#judo squall

[sacksofpotatoes]

山嵐 / Yama-arashi

I remember the first time I got Yama-arashied. I mean who wouldn't?

I was only into judo for a month and a scrawny blue belt (read: one TWO levels below black) who might not have weighed more than 65kg flipped me over in a split second.

The world turned upside down and next thing I knew I was flat on the tatami utterly confused but not hurt.

What on earth was that throw? I couldn't identify it. Then the sensei walked up and applauded the blue belt for a good yama arashi.

Such a cool name. Mountain squall or gale.

I think a more apt name would be "Instant front somersault".

[pillage-and-lute]

Pins and Needles: Part 2

Part 1, (here)

———- 🌷 🐺 🌷———-

“Oh my gods,” came a voice from over the counter that Geralt was currently under, sweeping up leaves.

“Uncle Lambert was right!” Ciri said, draping herself over the top of the counter so she could smirk at her dad. “You’re totally hiding from the twink tattoo artist.”

“He’s not a twink,” Geralt said, straightening up, dustpan in hand.

“Not what Uncle Lambert said.”

“Bertie hasn’t even seen him,” Geralt said, scowling. 

Unbidden, the memory of just how solid Jaskier had felt in his arms. How low his shirt was unbuttoned and how delightfully hairy his chest was. Not a twink.

“I should be concerned about how invested you are in my dating life,” he told Ciri. She was sitting on the counter now, battered combat boots thumping against the side.

Geralt didn’t exactly have a conventional relationship with his daughter. He’d been friends, although not terribly close, with her parents, and when they died and there was no one to take Ciri, he had. Lambert joked that it had been temporary insanity. Eskel said that Geralt had just experienced a bout of baby fever. Vesemir just smiled knowingly.

They all knew the real answer. It was orphan syndrome. A nasty mix of abandonment issues, trust issues, and the inability to leave other orphans to social services. All three of Vesemir’s boys had it, because he’d become their dad only after they’d each individually been kicked from every home the state could place them in. 

So Geralt had taken one look at the squalling, tiny baby, with hair so blonde it almost looked like his own. Geralt had gotten stiffed on the genetic spectrum, and through no fault or deficiency his doctor could find, had entirely white hair by 23.

Now, Ciri was sixteen, captain of her hockey team, and raking in the medals for Judo. Geralt took great pleasure in bragging about her at every PTA meeting, especially since it meant rubbing it in Suzanne ‘My daughter’s a piano prodigy’ Delmore’s face.

“If you’d been on a date since Aunt Yen then maybe I wouldn’t be so concerned,” Ciri said, popping her gum. 

Geralt winced. His relationship with the used bookseller down the street had been disasterous and short, but in the end, Ciri had been able to tack yet another name to her list of non-blood-relative aunts and uncles.

“We’re better as friends,” he said. “Move your foot, I need to get into that cabinet.”

Ciri obediently swung her foot aside so he could grab the florist’s foam. “That’s why you should go ask out someone else...like the cute tattoo artist.” Her eyes went wide. “Oh, can I get a tattoo.”

“Absolutely not. Wait until you’re nineteen.”

“But I can get one at sixteen with parent’s permission,” she made puppy eyes. “Dad, it’d be so cool.”

“Nope.”

“C’mon, why not? And why nineteen, why not eighteen?”

Geralt smirked. “Did you know that your Uncle Eskel has a tattoo?”

“No,” Ciri said, leaning forward.

“Mmhm,” Geralt said. He began selecting flowers from buckets for his next arrangement. Something nice, maybe with some tea roses.”

“Oh, c’mon Dad, you have to tell me now!” Ciri hopped off the counter and got her apron off the peg. It had been a gift from Lambert. Geralt’s own was a simple denim apron, and her’s was the same, except it had “Don’t flirt, I’m a minor” embroidered on the chest.

“Well,” Geralt said, handing her her own block of florist’s foam. “He was eighteen, and he was really into Gwent.”

“That card game? The one that used to have that super weird animated tv show?”

“Oh yeah, we all were huge fans, but Eskel was the biggest. Which was funny, because Bertie and I beat him every time.”

“Oh my gods,” Ciri said. “Does Uncle Eskel have a Gwent tattoo?”

“Yep,” Geralt said, snipping off a too-long stem. “On his thigh. It’s pretty big, too, that’s why he only ever wears those ugly cargo shorts or long pants.”

“That’s hilarious!” Ciri said. “But what does it have to do with me?”

“There’s a lot of personal growth done between eighteen and nineteen,” Geralt said, trimming a leaf. “And I don’t want you to get something you regret. But when you are nineteen, I will happily pay for your first tattoo.”

