Ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come!
Let's begin the matches in Block C!
SUEKICHI KANEDA NAOYA OHKUBO
Look, Lihito. They're provocative.
RYO HIMURO LIHITO
I totally agree with you, Ohkubo.
Hey, I exchanged phone numbers with that long-haired girl yesterday.
What?
KAEDE AKIYAMA KAZUO YAMASHITA
Hi, welcome back.
-And you, President Yamashita. -Hello.
How's Ohma?
Are you talking about me?
OHMA TOKITA
Oh, you woke up? You're not fatigued anymore?
Huh? I'm not feeling fatigued.
-I'm relieved. -Who're you anyway?
-He looks okay. -You forgot me?
SAYAKA KATAHARA THE DAUGHTER OF METSUDO KATAHARA
We're about to begin the ninth game!
Please welcome our first fighter!
This guy is the most vigorous kengan fighter.
He roars while fighting and howls upon winning.
Which means he yells anytime, anywhere!
Standing at 184 cm and weighing 88 kg,
his kengan match record is 17 wins and no losses.
Total assets he has acquired are 200 billion 969 million yen.
Representing Village of Dawn, also known as Howling Fighting Spirit,
Saw Paing Yoroizuka!
REPRESENTATIVE FIGHTER, VILLAGE OF DAWN
Oh my gosh!
He dashed out, ignoring his entrance direction!
Life-or-Death Tournament, here I come!
KORINMARU AJIRO PRESIDENT OF AJIRO FISHERIES
Yeah! Go me!
That young man looks full of energy.
No, he's just stupid.
He doesn't know how to control himself at all.
Oh, he doesn't?
Then, Mr. Yoroizuka...
S. YOROIZUKA MAYOR OF VILLAGE OF DAWN
...does that mean he...
Cheer for me as usual, Sayaka!
Yes, Saw Paing knows nothing about it.
Not today. I need to be impartial.
There is no way I can tell him...
Sorry, Saw.
...that this match is a frame-up.
"THE FISHERMAN"
I think you've taken drastic action.
J. REINHOLD & K. HAYAMI
Those two, Yoroizuka and Karo...
REN NIKAIDO PRESIDENT OF BYAKUYA SHIMBUN
You have two of your pawns fighting each other in the first round.
The match is fixed so that the fighter can preserve his stamina. Is that your plan?
Did he change the rules to easily fix the match
just to mess with me?
Metsudo Katahara.
Fine.
The long conflict between us is finally going to end.
Some legends have been handed down among the men of the sea for many years.
It is said one man strangled a man-eating great white shark in the ocean.
This man also sank the ship of an environmental organization
which was trespassing into Japanese waters.
Furthermore, he caught the international terrorist, Paul Manson.
All these legends tell of the great deeds this man has performed.
Traversing the raging waves of the Sea of Japan,
the legendary giant has arrived!
Standing at 206 cm and weighing 165 kg,
he makes his kengan match debut today.
Representing Ajiro Fisheries, also known as the Giant of the Sea of Japan,
Yoshinari Karo!
YOSHINARI KARO REP. FIGHTER OF AJIRO FISHERIES
The man of the sea is leaving port at last!
It's a vigorous guy versus a giant.
Here we have the fighters on both sides!
Yeah!
Saw Paing will win.
KAOLAN WONGSAWAT REPRESENTATIVE FIGHTER OF YAZU TRADING
Do you have a personal relationship with that man?
TADASHI IIDA, PRES. OF YAZU TRADING
Yes, against my will.
It was years ago.
In a village in Thailand, along the border of Myanmar,
the annual martial arts competition between Thailand and Myanmar was held.
I joined as a representative for Thailand only once.
Back when I was 15, I was already the strongest in the country.
But I met him in the competition.
Yeah!
You made me excited!
It was excellent!
I finally found...
SAW PAING (THEN-16-YEARS-OLD) REPRESENTATIVE OF MYANMAR
...my predestined rival!
His annoying nature hasn't changed since then.
I won the game by the referee's decision,
but it was the only game in my career I didn't win by knocking out the opponent.
Since then,
he came to challenge me wherever I was, day and night,
even crossing the border.
I thought it was strange not to see him recently,
but I didn't really expect we'd reunite in a situation like this.
You just wait, Kaolan.
