Today we’re taking a look at Kure Raian vs Mokichi Robinson from Season 1,
Episode 10 of Kengan Ashura…
This fight was suggested in the comments on my last Kengan Ashura video
and the second time we’ve seen Kure Raian on this channel. A ruthless fighter born into a
long line of assassins selectively bred for peak physical dominance… Aptly nicknamed “The Devil,”
This is not the kind of guy you want to cross in a dark alley.
His opponent is Mokichi Robinson an Anglican priest and affiliated fighter in the Kengan
matches. Mokichi enters the ring with calm confidence, dressed in his priestly garb.
In his youth, Mokichi refined his Baritsu fighting style under the tutelage of his father before
leaving home and getting involved in the criminal underworld. Ultimately, Mokichi chose to clean up
his act – inspired to take care of his younger half-sister Elena. If anyone is ready to take on
The Devil in Kure Raian, then perhaps a pious man with a dark past is suitable for the job.
Initially, the fight looks to be evenly matched, perhaps even tipping in favour of Mokichi who
matches Raian’s intensity with a confident smile on his face. Mokichi isn’t even perturbed
when Raian launches an underhanded assault, throwing blood in his eye before attacking.
Raian
is met with formidable technique as Mokichi bends his wrist into a painful position. Mokichi
is taking advantage of the fact that the wrist is a hinge joint with a limited range of motion
in the sagittal, or up and down plane. Normally the wrist can accomodate
around 70-80 degrees of extension, and even up to 90 degrees in particularly flexible
individuals. If you exceed that range of motion, the structure cannot accommodate the displacement
and the joint fails at either the bone, the joint, or at both. Needless to say this position,
otherwise known as a joint lock, is designed to force submission at the risk of serious injury
if the victim does not comply. Obviously, this technique is quite painful, and here Mokichi
attempts to take advantage of this to control Raian. But… you can’t hurt The Devil with such
simple techniques. Apparently Raian isn’t impressed and launches a headbut at his opponent.
I love when reckless anime characters telegraph the living heck out of their moves–
Raian is met with a swift uppercut, impressive footwork and strike combo, and a powerful kick
to the side of the head. An uppercut like this might result in: short medical explanation.
The followup kick to the side of the head is even more dangerous, as Mokichi first pulls
Raian’s arm to add a little extra momentum to the foot-to-head collision: shot medical explanation.
The Devil’s introduction to Mokichi’s Baritsu style is not over yet. Mokichi’s movements are
calm and refined as he targets openings in Raian’s coarse fighting style. A leg sweep,
a jab and a bodyshot push Raian to throw a desperate right hook.
Mokichi harnesses the momentum of his angry opponent and delivers a full shoulder throw,
leaving cracks in the concrete floor and Raian motionless, upside down in a puddle of blood. For
more mortals, this would have proven to be deadly, but Raian is not a mere mortal. With a fall from a
height and an abrupt landing on your face. Raian would be likely to suffer a number of serious
injuries. This type of impact with the ground would cause an injury to the bones of the face,
the maxilla and the mandible. Either, and possibly both, would be fractured. His nose
would likely be fractured as well. With severe maxilla fractures, the orbitals might also be
fractured as well. Judging from the pool of blood on the arena floor, there is a considerable amount
of hemorrhage from the nose, and possibly also the mouth. While it looks impressive, this wouldn’t
actually be that much blood and would be unlikely to kill you. However, these injuries would be
quite grave and would require operative management or Raian would suffer permanent facial deformities
and malocclusion of the jaw. But what would kill you, on the other hand, would be the extension
cervical spine injury that Raian suffered when he was unceremoniously dumped on his head.
Cervical extension combined with axial loading
is a bad combination that can result in a variety of unstable injuries of the cervical spine.
The cervical spine is designed to support the weight of the head and with each of the cervical
discs able to absorb some compression, is able to tolerate some degree of axial loading over
and above that of the weight of the head itself. However, this does not mean the weight of the head
AND the full weight of a grown man as well. This mechanism, by itself, might result in extension
injuries of the cervical spine which could include extension tear drop fractures, various fractures
of the first and second vertebrae, dislocations of the cervical spine, and infrequent laminar
fractures. With an injury of the spinal cord at the level of the cervical spine, we could
expect some type of paralysis to occur. This would typically be a quadriplegia where all four limbs
are affected. After throwing him directly onto his head, it appears that Raian is not only dead
but also grotesquely deformed as Mokichi walks away. Were he paralyzed as we might expect,
he would not be able to move himself from this disfigured position.
Mokichi is so confident as he walks calmly by Raian’s statuesque figure.
And then it is time for Mokichi to learn about the Kure Clan’s Removal
technique. As zombieguy224 so expertly explained in a comment on my last Kengan Ashura video:
“The Kure clan's "Removal" is based off of hysterical strength. Basically using a greater
percentage of our bodies physical abilities than we would normally be able to – think of
a mother lifting a car slightly to save her child. Normally exerting our bodies this much would cause
permanent damage to our muscles, bones, ligaments, etc. but the Kure clan has been selectively
breeding for the last 2000 or so years to achieve bodies that can withstand this level of exertion.
