History Manga / AIKI

''AIKI'' is a {{Seinen}} action manga, written and drawn by Isutoshi, which was serialized in ''Young King'' from 2004 to 2012. Isutoshi is an [[BleachedUnderpants artist mostly known for doing H-manga]]; however, as the series progresses, the manga tilts more towards martial arts and comedy and less towards the ecchi side (though a good amount of {{Fanservice}} still remains).

The story features Kunitoshi Joukyuu, a young martial artist who is so strong that his father/teacher actually dislocated (and then relocated) all of his joints within one night just so he would only be able to access half of his power, in an attempt to teach him either humility or creativity. Even so, he constantly wipes the floor with the competition, to the point where a couple of muscular female teachers beg him to train their [[TheOjou "mistress"]]: a small, raven-haired girl named Kizuki . While Kizuki knows a decent amount of Aikido on her own, she's the granddaughter of the chairman of the school board and a high-value target because of the school's politics.

* BoobsOfSteel: Many of the femme characters in the manga fall under this category, fitting for a WorldOfBuxom. Rin and Inoguchi are notable exceptions, whereas Cassandra is the strongest member of Team Orleans and fittingly has the biggest chest in either ''AIKI'' or ''AIKI-S''.

* AuthorTract: ''AIKI'' and ''AIKI-S'' generally go out of their way to deride many of the stock tropes that happen to be prevalent in martial arts manga. ThePowerOfFriendship doesn't mean much if you and your friends are all weaklings, a HeroicSecondWind won't win you a fight if you're outmatched in skill, and almost no amount of TrainingFromHell, especially not in a short timespan, will make up for the limitations of your body -- and it may even introduce new ones if you don't do it correctly. Joukyuu is usually the mouthpiece for pointing all of these things out as he mocks the majority of the other protagonists and antagonists when they try to live by these rules and wind up failing miserably, usually when he or someone else winds up beating them for it.

%%* AuthorTract: The sheer weary one-sided contempt and amoral cynicism pouring out of Isutoshi these days is pretty staggering. Before that ''[=TendeFreeze=]'' and even ''Slut Girl'' were comparatively lighthearted and optimistic, with the only real author tracts being the FanService, the uncommonly beautiful female designs, [[DeadpanSnarker some tongue-in-cheek sarcasm]], and strong influence from assorted 1990s fighting video games. (ZCE - Please explain what the tract is about.)

%%* BreakableWeapons

%%* ArrogantKungFuGuy: '''Joukyuu.'''

* ArrogantKungFuGuy: '''Joukyuu.'''
* AuthorTract: The sheer weary one-sided contempt and amoral cynicism pouring out of Isutoshi these days is pretty staggering. Before that ''[=TendeFreeze=]'' and even ''Slut Girl'' were comparatively lighthearted and optimistic, with the only real author tracts being the FanService, the uncommonly beautiful female designs, [[DeadpanSnarker some tongue-in-cheek sarcasm]], and strong influence from assorted 1990s fighting video games.

* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Miu has tanned skin and white hair.

* AbsoluteCleavage: In pretty much every chapter.

''AIKI'' is a {{Seinen}} action manga, written and drawn by Isutoshi, an [[BleachedUnderpants artist mostly known for doing H-manga]]. However, as the series has progressed, the manga has tilted more towards martial arts and comedy and less towards the ecchi side (though a good amount of FanService still remains).

Isutoshi drew a sequel called ''AIKI-S'', which sees Joukyuu go to the United States with his "first disciple" Akemi Kageyasu and his former enemy Veronica Yuminowa to compete in a mysterious tournament. It finished publication in April 2021.

* BoobsOfSteel: Cassandra is the strongest member of team Orlando

* CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown: Akemi's boyfriend Daiki was becoming far too obsessed with power, and Joukyuu's the only one who might be able to stop him--if he can get back into condition. He needs a sparring partner at his level, but Akemi doesn't think she can actively oppose Daiki. In the nick of time, the mysterious masked wrestler "Joan the Shadow" appears. (See PaperThinDisguise).
* ChefOfIron: Though he’s way past his prime, Soutetsu in ''AIKI-S'' is both a master of karate and a supreme Japanese chef.
* CombatPragmatist: Joukyuu, and he tries to teach his students to both be ready for and enact this.