“Really?”

“Mmhm. I don’t want you going to a cheap placing and getting some horrible blood disease.”

Ciri beamed at him and Geralt smiled to himself. He was a very cool dad.

“Why don’t you get a tattoo?” Ciri asked.

“Why would I?”

“It would look totally cool.”

“I don’t even know what I’d get,” Geralt said. He examined the flower placement. It was even, but maybe too even, he swapped a couple of the taller flowers around.

“You’d get to talk to the cute tattoo artist, I bet he’d have some suggestions.”

“I like wolves,” Geralt said. 

Ciri rolled her eyes. “Dad, like every guy with a tattoo get’s a wolf. Be original.”

“Trees are nice,” Geralt said.

Ciri groaned. “Even worse than the wolf. Maybe you should go over to the shop, see what sort of art he does. Can I get a piercing?”

“What? Oh, yeah, if you want. What sort?” Geralt was a little taken aback by the quick switch, but Ciri was sixteen and had ADHD, so he was pretty used to it.

“I want an industrial.”

“Which one’s that?”

“The bar, through the top,” Ciri gestured. 

Geralt fluffed out some petals. “Yeah, definitely. I’d much rather you get any cartiledge piercings done by a professional.”

Geralt, in his moody teenager phase, had gotten plenty of piercings, several on his right ear and all the way up his left. Most of which he’d done himself with a needle he’d boiled to sterilize it. He shuddered to think of Ciri trying it. Geralt had lucked out and not shattered his cartiledge, but there would be no risks taken with Ciri’s perfect ears.

“Cool,” she said. “Can we go right now? We usually close for lunch about now anyway.”

“I’m not sure they take walk ins,” Geralt said. He did not look cute enough to go see Jaskier right now. 

“We can ask,” Ciri said. Taking his hand and tugging him across the street.

———- 🌷 🐺 🌷———-

I imagine that in this world Gwent is like a mix of Yugioh and Magic The Gathering. 

Tag List!

@jaybeefoxy  @sweetiepieplum

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy chapter 212 - Sugimoto is a wolverine! (and he isn’t from Michigan). . .

Chapter 212 continues the action of Asirpa’s decision to run from Tsurumi.  The chapter title is “raised hackles” in reference to how animals have hair on the back of their neck and how this signals their behavior in threatening situations.

We are treated with a color title page of Sugimoto indicating that he will take Asirpa back home.  It appears to be a reference to their time on the ice floe.

This is a very interesting color palette it is very soft and sobering.  It seems to have that reddish/green contrast and it is so muted compared to a lot of the color artwork.  This title page is quite contrary to the events of the chapter and I do find the juxtaposition to be a bit jarring.

So the chapter starts off with Asirpa and Sugimoto fleeing from Tsurumi and the 27th.  Based on their conversation, Sugimoto is simply following Asirpa and she has a plan of some sort as she leads them.  Asirpa is leading the way and she seems to have a destination in mind.

Sugimoto looks at her with a nervous sweat drops, while she looks focused on their destination.

The action then shows Tsurumi calming ordering his men to follow them as they spread out in the shipping port area with small boats in dry dock and various shipping containers.  

Tanigaki and Shiraishi start chasing after them as well.  Shiraishi looks hurt in the background as he holds his hand on his head where the arrow had hit him while Tanigaki is in a total panic sweating.  He then thinks about the darker side of Tsurumi.  As as she ran he now is thinking about how Tsurumi will take full advantage about her background.

His panic reveals his true feelings about Tsurumi - that he knows that Tsurumi will use her home against her.  Does this explain why Tanigaki was trying to make Asirpa be accepting of him in the previous chapter?  Was that Tanigaki’s way of saying - Tsurumi is too strong to mess with.  What didn’t he just state it outright?

I’m skipping ahead a bit since a lot of the chapter focuses on Sugimoto trying to escape from the 27th.  Usami finds Sugimoto and the two of them fight brutally.  Their entire fight feels like a reply of the fight when Sugimoto was first captured by the 27th with the Nikaido brothers.  He judo rolls Usami into the floor and slams his face into the floor.  Just like with the one Nikaido, he stomps his boot onto Usami’s face but Usami is stronger able to deflect his next stomp and pull out his bayonet.

I take this is to show that Usami is much tougher than the Nikaido brothers, but unlike before, he requires the assistance of Asirpa to escape as she tosses some of the transport barrels onto him.  Asirpa then takes the lead again telling Sugimoto that they need to flee as the gunshot from Usami gave away their location.  Another random member of the 27th found them and yells to the others and gets hit by a barrel that Sugimoto throws at him to knock him out.

