Manga / High School Exciting Story: Tough

High School Exciting Story: Tough, or Koko Tekken-den TOUGH as it's known in Japan, is a Seinen manga written and illustrated by Tetsuya Saruwatari, who was also responsible for the artwork of the popular and notoriously violent manga Riki-Oh. HSE:Tough revolves around Kiichi Miyazawa, a 17 year old high school student who is the heir to the secret Nadashinkage-ryu fighting style that was passed down to him from his father Seiko. The Nadashikage-Ryu is a fighting style that utilizes the user's knowledge of and hitting of an opponent's vital organs and pressure points in such a way it can outright kill the opponent if the user isn't careful enough.

The series revolves around Kiichi's goal to become strong by defeating even stronger opponents in what are essentially Death Matches, though almost no one Kiichi fights actually dies (permanently anyway). The original manga ran in Young Jump from 1993 to 2003, and was compiled into 42 volumes. It was popular enough to get a 3 episode OVA adaptation titled Shootfighter Tekken, which covers a small fraction of the first arc of the manga, a sequel to the original manga simply titled "Tough" which is finished in 2012, and was succeed by the third part, Tough - The Man who succeeds the Dragon, which stars Ryuusei Nakamura, one of the many children of Kiryuu, and his venture into the world of martial arts to discover what happened to his father, who mysteriously disappeared.There are also multiple spinoffs centering around other major characters, such as Oton, which stars Seiko Miyazawa, Kiibou's father, and him finding himself against various opponents, whether they be psychopathic, pistol-wielding teenagers, Friendly Rivals, and even finding his help needed for going up against certain people, Fully Scarred Jinsei, starring Nagai Jinsei, a Breakout Character who was featured in Oton, and Devils x Devil - Kiryuu in Paris, a Rule of Cool zombie survival alternate universe starring Kiryuu Miyazawa, the brother of Seiko, finding himself fighting with guns, martial arts, and anything else he can find to survive against mutants called the No Hair Monkeys, who were once ordinary people mutated by the mysterious virus H4Q1.

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Koko Tekken-den TOUGH provides examples of:

• Abandoned Hospital: The Shindou family hospital.
• Adapted Out: Remco Yahrob never appears in the OVA, despite his arc being in between Kiibo's fights against Shingo and Kiba.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Andre Fernandez, a man who can dislocate the bones in his spine found it impossible that Kichi could dislocate the bones in his shoulder.
• Absurdly-Long Limousine:
  • Giorgio Bucci owns a hummer limousine which Kiryu later takes from him.
  • Ozai brings a bullet proof one of these to protect him from Yamato.
• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Gennai Tomashino's specialty is this, due to an unusual style of karate he practices, called Onna Karate, specializing in this.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Peter Kaman's mother repeatedly beat him with a steel pipe, but never actually killed him, causing him to become a sadist obsessed with keeping his opponents alive so he could torment them as much as he wants.
  • After his mother's death, Kiba's father's widow tortured him mercilessly to the point of forcing him to live in a rat infested shed.
    • Kiba’s mother was the mistress of Daido Rikiyama and was completely obsessed with him. She viciously beat Kiba when he spit on his father's grave and later attempted to commit murder suicide to go with him.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade:
  • Hidari can slice through the roof of a car.
  • Udo’s rock blades can slice through flesh with incredible ease, and he even chopped off a fighter’s nose.
• Accidental Murder:
  • Subverted with Gouji Kanou, due to Kiichi's Bodhisattva Fist causing the Judoka's heart to stop, but Seiko revives him.
  • Also played straight with Kuroda following a Judo Exhibition with his friend Naruse.
    • Kuroda accidentally killed his friend Masakazu Naruse years ago during a karate tournament. This caused him to become a Technical Pacifist.
• Adult Child: Kichi as flash backs show his personality at age 17 are indistinguishable from his personality when he was a four.
• Advice Backfire: Tokako’s story about how Kuroda accidentally killed his friend in a fight trying to make get Kiichi to reconsider fighting Kuroda, it only caused him to want to fight him even more.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played with Garcia, the combat cyborg generally just does what his handlers says however during his second fight with kiba the fact that unlike everyone else Kiba lasted longer then an instant made Garcia fell the joy of fighting for the first time in his life. After that he started fighting how he wanted instead of what his handler told him to.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After dispatching all of his men, Oton got down on his hands and knees and begged Danjuro Hanakawa to spare Mikhail’s life.
• Air Vent Escape: This was how Oton escaped the assassins sent to kill him by Don Josefino.
• Akashic Records: By reading the residual energy someone has left behind, the Nadashinkage can visualize what they were doing.
• The Alcoholic:
  • Tetsuzan is almost never seen without a bottle in his hand, he even brought one to Kaneda’s fight with Kichi.
  • Shiyachi’s dad would borrow money from his fans claiming it was to pay the bills and feed his son only to spend it on alcohol.
• Alcoholic Parent: Remco’s mother was the type of person who couldn’t live without alcohol and would hit him with beer bottles when he tried to get her to stop.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Kenshi Kaneshiro turns out to have been the weakest of the Yugen Shinkageryu disciples in spite of his incredible reputation, as it turns out there are five more masters, the Yugen Shinkageryu Heavenly Kings of Death, consisting of Buzan Shinomura, Yokoyama, Taikan, and the Weasel of Kanzan, all of who are vastly more skilled than Kenshi is and also have their own unique styles of Yugen Shinkageryu, as Shinomura uses his abnormal flexibility and control over his bones and joints to preform impossible submission holds and even create illusions that he looks like a human Orochi to distract his opponents, Yokoyama specializes in point-blank dodging that looks like he's dissipating, Taikan specializes in taking the optical illusions that come from the Yugen Shinkageryu's arsenal of techniques and taking it to the extreme, and finally, the Weasel of Kanzan uses his extreme speed to make it look like he's teleported, when in actuality, he jumped into his opponents blind spot.
• Always Someone Better:
  • Sado may come from the self defense corpse, but his skill in handling knives is limited to cutting up things like rabbits and trees. But that isn’t the case with Udo.
• Animal Motifs: Kiba has been compared to a tiger numerous times.
  • Gulhad = cobra
  • Chosho = rat
  • Gojo is an elephant.
  • Shiyachi Orca
• Apologetic Attacker: When Mikhail fought Oton he apologized to a four year old Kichi that he was about to kill his father in front of him.
  • Oton apologized to the hitmen sent to kill him by don jos before dispatching them.

• Artistic License – Martial Arts: In the sequel Tough, as there are a lot more flashy strikes that probably wouldn't work in real life. Averted in the first series though, as the martial arts are incredibly faithful to how they function.
• Aesop Amnesia: One of the first things Oton taught Kichi was that if they don’t give up, losers today will become winners tomorrow so he shouldn’t boast about his victories. nor should he despise himself after being defeated, although he never really takes this lesson to heart until after he matures in Tough
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • According to Ted Austin from the Hyper Battle arc, victory is justice. Subverted in that he shortly gets his ass kicked by his opponent the second they turn the tables on him.
  • Kiba is able to get away with horrendous atrocities because people are too afraid of him to do anything about it.
  • Kano takes everything by strength. He’s like a predator who throws himself onto his victim steered by his combat instinct. When this happens, nothing else exists for him, not even pity for the weak.
• The Atoner: The reason Andou Yumeji stays on Tengu Island is to repent for killing his father
• Audience Surrogate: Moyian and Isiage seem to function as this.
• Aura Vision: Oton and Kakugo’s auras are so strong that and leave such a strong impression that Kichi can determine what has happened by the reading the traces left behind by them.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: The warden of the prison Buzan Shinomura was in
  Warden: all of that doesn’t matter, because in here you are nothing more than a damn cockroach crawling around for the scraps I throw you. soon the shadow of death will be upon you. until that time your only purpose will be to satisfy my sadism.
• Avenging the Villain: Once he confirmed the rumors of Kiryu’s assassination, Jet swore to kill all those involved.
  • Bruno attempted to kill Kiryu for killing his brother Anthony after he shot him with a Bazooka.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Galhad Suanpahkti specializes in crushing his opponents in the first round. However because of this, the Thai bookies couldn’t make money from his fights so even after 17 professional fights he still isn’t ranked.
  • Wakabashi proposed a Shout-Out to Gladiator as competition for Rikimaru’s Dark Fights where opponents fight to the death.
    • Averted as he knew people wouldn’t want to watch a murder and not anyone would even enter. He only proposed it to screw with Rikimaru
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Kibo’s like a sponge, even in the middle of a fight, he’s able to absorb the opponent’s combat techniques and make them his. Downplayed because of his cocky personality relatively quickly, it only enables him to learn the basics of it rather quickly.
  • Oton can tell a person’s height and weight by looking at the imprint of their hand, he can also learn how a style works by healing the destruction it wrought on a body.
  • Garcia can map out the outcome of a chess match in his mind after a couple of moves.
  • Basically don’t use a move twice on any practicioner of the Nadashinkageryuu.
    • According to the teachings of the Nadashinkageryuu, medicine and martial arts are intimately linked. By observing the damages inflicted, it’s possible to know exactly how a technique was used.
  • Bannai.
  Moki: There are certain things you learn when you have fought enough matches, and one is to know your own capabilities. When you reach a certain level, you learn more from a single hit or glance than most, and that gives you the luxury to wait for the perfect situation.
• Ax-Crazy: The AB Brothers take care of people like you’d throw away a rotten pizza. Its said that crazy is a word made for them.
  • The Osome brothers are crazy; they’re the type to beat someone up for no reason. The small brother already spent time in juvenile hall as for the older one, word is he’s close to entering the yakuza.
• Badass Boast:
  • According to Heizo, even god wouldn’t be able to get out of the Flying Enma Lock.
  • Peter Herman gave a chilling one after Kakuryo threatened to kill him. Subverted in that he swiftly gets his ass kicked afterwards.
  Peter: You’re just an amateur. Professionals know how to keep you alive.
  • Ukon.
  Ukon: Come at me then without hesitating, with this 150cm long baton, I’m invincible.
  • Kiichi
  Kiichi: The Nadashinkageryu has no equal, and the guy who’ll beat Kiichi Miyazawa hasn’t been born yet!
• Bad Ass Bookworm: Seiko Miyazawa and his brother Kiryuu
  • Mitsuhidei goes to seiken vocational the second highest ranked school in the aoda region.
  • It turns out Kiryu is an art connoisseur and is able to play Mozart’s requiem.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: We never see Oton in anything but a suit. It reached the point that Kichi freaked out when Oton joined Team D.
  Kichi: it’s surprising to see a man who would keep his suit and tie even when he went fishing dress up as a pizza delivery man.