** Veronica spends a lot of time in ''AIKI-S'' handing these out to people, with and without her sword. [[spoiler:When matched up against Cassandra, though, she is quickly overwhelmed and defeated whne she attempts to block Cassandra's hand-held buckler shield; it was [[StuffBlowingUp rigged to explode]], damaging her severely.]]

* FigureItOutYourself: Joukyuu ''never'' properly teaches his students, even when he's a ''college lecturer''; he'll show them techniques or physically demonstrate them on them without explaining much, if at all. However, he does give legitimate praise and guidance when his students do learn.

** Kaneoto Houju was known as one of the greatest swordsmen of his time, but by the time he's met in-story, he has rheumatism and cataracts in addition to reduced physical speed and stamina from old age. He's still one of the strongest characters in the cast despite all of these limitations.

* IAmNotLeftHanded: Karasumaru's battle with Joukyuu is pretty much entirely going his way... until Joukyuu reveals that just because he's recovered to 70% of his old strength, it doesn't mean he's ''limited'' to 70%. Cue the revelation of ''Raijin'' and his 80% arms, which ultimately leaves Karasumaru's body broken and shattered.

* MuggingTheMonster: In ''Aiki-S'', Bull’s new yakuza boss gets pretty mad about being mocked by Joukyuu's group, and decides to try beating up Joukyuu and selling Veronica and Akemi into prostitution. He learns very quickly that this is a bad idea.

* OldMaster: Kaneoto Houju. He has only about a tenth of Joukyuu's speed and lacks the stamina to fight for more than 30 seconds, and is hindered by reduced vision plus muscle and joint pain. Despite all that, he still manages to fight Joukyuu to a draw.

* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Ten Knights of Juuzenji High School fit this, being weird, quirky kids.
* ReallyGetsAround: Joukyuu. Over the course of AIKI, he sleeps with Metara, Miu's two female underlings, some unknown girl unrelated to the story, Chamoni, and some prostitutes hired by Veronica.

* ShownTheirWork: For all its ridiculousness, ''AIKI'' is actually fairly grounded in reality for a martial arts manga.

* ThatCameOutWrong: Seiji Saruwatari (the Chinese Kempo fighter who humiliates Houmei) has a tendency for his expressions of bloodlust to come out the wrong way. For instance, when trying to challenge Joukyuu:

* WeakButSkilled: Kizuki's small stature but immense skill with throwing techniques qualifies her as this; she can't take very many hits and isn't that strong, but she moves pretty damn fast. To quote Joukyuu on the subject:

* WorldOfBuxom: A consequence of BoobsOfSteel being applied practically across the board.

* BreakableWeapons
* BroughtDownToNormal: Well, to at least half his power. Joukyuu still manages to beat almost everyone without breaking a sweat.
* ButtMonkey: Bull, starting from his first appearance in ''Aiki'' and continuing into ''Aiki S.''
* CassandraTruth: Averted; in ''Aiki'', Bull realized that no one would ever believe that he was kidnapped and just dropped into the middle of a battlefield, so he just left the matter alone.

* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: [[spoiler:Joukyuu loses his first serious fight against Veronica in ''AIKI'' and then gets decisively defeated in ''AIKI-S'' by Cassandra. While he got the runback against Veronica, he wasn't able to get his rematch against Cassandra, leaving her as the only person that's defeated him on screen that he wasn't able to defeat in turn.]]

* DramaPreservingHandicap: Joukyuu gets diarrhea from eating American food in ''AIKI-S'' after Team Orleans eats all the Japanese food prepared for him, keeping him from the next set of matches. [[spoiler:After he loses to Cassandra, his left arm is in a cast for a while and he has to resort to using his right foot and his right hand in tandem to pull off a Time Stop in his final fight of the series.]]

* FlashStep: Joukyuu and those that he's taught have two variants of this, the Wind Step and the Thunder Step, though it's a common skill for many of the stronger martial artists. When Joukyuu does his Wind Step, it looks like a silly dance when recorded, at least initially. However, Kizuki learned to pull it off by ''mimicking the dance'', earning some respect from Joukyuu.
* GorgeousGaijin:

* GunsAreUseless: Most of the gun users in the series tend to be fairly useless, as most martial artists tend to either make the range advantage useless or the gun users themselves haven't trained enough to compensate for the people they're fighting against. This is somewhat averted in ''Aiki-S'', as some of the teams invited to fight at the competition are dedicated gun users and have figured out ways to use the weapons effectively.