This allows them to flee out of the building and back outside of the building.  As the two of the are fleeing Tsukishima catches up to them and yells at Sugimoto that he can’t escape.  Sugimoto stops and looks back and then it shows Tsukishima hesitating and then Sugimoto decides to run after they both pause.

This shows that Tsukishima is in a standoff with Sugimoto.  Neither of them moves immediately, instead there is this pause that really means something, likely due to their Karafuto journey. It really makes the reader think that both men are hesitating and Tsukishima thinks that he can stop him and it is Sugimoto who then breaks the tension and moves.

The next page shows Tsukishima looking very stressed out shooting at Sugimoto.  Sugimoto’s decision has forced Tsukishima to follow through on his threat.

After Tsukishima hits him, two other men in the 27th fire their rifles at Sugimoto and he’s shot and down after all three shots and he collapses.  Asirpa runs back to Sugimoto and kneels down to him screaming his name and in a complete panic sweating nervous.  

Tsukishima orders the rest of the men to not fire so that Asirpa is not shot.  He still looks quite stressed as he gives the orders.  He’s got the stress lines under his eyes.

Then Koito and a few other men catch up to Asirpa over Sugimoto.  He pulls out his pistol and tells her to not move.  In a deadpan yet stressed expression he tells her that she should have know what would happen if she ran off from the 27th.

Koito seems so detached in this scene.  He seems cold and passionless compared to his past interactions with Sugimoto and Asirpa.  Think back to when Koito was first introduced as he leap onto the airship.  Or when he chased down the Kei in Otaru.  He’s done his job and he’s in a bit of an almost older brother “told you so.”  this seems so un-Koito.

Tsukishima then notices that Koito has gotten too close to Asirpa and Sugimoto and his battle experience seems to kick in and detect that something is off.  He dramatically yells at Koito asking him what he’s doing and that he should stay away from Sugimoto.  Asirpa notices Sugimoto’s hair on the back of his neck is raised and erect.  In a total panic Tsukishima yells for Koito to get back and he’s. . . .before he gets cut off.

Koito turns in a still deadpan fashion to glance down at Sugimoto. The next page shows Sugimoto charging forward with white eyes stabs Koito through the upper left torso while Asirpa clings to his back.

The page zooms in on Koito glancing down at where he had been stabbed by Sugimoto.  The next several pages focus on how Sugimoto savagely attacks the other men with Koito, stabbing, beating etc as he fights back.  He even manages to detach the bayonet from a random soldier’s rifle and stab him in the face.  All of this is happening with Asirpa on his back watching on in shock, Koito tries to aim his pistol at him but Sugimoto is fighting so furiously, it appears that he’s more watching Sugimoto’s feral rage.  Sugimoto hits Koito in the face with the rifle as he falls back with the bayonet stuck in his left upper torso.

Sugimoto’s fights in this chapter are so brutal and visceral that it takes me back to his time fighting the 27th before, how he killed the yakuza in the silent kotan arc, his flashback during whiteout in the snow squall etc etc.

The next page shows a white eyed, breath coming out of him almost like a frothy/foaming mouth with blood and his scarf all in a vortex around him.  We get what Asirpa sees from behind her head and then it changes to her looking back at his face as blood falls on her face as she looks at him.  She looks emotionless as she looks up at him.

Sugimoto then runs off and Tsukishima catches up to Koito and asks him to look at his wounds.  Koito is looking rough with breath and the bayonet stuck in him.  Kikuta has caught up to them as Tsukishima is with a rough looking Koito and he orders him to follow.  Instead, Tsukishima stays with Koito, as he tells him to keep the bayonet in him.  He does glance at Kikuta while he frowns in reply.

Koito tries to get Tsukishima to follow the orders and that he’ll be okay.  Tsukishima seems to be holding all of his emotions in.  His face is either hidden or shaded and he sounds like an older brother telling Koito that he shouldn’t always rush in and then he refers to their conversation about Tsurumi and he’s been well behaved.

The last page of the chapter shows Tsurumi strolling on by Tsukishima holding Koito with his eyes shaded.  Tsurumi glances down at both Tsukishima and Koito and then returns his gaze to walking forward in pursuit of Asirpa leading a very injured Sugimoto forward to her unknown destination.

I am unsure of how to read Tsurumi’s glance down to Tsukishima and Koito.  I have too many possible explanations that I can’t settle on it.  It is clear that Tsurumi is not stopping for them.  He’s going to keep going on even though Koito is gravely injured and Tsukishima has stayed behind with him.