• Badass Normal: The AB Brothers really gave Kiryu a run for his money well at least Bruno did.
• Badass Preacher: The “Lamenter” Zion.
• Bad Boss: After his loss Jiang stabbed and killed Mammoth because of the 300 million he lost on his fight and threw him into the Tokyo bay. It appears that the Fuchien mafia does this kind of thing all of time.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Zion believes in this
  Zion: Affection won’t work for evils. Evil can only be beaten by stronger evil. I can be evil for a righteous purpose.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Kibo and Mitsuhidei first met everything seems geared to an epic fight only for Kibo to start shaking his hand and praising his skill.
  • Averted in the end when they used the hand shake to measure their strength up against each other.
  • When Wakabashi hinted to have had Rikimaru’s father was killed it looked like Rikimaru shot him only for it to be revealed to be all in Wakabashi’s imagination.
  • During the last hours of the Japanese elimination match it appears that the blind Ukon Tatewaki had discovered an exhausted and injured Kichii hiding in the tall grass. Only for another fighter to be revealed to be hiding as well.
  • After being crippled by Edgar Garcia Kiba walked right off the plane at Tokyo international looking none the worse for wear. Surprising everyone present.
    • Averted as that was just to keep [[Determinator his injuries out of out of the press]] he was actually paralyzed for life.
  • During their battle it looked like Oton was going to gouge Kichi’s eyes out but he actually went for his jugular.
• Barrier Warrior: The residual demonic energy left behind by Son-o marks a boundary of territory that even a rattle snake won’t cross
• Batman Gambit: Mikogami wants revenge on the illusive Phantom Joe. So to draw him out he set up the monster wars, had bull attack kichi, then shiyachi, then signed kichi as payment for Bull getting a rematch against shiyachi. Finally he had kichi fight banai during the second monster wars match. Knowing that given the hype of the match and the strength of the two fighter if either won joe would seek them out.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Averted Kichi is not good at this in fact any time he tries he loses.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted Berkley’s turned a face that had invested ten thousand bucks in plastic surgery into minced meat when he found out his wife was cheating on him.
• Beast Man: Ou ‘The Kamaitachi’ Shimei presence is more animal than human thanks to the Shokei Ken.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Iron Kiba decided to retire from wrestling to fight in more serious matches after losing in an official match due to using a move considered illegal. It did not end well for him.
• Big Damn Heroes: Son-O, Oton, and Kiryu showing up to stop the Four Heavenly Kings from forcing Kichi to continue to fight
• Bittersweet Ending: After his lose to Chosho in the TDK Barkley was left with a broken forearm, a torn ligament in his right knee, a damaged kneecap and was banned by the NWD from ever getting back into the ring. However thanks to that not only was he able to cut ties with Mister K but since all the breaks were clean they will heal completely allowing him to box in other federations.
  • The opponent that Gulhad first defeated in the ring who was forced to cut off his own leg as penance for his loss. Not only does he hold no ill will towards Gulhad (he gave him the Buddhist pendent that he always wears) the two are still friends and he currently owns a restaurant and seems to be doing well for himself
  • While Kiryu saved Victory Bush he didn’t care enough to stop the September 11 attack
  • Garcia defeated Kichi in the TDK but the Nadashinkage techniques that Kichi used on him caused him to die after the match was over.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Kiba’s agent nearly has a heart attack every time kiba challenges someone because they’re either to dangerous to be sponsored or incredibly important individuals. Something kiba could care less about
• Berserk Button: Gojo ultimate goal is to be an Olympic champion so anyone who gets in the way of that goal is this for him
  • Any time he hears the name of the nadashinkageryu Kiba’s anger reappears
  • Miyagi Aika attacked Kichi when he refused to fight her because she was a girl as she saw it as an affront to her father who passed on the knowledge of the seisikin school to her.
  • Insulting a family style is a berserk button for any martial artist
  • Shingo’s status as the unfavorite makes the fact that both Kichi’s father and Iron Kiba helped him in their battle this for him. The last straw was Kichi calling him a daddy’s boy
  • For Oton it’s Child abuse.
• The Berserker: Kuroda in his Ashura form.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Outside of fighting and anything that has to do with it Gulhad is actually a relatively quiet and respectable guy. It’s just his associating lose with misery that causes him to be such a ruthless fighter
  • Seiko Miyazawa the man known for his compassionate human qualities, is nothing more than a cold blooded thug in a fight
• BFG: This is the AB Brothers weapon of choice.
  • Barukan Bobby wields a M134 Gatling gun which weighs a 15.75 kilos 4000 rounds of magazines weighing 128 kilos
• Big Eater: Oton became one after fasting for three days when his son’s digestive system was destroyed
  • Remco as a sumo wrestler it’s a given that he is this
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While at first Kichi appears Older and Wiser in Tough he still has the same Jerkass personality before the time skip. So where in Koko Tekken Den he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold here he just comes across as this especially with all the hypocritical and out right cruel things he says to people.
• Blatant Lies: Kibo is prone to this often claiming he’s losing on purpose
  • Or telling Mitsuhidei That he’s never heard of nadashinkageryu
  • Oton claims that gouging out Kiba’s eye was an accident. He was about to hit him in the jaw before Kiba tried ducking to avoid his attack
• Blind Weaponmaster: Following the ways of martial arts Ukon Tatewaki has managed to get over his handicap and become a superman
  • Kiryu showed to be this as well when he fought Suzuki Adding Insult to Injury
• Blood Knight: Samon
  • Fought Kichi after he knocked Aika out and became very excited when Kichi was able to match him is a submission fight
  Manji: What I like to here the most is to hear the sound of a strong guy’s bones. The loud sound of a dislocated joint, the sound of a broken ligament which is loose. The creaking of a fractured bone. It’s only when I hear those sounds that I enjoy victory. Seeing a strong man who is so proud of himself, begin to cry like a new-born when he hears the sound of his bones. Is really delicious
  • Orochi didn’t care about the Yugen Style Successor process even agreeing to step down from the competition. All he cared about was getting a chance to fight Kichi.
• Boarding School of Horrors: The Devil Factory
• Body Horror: Phantom Joe ripped off all of Mikogami’s limbs and half of his scalp
• Book Dumb: Kiichi, like many shonen and martial arts heroes, is an absolute dunce outside of anything but fighting. Unlike most heroes, he actually studies extremely diligently and pays attention in class to try and make up for it.
• Boring, but Practical: Oton contemplates on weather or not the ultimate technique of the Nadashinkage was an eye poke
  Oton: Could the ultimate technique in the nadashinkage arsenal be the eyepoke
• Born in the Wrong Century: Heizo locks are an artform. No matter the opponent, he is always able to get inside his guard and perform a lock all in the blink of an eye. However this is the reason his wrestling career never took off as the spectators were never truly able to understand his techniques because they [[boring but practical weren’t very entertaining and were done lightning fast. However with the emergence of koppo, pancrase o jiujitsu, the spectators eyes are much sharper. If heiko was in his prime right now, he’s certainly be a superstar
  • Shindou stated that Oton was a man out of time, a true samurai.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When Udo was told that he wasn’t a fighter but an arms dealer. He replied that he was an arms dealer that fights.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: This trope is used in volume 12 telling us Kichi English teacher’s name
• Breather Episode: Averted, Kiichi’s entered into a karate tournament as he was tired of death matches unfortunately he met Nijishima and Kanade There.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Inchikawa actually pissed himself when Shuto’s fight with Kichi caused him to remember his mutilation
  • Kichi was so worked up about his fight with Samon that he peed the bed.
• The Brute: Gojo fights because he enjoys hurting and seeing other people suffer.
• Broken Pedestal: Suzuki couldn’t believe that such a brave man of integrity like Oton. The man feared by the Hagyuu School had come to resemble a child who has just learned to walk due to the injuries he sustained after his defeat by Kiryuu
• Bully Hunter: The Wind
  Wind: I hate bullying. I’m specifically telling all of my disciples never to bully.
• Bullying a Dragon: Kichii tends to do this lot in an effort to get strong fighters to fight him
  • Kichi does this repeatedly the greatest example however would have to be Chosho at the Black Dragon temple initially taking him to be a weakling that he would have to fight to get to someone else Kichi took to taunting and even throwing rocks at him. He later found out that Chosho was the infamous 3000 bone combatant.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: For Phantom Joe fighting Kiryu was a step towards his final goal, but for Kiryu it was just a chance to become stronger.
  • Inverted when Oton was able to see the direction that Yamada Ichirou shot from in an assassination. Oton forgot about the incident until Ozaki Kentarou mentioned it while Yamada saw them as important enemies.
• But Not Too Foreign: Marcio “Jet” Naito.
• Butt-Monkey: The karate guy Kiryu gave him a no hold barred beatdown to take his roll as a Hyper Battle contestant then didn’t even fight
• Cain and Abel: Kiryu to Son-O and Oton.
• The Cameo: The real Yoshiki Takahashi makes a cameo in chapter 192.
• Can't Catch Up: A no named fighter’s trainer mentioned that his punch would take down the strongest in the world. After saying this the two heard and felt the force of Shiyachi’s punches. The two were noticeably depressed after watching his training session.
• Cassandra Truth: No one believed that a brute like Yoshiki had a sister as cute as Akemi.
• Characterization Marches On: During the first arc Kichii would deny any knowledge of the Nadashinkage ryu after that he would tell anyone who’d listen about it.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Martial arts are really incredible. By following their ways, we can become such an incredible person as you are.
• Chekhov's Skill: The Nadashinkageryu is made of these for example the kidney shot Samon took in his fight with Oton was detrimental in his fight against Kichi.
• The Chew Toy: Kiryu turned Bucci into this.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Seeing that Dark Monkey was about to loss Gambino gave him a wireless electric shock.
• Combat Clairvoyance: A specialty of the Nadashinkage Ryu.
• Combat Pragmatist: The notion of illegal does not exist in the Nadashinkage style. Kichii isn’t above fighting dirty as in a fight the one who punches first is the one who wins. Even going for the groin. He has even resorted to biting his opponent Many characters have no problem using underhanded tactics even in sanctioned fights. Hell, both Oton & Kiichi have shown willingness to use underhanded tactics such as eye gouging and low blows.
• Companion Cube: The Buddhist pendent given to gulhad by the first opponent he defeated is the most precious thing he owns and is even able to bring him back to sanity when he starts to freak out.
• Continuity Nod: When Kiba betrayed Mikhail the later ended up punching him in the same eye that Oton would later gouge out.
• Contrived Coincidence: Kichi just happened to have the same blood type as Yoshiki.
• Cooldown Hug: Kichi did this to the Dark Monkey.