* HandicappedBadass: Joukyuu can only usually tap into half of his full strength ever since his father ''dislocated and relocated half of the bones in his body'' in a vain effort to humble him. He regains part of his ability as the series progresses, but Joukyuu himself believes he will never fully recover.
** Kaneoto Houju was known as one of the greatest swordsmen of his time, but by the time he's met in-stoy, he has rheumatism and cataracts in addition to reduced physical speed and stamina from old age. He's still one of the strongest characters in the cast despite all of these limitations.
** Karasumaru temporarily became this as a result of injuries inflicted during his fight with Joukyuu, dropping under 50% of his former ability. He himself [[LampshadeHanging notes the irony]] that his condition is so similar to Joukyuu's. Both he and Joukyuu note he will recover in a few years.
* HeelFaceTurn: Miu and Akemi eventually go from antagonizing Joukyuu to working alongside him.
* HeirToTheDojo: Kizuki is treated as the next successor to her family's style of fighting.

--> "Geez, has my place become a field hospital?"
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Karasumaru's battle with Joukyuu is pretty much entirely going his way... until Joukyuu reveals that just because he's recovered to 70% of his old strength, it doesn't mean he's ''limited'' to 70%. Cue beatdown.

** In both ''AIKI'' and ''AIKI-S'', Joukyuu would fight using Bull as a puppet, mostly to throw off whoever his opponent was fighting against.

* LightningBruiser: Andrew, a product of an old Soviet science experiment to create someone super-fast, ultra-strong that feels no pain. He was only considered an EliteMook in the story though.
** Cassandra in ''AIKI-S'' winds up fitting the bill even more than him; she's stronger, tougher, and faster than him and most martial artists, but through training and natural skill.
* MightyGlacier: Hou Mei's bulk makes her physically strong and extremely tough. The disadvantage to this build is lampshaded when it turns out that she bulked up too much to keep up with higher-end opponents, and sabotaged her own ability to use kenpo as a result. She actually has to slim down to be competitive again.
* MistakenForBadass: In ''AIKI-S',' Bull is mistaken for an expert martial artist by the tournament committee because he's hanging around Jouykuu and his group. It doesn’t help that Joukyuu intentionally invokes MistakenForServant so that Bull's fear-induced freakouts are perceived as threats by the other competitors.

* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Ten Knights of Juuzenji High School fit this, being weird, qirky kids.

* ShownTheirWork: For all its ridiculousness, [=AIKI=] is actually fairly grounded in reality for a martial arts manga.

* SlasherSmile: Isutoshi appears to have a lot of fun drawing these.

** In Aiki, Daiki was the first major antagonist that Joukyuu at 80% barely defeated. Later on, Joukyuu had to declare a tie in a sparring match with Houju and lost to Veronica on their first battle (Subsequently defeating her with his new 90% strength). Moving on to Aiki-S, Veronica was soundly defeated by Cassandra, who was merely one of the top contenders in the fighting contest.
* StatuesqueStunner: Cassandra of team Orlando
* TakeThat: During the fight between Houmei and Seiji Sawatari, Seiji breaks out his "[[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Cat Fist]]". Joukyuu's reaction...

* ThatCameOutWrong: Seiji Sawatari (the Chinese Kempo fighter who humiliates Houmei) has a tendency for his expressions of bloodlust to come out the wrong way. For instance, when trying to challenge Joukyuu:

* TheStrategist: Tenhou's main talent considering that his fighting skill is just average.