It is clear that Koito really doesn’t matter to him, Koito was a bonus as his true goal was to get his father’s influence and power.  Has he also realized that Tsukishima cares more about Koito and being Tsurumi’s right hand man?  Has he realized that despite all of his “sweet lies” that Tsukishima has decided to care for Koito.  All of Tsukishima’s words in 210 seem to be protective bluster and that Tsukishima actually can’t kill Koito for Tsurumi - since he can’t leave him behind to die potentially.  Tsukishima is watching Tsurumi back from under the brim of his cap. . . .

All of this chapter ties back to previous events.

Chapter 204 introduces the concept of the wolverine having the raised hairs when it was still dangerous and Koito wasn’t there watching them - only Tsukishima with Vasily.  This is something that Sugimoto learned from Asirpa with other animals.

Therefore, Tsukishima has picked up on this concept and animal behavior.

This also refers back to when Koito was attacked by the wolverine due to his naivete.  He thinks the wolverine is cute, the bear ran away, Ryu is freaked out and Tsukishima has a rifle aimed on it.

Koito lacks a sense of caution and it results in him being attacked by the wolverine. It jumps on his back and happens to bite him in the upper left side of his back and the bite mark is close to where the bayonet that Sugimoto stabbed into him is visible poking out of his torso.

I think this is to show that Sugimoto is just like the wolverine, he’s a feral tenacious predator!    Koito is completely shocked as this small animal attacks him.  Afterwards as they flee, Tsukishima has to carry Koito to the dogsled.

Yes, Tsukishima helped Koito, and when they fought Kiro, Tsukishima saved Koito from the explosives and now in 212, Tsukishima is protecting Koito again.  It is interesting that this chapter is very focused on Tsukishima in the background.  Yes, the focus is on how Sugimoto loses himself in his rage and bloodlust but Tsukishima is the next most important character driving dialogue.

Recall back in 149 that Tsukishima reminds Sugimoto that if he loses it again, he’ll kill him.  If he does not control himself in their present he will lose himself to the rage and the emotions and the violence.

This is likely why he hesitates in this chapter. 

Tsukishima tries to give him a warning and Sugimoto hesitates as Tsukishima hesitates in return.  Then Sugimoto decides to go against it and Tsukishima decides to shoot.

Overall, I don’t have any deep thoughts on this chapter.

The chapter really shows that Sugimoto isn’t like a human in battle - he’s a wolverine.  He’s tied to all of these vicious animals - not to humans when he fights back.  And this time, Asirpa is literally on his back getting a front row seat on the violence of Sugimoto. 

Fine Sugimoto, got to scream “I’m immortal!” but I’m over this - he really needs to see himself in a different light.  He’s immortal in deadly situations but how will he live in “normal” life situations.

This sees to be a set up for something bigger.  Koito is in critical condition but he’s not the same man in past chases.  Asirpa is along for the ride in this wave of violence.  Tsukishima has made his feelings towards Koito clear to Tsurumi.  Kikuta is doing his job and Usami is stuck under some sort of barrels. 

How do they move on from here?  Where is Vasily?  Where is Asirpa going?  A boat to escape?  What is her plan?  She clearly was much more aware of their situation and had a plan and Sugimoto was only following along with her not thinking about what they were doing.

Asirpa is in a tough spot and Sugimoto is holding her back.  Will they be separated again?  Caught?  Argh!  I’m waiting for what happens next.

[florianrguillon]

Judo Squall SD (07/2016)

Unreleased drawing from last year's Japaniort - I think. It's a super-deformed version of Judo Squall from the Madwhite Universe published in Forgotten Generation (arcadiagraphicstudio.blogspot.fr). He's an Atlantean superhero and he is part of the Warlords team. Dessin inédit du Japaniort de l'an dernier (je crois). C'est une version super-déformée de Judo Squall, issu du Madwhite Universe publié dans Forgotten Generation (arcadiagraphicstudio.blogspot.fr). C'est un super-héros atlante qui fait partie de l'équipe des Warlords. Judo Squall © Maxime Saint Michel

[superherosfrance]

Les différents héros de Forgotten Generation, publié par Arcadia Graphic Studio (de haut en bas) : Lord Corlatius (de Ben Wawe), Thorr (Florian R. Guillon & Edwin Boyer), Judo Squall et Drak Béryl (Maxime Saint Michel), Sentinel (Edwin Boyer), Cyber-Shield (Maxime Saint Michel), Red Ann (Jerry Robinson & Mort Meskin), Midnight (Sophie Rumo) et Smasher (Florian R. Guillon).

Dessin de Bruce Cherin (2012).