• Cool Versus Awesome: A master sniper vs a master martial artist.
• Cowardly Lion:
  • Ina was a Dirty Coward who ran away from everything. one day he killed someone in that guy in that traffic accident got scared and just ran away. He swore on that day that he would never run away from horrible things. He showed his redemption during his fight with Gen, knowing that jail wouldn’t make up for his sin, and even though he threw up before the match he stayed and fought and ended up having his carotid artery ruptured.
  • Kikuta is a very modest person, his breathing goes wild just by the pressure of a dangerous opponent’s glare, however in that weakness lies his strength. It’s because he thinks of his opponent as a superior being that he prepares the most elaborated strategy, and he tries to overcome the difference with exhaustive training.
    • The stress of the savageness of the Hyper Battle combined with Dogen's treat of selling his organs if he lost, turned him into this to the point that he vomited before every match.
  • Hyce Grancie gets so stressed before his matches that he's unable to urinate, but he gives Mark Hamilton a hell of a fight.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Knowing that as a man of big business that he absolutely must go out in person to protect himself against the sniper Ozai wore a highly bullet resistant spectra guard helmet fitted with resin. The most advanced type of body armor there is, equipped with a spectra shield and special ceramic plate. His vehicle is a special made hummer limousine with equal bullet resistance to any other armored car. Its bullet resistant glass is 100cm thick, and cannot be destroyed by bazooka cannons or rocket launchers. And his business meeting was moved to a boat.
  • This turned out to be an aversion due to the Awesome, but Impractical of a lot of his decisions which allowed Yamada to Take a Third Option. For example the super-safe limousine was to big to go into any underground parking lots. So Ozai would have to walk thirty meters from the entrance to the car.
  • Then played straight as Oton had the forethought to make him wear terminal velocity.
• Calling Your Attacks: Done by Kiibou and other characters, and in the T.D.K. arc, by the unseen announcer.
• Comes Great Responsibility: Even though the Nadashinkageryu is a deadly style, having the power to kill someone comes with the responsibility of imposing on oneself some limits, not for one’s own benefit, but for the sake of justice and honor, and it’s a difficult task.
• Combat Medic: Kiibou's aunt Yumiko, doesn't have any actual Nadashinkage techniques besides the ones meant to heal, but she's still rather strong, as she makes her entrance by rescuing Kiibou from a Yakuza wielding a gun by catching him by surprise, disarming him, and beating the crap out of him and and casually backhanding his buddy who was rising behind her.
• Comically Missing the Point: Angered that Ukon kept comparing him to Kiryu, Kichi thinks about destroying him like Kiryu would.
• The Corrupter: Shawn J. Akutsu, the boss of the Devil Factory, and recruiter for Kiba in his effort to find fighters to defeat the Nadashinkage Ryu. Just look at what he did to Remco.
• Creepy Child:
  • Barkley was the son of a drug addicted hooker, who had already impregnated somebody at the age of 10 and when he was 13, he was discovered beating a bunch of cops to death with his bare hands by Mister K, his future manager,
  • Kiba’s son Katsuichiro carves kill repeatedly into his desk with a box cutter.
    • Given that Kiba regularly beats people to death in front of him. He gets it from his father who beat a man to death with a bat when he was nine.
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Many wrestlers have suffered one-sided defeats in Vale tournaments. Because of this more and more people are now claiming that wrestling is just for show and shouldn’t be considered a real combat technique.
  • You can only use recognized Karate techniques in a Karate tournament. To a Vale Tudo fighter this is pretty much The Worf Effect.
  • The basic theory of combat is that you mercilessly attack the opponent’s weak spot once it’s been found. However if you concentrate on that weak point, your attacks start to get repetitive.
• Curbstomp Battle:
  • Kiichi handed out a couple of these over the course of the series.
  • Manji Shindou never took Aika’s father even remotely seriously and the outcome of the fight had been decided in an instant.
    • This is used as merely an excuse for his Ax Crazyness as fights to the death is taboo in the Shindo style, but when practitioners don’t have any other choice than to fight, crushing the opponent completely is the safest option.
• Cut Short: The Original manga only had 6 volumes released in America by Viz before they stopped publishing it.
• The Cynic: This seems to be a principle of the Nadashinkage.
  Oton: All human actions can be explained with one word self-satisfaction. If you’re training that hard to become stronger, it’s for your own personal fulfillment. You can extend it to self satisfaction. Even the most noble of the sacrifices is based on self-satisfaction. Jesus Christ himself was crucified for the sake of his people for self-satisfaction. That’s why you shouldn’t expect anything in return when you help someone. Because the moment you expect something, your act would become worthless.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The smallest of threats to Kiba’s eye makes his body tighten up.
• Dance Battler: Diselnoi Chomompett, the "Speed Dancer" shows the meaning of his nickname as he dodges the blows of Joachim Schilt in an almost dance-like fashion, showing great grace and agility.
• David Versus Goliath: Due to Kichii’s size this analogy is used often. In the first series, many of his opponents are six to eight feet tall while he's short for his age.
• Deal with the Devil: Kikuta borrowed 50 million yen from Dogen to open a dojo.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Kiichi seems to love befriending or becoming friendly rivals with the people he fights.
  • A great many of Kichi’s fights end this way. No matter who the opponent is he always makes a new friend to the point that it completely erodes the audiences Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: During his fight against Kiba, Kiichi deliberately allows himself to hit a ring post head first, the reasoning behind this was that if Kiichi hit the post originally as Kiba intended he would've suffered a much serious injury to his head.
  • This is how Kaneda got out of trouble with the cops.
    • Inverted After his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Koruda Kanada destroyed his bike and told the police that he got into an accident. And after seeing the throe job he did on both the police were inclined to agree.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Jet. It turns out being Kiryu’s son is his purpose in life.
  Jet: God doesn’t make mistakes, and somewhere deep in his heart, he knew that his life had a purpose, and that in time it would reveal itself to him.
• Determinator: Pretty much all of the fighters, but Mikogami, a Yakuza boss, got violently mauled and lost his limbs from an attack from Kenshi Kaneshiro, as he had himself modified into a cyborg with a weaponized body so that he can kill him, and is continuing to upgrade the lethality of it.
  Mikogami: But even after losing my limbs, I did not die. But I will never give up on making this body the one that can kill him. And it’s for this goal and the goal alone that I will become stronger and stronger.
  • As long as there is a drop of blood in his veins Iron Kiba fight.
  Kiba: Thing is, giving up doesn’t exist for wrestlers. If their right hand breaks, then they’ll fight with the left. If both hands break, they’ll fight with their legs. That’s the type of men wrestlers are.

  • The majority of children that would be beaten finished by becoming so docile that they lose consciousness of who they are. Kiba was different, after his mother’s death he was sent to live at his father estate with his fathers widow who tortured him mercilessly and made him live in a rat infested shed. Yet the more he was beaten the more his personality was developing. The more the sentiment of rage grew within him.
  • After being crippled by Edgar Garcia, Kiba walked right of the plane at Tokyo international looking none the worse for wear. Surprising everyone present. However the moment he got into his car away from the prying eyes of the press Kiba succumbed to his injuries.
  • This was deconstructed in Kichi’s fight with Gulhad. While Kichi kept fighting through sheer determination, Gulhad fought because he truly feared what would happen to him if he loss. Kichi’s selfish goals were simply no match for that.
  • Kichi.
  Kichi: My body is broken, it’s screaming with every move in agony. The insides of my mouth are reduced to a pulp. I feel like I’m eating razors. A distorting mist is covering everything I see. Even breathing is getting painful. It’s really strange, why am I continuing to try fighting despite this.
  Oton: when Kichi was born, he weighed a mere 863 grams, but it was obvious from the start that he had a strong heart, that wouldn’t give up as easily. From birth his spirit was strong enough to survive through it all. He used everything that was given to him and used it to increase his strength. He even got strong enough to overcome a case of Jaundice. From the very day that kichi was born he had to overcome trail after trail, and kept facing death. But even so he became a healthy and wonderful kid through all of it.'
• Deus ex Machina: Sadly the series started to veer towards this during its sequel, Tough as it took New Powers as the Plot Demands to to ridiculous level, while not even bothering with the training montage usually seen in the prequel. For example the Hensui technique which was only seen once and no one else not even Oton in their match used it.
  • This was actually lampshaded by both Kichi and Suzuki the later asking him when could he have mastered the Nadashinkage. vision techniques and the former admitting he didn’t even know they existed.
  • Kichi surviving Sonou's finally attack with a technique that not only had he never heard of but wasn’t even apart of his school while being completely drained of energy and barely counscious.
    • Not only that but he had instinctively improved it to a perfect level.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Done hilariously in the side story Oton despite being incredibly dorky Oton and Komatsu seemed to be hitting it off rather well cue him taking off his glasses and komatsu running towards him only it turns out she was having an affair with President Ijuin.
• Dirty Coward: Kiba attempted to show that he was stronger then the Nadashinkage when he and Oton first met by sucker punching him.
  • Kiba has been sending fighters after Oton since Kichi was a child.
  • The bullies that beat up Kiba’s son only to cry What the Hell, Hero? when Kiba attacked them.
  • Gosuka had no problem beating a nine year old child half to death on a daily bases but screamed for help the moment that child went after him with a bat.
  • Gen is pretty brave whenever kiru isn’t around otherwise he’s down on his knees begging for mercy.
  • Mark Hamilton performed an illegal eye poke on Hyce Garcie who was dominating their match. Then after his cornerman and the crowd provoked Hyce to continue fighting he preceded to mercilessly beat the clearly injured man forcing his brother to throw the fight.
    • He then took this further despite the fight being declared over Hyce still refused to give up and continued to try and fight. It took his other brother Gordon to come out and finally knock him out. Mark freaked out by how easily Gordon was able to accomplish this when nothing he did was able tried to intentionally provoke him into attacking him so that he would be disqualified.
• Dirty Old Man: Otons father watches porno first thing in the morning.
• Disappeared Dad: It appears that Kichi’s biological father ran off when he found out that Kie was pregnant.
• Disease Bleach: Chico Fernandez hair turned white after the beating he took from Yoshiki.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The four foxes are incredibly Sore losers. After the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown they received from him they decreed that everyone related to kiryuu by blood had to be eliminated.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: For a series about incredibly skilled martial artist this is surprisingly common.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Yoshiki and Enzo describe the Interplay of Sex and Violence, the former becomes very disturbed when the later starts going into Destructo-Nookie.
  Yoshiki: Fighting is just like sex. I can only get into it with an attractive partner.
  Enzo: I don’t choose. I do it with anybody. I do it until it bleeds. I go until it doesn’t move anymore.
