Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Holyland is a no-holds-barred exploration into streetfights and crime. And considering that its author eventually went on to take over writing duties for Berserk, one of the darkest manga of all time... it's safe to say that Holyland has some nightmare fuel of its own.
Examples:
- The streetfights. The first one we see is the first time Yuu takes down Yagi... And the scene is terrifying. Many other fights are much worse.
- Whenever Yuu snaps to his darkside, just hunting down whoever caused his wrath and beating them to a bloody pulp. Them and anyone who gets in his way or he thinks could tell him where his real target is.
- Moments from Yoshii:
- He's first seen reacting to Yuu beating up one of his guys by calling up Iwado. One of the Setashou delinquents takes issue at it, so Yoshii lets him fight Iwado... Fully knowing what happens when one fights a Judoka.
- For a while he just seemed a Non-Action Big Bad, then we find out how he got in power at Setashou: after Taka took down a group of third years that had been bullying him and a then-harmless Yoshii, Yoshii grabbed a knife and did something horrible to them, claimed to have done everything by himself, and got away with it by having been attacked first. Thus Yoshii the loser suddenly became the most feared guy in his school, with only Taka, who considers himself in debt to him for taking the fall of beating up the upperclassmen, knowing what actually happened.
- Right before his fight with Izawa we have a description of the three types of knife fighters, with the third, the metodic one that tries to cut you in the arms and let you bleed and tire before moving in for the kill, being explicitly called the most dangerous. The narration follows it up by saying that Yoshii is doing just that. And this time he's not wearing the Slasher Smile he had before when taking out the upperclassmen, but a calm snarl.
- His backstory and thoughts make him even scarier by revealing there's very little difference between him and Yuu. Just like him, he was a heavily depressed bullying victim who one day found a way to react and fight for his place... Meaning that Yuu could have come out just like Yoshii in slightly different circumstances, only being a better fighter.
- Ryuu and Tetsu are Mixed Martial Arts practitioners who left their gym (or were expelled, it's unclear) because they just loved to break their opponents, not just defeat them. What this means is shown very clearly when Katou tries to muscle in King's operation and Ryuu beats him until he starts crying for help-and then strangles him.
- King.
- He shows up and through his manipulations and drugs gets Shougo to become his henchman, takes over parts of the gangs broken up by Yuu, harms people close to our protagonists without even trying, and when someone berates him for being a Non-Action Big Bad and leaving everyone to fight for him he shows he's actually the strongest villain in the series.
- One of the scariest parts of him is the Hope Spot about his possible defeat. For a while it seemed the Yakuza, of all people, would come down on him because he was getting too much attention and interfering in their drug trafficking... Then they saw he wasn't getting attention from the police and, by selling only True and not the heavier stuff, he was not only not interfering in their trafficking but helping it, as True had become a gateway drug and the addicts after a while moved on the heavier stuff the Yakuza sold, thus they left him alone.
