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hahahafangirl · 4 days ago

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In praise of good martial forms

One thing I alluded to earlier is that Suo has really, really good martial forms. As someone who dabbled with martial arts at various stages of my life, these details jump out. Of course, any martial artist worth their salt must have good forms, unconventional style or not (as Suo described the forms he learned as a "jumble of mixed martial arts"). Wind Breaker is one of the best choreographed manga I have seen, so these details are very much worth analyzing :P

Table of contents:

Martial arts start with good forms

Suo v. Oobiki: Is Discipline Rigidity or Fluidity?

Foundational Grounded-ness: Defense as Offense

Circularity; Yin and Yang

Suo on the Offensive: no_fist.megamind?

I will first go over the basics — how the choreography demonstrates Suo's solid skills, which segue into Suo v. Oobiki's debate about "discipline" (spoiler: Suo wins because he has better forms, i.e. better discipline), then moving on to make more observations about his styles— particularly the circularity and how the narrative is restraining Suo from using his fist to attack.

Martial arts start with good forms

As an introduction, I will note that Suo always sits and stands very properly, with his back straight and his posture supported by his hands behind his back.

Notice also that while Sakura casually leans back against his chair, slumping backward, and Nirei "cowers" -- leaning forward -- Suo sits straight-backed like the epitome of a polite young man :3c

This is another fun contrast between Suo and most other delinquents in the story— in an environment emphasizing rebellion, freedom, and a bit of teenage arrogance mixed in, sparking all sorts of wild and flamboyant self-expressions (dyed hair, undercut, piercings, etc.), Suo alone stands with a very traditional, conservative, and almost a prudent sensibility, in both his clothings and behaviors. Had he not don his Furin jacket, would anyone believe that this gentleman is a delinquent?

That is to say, Suo's trainings are baked into his bones, to the way he holds and moves himself, most likely to even his speech. Good forms from the beginning to end. Suo likely has practiced martial arts for a good while.

The thing that makes me notice how good his form is is from his fist placement in the Kanuma fight:

First, note that Suo's right fist is in the ready position by his hip, ready to hit. It's small, but surprisingly easy to forget when you are starting out. It's somewhat about being ready to punch at anytime (even though we never see Suo actually punching anyone), but more about the discipline of always being ready for your next move.

Similarly, the fist is there during the Oobiki fight. Note that Suo was able to surprise Oobiki and get a hit in because the ready-to-go fist exists as a camouflage, distracting the opponent from his other arm (out of frame— out of Oobiki's visual field). Having the fist there is an excellent basic form, and it allows Suo multiple options of attack.

Let's transition to legwork. One of the most important thing in martial arts is stances. Generally, the deeper your stance is, the lower your center of gravity, hence the more stability you have. This is, of course, at the cost of mobility, which is achievable with narrower, higher stances. An exercise at the advanced (masters') level of karate is to stand in kiba-dachi, the basic horse stance (first thing you'll ever learn) continuously for an hour or more. That's how strong your legs have to be. And practice staying in proper stances is how you hone it. Having a strong, solid stance is essential for balance and power,

Notice the solid, deep (low) stance— and how much power is behind it as Suo very gently seize Kanuma's fist and flips him. We can see the difference in speed (and thus input power) by the blur in both frames.

Again and again, Suo does a lot of "flipping people over" like this (I'm sure there is a proper term for it, in what I assume is Aikido, but that's a martial discipline I haven't flirted with lol). I will labor the point of Suo's moves being primarily circular later, but just to demonstrate the power behind his seemingly-effortless moves:

Note the stance— and the engaged legs muscles

Same here— the deep stance provides a tremendous amount of power required to fling a grown man and knock out two more people. Note again the difference in speed/input momentum (top right panel).

Doing mixed martial arts doesn't means that every move is a hodge-podge of everything. Suo's starting stance is a very basic/common starting form in kungfu:

As a side note, visually this starting form is very representative of Suo as a character/fighter :P He doesn't start (seemingly) looking for a fight; his stance is neutral, relaxed; one hand is inviting the opponent into his space. However, when we look closer, his feet are position such that he is ready to lunge forward (front-facing leg) and a fist is hidden behind his back, also ready to pounce.

It is a basic stance because it is good, and great when done right. If there is one (1) single thing you get from all the ramblings I do, let it be that Suo has very good basics. From his resting stance, fist placement, low stances, to kick— everything is solid.

This brings us to the "debate" between Suo and Oobiki about what "discipline" means.

Discipline: Rigidity or Fluidity?

Suo v. Oobiki is, ultimately, a fight about their philosophy regarding "discipline". (In this manner, we can say that Suo participated in at least one conversation, lol. But more on this later in Crisis of Contact or The Failure of Language (coming soon. at some point.) perhaps.) Firstly, Oobiki brought up discipline with the context of punishment for bad behaviors:

Which suggests that a (rigid) social code was violated here— which is that Suo, the underclassmen, had insulted his superior (in age and school-year). Discipline, here, is a violent mean to "bend" someone back to the appropriate behavior; or, perhaps, discipline means the rigid code of appropriate behaviors itself. Regardless, we get the sense here that "discipline" is rigid, meant to be followed to the letter, and even somewhat hierarchical: the elder enforces discipline onto the younger, not the other way around.