  Yoshiki': you’re a sick mother fucker.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Asada Noboru received a diploma in legal studies at the university of Tokyo and was named magistrate. When he made a comment to people who had no education, they would just reply with violence. Asada could only see pity in the eyes of the people who saw what was happening. The humiliation was so bad that he would have preferred death.
  • Naito Hidenori wanted to avoid fighting Ukon because he didn’t want to feel guilty of defeating an elderly blind man. Ukon showed him exactly how stupid that mentality was.
  Ukon: Don’t you dare look down on me because I'm blind.
• Double Vision: After the pummeling he took from Jet Kichi began to go through this.
• The Dragon: Wind for Hagyuu.
  • Dark monkey to Gambino.
• The Dreaded: Professional Wrestlers.
  Oton: I know the fear of the wrestler better than anyone.
  • Every since his defeat by kiryuu kitsune has had violent nightmares about the incident.
• Driven to Suicide: While it is initially believed that Gordon killed his father, it turns out that Emilio Grancie was dying of cancer and killed himself when Gorden revealed he didn’t want to inherit the Grancie Jiu-jitsu.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: This is the reason Kaku Shobun tried to kill Master Ma who was presented a sort of a deconstructive combination of wise Old Master and Sink or Swim Mentor.
  Kaku: Master never tried to acknowledge me. The stronger I became, the father away he placed me. How much painful training do you think I went through in order to become strong. And then the finally the master chose to give the succession over to not me but some lower disciple. The disciple Chou Genbin has neither talent nor strength. Did he expect me to yield to a man who excels in nothing but flattery
  • No matter how strong the fighter that Kichi defeats are Oton will never acknowledge that he’s ready to inherit the Nadashinkageryu.
    • Averted Oton really is proud of Kichii’s accomplishments but just does this to prevent him from becoming an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy
• Easily Forgiven: Barry Smith forgave Samon for ruining his life.
• Elite Mooks: There are two types of pro wrestlers the spectacular and the assassin the spectacular seem to be this as they are usually used as Cannon Fodder to show how strong Kichi's current opponent is.
  • The fighters who made it to the final hours of the Japanese elimination match.
• Emotionless Boy: Edgar C. Garcia has the allure of a cyborg.
  • Manji always wears the same board expression even when he’s being kneed in the face.
    • Up until he meets a worthy opponent then it becomes a Slasher Smile
• Epic Fail: After seeing the Black Dragon temple choke training Kichi attempted to do it stressing that if a weakling like Chosho could last a full minute he could last two. He lasted nine seconds.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Neither Kiba or Douishi(the yakuza boss helping Mikhail) couldn’t understand why anyone would risk their life for justice.
  • Averted with Douishi he can comprehend good perfectly but as a yakuza boss he just doesn’t care. Though he does admire integrity.
• Evil Counterpart: Kichi isn’t Otons biological son but he raised him as his own Jet is Kiryu’s biological son who he abandoned only to come across again years later.
  • Kiyomasa Samon to Heizo where Heizo is a Hitman with a Heart Kiyomasa Samon is a Blood Knight who destroys fighters merely to appease his blood lust.
  • The Black House to the White House, Don Jos to the President.
• Evil Is Petty: Don Jos wishing to sell the NTS as a Super Serum forced Tachikawa to give it Kikuta during his fight with Jet as a demonstration. Since his pride was on the line if Kikuta lost he refused to let him administer the counter and threatened to kill him while being perfectly willing to let Kikuta blow up.
  • Dogan can’t except losing even the littlest amount of money. Any time he makes a bet and loses he makes sure to make the winner pay just as much.
    • He later put a hit out on Oton for embarrassing him.
• Evil Twin: Kiryu.
• Evil Versus Evil: Kiryu vs Phantom Joe.
• Evil Virtues: In fights, there are no rules. You can bite, hit genitals and so on. A real vale-tudo, where anything goes. But despite this in their fight Gojo stuck to judo and fought like a judoka from the beginning to the end.
• Exactly What I Meant to Say: While don Gambino agreed to stop rigging the matches that doesn’t mean he couldn’t injure the fighters before hand.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge:
• Eye Scream:
  • Kiba became an unfortunate victim of this at the hands of Oton though he's come's off nonchalant about it.
  • Kakugo kicked larry the sex slaver’s eye right out of its socket
  • The Grancie family has a secret technique named Eye Throw where you insert your fingers into your opponent’s eye sockets in order to bring them to the ground.
• Expy/Captain Ersatz/No Celebrities Were Harmed: The series has a hefty list of characters based (some of them incredibly unsubtle) in real life martial artists and pro wrestlers. Some of them are incredibly unsubtle in their inspiration.
  • Iron Kiba looks like a mix of Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba.
  • Dido Raikiyama (Kiba's father) is based off of Rikidozan.
  • Masaya Kono is an expy to Shinya Hashimoto.
  • Naoya Fujita is one to Naoya Ogawa.
  • The wrestler Fujita to Kazuyuki Fujita
  • Heizo Kikawa to Volk Han.
  • Chris Kawaryo to Chris Dolman.
  • Antoine Kovirov to Andrei Kopylov.
  • Yoshiki Takaishi to Kazuo “Yoshiki” Takahashi.
  • Tsuyoshime Kohsaka to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.
  • Bas Ripken to Bas Rutten.
  • Manabu-san to Manabu Yamada.
  • Noboru Asa to Noboru Asahi.
  • Enzo Sasagawa to Enson Inoue.
  • Rei Sasakawa, the brother of the above character, looks oddly like K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii.
  • Mark Hamilton to Mark Kerr.
  • Oleg Povirov to Oleg Taktarov.
  • Gojo Kano is a thug version of Jigoro Kano.
  • Heath, Gordon and Emilio Clancy are stands for Royce, Rickson and Hélio Gracie.
  • Morahesu is basically Ricardo Morais.
  • Sergei Kurishichov to Russian judoka Sergei Beloglazov.
  • Rodoma to basketball player and professional wrestler Dennis Rodman. The name is basically the kanji for Rodman.
  • Choei Kaneda to Taiei Kin.
  • Remco Yarobu to Emmanuel Yarborough, although his first name is probably taken from Remco Pardoel.
  • Osamuhito Azuma is basically Semmy Schilt with some traits from Daido-Juku founder Takashi Azuma.
  • Peter Kaman is a mix of Dutch kickboxers Peter Aerts and Rob Kaman.
  • Marvelous Berkeley is a mix of Mike Tyson and basketball player Charles Barkley, while his manager, Mister K, is obviously Don King.
  • Mark "Mad Dog" Berbrick is a mix of Tyson and Trevor Berbick.
  • George Fogman, the current heavy weight champion of the world, is clearly a reference toboxing champion George Foreman.
  • Minoru Suzuki, Osami Shibuya and Yosuke Nishijima appear under their real names as only slightly different, fictitious characters.
  • Bizarrely enough, even music composer Tomoyasu Hotei gets his own fighting clone in a short-lived character named Ricardo Ito.
• Fat Suit: In order to make the weight for the heavyweight division of a karate tournament, Kichi wore an iron chastity belt so that he would weigh 69kg.
• Faux Affably Evil: Manji is a Psychopathic Man Child who apologizes to his opponents as he crushes them completely.
• Fingore: During his fight against Kiba, Kiichi gets 2 of his fingers broken doesn't stop him from popping them back into place.
  • Also happens to an unfortunate gangmember who made the unfortunate mistake of stabbing Yoshiki. This is a regular occurrence in the series.
  • Kujuu would get people's life rings by cutting their fingers off.
• Faux Affably Evil: Nagahide comes across as incredible nice and understanding when in fact he is an incredibly sadistic fighter who enjoys crippling those weaker then him.
• Fragile Speedster: Andre Fernandez has neither the technique nor the capacity to take knock down strikes. But his technique and capacity to dodge such strikes is incredible.
• Freudian Excuse: Combined with being an in universe Designated Villain Gulhad’s upbringing means that he readily brings a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to anyone he fights because everyone he fights are unknowingly psychologically torturing him.
  • Was a disciple of Kasukabe Jouichirou when Son-O came to train with him. He is using the name of his old master to make sure that the name Kasukabe Jouichirou is known as the master of the true shrinkage style.
  • Phantom Joe: You have no idea what it means to lose your master before you were able to learn it all. And then you nadashinkageryu act as if your style is the true art instead of my masters.
• From Bad to Worse: After Gen got caught in Sado’s trap he was attacked by a rattle snake.
• Gag Penis: It’s implied that Yoshiki has one if Kichi’s reaction to seeing it in the bathroom is anything to go by.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Doctor Tachikawa in addition to being a mad scientist.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Naoya Fujita was introduced so that Kiichi would be injured before his fight with Enzo Sasakawa.
• Gecko Ending: Subverted by the OVA which ended at the conclusion of the manga's first arc.
• Genius Bruiser: Kiryu was able to hack the bus database to figure out the schedule that Yokoyama would take.
• Genre Shift: Tough has a more serious tone then the original.
• Glass Cannon: It may not look like it, but a fist can break pretty easily. If the shots have too much punch, sometimes the hand breaks. Particularly the bones on the top of the hand are the most fragile.
• The Glasses Come Off: You know Oton means business when this happens.
• Glory Seeker: The dream of thousands of fighters throughout the world. The one for whom they trained relentlessly. Is to fight Kiba
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The longer Zion fights the more his memory becomes unrepressed until he becomes aware that he killed his parents.
• Gone Horribly Right: Kibo’s combination of what the hell hero and reason you suck speech to Ishige about being bullied so often caused him to stand up to a gang of thugs
  • Noh put Rodoma through the illuminary burial method hoping that it would calm him down a little. But it only made him even more violent
  • Heizo is simply the type of man who prefers to build than to destroy and creating the ideal combatant that would not know defeat, was his dream. That’s how he fine tuned Samon. He put in all the care he possibly could and his saw his masterpiece in him.
  • Kiba survived through Gosaka’s training through The Power of Hate it ended with kiba beating him unconscious with a bat and then practice all of the moves taught to him on his limp body.
  • Many woman were bewitched by Daido Rikiyama including Kiba’s mother. His widow in order to keep her looks resorted to getting plastic surgery dozens of times to make her old skin look young again. Not only did she become repulsive she became ugly to the point of looking frightening
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Despite the teachings of the black dragon temple being that The way of martial arts is meant as a way of self-improvement: in no way does it tolerate being used to harm others. Every warrior shown to have ever trained there have turned out to be vicious beast
• Gonk: The girl Moriyan’s girlfriend tried to set Kibo up with.
• Graceful Loser: While practitioners of the Kenjutsukan are Blood Knight delivering vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown without cause they also except lose quite graciously.