* TricksterMentor

Gained a sequel called ''Aiki S'' which is currently in publication.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Joukyuu is clearly among the best fighters of all the characters in the story and arrogantly holds back against some of his opponents from time to time. However, his first major defeat (Besides Akemi) came at the hands of Veronica. In Aiki-S' fighting contests, he gradually gets more serious when he realized that that '''several''' of the top contenders he may have to face are no pushovers.
* AmazonianBeauty: Houmei is extremely muscular at the start of the manga, such that it actually slows her down in fights and she has to slim down a little bit to be effective. Kageyasu's no slouch in this department either, with a nice set of washboard abs and biceps.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis

* CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown: Akemi's boyfriend Daiki's going off the deep end, and Joukyuu's the only one who might be able to stop him--if he can get back into condition. He needs a sparring partner at his level, but Akemi doesn't think she can actively oppose Daiki. In the nick of time, the mysterious masked wrestler "Joan the Shadow" appears. (See PaperThinDisguise).
* ChefOfIron: Though he’s way past his prime, Soutetsu is both a master of karate and a supreme Japanese chef.
* CombatPragmatist: Joukyuu, and he tries to teach his students to be ready for this.
* ComedicSociopath: Our questionable hero again.
* CoolShades: Daiki [[spoiler:which helps hide how he can barely see]].

* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Miu.
* DisabilitySuperpower: Daiki [[spoiler:is legally blind]].
* DramaPreservingHandicap: Joukyuu gets diarrhea from eating American food in ''Aiki S'', after Team Orlando eats all the Japanese food prepared for him.
* EvilMatriarch: Ayake Shinonome, Joukyuu's mother and the one person in the world who can scare the crap out of him with her presence alone.

* EyesAlwaysShut: Habu [[spoiler:until Kageyoshi one-ups her, at which point they open and stay open]].

* FigureItOutYourself: Joukyuu ''never'' properly teaches his students, even when he's a ''college lecturer''. However, he does give legitimate praise and guidance when his students do learn.

* FlashStep: Being able to move faster than the eye follows is a sign that you're one of the stronger characters. On video, it looks like a stupid dance, [[spoiler:but Kizuki learned to pull it off by ''mimicking the dance'', earning some respect from Joukyuu]].

* GunsAreUseless: Most of the gun users in the series tend to be fairly useless, as most martial artists tend to either make the range advantage useless or the gun users themselves haven't trained enough to compensate for the people they're fighting against. This is somewhat averted in Aiki-S, as some of the teams invited to fight at the competition are dedicated gun users and have figured out ways to use the weapons effectively.

** Kaneoto Houju was known as one of the greatest swordsmen of his time, but by the time he's met in-stoy, he has rheumatism and cataracts in addition to reduced physical speed and stamina from old age. He's still one of the strongest characters in the cast despite his reduced vision and the pain in his muscles and joints.

* HeelFaceTurn: Miu and Akemi eventually go from antagonizing Joukyuu to working alongside him--at least to an extent.

** In both Aiki and Aiki-S, Joukyuu would fight using Bull as a puppet, mostly to throw off whoever his opponent was fighting against.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Joukyuu's a jerk, but his advice is usually pretty good.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: After arriving in America, Joukyuu yells at Soutetsu, explicitly mentioning that the airplane scene was skipped over.
* LightningBruiser: Andrew, a product of an old Soviet science experiment to create someone super-fast, ultra-strong that feels no pain. He was only considered an EliteMook in the story though.
* MightyGlacier: Houmei's bulk makes her physically strong and extremely tough. The disadvantage to this build is lampshaded when it turns out that she bulked up too much to keep up with higher-end opponents, and sabotaged her own ability to use kung fu as a result. She actually has to slim down to be competitive again.
* MistakenForBadass: In ''Aiki S',' Bull is mistaken for an expert martial artist by the tournament committee because he's hanging around Jouykuu and his group. It doesn’t help that Joukyuu intentionally invokes MistakenForServant so that Bull's fear-induced freakouts are perceived as threats by the other competitors.
* MuggingTheMonster: In Aiki S, Bull’s new yakuza boss gets pretty mad about being mocked by Joukyuu's group, and decides to try beating up Joukyuu and selling Veronica and Akemi into prostitution. He learns very quickly that this is a bad idea.

** In Aiki-S, [[spoiler:Soutetsu]] fills a similar role: though he himself notes that he's not as young and flexible as he used to be, he still has terrifying amounts of power guided and tempered by skill.

