I'm up to chapter 20 right now and I'm really enjoying this series and despite what I said I really enjoy the fights most times. It's just that, so far, Manji has relied either on his blood worms or a distraction from Rin to defeat his opponents. I realize I can't expect the fights to be fair but everyone likes to see their protagonist kick butt right? So my question is: do I get to see Manji start actually outfighting people later on or not?

ok so you probably read alot of it allready but im still gonna respond

no Manji pretty much gets his ass kicked in every fight
he pretty much sucks...he just talks big and live on his bloodworms

and another thing
Manji is not really the protagonist in the manga
Rin is
atleast if anyone should be called the protagonist it is Rin

I appreciate you taking the time to reply even if I've already caught up. What you said is true but it didn't end up bothering me as much as I thought it would. I still yearn for the fight Manji wins through skill but I think as long as he has the blood worms that will never happen.

However, I would consider Manji and Rin to be dual protagonists. When they separated the mangaka showed both the story of Rin and Manji, not just Rin.

Last edited by McCasper at 10:29 am, Mar 2 2011

but all manji does when they are seperated is to try and find Rin
he never does anything on his own and the story only moves forward when Rin moves forward
he found a meaning with his immortal life in Rin so its not that strange


take the Magatsu-Shira fight
sure he was the one who suggested it but he never really did anything
the outcome would have been the same even if Manji wasnt there
and that have so far been about the only thing he have done without rin and he was only in the background for that whole arc
and all he did was getting his ass kicked

so i do not agree that they share protagonist role

Last I read What happened after that?

@TaoPaiPai: I don't think the plot really follows Rin's revenge anymore, she had her chance to kill him but didn't, it's like she wants to kill him in a fair fight but we know that will never happen. The main driving force seems to be the shadow war between the government and the dojo that killed Rin's family.

Also, Even though Manji was the one looking for Rin when they separated the first time, it was Rin who was looking for Manji when he was being used for experiments.

@Name-Undecided: why don't you just read the manga?

I think it still [in a way] follow her revenge
its just atm its around the Ittoryu-government issues
i still havent read volume 27[so im not sure whats going on atm]

and the reson why she came looking for Manji as i see it is becouse she feels very much responsible for what happened to him and that he is her friend and her bodyguard/teacher/possible love interest

Im not saying they shouldent look for each other
but Rin again in this is the major character all Manji does in this arc too his hang on a wall and being cut into pieces
In his own looking for arcs Rin is still the 1of them that apear most on page
and what she thinks,does and hopes for is what is important

I Like Manji[dont get me wrong lol]
But as i see it he is just her bodyguard nothing more
if not for her he would not have left his shed

a thing that have annoyed me is actually the many retconns this manga had early on
Anotsu was an evil monster in the first couple of chapters
then it turned out it wasnt so simple...and it felt very forced
and when the first retcon for anotsu still felt like he was bit of an asshole he got another retcon
so now he is pretty much a good guy who only wants to do the right thing and make the world a better place

but i still think her goal is to kill him and she is becoming more capable

lol that was ALOT of text
on a side note to all that

was i the only one who thought it was a bit weird that he walked around without an arm for so long

what i mean is
we had allready seen when he was imprissoned that if they stuck another persons hand on him
it would work ...maybe not as good as his own arm but good enough for him to use a sword and take care of himself and Rin alot better

So why when the new hidden government assassin force attacked him
why didnet he just take one of the dead guys arms?

starting to have moral issues about such a little thing now is not likely
did the Author just not think about it? or was it just there so that manji would have more problems

Last edited by lambchopsil at 5:00 pm, May 4 2011

Tried to read this manga....... got tired of seeing dead dogs.......giving up on it.

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There are times when you will miss what you never had. I wonder how you will find what you so desperately need.

I personally think Manji getting his ass handed to him brings more realism to the story. He was a cop; not a trained samurai or dojo student, so it's no surprise that he's almost always completely pwned when he fights those kinds of people. I think Manji doesn't so much rely on his worms as they simple do their own thing; he's obviously willing to die at some points, though you have to admit, everyone does want to live at some point, especially . Rin wanting a fair fight with Anotsu isn't because SHE wants to be the one to kill him fair, but for Manji to be there with her, I think. Besides, I don't think she could have survived very well without him, and let's face it, I don't think a lot of girls could just kill someone like him, .

Right. Here's how I'm gonna defend it.

When you fight another person, your skills basically boil down to how you react to an enemy's actions, how you block/dodge/counter attacks, how you evaluate the pros and cons of attacking here at this point in this way and so on. The defensive side of it relies on the primal reaction that is commonly known as 'fear of death'. In a fight to the death, you are pretty much constantly pushed into a corner to avoid dying, and your desperation and fear (even 'fearless' fighters still have enough in their subconscious to galvanize them to dodge quicker when needs must) draws more out of you than if it was a fight with practice swords, where if you get hit, it hurts a bit. When the stakes are higher, more effort is subconsciously drawn.
For Manji, it's like he's always fighting with practice swords.
There is no death for him to fear if his limbs get chopped off or if he gets stabbed and hacked, therefore, his subconscious doesn't have to take it so seriously. He even says in the manga that the regeneration has made his skills dull - because nothing is a serious challenge to his life anymore, nothing pushes him into that corner, he doesn't really have that good a reason to fear a blade to the guts, because he can just regenerate it, say 'ouch' and stab the other guy in the face. Job done. The fact that he often fights very skilled killers at their own terms is another reason to factor in.

how i kind of see it now
lol

dead dogs? there was one dead dog lol and that was part of establishing how much of an asshole one of the worst character[Shira] so far in the story was...and dogs got to him lol in the end


when manji is fighting the better opponents[like the above asshole] he fights alot better...coz he knows that they can kill him in one hit

before and kind of still...
he hates himself for what he did to his sister i guess so he wants the pain...he might need the pain
he cant die and he cant live so he needs the pain to feel alive/something

now he cares about Rin so he have started to take better care of himself[for her sake i guess]

another important note is that the mangaka seems to love violence,blood,guts and limbs flying
and since manji cant die ...we can see him getting stabbed in the brain,heart,eye U name it over and over...its just perfect
and its not only the mangaka...all the readers loves it[even if the prison^experiment arc...kind of took it too far for me lol]


vol28 feels like the end is near
I hope the mangaka reconsiders and continue on for atleast another 20years