• Green-Eyed Monster: To Andou the Tengu is more then just a teacher he is like a father to him as well as a god so the fact that he shows so much interest in Kichi angered him greatly.
• Groin Attack: Yoshiki once threw a man by his groin.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Kikuta after being injected with IDF-1 and later N.T.S
• Gun Porn: Surprising for a martial arts manga.
• Gun Stripping: Yamada Ichirou turned this into a competition where the user ends up shot by the winner
• Handicapped Badass: Mikogami added numerous robotic parts to his body to protect himself from [[TheDreaded Phantom Joe.
  • Mikhail was part of the “Spetsnaz” the Russian special forces and a Master of systema. Despite having only one arm he handily defeated Kiba.
  • Yoshiki continued to lift weights while confined to a hospital bed
• Hard Head: The word concussion or fractured skull doesn't seem to apply to most of the fighters in this series.
• Hard Work Hardly Works:
  • According to Son-o the muscles in a person's body have a huge effect on the techniques used and their power. However the main component that decides the strength of your muscles is your dna as there are certain things you can't learn no matter how much you practice.
  • Kichi studies for 2 hours everyday yet always gets the worse grades in class.
• Heal It with Booze: Using a knife, a bottle of whiskey, and a piece of thread Oton dug a bullet out and stitched himself up after he was shot.
• The Hedonist: Ryuuichi Kusanagi.
• Heel Realization: Kichi realized just how much his comment about not fighting woman hurt Miyagi after she passed out crying because she couldn’t get out of the Winds hold.
  • This was mainly do to discovering they were not so different in that they were both fighting to uphold their fathers teachings
  • Heel Realization: Shingo’s father realized how neglectful he was being to his son when he discovered that Shingo had blacked out his brothers face in all of the family photos with a magic marker and wrote my brother is dead look at me father.
  • The crowd in the T.D.K after ignoring Mark’s blatant illegal move and goading Hyce to keep fighting realize just how injured he was when Mark started mercilessly beating him and began to wonder if he was going to dye
• Henpecked Husband: Heiki shows signs of this.
• Hero-Worshipper: The real reason the Wind decided to accept the assignment of assassinating Kichi was to see the Quite Tiger again after witnessing his strength in his battle against Shirogitsune
• Hidden Depths: kichii gives his blood once a month
  • It doesn’t seem like it but the Dark Monkey is a real gourmet with a very demanding taste whether it’s cuisine or women
  • The side story another side of kiryu
    • Kiryu really likes Garigari-kun popcycles. When he found out that he won a free one he immediately crashed his car through the convenient store to cash it in.
• High-Pressure Blood: After removing the knife Yoshiki’s blood shot out of his body like a fire hose
• Hitman with a Heart: Heizo “The Destroyer” Onikawa
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After all the years he destroyed a great number of wrestlers Heizo was destroyed by a fighter he trained personally
  • Orochi was defeated with a snake like sleeper hold
• Honey Trap: Heizo “The Destroyer” Onikawa Did this to kichi to lore him into a fight.
  Kichi: Since the beginning of time, women and money have been the best ways to attract a man
• Honor Before Reason: Onihei always refused to compromise his technique for the entertainment of the spectators and little by little he found himself in the shadows.
  • Despite being terrified of Booker Zero Bull refused to just tell him that he had just defeated Kichi as that would lower Kichi’s rank
  • Heizo trained kichii to fight samon even though with his injuries he risk deforming his arm
  • Samon will rather be crippled then give up
  • Aika decision to fight Manji despite the clear difference of skill and power between the two
  • Kichi deciding to fight Kuju on the ride home on the way home from the elimination match even though the later the later was at full strength while he had just waken up from a three day coma and was still horribly injured. Not to mention the fact that that fighting him meant that he could have been eliminated from the finals of the hyper battle.
  • Even though he would be dead in six month. Seiko had to be the one to fight in the hyper battle. Even if he must take part in Doctor Tachikawa’s demonic treatment. Something he initially refused to do.
  • Played with Kikuta’s the igf-1 during his fight with the giant because dogen put the fear of god into him. Later he refused to take the nts during his fight jet because he wanted to win using his own skill. Unfortunately he wasn’t given a choice here either.
• How Much More Can He Take?: Kiichi usually gets worked over bigtime before he pulls off the inevitable (but not always occurring) victory.
• Hulking Out: His muscles have expanded to increase the strength of his punches.
  • Shuto uses an extreme respiratory muscular stimulation technique to turn himself into a ball of muscles
• Humiliation Conga: After his defeat by Samon Barry Smith was forced to retire. Afterwards his wife left him and he is currently living as a drunk in the slums.
• Hypochondria: Played with while oton is one since kichi was born premature anytime he got sick oton would freak out. One day when kichi had a fever oton suspected everything from measles to eczema. Luckily it turned out to be nothing more then a bad cough
• Hypocrite: The Nadashinkage ryu was created for the sole purpose of being an assassination art yet its current heir was disgusted when he found out a fighter was using martial arts to assassinate people for the U.S government.
  'Kichi: I know that martial arts were created with the goal in mind to kill, but using them with that as the sole purpose is different.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Kousabe is just as skilled in grappling techniques as striking. The only reason he doesn’t use them is because he was always able to finish a fight with blows.
• If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: The Miyazawa rice special, rice for the carbs; fish, beef, chicken and egg whites along with some protein powder, and then you add some high quality minerals, mix it all together until you have a goo-like substance. And then you cover it with powdered vitamins and calcium. It doesn’t look appetizing but it’s really good for you
• I Have Many Names: Oton, Seiko the Defender, Counter Fighter, Calm Fighters
• I Just Want to Be Special: The Winds main goal is to be stronger when 15 years of Hagyuu training didn’t accomplish that he decided to become Kiryuu’s disciple
  • Seems to be one of the main reasons people take up martial arts.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Wakabashi knows of a good Chinese restaurant that disposes bodies as ingredients of noodle soup.
• Impersonating the Evil Twin: Inverted after Gambino put a hit out on him Kiryu was able to get out of the state by disguising himself as Oton
• Implausible Deniability: After Oton was caught in the Yamanashi area searching for Ryuuichi Kusanagi on behalf of his daughter he told them he was collecting samples
• Important Haircut: Yoshiki shaved his head for a vale tudo tournament.
  • Kibo forced Ishige to get one to improve his self image.
  • Minoru’s motivation for his fight with oton shows even in his haircut.
  • Yoshiki get's one along with a goatee in the second arc which practically makes him almost unrecognizable.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Ichirou Yamada is a super A-class sniper who prides himself in his 99% success rate. If you’re targeted by Yamada Ichirou you’re pretty much a goner.
• Improvised Weapon: Since the usage of weaponry are not authorized in the Hyper Battle Elimination Match participants are forced to rely on their clothing, belts and whatever else they can get their hands on such as any grasses or trees that are in the area.
  • Kujuu Baramaru used a stick during the Japanese Elimination Match
  • In the hands of a self defense specialist a simple t-shirt can become as flexible and as hard as a whip using the Nadashinkage
  • Kichii took this a step further by wrapping that t-shirt around a handful of life rings
• Insane Troll Logic: After defeating Kichi Iron Kiba stated that the reason he wanted to be the strongest is so that he could marry a woman like his mother the Ax-Crazy woman who tried to strangle him to death
  • The reason Manji can’t lose is because it would be unpardonable for all those who he sadistically tortured in his previous fights.
• Insufferable Genius: Chosho was this before his shoot fighter trainer set him straight
• Insult Backfire: Kichi refered to Tomogachi as a dog of the yakuza Tomogachi’s reply was that if kichi wanted to compare him to a dog he would show him the strength of a k9 and afterwards he would admit to being simple dog food.
• Invincible Hero: With the incredible combination of New Powers as the Plot Demands, Deus ex Machina, and Only the Author Can Save Them Now Kichi Miyazawa is very much this.
  • What makes this worse is that anytime Kichi is about to officially lose the fight is always stopped or postponed due to outside interference.
  • Heck anyone who practiced the nadashinkageryu is this.
• It's All About Me: While Kichii is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold the Jerkass part really shines through when he doesn’t get his way
• Jack of All Trades: Kichi though he usually comes up weak against those that specialize in a specific field.
• Japanese Delinquents: Many of Kiichi's earliest opponents and friends in the first series. Kiichi himself comes across as one, with his love of fighting, but outside of that he is actually a perfectly diligent young man who works hard in school and takes care of his hygiene.
• Jerkass/Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kiichi can come off a jerkass a great deal of the time even too his friends, though he has also been known to shown compassion and even respect to his opponents even after they just came out of fight where they intentionally try to kill or cripple him.
  • This is Kichi’s defining character trait
    • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: However his need to be the strongest makes him this such as giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to kiba for not wanting to fight Garcia again (and warning him against it) after Garcia crippled him for life.
    • Later when at the black dragon temple thinking that Chosho was just a weakling that he had to get pass to fight Rodoma he repeatedly taunted him and even through rocks at him to show that he was nothing more then a formality
  • The reason Kiba wanted to fight Oton was because some random person told him that the Nadashinkage was the strongest martial arts. So he shows up out of the blue and attacks him.
    • He then threatened his son when that didn’t work
  • Tetsuzan it’s hard to find but its there. He’s a violent drunk who puts everyone of his students through training from hell, but cares about them in his own way and rewards them when he they do make progress. He also fought the yakuza for his friend.
  • Mark Hamilton and his corner man in his match against Hyce Mark blatantly poked out Hyce’s eye to get out of a hold literally the only illegal move in the t.d.k not only did Mark’s cornerman try to claim that it was an accident when, Hyce’s brother angered that the ref wasn’t going to do anything he told them that Hyce was only leaving because he knew he was going to lose.
    • The crowd who called the Grancie’s cowards for trying to stop the fight for something so minor even going so far as say that Grancie Jiu Jitsu was spitting on Japan.
• Karma Houdini: Despite all of the crimes Gojo committed and the people he brutalized he still got to go the Olympics after Kichii defeated him.
  • It seems that the only reason Jet was created was to absolve Kichi of killing Garcia which was done in the most obvious way possible
• Kick the Dog: Kiba's backstory.
• Kill Or Be Killed: The Dark Fights
  • Kiryu abandons the mother of his child later by chance he happens to come across that child living in the slums of Brazil. After saving his life that child came to revere Kiryu as a god and not once is it ever mentioned that it was his fault that he lived their in the first place.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: The Nadashinkage started to veer into this a lot during Tough
• Laser-Guided Karma: Having someone that’s so much stronger then you crush you without a hint of mercy doesn’t feel good does it Kiba
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: To Kuju, his father was the embodiment of fear. He trained Kuju without mercy or pity, even threatening to kill him if he failed. However not even he could overcome aging and one day fought another warrior and lost ending up severely injured. Kuju disgusted by how weak his father had become killed him.