%%* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Ten Knights
* ReallyGetsAround: Joukyuu. Let's list the women he clearly did it with as of time of this writing.
** Metara, Miu's two female underlings, some unknown girl unrelated to the story, Chamoni, and some prostitutes hired by Veronica.
* RedBaron: Joukyuu is called the "Gravity Magician" due to the ludicrous amount of weight redirection tricks he can pull using most of his throwing techniques, to the degree that he can [[spoiler:effectively suspend people in midair when ''one'' of his arms is nearly at full power.]]

* TheBusCameBack: Miu returns in Aiki-S.
* TheStarscream: Habu became disgruntled with Daiki and in chapter 40 of the manga revealed her intention to take control from him. [[spoiler:She didn't get the chance to act on it.]]
* TheStrategist: Tenhou

* TooDumbToLive: Bull's new Yakuza boss in ''Aiki S'' decides to try and teach Joukyuu and his friends a lesson. Joukyuu, Veronica, and Akemi don't look the least bit scared of him, they laugh when he brags about how strong he is, and he completely ignores Bull's attempts to warn him about how dangerous they are.

* TykeBomb: Habu, the poison-user.
** Andrew, the SuperSoldier who was engineered to be a superstrong LightningBruiser that feels no pain who is doomed to die young thanks to the side effects of the experiments performed on him. Even ''Joukyuu'' feels a little sorry for him.

* WhatTheHellHero: Everyone else in the series calls Joukyuu out on his, well, everything, all the time. He never listens. When Bull-kun tries it in chapter 77, Joukyuu turns it back on him by making him realize that he isn't any different.

** Metara (The blonde [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]] bodyguard of Kizuki).

* GunsAreUseless: At least anything lethal.
%%** Averted in Chapter 64
%%* TheGunslinger: Metara

** Houju has rheumatism (pain/inflammation of joints/muscles) and cataracts (causes blurred vision) in addition to reduced physical speed and stamina from old age. He's still one of the strongest characters in the cast.

%%* HeelFaceTurn: Miu, Akemi
%%* HeirToTheDojo: Kizuki

** In both Aiki and Aiki S, Joukyuu would fight using Bull as a puppet, mostly to throw off whoever his opponent was fighting against.

%%%* MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours

* OldMaster: Kaneoto Houju. Due to old age, he has only about a tenth of Joukyuu's speed and lacks the stamina to fight for more than 30 seconds, as well as rheumatism and cataracts. He still manages to fight Joukyuu to a draw. He's the most skilled character to appear in the original manga.
* PaperThinDisguise: "Joan the Shadow," but no one buys it at all.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Ten Knights

%%* RedBaron: Joukyuu, called the "Gravity Magician". For good reason.
* RestrainingBolt: The entire first arc was spent with Joukyuu slowly but surely easing most of his handicap, and even coming up with little ways to work around his restricted physical limitations.

** Averted in Chapter 64
* TheGunslinger: Metara

* HeelFaceTurn: Miu, Akemi
* HeirToTheDojo: Kizuki

* RedBaron: Joukyuu, called the "Gravity Magician". [[http://mangafox.me/manga/aiki/v08/c053/12.html For]] [[http://mangafox.me/manga/aiki/v10/c086/17.html good]] [[http://mangafox.me/manga/aiki/v11/c095/3.html reason]].

* {{Expy}}: Miu bears a strong resemblance (physically, if not in personality) to Sayuka from Isutoshi's previous series ''Slut Girl''.

* ThrowingOffTheDisability: Joukyuu spends a good amount of time being injured in later arcs to avoid being a total BoringInvincibleHero, but readily curbstomps his opponent as soon as he recovers.

* ForeignFanservice:

* BadassGrandpa: Kaneoto Houju. Due to old age, he has only about a tenth of Joukyuu's speed and lacks the stamina to fight for more than 30 seconds, as well as rheumatism and cataracts. He still manages to fight Joukyuu to a draw. Arguably the most skilled character to appear in the original manga.

* [[DarkSkinnedBlonde Dark Skinned White Hair]]: Miu.

* MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Joukyuu is clearly among the best fighters of all the characters in the story and arrogantly holds back against some of his opponents from time to time. However, his first major defeat (Besides Akemi) came at the hands of Veronica. In Aiki-S' fighting contests, he gradually gets more serious when he realized that that SEVERAL of the top contenders he may have to face are no pushovers.