I'm going to win!
Now let's get started, old buddy!
What a boring act, you trickster.
During the match, Karo will lose his balance.
That's the plan, right?
Yes.
Anyway, since Saw Paing is so stupid, I'm sure he won't realize that it's fixed.
Hey, you two.
Ready to fight?
Take your positions.
Well, Jerry.
You watched Karo's fight up close in the preliminary.
JERRY TYSON (ELIMINATED)
What was your impression of him?
Above all, Karo's advantages are his power and his toughness.
Since Saw Paing has a smaller body,
whether he can get around Karo's attack will determine who will win.
I see.
Saw Paing is an aggressive fighter.
Can he push his way through against the enormous Karo?
Take your stance.
What's that stance?
Fight!
Whatever.
Whoa! Saw Paing is making the first move.
He's digging his own grave!
I'm not a martial arts fighter.
He's just small fry compared to what I've fought.
To save our fishery and family,
I've always taken down any kind of target.
With my skill and...
my harpoon!
WHALE BURIAL
We no longer have a choice.
Once the frame-up falls apart,
there's no escape route for us.
Victory is the only path to salvation.
You brat.
I'm not a "brat."
Remember my name.
It's Saw Paing...
Yoroizuka!
Saw Paing's fighting style is not Muay Thai.
It's Myanmar Lethwei, also known as Burmese bareknuckle boxing.
It's a traditional martial art from Myanmar
with a history of over 1000 years.
It permits techniques such as punching the spinal cord, throwing from clinching,
and other techniques found in Muay Thai.
The biggest difference is that it is a bare-knuckle fight.
Without wearing gloves, it's harder to guard effectively.
So, you need to keep attacking with almost no guard.
The human body is not originally designed to withstand fistfights.
However, when bones are repeatedly severely fractured,
the body strengthens the bones to adapt to an extraordinary environment.
After repeatedly being broken and strengthened,
the skeleton takes a different form from the average human body.
It's a martial art to adapt humans to the environment.
That's Lethwei.
Karo is down on one knee!
Here I come!
He fended me off...
from that stance?
A direct hit!
We could hear the awful sound of bones being cracked!
I apologize, Mr. Yoroizuka.
If we don't win this tournament,
we will lose everything.
Hey, Wakatsuki.
JUN SEKIBAYASHI
-That old man is... -Yeah, I know. He is...
TAKESHI WAKATSUKI
...not just a man of muscle.
In the first attack,
Karo hit the spinal cord, one of the vital spots of the human body.
The impact stops the spinal cord's activity,
which provokes a blackout.
There is a technique called "ikejime" used to break the spinal cord of fish
to make them brain-dead and keep them fresh.
Karo's blow was an application of the "ikejime" technique.
This is Yoshinari Karo, a fisherman with 40 years of experience.
The man with no martial arts training launched this practiced attack.
He is totally open to attack as usual.
Wow, what on earth happened to him?!
If his attack hadn't aimed at the head, you could have lost this game.
Phew, that was really something, old man!
Karo's fingers are broken, though he was the one who attacked.
Looks like you're wondering what happened.
All righty! I'll explain to you.
The skull is a crucial part to Lethwei.
I have a rock-hard skull
that I've toned up every day since I started Lethwei at five years old.
You could say it's the hardest helmet.
My skull can completely shelter the brain from any kind of impact.
Besides, Lethwei's biggest--
You're such a chatterbox, kid.
Do you think you've won this game
because of a small injury like this?
Don't get cocky.
We're just getting started.
Hell yeah! Let's fight!
Look at Karo!
His right hand was broken, but...
I'm going to beat you out here
and proceed to the next stage!
Holy shit! What a rush!
A perfect hit!
What...
What's that?!
What on earth is that?
From the obviously unnatural stance,
Karo blows out Saw Paing!
This man's sense of balance is
ridiculously weird for sure!
Land sickness.
During a long voyage, you lose your sense of balance.
Even after getting back on the land, you feel like you are still on the ocean.
Since fishermen spend much more time on a ship than on land,
their bodies adapt to the ocean, causing this sickness.
Yoshinari Karo, who's been a fisherman for 40 years,
was also suffering from this land sickness.
The land was something unstable for him.
However...
the last kick from Saw Paing which hit his temple
shook his brain and made him lose his sense of balance.