Ironically, this rigidity and hierarchy of discipline is what Oobiki forsook in the first place when he gave up competitive gymnastics:

Rigid routine, rigid rules;

The hierarchy of ranking and rigid scoring system;

And yet, old habits die hard. The brutality of competition and gymnastics is engrained into Oobiki's conception of discipline, and what it means to be, yourself, disciplined, or to discipline somebody else: beating the same stringent routines and rules until submission.

Afterwards, Suo relays a very different view — another definition altogether — of the word:

(Yeehaw! The first visual of Suo's master--- the same narrative role as Akari, yet so much further away...)

Discipline here is not a rigid code of rules or behavior, but rather the transmission of knowledge. This may be due to localization (can somebody please supply me with the Japanese version), but notice that Oobiki uses "discipline" as a noun, while Suo uses it as a verb. One is a thing that you have; the other is an action you impart upon someone else. Already, we see the rigidity of an object without care for whom it affects, versus an action that involves two people at the minimum (the teacher and the student) and widens the possibility of what could be taught. Martial arts is a discipline; so is calligraphy, for example, or tea ceremony, or life philosophy, or math, or science, or literature, etc.

Discipline, to Suo (relayed to him by his Master, by the quote) is a living, mobile thing, means to share knowledge without forcing it upon somebody. You can try to train or teach someone; it doesn't mean they will learn it that exact way, or they may modify your teachings to their needs. Suo is already innovating upon the discipline passed down to him by teaching Nirei to protect himself and fight back at once

It's a living thing in the same sense that humanity is a living thing, as culture and knowledge get passed down and modified generations by generations. It's quite generative, to employ a pun here. It's more philosophical and metaphysical than the concrete, object-like "discipline" that Oobiki wants to impart, or force upon, others.

How do these two views of "discipline" duke it out? By fighting, of course! And, I will argue that Suo wins because he has the better discipline, narratively speaking. Of course, it's nearly impossible for two definitions of the word to duke it out— this is why we have stories and narratives :D The key observation I want to make is that Suo has the more solid and proper forms.

I noted earlier that Suo was able to get a hit into Oobiki with his elbow because of his good ready stance with the fist. The more demonstrative example, I think, is in this sequence here, which immediately follows the aforementioned example:

Oobiki begins with a gymnastic-inspired cartwheel, using one leg to attack and hook Suo's arm down. Note that the force is concentrated on Suo's wrist. With his momentum, Oobiki's arms push upward to complete the cartwheel, and, theoretically, slam Suo's body down by his wrist (a very tiny fraction of Suo's body mass— which is proportional momentum). That's cool and all, but I think Oobiki makes a grave mistake next…

... of attacking with his other leg instead of landing. He expects Suo's whole body to go down with his wrist (which, again, very small fraction of body mass— Suo is a lot stronger physically than Oobiki expected). If that is the case, then Oobiki gets the point. However, I think, giving yourself zero point of contact on the ground — your form and stance not being grounded at all — is a risky gamble. You risk standing on nothing and having no foundation beneath to push you on. While you are falling mid-air, your opponent easily get a grasp on you, and, supplying some (seemingly) minimal amount of force, turns gravity against you. Again, no foundation, nothing solid to land on.

This is, also, the last significant movement in their choreography before the winner is decided. This ending is signified by Oobiki saying, "I can't read you at all..." before the narrative naturally descend to the conclusion of their fight with Suo as the winner. Oobiki's "encore" is merely the last desperate swipe in a conversation already closed.

Foundational Grounded-ness; Defense as Offense

Another observation: throughout the Oobiki fight, most of Suo's stances are low, deep stances, which emphasizes stability and grounded-ness. We see these in the previous examples— in the one immediately above, Suo's stance is so "deep" that he is kneeling on the ground: very stable (which also necessitates no small amount of core strength, mind you) in contrast to Oobiki's ungrounded-ness.

Here, Suo starts from a neutral, high stance, then steps out and down to move his opponent down along with his own center of gravity

Next, a very impressive (holy crap I can't properly express how fucking insane of a move that is) swing: from a low (kicking) stance, which provides the normal force necessary to push, and over

To a solid, whole foot (HEEL FIRST! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT-- note the angle where the heel is closer to the ground) and a forceful slam down.

While Suo adeptly utilizes high, middle, and low stances, I want to point out that in this fight, all of his move begins from a low stance. Narratively, Suo is focusing on stability, grounded-ness (purpose-wise, Furin's job is to hold their ground, too), and defense — which is his specialty. Suo rarely initialize attacks as offense; here, he relies on the same grounded-ness of his defensive practice as offense. You have heard "the best defense is offense" before, now, welcome to "the best offense is defense" :P.

Combing through the manga, I am struck with how solid Suo's stances are, which I'm sure I have more than adequately emphasized by now. He is agile, mobile, and responsive, yes, but he agilely steps into a sturdy defensive stance in every fight, as demonstrated above in the Kiryuu introductory fight as well as in Roppo Ichiza.

