the kyokushin for the body conditioning aspect.  

Hope this help

 

Ahh good answer, thank you. I'm always impressed by people with multiple black belts, I tend to try learning a few different styles at once and that gets difficult because my muscle memory is always remembering something it shouldn't be, causing me to get told off constantly for poor form (how come Kenichi rarely has that problem!).  Recently I've just started learning Shotokan, I've said this before but I like how trying different styles seem to cause improvements in areas I don't expect, for example Shotokan's constant low stance and straight back has caused my uppercuts to improve significantly because as I punch I now drive it in with the hips a lot stronger than before.

Ahh good answer, thank you. I'm always impressed by people with multiple black belts, I tend to try learning a few different styles at once and that gets difficult because my muscle memory is always remembering something it shouldn't be, causing me to get told off constantly for poor form (how come Kenichi rarely has that problem!).  Recently I've just started learning Shotokan, I've said this before but I like how trying different styles seem to cause improvements in areas I don't expect, for example Shotokan's constant low stance and straight back has caused my uppercuts to improve significantly because as I punch I now drive it in with the hips a lot stronger than before.

Thank you:) yeah i did have that problem but how i solved it for the most part was really using very different stances for the different styles so the brain could have an easier time switching from one path way of movements to the other. another thing i did was not jump to a different style till i felt very confident in the earlier one. In-other words i never studied two styles at the same time if i was a beginner at both.  If you dont mind me asking what rank are you in Shotokan versus how long have you done boxing?  Good point! one of the main reasons why i cross train is  because it made my other styles stronger, due to the different muscles being worked in different ways  I love that.  Grappling makes my striking better and so on.  Yeah i'm with you. since kenichi was a beginner at all styles its hard for me to understand why he did not get confused. Its like trying to learn 5 languages at once without knowing even one very well. lol

Thank you:) yeah i did have that problem but how i solved it for the most part was really using very different stances for the different styles so the brain could have an easier time switching from one path way of movements to the other. another thing i did was not jump to a different style till i felt very confident in the earlier one. In-other words i never studied two styles at the same time if i was a beginner at both.  If you dont mind me asking what rank are you in Shotokan versus how long have you done boxing?  Good point! one of the main reasons why i cross train is  because it made my other styles stronger, due to the different muscles being worked in different ways  I love that.  Grappling makes my striking better and so on.  Yeah i'm with you. since kenichi was a beginner at all styles its hard for me to understand why he did not get confused. Its like trying to learn 5 languages at once without knowing even one very well. lol

I started with Taekwondo nearly 5 years ago (wow 5 years I really should have graded more often!) then started taking amateur boxing classes probably about 3 years ago (I was hoping to attempt judo at the same time but couldn't take that many new achy muscles so judo got dropped instantly which is a shame). Then I had to move away for a year where I tried some muay thai and a little MMA. When I moved back I continued the MMA and restarted TKD but dropped the MMA due to a back injury and decided to put more focus into just striking arts so I don't reinjure my back. So currently I do Shotokan (just missed my first grading due to being ill so just a white belt), Taekwondo (really need to do more gradings so just a green belt), Kali and a Jeet Kune Do class (which at least for the class I do takes a lot from boxing and ends most lessons with a boxing spar so I get to keep practising that in some form. So yeah many things over the years some for very short lengths of time and probably doing too much at the moment to get good at any of them but I don't really mind. I enjoy the variety, keeps you from ending up too narrow-minded if you spar against lots of different people using different techniques.

I started with Taekwondo nearly 5 years ago (wow 5 years I really should have graded more often!) then started taking amateur boxing classes probably about 3 years ago (I was hoping to attempt judo at the same time but couldn't take that many new achy muscles so judo got dropped instantly which is a shame). Then I had to move away for a year where I tried some muay thai and a little MMA. When I moved back I continued the MMA and restarted TKD but dropped the MMA due to a back injury and decided to put more focus into just striking arts so I don't reinjure my back. So currently I do Shotokan (just missed my first grading due to being ill so just a white belt), Taekwondo (really need to do more gradings so just a green belt), Kali and a Jeet Kune Do class (which at least for the class I do takes a lot from boxing and ends most lessons with a boxing spar so I get to keep practising that in some form. So yeah many things over the years some for very short lengths of time and probably doing too much at the moment to get good at any of them but I don't really mind. I enjoy the variety, keeps you from ending up too narrow-minded if you spar against lots of different people using different techniques.

Very cool! good luck to you! sounds like you have the right idea about not getting pegged down in one style's thinking which a smart move! Though i think tkd, judo, mma, are espcially hard on the joints and body in general. So hang in there!