• Lampshade Hanging: Kichi listing the many similarities between Jet and Edgar
  • Don Gambino contemplating the absurdity of Kiryu being alive after witnessing him being shot in the head.
• Leave Behind a Pistol: Played With. After Wakabashi lost the Dark Fights, losing the 300 million yen that he borrowed from Kantodojokai Yakuza group. With both of them knowing that they’ll kill him Rikimaru sent his bodyguards out and gave him a gun to end his life fully expecting Wakabashi to point it at him. Wakabashi didn’t disappoint
• Light Is Not Good: Son-o’s appearance possesses the splendor of the phoenix, in Ancient China the phoenix is simply a symbol of authority, not good. Genuine evil has a compassionate face.
• Lighter and Softer: Than a good majority of Tatsuya Saruwatari's work. While still having moments of blood of gore, it's nowhere near as much as say, Dokuro, and there's also way less character death involved, with antagonists pretty much always surviving their fights with Kiibo, although he admittedly is just looking for a good fight with them, and when defeated, they tend to join up and become allies of his.
• Loophole Abuse: Kiba agreed to leave Oton alone if Kichi was victorious in his fight with Samon. However since Kichii didn’t kill Samon that means it wasn’t an official match in Kiba’s eyes
  • Back when Oton was the clan head he proposed a truce between the Nadashinkage school and the Hyaguu school now that he is no longer the head they can destroy the Nadashinkage.
  • In the Shindou style, crushing the opponent completely means killing them without killing them at all. So that they may tell others the power, the fear, the terror that inspires the Shindo style.
  • Gojo Kano like to go around and challenge people to brutal “Training Matches” so that he wont be banned from competition.
• Losing Is Worse Than Death: A common belief if the series.
  Kibo: Yeah I want to fight people that are so strong that they give me goosebumps and scare me. It doesn’t bother me at all that I’m bad in school. And being poor doesn’t bother me either. I’m not ashamed of any of that. The only thing that really bothers me would be to lose.
• Love Martyr: Kiba’s been divorced 8 times
• Made of Iron: Tetsuzan can hit nails into concrete with the back of his hands Kaneda is also capable of doing such things.
  • Motosekiwake has his nose broken by a boxer and then his face slashed open by a sword and was still able to fight at full strength sadly not even he can continue fighting after his finger was cut off. Though not for long.
  • Wrestling’s principle is to endure the opponent’s attacks. That’s why wrestler’s develop an extremely resistant body capable of taking any kind of hit. Dozens no hundreds of punches would not be able to hurt a wrestler.
  • When Danjuro agreed to spare Mikhail’s life if Oton gave up his arm as compensation he used his sword-cane to chop it off only for the blade to be blocked by the muscles in Oton’s arm preventing him from slicing through.
• Man Bites Man: Kengo’s most terrible attack is his bite. Kengo has a powerful jaw and his teeth are as sharp as a lion’s. In his last match, he bit away the cheek of his opponent.
• Manly Tears: Kiba' & Kiichi's fight at the end of the first arc was powerful enough to invoke this from those there.
  • Happens during Kiba's retirement speech among some fans.
• Major Injury Underreaction: After his first fight with Tomodachi Kichi had been vomiting up blood. When he finally did it in front of Bull he played it off as a cut in his mouth.
  Kichi: I’m ok I just cut the inside of my mouth a bit that’s it.
  Bull: you don’t spit up that much from a simple cut you idiot.
  • After receiving a kick to the face Gono one of the soldiers sent to recruit Seiko for Team D decided to keep fighting even though he was bleeding from his nose and mouth and his neck was stuck at an awkward angle. His fellow soldiers were understandably freaked.
    • And every time we see him afterwards he always has a smile on his face with his neck still at that awkward angle.
• Malevolent Mutilation: When Gojo damaged Kichi’s digestive system so that he couldn’t eat Oton secretly fasted for three days so he could follow his son.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Legend says that when the Thunder Big Drum of the Hagyuu School sounds like thunder under a clear sky, the dragon of heaven will be surprised and call the rain. Oton was able to beat the drum twenty times with the wind strike. That sound surprised the heavens covered this mountain for three days and nights.
• Meaningful Name: “The Wind” Minoru is whimsy in the sense of changing as the wind blows, Minoru appears and disappears unnoticed.
• Men Act, Women Are: the series has a real problem with this as female characters are only there to serve as Satellite Love Interest, victims to male characters, or totally devoted to them. Yumiko is the only member of the Miyazawa clan who isn’t a martial artist, and Waka Miyashita a fighter strong enough to enter the Japanese Elimination Match was told by the main character not to fight because if she’s raped she’ll become useless. Kichi ended up defeating the man who shamed her father.
  • It turns out that even Kichi’s mother is susceptible to this where at first a case of Parental Abandonment we find out that she and Oton were only together for at most 8 months. She was only mentioned for the purpose of starting the storyline of finding out who Kichi’s biological father is.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Averted with Inchikawa the former Fukuryu karate champion whose face was mutilated by Shuto. While he was no match for the T.D.K combatant the average muggle could still tell that he was a dangerous fighter.
• Moral Myopia: A lot of the fighters who took up martial arts in order to stop being bullied see nothing wrong with bullying others
  • For all his grief about children needing a good mother Kiba didn’t even leave his child anything after his death instead leaving it to the winner of the Strongest Homo Sapien in The World Tournament.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: Oton vs Tachikawa.
• Moving the Goalposts: Dogen never gives up until he wins even if it means changing the rules.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Averted and played straight due to the strong as they need to be aspect of the series for example Kikuta’s attacks seemed to have no effect on Jet, yet the Miyazawa clan all have Innate leg strength.
• My Greatest Failure: The fact that Oton was able to see his murderous intent was this for Ichirou.
• My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours:
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Mikogami.
  Mikogami: I was never able to have a sense or eye for those kind of things and now one eye isn’t working as it should, but I am sure that I saw him as his presence is engraved on my minds eye.
  • Oton is fully aware when he’s being watched.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Asura, Maneater, The Destroyer just to name a few.
  • Phantom Joe.
  • Heizo “The Destroyer” Onikawa.
• Neck Lift: Kiba did this to one of the woman he was sleeping with to show his ruthlessness.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: Averted with Komatsu the secretary at the bank where Oton works. She didn’t want to rely on men economically or mentally. She wanted to be a completely self-reliant woman.
• Never My Fault: Kiryu blames Son-o for his attempt at his brother’s life.
  • The con who murdered five family members for chump change. During his execution, he gave every excuse in the book from bullies to Abusive Parents.
• Never Say "Die": In the world of martial arts defeat is synonymous with death.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Anybody who has trained in the Nadashinkage has access to this. For example, Jet suddenly gains Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs in his fight with Kikuta.
• Nice Guy: Jinsei Nagai. One of the chapters in his spin-off shows a day in his life and it has him doing things like helping an old lady across the street and beating up a bunch of a thugs who were harassing a father and his son, and reassuring the boy that his father isn't a coward because even though he was scared, he never ran away just so he could protect his son. That doesn't mean he'll be soft with you if you're a villain.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Before his match with Kiba, Oton pushed a drunk who had stumbled into the road out of the way of a car and was hit instead.
  • Yamatsu, a passionate man who believes that strength without justice is violence, and justice without strength is powerless, saved Oton as he was being attacked by a bunch of delinquents, and afterwards took him out for drinks as thanks. As the two were walking out of the bar contemplating going to another, one of the delinquents from before returned and shot him. While Oton’s quick aid was able to save his life, the bullet damaged his spine, leaving him paralyzed on one side.
  • Yamatsu however saw this as Laser-Guided Karma, as he had just wanted to pick a fight after being laid off.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: Averted. Kibo only fell more in love with Takako after finding out how well she could fight.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Kiryu was simply no match for Phantom Joe.
• No Name Given: The Zion.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Kiba is the greatest wrestler of Japan, and has always stressed the superiority of wrestling, yet the moment he stepped into the world of Vale Tudo, he lost spectacularly and was crippled for life.
  Kiba: in the world of Vale Tudo, where there are no lies, the glitz and glamour of wrestling flakes off.
  • Kiba called Kichi this after the later gave him a reason you suck speech for not wanting to fight Garcia again and expressing that the notion that someone on this earth is stronger than him pisses him off.
  Kiba: “The Frog at the bottom of the pond does not yet know the ocean. There are many men stronger than you besides Garcia.
  • Bull Mashida made his debut in the Olympic and after that he want into the MMA and it seems he was able to win 8 times inside that cage. He later challenged Kichi to a street fight as defeating the winner of the Hyper Battle Tournament would raise his name. While Kichi was surprised by his strength, he quickly choked him out.
• No-Sell: Jiro’s punch to Kibo.
  • Nagashinkage secret techniques have to be executed perfectly if even the slightest mistake is made this happens.
  • It’s been said that some individuals are capable of resisting being hung and Kiba is one of them making defeat by strangulation impossible
• No Sympathy: Kichi after Aika’s story of her fathers defeat
  Kichi: And you want me to sympathize. You seek to avenge your father, but you are taking the wrong path by keeping this grudge against manji. Honestly your father lost because he was weak, and it’s because he was weak that he died.
  • Which makes him a huge hypocrite as he’s currently in the process of doing the same thing with a man who is significantly stronger then Manji
• Not Quite Dead: Kiba ended up ambushing Oton and Mikhail after their fight. Thinking that Mikhail was incapacitated he informed him that he never had any intension of helping him and that Doushi was going to sell him back to the Russian myfia. Only to realize that Mikhail was fine when he attacked him.
• Not So Stoic: The look of positive glee on Oton’s face when he was given a team shirt.
• Oblivious Mockery: While critiquing an anti-war painting kiryu mentioned that it is impossible to paint hell while living in heaven without realizing that he was talking to the artist.
• Offhand Backhand: Kichi’s aunt Yumiko did this to a yakuza member who tried to attack her.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Phantom Joe is able to get in and out of rooms without anyone noticing.
  • This is how he gets his name
• Oh, Crap!: The great Nanho’s face when he found out Kiba was lying to Mikhail about having connections with the Russian government
• Older and Wiser: Kichi after the two year Time Skip between Exciting High School Story and Tough has finally put to practice all of his fathers teachings with a little bit of Self-Deprecation.
  Kichi: No one knows better than me that I haven’t got what it takes to lead the Nadashinkage school that’s why I’ve devoted myself to becoming as strong as the last leader.