I think this does say something about Suo as a character; just as Sakura's agility, adaptability, creativity, and ferocity says about his, or Tsugeura's high-spirited, principled (even if seemingly odd) virtues being supported by his muscular sturdiness— emphasize the simplicity of pure force, or, Sugishita's long-armed, forceful, but single-trajectory attacks says about his single-minded determination. It doesn't have to be anything too deep lest we step too close into Backstory Speculations territory (though I would not blame us for that, seeing that that is the #1 mystery right now, lol). But, to me, there seems to be an interesting contrast between Suo's image as a lighthearted, blithe, socially-adaptable child and his principled and grounded stances, which are primarily employed to protect or defend someone else.

(Suo's return to the group post-Oobiki is blithe and lightfooted. At this moment, his return is more to a social effect, reconnecting with the rest of the class before the fight resume. Note that, in contrast to his earlier heel-first landing, toe-first landing is used for very light landing— a spirit of windless calm, as I love to say these days. His first impact is this lightness — relieving Nirei from his post, signifying a victory, like a balm upon the toiling soldiers.)

There is, still, a hidden sternness and practicality underneath such a light and humorous character. We caught glimpses of it: Suo who, on the first day of class, "fact-and-logic"'ed Sakura and Sugishita into resolving their conflicts:

Suo who represents the foundational philosophy of fighting as a group to Sakura:

Suo is also teaching Nirei the foundation of fighting, etc. etc.

These roles fit perfectly into his motif as a "teacher" in the narrative, conveniently also as the narrative mouthpiece: I discussed in another analysis Suo's role as the one delivering "conclusive remarks" — the final deliverer of message to Sakura's journey. Just like his conception of discipline as "passing down teachings" — passing down something fundamental, grounding, upon which new innovations can be made — Suo provides the elementary, foundational "bricks" to the story, upon which Nirei, Sakura, the audience, and whomever else he will teach next, can build up their unique substances. It all starts with a good basics— that’s the thing that struck me with Suo’s fighting styles: it’s graceful and simple, based on strong and solid foundational skills.

Circularity; Yin and Yang

By now, it's clear that Suo's fighting motif is primarily circular: he twists and flips his opponents both parallel to and perpendicular to the plane of his body

@darkersolstice and I briefly discussed this point earlier, here, where they insightfully compare Suo to the eye of a hurricane. Inspired by this, I remarked that the philosophical basis of Suo's style is something to the effect of "A steadfast heart amidst the ever-turbulent circumstances" (In Vietnamese, "Tâm bất biến giữa dòng đời vạn biến"). As the calm in the eye of the storm — the central, unmoving axis of rotation — Suo controls himself and the vortex of life such that they all pass by him. He sees and acknowledges the turbulence; but he remains unperturbed and untouched by them.

There is a nuance between what I argue here versus what I argued by Suo's evasiveness, in that it is not the fighting style that is the evasive one, but Suo is. The evasiveness — the "letting life flows by" physical philosophy — is just one of the many possible motivator for his evasion. The bulk of Suo's dodging, I think now, is social rather than physical; the physical aspect just further enforces the motif. (Or, I may argue, the physical aspect may hints towards a deeper motivation for the habitual deflection, without it being the main culprit of the evading act.)

Coming back to the circularity itself; the perfect circle has been symbolically important, throughout many culture, as a symbol of perfection and completeness. The Aristotelian view of the universe was that of a series of enclosing sphere, because circles — and spheres — are perfect. In Chinese philosophy, the same ideal is reflected in yin and yang

There is light in darkness, darkness in light, as circular force and motion rotate in the universe. This is the total encapsulation of everything. Suo's circular form, where he controls the sum total of his force and the opponent's momentum to his advantage, symbolize this philosophical totality. By Suo's association with a heavily Chinese motif, this could be the intended basis of his form.

Suo on the Offensive? no_fist.megamind?

Another thing that is apparent is that Suo has yet to (actually) attack with his fist; both time, against Kanuma or KEEL, he was thwarted from doing so:

Both time, Suo going for the punch was considered an excessive use of force— explicitly so in the KEEL's case, where it was considered the wrong and overly-aggressive choice. There, it also marked a break from his serene and mature characterization.

Suo does attack— but it is always with his legs, palms, or elbow (in the Oobiki fight).

Never the fist. Why?

I, to be honest, still have to ponder more what this means in relation to the rest of his defensive, circular (yin-yang), and deflective (utilizing the opponent's momentum) fighting style. An oath of non-violence, perhaps?— an oath to respond to your environment, to defend as the need arise, to seek not violence but repel it? These are compelling statements. Why kicks and push, but not fist? Perhaps there is an "excuse" of repelling and deflecting in kicking away, pushing away that does not exist in punch in, punch at, punch through. With its various prepositions, punching is rarely away, but always offensive, violating, stepping inside in a sense. Suo's discipline seems to be that of pacifism or at least, minimal violence. Violence cannot touch him, and he cannot exude violence with the discipline he was taught— handed down to? constrained in?

There are still so many interesting thoughts to extrapolate on, so many narrative trajectories wide open for Suo (and his backstory) to take— but that shall be the story for another day.

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