And here...
Yoshinari Karo has returned to the ocean!
Karo received the kick intentionally.
In that way, he made his abnormal sense of balance
change back to what's normal for him.
I've never seen a person stronger than Karo
after recovering from land sickness.
Karo, please.
You have to...
save our ocean!
What the heck is this?
His core is as strong as Adam Dudley's.
And his sense of balance is no less than that of Keizaburo Sawada.
Despite his bulk... amazing!
Yoshinari Karo is...
a formidable fighter.
Prepare yourself, you Toyo Electric Power dogs.
I'm going to make you pay for sure.
Interesting.
You make me so excited!
Leaning forward?
Okay, that's right.
Don't get distracted by small tricks.
If you can't beat him by keeping distance, you should just change to infighting.
Or... while I'm in this country, should I call it
a suicide attack?
I'm going to finish him with the next round of strikes.
Whatever it takes,
I'm going to win!
I shall take your offer.
I'll blow away all of Toyo Electric Power's dogs!
They're moving!
Karo and Saw Paing moved at the same moment.
For a few seconds before colliding,
neither of them were sure yet,
which is the best attack.
The wrong choice could result in a loss.
And Saw Paing's first attack was
a front kick.
The decisive attack was
Yoshinari Karo's...
bear hug!
Which was followed by
Saw Paing Yoroizuka's...
elbow strike on the cervical spine.
Hey, old man.
You were...
quite a guy!
Our...
ocean...
Are you going to close our fishing port?!
This is the port with one of the biggest fishing yields in Japan.
AJIRO FISHERIES
Did Toyo Electric Power tell you so?
Right.
They're going to construct a resort facility for their employees.
For such a stupid reason?
They offered us a deal.
If we want them to change the construction site,
we need to join the tournament as a pawn of Toyo Electric Power Co.
After I won the prelim, Hayami told me...
that they'd stay away from our port if I was complicit in their frame-up.
However...
I received an anonymous envelope last night,
and found a USB flash drive in it.
Who the hell sent it to me?
What I saw on it...
was despair.
Around the electrical power plant that would replace the port,
they were planning to rebuild our town into Hayami's own empire.
We were just being used...
by that devil.
I decided
to take revenge on Toyo Electric Power for sure.
I will... for sure...
The game is over!
The winner is Saw Paing Yoroizuka.
Yeah!
He won!
Saw Paing advances to the second stage!
You'd better run.
Sorry?
That man has no mercy for a traitor.
I'll take care of Karo.
For now, you should just run away from him.
Even after seeing their plan fall apart,
Toyo Electric Power hasn't said a word.
So that's what it is?
That man is just playing.
Katsumasa Hayami.
He thinks the tournament is no more than a kid's game.
I don't like it.
Katsu.
Come on, tea.
Oh, Mr. Yamashita.
Hello.
You are, um...
I'm Tomoko of Kouou.
TOMOKO MATSUDA
Oh, hi. And you are?
Let me introduce him to you.
This is our representative fighter.
I'm Setsuna Kiryu.
SETSUNA KIRYU
It's nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
Hmm?
It's...
It's Mockey!
What are you doing here?
I really love Mockey!
Uh-huh.
I have a lifetime pass for Tochigi Destinyland.
Destinyland? That brings back memories.
I took my sons there several times when they were little.
I'm not so familiar with it.
By the way...
do you think this stuffed animal suit will fight?
Of course not. I think it's here just as a mascot.
So this is Ohma's employer.
I don't get a bad impression,
he's probably a good man.
There you are, Mockey.
This voice is...
It's about time, huh?
Honald, it's you!
Hmm? I don't remember this character.
This is Honald, Mockey's best friend!
Wow, those characters have background stories?
You know so much about them, Tomoko.
Of course I do because I became fascinated with them
when I saw their love story in anthropomorphic figures!
Fascinated... anthropomorphic...?
It just means she loves them after all.
Are you ready, Mockey?
Huh?
Is that voice...
Mockey?
No, Mockey!
Let's go...
end dreams.
PREVIEW
A good-looking but unidentified fighter.
Watch out for a beautiful, obscene object!
His beauty hides a terrifying sin.
Another Ashura is now awakening!
Next episode: "The Rakshasa."
Subtitle translation by Hinako Someno