• Old Master: Kasukabe Jouichirou trained Son-O for awhile.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Oton said this word for word when Tachikawa discovered he was shot.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Kiryu believes that Kichii is the only one that can kill him.
  • This is the reason Yoshiki warned Kichi about all the fighters gunning for him.
• Original Video Animation: It recieved a 3-episode one that covers Kiibo's fights with Samon, Shingo, and Iron Kiba.
• Papa Wolf: Oton doesn't like when someone purposely threatens Kiichi's life (even though Kiichi gets himself into these very situations).
  • Kiba visiously beats anyone who hurts his son from his wives for being [stay in the kitchen bad mother’s]] to his school bullies
  • When kichi was a baby and had a high fever Oton rushed to the doctor’s office and literally smashed down the door freaking the doctor out.
    • Oton only agreed to fight Kiba after he threatened a young Kichi.
• The Paralyzer: Onikawa's specialty.
• Parental Neglect: Shingo due to being The Un-Favourite. When example when his father heard his son’s screams of pain his reply was that young imbecile can deal with it on his own
• Parental Abandonment: Like every other woman he’s been with Kiryu left Jets mother after he got board with her. He happened upon jet as he was living in the slums was sheer luck.
• Parental Substitute: Kusakabe is this to the Andou Yumeji for helping him get over some of the guilt for killing his father
• Parents as People: Sadistically subverted Kiba seems to be attracted to beautiful business savy women only to beat them half to death when they don’t have time to be stay at home moms.
• Passing the Torch: Kiba passed the desire to defeat the Nadashinkageryu onto his son
• Pet the Dog : For all his atrocities Kiba took care of his step mother until the day she died
• Playing Possum: This was how Shingo was able to get out of the Tasuki lock
• Playing with Syringes: At first Kikuta refused to take the N.T.S during his fight with Jet because he wanted to win using his own skill forcing Tachikawa to inject him with a syringe the moment his back is turned
• Plot Armor: If kiichi knocks his opponent out even if it’s only for a little while and they get back up he is still considered the winner. But if they knock him out and he gets back up he is allowed to keep fighting.
• The Power of Love: It is said that the Winds fist carries more love then anger and hate, sadly it’s not as powerful as The Power of Hate
  Wind: the Kitsune master’s raised me in the resentment and hatred of you. Hatred is the other side of love. For me both of those words mean the same thing.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: No matter how deplorable a fighter is as long as they fight honorably Kichi could care less what they’ve done in the past.
  • Kichi decided to get training from the man who tried to kill his father
  • Even the pope will stop everything to watch the hyper battle
• Psychopathic Manchild: After his defeat by Kichi Manji cried like a little child without worrying about the eyes of others.
• Psycho Serum: The mixture of HCG and steroids
  • Doctor Tachikawa’s treatment
    • Super Serum: N.T.S doesn’t seem to produce the same aggressive rage as IDF-1
• Punched Across the Room: The sumo wrestler Motosekiwake uma-no-yama did this to an unnamed boxer in the Japanese elimination match with one slap crushing his face and breaking his neck
• Put on a Bus: After his match with his kichi’s father kikuta suddenly replaced Chosen as Kichi’s corner man despite being injured and with no explanation why.
  • Mysteriously and unfortunately winds up happening to Kuroda towards the end of Kiba & Kiichi's fight despite being at the fight from the start.
• Race Against the Clock: Kikuta had to defeat Jet before the final countdown of the Super Serum.
  • The IDF-1 only lasts 10 minutes.
    • The NTS only lasts 30.
• Rage Breaking Point: It took Kiba sucker punching Oton, threatening his son, sending a Russian assassin after him with the promise of sending him home, and admitting that that he was planning on handing the Russian over to the mob before Oton agreed to fight him
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: The Rush.
  • The Kasumiduki technique of the Nadashinkage ryu.
• Razor-Sharp Hand: Phantom Joe.
  Mikogmi: All he used was his own body, but he was able to cut clear through bone. He made me watch as he tore my flesh apart and how my arms were ripped from me. In front of this man, humanity is nothing more than a plaything and he did not kill me but left me alive to bleed to death.
• Razor Wind: Son-o is able to split a watermelon in half with his kick.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: Kiryu seems to believe this.
  Kiryu: the only true strong men are men who can kill other men without hesitation.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The person who gave Chosho his initial combat training gave Chosho this along with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for attempting to get stronger without suffering.
• Red Baron: Kiryu the Devil.
  • Kusakabe Jouichirou Phantom Joe.
  • Heizo "The Destroyer" Onikawa.
• Redemption Equals Death: Samon.
• The Reveal: We didn’t find out Kiba’s real name until after his death.
• Revenge by Proxy: Mikogami.
  Mikogami: I wont say something as stupid as I will kill Phantom Joe. But I am more than certain that I will use all I can do, to try and make him pay for what he has done to me. For that day I will do whatever I need to survive. The Nadashinkage ryu has once again shown me that it is capable of bringing down a man under any circumstance.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Averted Mikhail lost his arm in an assassination attempt when he attempted to turn in an internal denunciation letter.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: B did this after Kiryu killed his brother Anthony.
• Rubber Man: Jet seems to have what you can call rubber ligaments, his ligaments are extremely limber and flexible and thus he can twist them more than a normal person can. Thanks to that they have the capability to twist for a max of 270 degrees.
• Rule of Symbolism: There are 365 days in a year, a human’s body temperature is 36.5 degrees Celsius and people have 365 bones.
• Running Gag: The utilization of Always a Bigger Fish. Kichii’s current opponent will usually always brutally defeat his last opponent to show how strong they are.
  • Kichii usually goes into major battles injured in some way.
  • The use of Villain with Good Publicity.
  • The use of Training from Hell to gain Charles Atlas Superpower.
  • Powerful unknown fighters face will usually be shrouded in shadows before the big reveal.
  • Kichi going Love at First Sight with every pretty girl he meets.
• Sadistic Choice: In Tough the Four Foxes sent Kichi a letter stating that although he’s the biological successor of the Nadashinkageryu the Hagyuu school will not allow him to be the head of the school and that he must either close the school or be killed
• Sadist Teacher: After being adopted by his father Rikiyama’s wife, Kiba was initiated into all sorts of combat styles by Gosaka.
• Sanity Slippage: Gulhad’s fear of losing causes him to go through this the longer his opponent last. Made even worse if his opponent starts to get the upper hand. Eventually he starts to hear the Ramuay.
  • And sees the Buddhist god of hell.
• Scary Black Man: Barukan Bobby.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Played with Makashi was Yoshiki’s kohei in school and while Yoshiki did regularly beat Makashi up it was only because Makashi repeatedly bullied those weaker then him.
• Seppuku: Oton makes a point to remind Kiichi that if he ever sullies the name of the Nadashikage Style by losing he will be forced to take his own life.
• Serious Business: You do not throw a fight for money.
• She Is All Grown Up: According to his sister when he was young Oton was a crybaby of a child. He was also the one kid that was always bullied in class.
• Sherlock Scan: Jet’s capacity for perception is excellent. He is able to tell the “Penitent Madeleine” by the mystical painter George De La Tour by the authors signature.
• Shout-Out: In the first chapter of the manga, Kiichi fights a wrestler named Mammoth Nishi.
  • The “Minoru Notebook” is a shout out to Death Note.
  Minoru: Every man whose name is described in the “Minoru Notebook gets ko’d in the first round.
  Kichi: What bullshit! Is he from a shonen manga?
  Doctor: I think he kinda looks like a shinigami.
  • Kibo has repeatedly stated that he wishes to be an action star the likes of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
  • During his fight with Kaneda Kichi tried to provoke him with his hands down and without a guard. Just like out of Rocky IV.
  • Goetsu style to Spider-Man.
  • When Kichi bit Chosho to get out of a hold the other black temple students compared him to Mike Tyson.
  • After the time limit for the Muscular Reinforcement product ran out Kikuta’s arm started to swell up causing people in the audience to compare him to Popeye after he ate spinach
  • The clash between Kichi and Oton at the Hyper Battle was compared to Shakespeare’s King Lear and Star Of the Giants by Ikki Kajiwara.
  • Kasumiduki training and the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken
• Sinister Minister: Zion has a demon living in his right hand. When it strikes, it tears the flesh apart.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Kenjutsukan training methods are incredibly sadistic Tetsuzan regularly breaks his student’s bones while viciously beating them.
  • Kiryu pushed Kichi off the hoover dam 221 meters high and forced him to climb back up. When he was finally able to do it he pushed him off again for being to slow.
  • Oton seems to be this as he shows a technique once and then leaves it up to Kichi to master it.
• Slipping a Mickey: Wakabashi gave Kichi a muscle relaxant drug before his match with Zion.
• Shown Their Work: The author research of martial arts shows through to the point where every instant outside (and in some states inside) of supernatural martial arts are shown incredibly accurately.
  • This is even combined with All There in the Manual as each volume ended with a interview of various martial artist.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Even though his skill don’t measure up Tenshu’s status as a pro wrestler makes him this until he’s shown the error of his ways
  • Most pro wrestlers tend to be this due to their status as Elite Mooks.
  • Kichi starts to become this as the series goes on for example walking into a dangerous martial arts temple and insulting the master after defeating a bunch of mook trainees. The master quickly showed him the error of his ways however.
• Sociopathic Soldier: The Devil Factory managed by Shawn J. Akutsu is a place where people who wouldn't even harm a fly are turned into ferocious beasts. A real factory to create demons, just like its name says. In that place, sadistic and violent impulses that your subconscious hides are revealed by mind control. As for your physique and thoughts they’re transformed with the use of drugs.
  • First class master Sergeant Sado ex-member of the First Corps Aerial Forces in the Self Defense Army. Sado is a real sadist an individual that finds his pleasure in the more perfect atrocities.
• Sore Loser: To Dogen money is his blood, his flesh, his darling and he could never forgive anyone who would try to steal his money, even if they were from his own family. He once lost one billion in Las Vegas. Later he brought the casino.
• Spanner in the Works: Kichi can grab victory no matter how critical the situation.
• The Spartan Way: The elimination match thrives upon this.
  Announcer: Everything is dangerous. Everyone is an enemy. Trust nothing besides your wits, strength and skill. Sharpen your senses and with your wild instincts go out and fight. The instant beast senses beast fight. The strong will thrive and the weak will shed blood and flesh until they beat corpses. That is the cruel and bitter rule of the wild. Let the battle begin.
  • The Nadashinkage ryu considers this Awesome, but Impractical its teachings stress that a Spartan teaching will give a brilliant student, but on the other hand a disciple who follows a conciliatory teacher will not progress.