* ForeignFanservice: Metara (The blonde [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]] bodyguard of Kizuki).

* LightningBruiser: Andrew, a product of an old Soviet science experiment to create someone super-fast, ultra-strong that feels no pain.

* ActionGirl: Any girl with a name in the story, and even some without them. with her. In Aiki-S' fighting contests, he gradually gets more serious when he realized that his opponents are no slouches either.

* AuthorTract: The sheer weary one-sided contempt and amoral cynicism pouring out of Isutosh
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Joukyuu is clearly among the best fighters of all the characters in the story and arrogantly holds back against some of his opponents from time to time. Even then, he gets defeated by Veronica during his first fighti these days is pretty staggering. Before that ''[=TendeFreeze=]'' and even ''Slut Girl'' were comparatively lighthearted and optimistic, with the only real author tracts being the FanService, the uncommonly beautiful female designs, [[DeadpanSnarker some tongue-in-cheek sarcasm]], and strong influence from assorted 1990s fighting video games.

* ActionGirl: Any girl with a name in the story, and even some without them.

* AuthorTract: The sheer weary one-sided contempt and amoral cynicism pouring out of Isutoshi these days is pretty staggering. Before that ''[=TendeFreeze=]'' and even ''Slut Girl'' were comparatively lighthearted and optimistic, with the only real author tracts being the FanService, the uncommonly beautiful female designs, [[DeadpanSnarker some tongue-in-cheek sarcasm]], and strong influence from assorted 1990s fighting video games.

** In Aiki, Daiki was the first major antagonist that Joukyuu at 80% barely defeated. Later on, Joukyuu had to declare a tie in a sparring match with Houju and lost to Veronica on their first battle (Subsequently defeating her with his new 90% strength). Moving on to Aiki-S, Veronica was soundly defeated by Cassandra, and as of now we have seen that Cassandra was merely one of the top contenders.
** Veronica (The second major antagonist) was noticeably stronger than Daiki (The first major antagonist), but Veronica herself was soundly defeated by Cassandra in Aiki S.

* TakeThat: During the fight between Houmei and Seiji Sawatari, Seiji breaks out his "[[RanmaOneHalf Cat Fist]]". Joukyuu's reaction...

* GenreSavvy: Joukyuu loves {{lampshading}} Shonen tropes even while he's subverting them. Joukyuu on the PowerOfFriendship:
-->"''Frieennds? So you're that kind of guy? Always singing the same old song. 'You're not alone.' 'If you have troubles we will be there for you.' 'Together we are strong.' Those kinds of songs, there are so many of them! (...) However... don't you think they say that just to cover their own incompetence? Isn't that just a means to cheer oneself for being poor and hopeless? 'Friends' is what you call someone who likes to be someone else's minion, isn't it? [[SlasherSmile I don't need such things like 'friends'! Well, I don't have any friends to begin with]]!"[[note]]Full disclosure -- he's saying this to the new BigBad's new QuirkyMinibossSquad to get their goat while deliberately giving his students a preview of what they'll be up against.[[/note]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Aiki_TVTropes.jpg

AIKI is a {{Seinen}} action manga, written and drawn by Isutoshi, an [[BleachedUnderpants artist mostly known for doing H-manga]]. However, as the series has progressed, the manga has tilted more towards martial arts and comedy and less towards the ecchi side (though a good amount of FanService still remains).

In short, think of AIKI as a much more lewd and evil version of ''KenichiTheMightiestDisciple''.

A [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/Aiki character sheet]] is being created.

Gained a sequel called Aiki S which is currently in publication.

* FightingCook: Though he’s way past his prime, Soutetsu is both a master of karate and a supreme Japanese chef.

--> '''Veronica''': Doesn’t this country have a rebellion or a civil war or something?"

* CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown: Akemi's boyfriend Daiki's going off the deep end, and Joukyuu's the only one who might be able to stop him -- if he can get back into condition. He needs a sparring partner at his level, but Akemi doesn't think she can actively oppose Daiki. In the nick of time, the mysterious masked wrestler "Joan the Shadow" appears. (See PaperThinDisguise).
* CombatChef: Though he’s long since past his prime Soutetsu is a master of karate and a supreme Japanese chief.

* FakeUltimateHero: "Bull-kun"