Red Blue - Ch. 176 - I'm Going to Die

[MangaDex]

 

[tsuylen]

Trading head trauma for an edge is a choice

 

[likv0r]

The way this fight develops reminds me of Ippo vs Hayami, especially the last uppercut-to-hook exchange. So I guess Aoba's plan is to tank damage coz he has more HP (protagonist power lol), whereas Kureishi will likely lose most of his stats after a couple more exchanges.

 

[pokeling]

love me a good slugfest

 

[Pacarnya_sinka]

That's why you need to learn wrestling and some judo throw and foot sweeps, boy. Baiting his punches to get him into grapple without sny exact game plan is blatantly stupid. At least use some calf kick to neutralise his striking, then drag him to the ground just like what Islam did to JDM.

 

[0takuDragonSlayer]

That's why you need to learn wrestling and some judo throw and foot sweeps, boy. Baiting his punches to get him into grapple without sny exact game plan is blatantly stupid. At least use some calf kick to neutralise his striking, then drag him to the ground just like what Islam did to JDM.

That strategy really wouldn’t work for Aoba here. It requires you to have superior or comparable striking/grappling ability to your opponent. Not to mention the stamina cost. Which by the stat graph just isn’t the case.

Plus Aoba doesn’t really have a Sambo background(more so jujitsu with sprinkles of judo) or a solid build, and his opponent isn’t primarily a sprawl n brawl boxer, but an out fighting counter puncher with a grappling advantage. I feel like calf kicks(that he isn’t really good at) would just get check, or countered with a well timed punch.

So him trying to “make the fight dirty” is while very reckless and screams desperation is probably his best bet when dealing with a technically superior opponent. Rather than continuing in chess match he’s already losing badly

P.S. I don’t condone tactics like this at all but in a fight sometimes ya gotta improvise. Even if it is an objectively ugly idea

 

[0takuDragonSlayer]

FUCK you know Aoba is getting cooked when he has to do what he hates the most. Initiating a slugfest 🤣 Honestly wouldn’t mind him losing this match at all.

 

[AnimationDude]

The way this fight develops reminds me of Ippo vs Hayami, especially the last uppercut-to-hook exchange. So I guess Aoba's plan is to tank damage coz he has more HP (protagonist power lol), whereas Kureishi will likely lose most of his stats after a couple more exchanges.

Yeah, to be honest, this development has me really disappointed in the author. This kind of meat head approach to dealing with fighting just feels really really lazy. Not only from a tactical perspective but from a narrative one. Aoba is supposed to be a thinking man amping hot heads. Motivated by obsession. Not some dumbass brawler you see on street beefs or so often in Hajime No Ippo

 

[RedHairedShankss]

Yeah, to be honest, this development has me really disappointed in the author. This kind of meat head approach to dealing with fighting just feels really really lazy. Not only from a tactical perspective but from a narrative one. Aoba is supposed to be a thinking man amping hot heads. Motivated by obsession. Not some dumbass brawler you see on street beefs or so often in Hajime No Ippo

He is a thinking man and a decisive gutsy one. He did the math and he understood that this is the only option for him.
What is he supposed to do? Give up?

 

[Kireato]

I wouldn't expect being hit on the neck to be basically brushed off. Maybe it hit the back of the jaw and the shoulder also somewhat blocked it? Looks like Kureishi really prepared to win while striking.

The way this fight develops reminds me of Ippo vs Hayami, especially the last uppercut-to-hook exchange. So I guess Aoba's plan is to tank damage coz he has more HP (protagonist power lol), whereas Kureishi will likely lose most of his stats after a couple more exchanges.

That's not the plan. His opponent is a grappler who has decided to try to finish him while standing because he's much better than Aoba there. But you'll notice that Kureishi is a counter puncher and he prepared for Aoba's striking. But it's not like Kureishi will only counter, and if Aoba is being more passive while standing, well Kureishi has to attack. Except when that happens, Aoba can prepare a counter even if he does still get hit.

This is going to change things because Kureishi is going to stop striking to avoid the counters and Aoba is probably going to do the same because he doesn't even want to do any striking to begin with. They might still have a few striking exchanges, as Kureishi explores if he truly can't do anything, but at some point he might start thinking that the only way to progress will be to go to the ground. There's also the underlying message that winning through striking, even against Aoba, will come at a cost for Kureishi. And once Kureishi starts thinking it might be better to fight on the ground, well, Aoba's got what he wants.

I will note that in Hajime no Ippo, the counter exchange IS the endgame because boxers can't do anything else except punch. It's just being a meathead.

 

[AnimationDude]

He is a thinking man and a decisive gutsy one. He did the math and he understood that this is the only option for him.
What is he supposed to do? Give up?

Frankly, I wouldn’t be opposed to his coach finally doing his job for once, and throwing in the towel two chapters from now. Given what we know Aoba shouldn’t win this fight. Especially after chickening out on striking training with Yamamoto. If he has to resort to fighting like a lunk to win I’d rather he not win at all and clearly I’m not the only one who agrees that this is a dumb ass plan. This is just lame

 

[Aethred]

Thank you for the translation (and merry christmas in advance).

 

[thelastbutterlord]

Aoba keeps running into striking walls and gives me young Charles do Bronx vibes. Wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the line the author makes him eat a few brutal losses and then come back "illuminated by god" as they say

 

[fatherraga]

FUCK you know Aoba is getting cooked when he has to do what he hates the most. Initiating a slugfest 🤣 Honestly wouldn’t mind him losing this match at all.

I definitely would. 😭😭I see similarities between Islam Makhachev and Aoba so this fight reminds me of the Islam vs Charles fight and Charles was considered the better grappler yet Islam still managed to submit him. It’d be phenomenal if the author took inspo from that fight.

 

[fatherraga]

The fact Aoba is in a serious fight and yet still thinks about defeating Kenshin is just prove of his top tier hating lmao.

 

[0takuDragonSlayer]

I definitely would. 😭😭I see similarities between Islam Makhachev and Aoba so this fight reminds me of the Islam vs Charles fight and Charles was considered the better grappler yet Islam still managed to submit him. It’d be phenomenal if the author took inspo from that fight.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect Aoba to be at Islam’s level😅

 

[0takuDragonSlayer]

Aoba keeps running into striking walls and gives me young Charles do Bronx vibes. Wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the line the author makes him eat a few brutal losses and then come back "illuminated by god" as they say

Honestly, I can sort of see the comparison. Charles Oliveira was definitely a gifted Brazilian jujitsu practitioner, but just like Aoba his weakness towards the middle and beginning of his professional fighting journey definitely was his understanding of Striking for a while before integrating Muay Thai more into his game.

Which really worked because even though the Muay Thai stance is vulnerable to take downs. Most people would not want to take down Oliveira😂 So Aoba losing here and learning that style would honestly make a lot of sense. Hell we can even have fun with that idea in a way that fits the character.

We can even say he isn’t into the idea of learning more striking until someone tells him about the fact that MT fighters historically have been known to beat up most(not all) of the Karate practitioners that visited Thailand for generations. Then have Aoba’s eyes light up