  • A fight is more useful than 100 practices.
• Stalker without a Crush: Phantom Joe has been doing this to Seiko for years waiting for the chance to fight him.
• Stalking is Love: Kichii to Takako.
  • The man stalking Shiho seems to think so he even named his cat after her.
    • Averted after being told off by her the next day he staked the cat to her door with an arrow.
• Standard Hero Reward: After he returned the president's daughter home Kiryu informed the president that she was pregnant with his child and to use his reward money to cover the child raising expenses.
  • This is how Kichi was conceived.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Because of his upbringing Kiba feels that woman should stay at move an utterly devote themselves to their children and reacts violently when this is averted by even the tiniest of margins.
• The Stoic: Oton when's not acting like a mild mannered salary man who has to.
• Stout Strength: The leader of the Shimakin gang.
  • Motosekiwake uma-no-yama obvious since he’s a sumo wrestler.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Zion wanted Kichi to do this after he realized that he was the one who killed his parents.
• Stupid Evil: A loss wouldn't really do anything to the N.T.S' reputation because the soldiers in the audience would still witness its awesome power, but seeing Kikuta blow up from its effects certainly would. Of course Don Jos is such a sociopath he probably doesn't care.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: The fact that Kichi was born premature and was often sick and the shadow of death always looked upon him was never mentioned before the middle of the second series.
• Superpowered Evil Side: A lot of the more humane fighters have a combat mode where they become sadistic monsters when they fight.
• Super-Soldier: Garcia a product of the USS academy works as a government assassin.
• Super-Strength: Kiba is strong enough to German Suplex a helicopter.
  • As a child, Barkley's punch was too powerful for his bone structure causing him to easily break his hand while training.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dogen Arikawa can bench press 200 kilos and squat 300. His inhuman grip allows him to crack nuts between his thumb and index. The strength of his punches are also amazing. Their power is superior to those of many heavyweight boxers. However years of mistreating his body to gain that strength makes his a regular patient at Yumiko's clinic.
  • During his match with Shintaro kakumaru the leader of the Goetsu school Genshu Ibara gravely wounded his defenseless opponent. He was imprisoned for the wounds he afflicted and attempted murder.
  • While Yoshiki's martial arts training may allow him to mentally ignore a knife in his gut that doesn’t mean he can physically ignore it.
  • Turning your back on an armed conscious opponent isn't a good idea.
    • Not even a made of iron martial artist can survive a gunshot to the head.
  • The important quantity of adrenaline that the combatants create when fighting allows them to support a lot of pain but not to resist the "Sensual Pleasure" that losing consciousness provides.
  • No matter who or what it is, their strength will decrease as they grow older. Even Kusakabe isn't exempt from that rule.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Don Gambino and Kiba. Both are Ax-Crazy Dirty Coward s who use and discard people simply because they have the power to. Both have had a body part taken by a Miyazawa brother. And both became obsessed with getting revenge.
  • Yoda to bull.
  • Lampshaded in universe that Jet shares many things in common with Edgard C Garcia. For example his looks, fighting style, instincts the fact that both of them came from Brazil.
• Sword Cane: Hidari fights with one of these.
• Take That!: Numerous ones towards Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the Gracie family specifically, early on in the manga. The bias is significantly downplayed later, coinciding with the rise of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools and instructors in Japan.
  • A certain president known for his stupidity was mentioned.
• Talented, but Trained: Kiichi comes from a long line of martial artists- both his adoptive family and biological one - and seems naturally gifted in all things physical. That aside, he trains constantly, from roadwork to calisthenics, from nightly lessons with Oton to picking up advice from other martial artists and styles. He even obsesses over a healthy diet and maintaining strong and clean teeth.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Remco during is his first fight with Kichi. Mainly due to the fact that he had him in the mounting position and because he was so big there was nothing Kichi could do but let him talk.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Gojo and his teacher are having an affair.
  • Rika Tachibana.
• Teach Me How To Fight: Kiichi may be an expert martial artist, but any time he comes against a foe with an unfamiliar style, he seeks out an ally or friend to train him on countering it.
• This Is a Drill: The Onna style Drill-hand technique.
• Tiger Versus Dragon Versus Phoenix: Oton, Kiryu, and Son-o.
  • Jet vs kichi the nadashinkage ryu’s tiger vs the dragon from Brazil.
• Too Dumb to Live: Kiichi abuses the hell out of this trope.
• Tough Love: Played justifiably straight with Oton & Kiichi.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: A fighter’s aggressive energy can stop a person in their tracks.
• Time Skip: Tough starts two years after Kōkō Tekken-den Tough.
• Too Dumb to Live: Kiba set up Mikhail to fight Oton by promising him that if he defeated him and taught him Systema he would use his connections to clear his criminal record so that he could be go back home. However Kiba new that the Yakuza family Mikhail was working as The Dragon for were planning on betraying him so if Mikhail had defeated Oton not only would he not receive training in the ultimate martial arts but he most likely would have been killed.
  • The moment he got into Tokyo Kichi attacked a bunch of yakuza trying to extort a man. When one of them pulled a gun on him he believed it was a toy.
  • Jiro can’t seem to get it into his head that he’s not a badass.
  • Sado.
  Oton: One that let’s his opponent out of his sight for even a brief moment during a fight will be beaten.
  • Kiba sucker punched an ex-member of the Russian Special Forces. Kiba would be dead right now if Mikhail wasn’t desperate enough to believe him
  • One of the Japanese elimination match fighters tried to threaten Udo with a weapon he created it ended about as well as you’d expect.
• Took a Level in Badass: A lot of the fighters used to be bullied.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After his defeat by Kichii Fudama went from submissively taking his senpais’ brutality to viciously brutalizing them.
• Tournament Arc: Strongest Hono Sapien in the World” Tournament.
  • Hyper battle.
  • It’s safer to say the majority of Tough is this.
• Training from Hell: Played straight with Kiichi & occasionally with other characters.
  • Garcia has been trained to resist any kind of torture techniques to make him accustomed to pain and suffering one such experience consisted of inserting a needle under his fingernails neither his cardiac rhythm nor his vascular tension were disturbed. There was no reaction either when the nails were ripped. And he wouldn’t do as much as flinch even if his guts were getting removed with a knife.
  • Mastering the Kasumiduki technique involves sticking ones hands into a pot of boiling water to take out several stones.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The Zion’s parents were murdered by a kid that they were trying to save. Zion’s father was a priest, and his mother had worked at a juvenile criminal rehab center. However the juvenile criminal law protects children. He wasn’t punished despite the fact that he murdered two citizens. The judge didn’t know kids are geniuses at making up lies. He had smirked at Zion who was seated in the courtroom. It turns out that child was actually the Zion himself and the memory was a by product of his guilt.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: In universe, Wrestling vs The School of Nadashinkage.
• The Un-Favourite: Shingo Aoi.
  Shingo: Father, are you going to keep ignoring me? It’s always been this way. Whether I’m crying or laughing you never gave me a hint of attention. It’s always been about my sick older brother. I was always left alone and ignored. Even my brother’s death didn’t change a thing. You kept talking about him and got more depressed every day. But look at me father. I’ve become strong. I’m not weak like my brother was. My spirit is as resistant as my body, look at me.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Averted with Yoshiki who was very grateful to Kichi for saving his life.
  • Averted with Remco as well when after their fight got out of hand and Kichi saved him from being crushed by fallen wire tubes. He returned the favor by lifting the tubes off of Kichi.
  • Played with Shiho who freaked out after Oton saved her from being raped (and seeing such a mild manored man deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown) she just screamed and ran off. Three years later when she came across him in the street she thanked him properly.
• Unskilled, but Strong: It is certain that a martial artist must work toward the ideal that flexibility often prevails over force and the small over the big. However it is the undeniable truth that a sturdy constitution has the advantage and in the world of combat techniques, its common sense that with a weight difference of 30 kilos (66 lb), the lighter combatant’s punch will be ineffective. Constitution surpasses technique. Even if it is possible to kill a bear or a tamed bull there is no man who can defeat an elephant with his bare hands.
• Unstoppable Rage: Zion enters this whenever he sees blood.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Gojo Kano is a brutish thug who thinks he can do whatever he wants yet presents himself as a modest gentle giant to the public for his Olympic career.
  • Ted Austin complete with Faux Affably Evil. A week before the Hyper Battle he saved a dog that he threw into the river from drowning and the news spread all over the country. In a moment he became a hero.
  • Kiryu.
  Kiryu: The real “Bad” will smile at you like a saint preaching about dreams or love to get a better hold of your soul.
  • Iron Kiba.
• Weak, but Skilled: Kichii never goes into a fight with the upper hand.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Kiuma Yamaki the son of the late Minoru Yamaki has challenged Oton to a fight many times despite his repeated refusals, because he put Oton and his father in the same place. He felt that by overcoming Oton his father would speak well of him.
  • A non related version between Gen and Kiryu.
  • Jet.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Phantom Joe at least believes he is this as he carves off his opponent’s body such as Mokigami and Kiryu in a way that their hands never do any evil whatsoever again.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Kiba’s son is never seen or heard from again after his death.
  • He didn’t even leave him anything to survive instead willing the entirety of his estate to whomever won a martial arts tournament.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Oton is afraid of flying.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Partly understandable when the Mikogami finally had Phantom Joe at his mercy instead of just killing him out right he contemplated torturing him and cutting off his limbs just live Phantom Joe did to him
• With Friends Like These...: Rikimaru and Wakabashi.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: According to shiho Men have got to be strong.
• Work Off the Debt: After conning Kikuta out of 50 million yen Dogen forced him to be his slave to pay it back.
• The Worf Effect: Kiba suffers this fate badly at the hands of the second arc's big bad.
  • This happens a few times given his age and being an unknown a lot of fighters don’t feel the need to go full out against Kichi.
• Worthy Opponent: Seiko to Phantom Joe.
• Would Hit a Girl: Kiba has no qualms about chocking a defenseless woman to show how ruthless he is.
  • Kiba viciously punched his wife for being a bad mother to the extent that she flew across the room and crashed face first into a mirror.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Kichi in Tough refused to fight Miyagi Aika.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Kiba pulled one on Samon to get him to fight the Nadashinkageryu.
  • Mammoth Niishi attempted to do this to Kiichi in the Dark fighting tournament.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: During their match both kiichi and son-o ended up using the birds eye view technique this restricted their movements forcing them to fight with their spiritual avatars. However the damage done to their spirits transferred over to their real bodies as if they’re fighting two fights at once.
• You're Not My Father: Kumi Kusanagi said this to her father after he went to jail.
  • Despite this she still asked Oton to bring him to her wedding.

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