Some members can exert more of their bodies potential than
others, with the top members being Hollis at 80%, Karla being at 85%, and Raian being 100%.”
With this type of powerup at his disposal, fighting Raian would be like fighting
two distinct opponents with a power differential that is very hard to
prepare for. Mokichi’s composure begins to crack and a subtle frown grows on his face.
Raian’s first removal-powered blow sends Mokichi flying backwards.
He is disoriented as he struggles to defend against The Devil’s savage
onslaught: A single blow, if delivered with enough force,
can cause concussive effects. This might include an instantaneous headache, ringing in the ears,
nausea, vomiting, fatigue or drowsiness, blurred vision, dizziness, confusion, and amnesia. What
was I talking about? I just lost my train of thought. Suddenly, Raian is holding Mokichi by the
throat. He then launches the priest approximately 20 yards through the air – with one hand – and
closes the gap almost instantaneously: Given his literal trouncing of Raian only moments before,
Mokichi is taken by surprise at the ferocity of Raian’s attack. He is likely still suffering from
the effects of being concussed only moments before. Being thrown a distance of some
60-70 feet, it would be quite likely that Mokichi would suffer assorted fractures
after his impact with his ground. Judging by the way that he struck and then tumbled on the ground,
we could expect multiple fractures of his face, chest, and possibly even pelvis.
In much the same way Raian’s face would have been damaged by Mokichi’s shoulder toss,
Mokichi’s face would have been damaged by his impact with this arena floor.
Maxilla, mandible, and orbital fractures aplenty. And let’s not forget that belly
flopping onto the ground from a distance of nearly 100 feet is not a good idea for anyone,
super human or not. Although the overall height was not extreme, the combination of height
and distance would result in a similar injury pattern that is observed with falls from extreme
heights. Normally, with falls from over 50 ft, the likelihood of survival is only 50%
so we could consider Mokichi very fortunate if he even survived. If he did, We could expect multiple
rib fractures, cervical spine injuries, pelvic injuries, and possibly long bone, or extremity
fractures as well. Normally, Mokichi would not be getting up from this to continue to fight,
if he was able to get up at all. This alone would have earned him an extended visit to a
surgical suite and the intensive care unit. But you know what they always say. More is better.
The subsequent lift and slam combination is also very deadly. Reinforced concrete is not
a “forgiving” surface: With the preceding attack Raian mangled the front of Mokichi’s body. With
this subsequent attack, he offers a similar service, or disservice depending on how you
look at it, to Mokichi’s back side. He smashes the back of Mokichi’si head into the concrete floor.
The back of his head impacted the ground at the occiput,
or the most posterior aspect of the skull. This is a triangular shaped bone at the back of the skull
with large ridges where muscles attach. Although these features might make it resistant to impact,
a forceful slam from standing height would serve to focus the force at the point of impact,
making it more likely to cause a skull fracture posteriorly. If the force of the impact were
not sufficient to fracture the skull, it would certainly be enough to cause a closed head injury.
If mild, this would be simply a concussion, but with all of the blows that he had already received
this would likely be an intra-cranial bleed of some type. While some of these
might resolve spontaneously without treatment, more serious bleeds
would require surgical decompression to prevent permanent injury or even death.
Unbelievably, Mokichi retains consciousness and has enough awareness
left in him to break Raian’s finger in a successful escape attempt. It’s the little wins:
As with the wrist lock previously described, the finger lock employs the same technique of forcibly
extending the finger beyond its end range of motion. With enough force, if Raian fails to
submit or escape the lock, something bad is going to happen. EIther a dislocation of the finger
at the metacarpophalangeal joint between the finger and the hand, or a fracture of the finger
somewhere along its length. Fortunately for Raian, it is only a dislocation. With a dislocation at
this level, the capsular ligaments that help to maintain the normal relationships of the bones
to one another, are ruptured allowing the base of the proximal phalanx of the finger to slide
dorsally over the distal end of the metacarpal, rather than remaining apposed to it.
This leaves the finger with a floppy appearance and without useful function since the working
length of the muscles has been changed. And then Raian pops it back in place– like nothing
ever happened, and he’s back on the attack. Painful when dislocated, but quickly remedied.
Of course, once dislocated, that joint would be more susceptible to future dislocations,
but in the middle of a fight to the death, [aint nobody got no time for that meme].
Mokichi does what he can to meet Raian’s offense. He even attempts to
launch the secret Baritsu technique: “Two Finger.”
Unfortunately, his move never connects with Raian who delivers a sinister uppercut with
lightning speed. Mokichi goes limp, his body falls helplessly into the hand of The Devil.
For the record, this is not a place you want to be in.
Raian snaps Mokichi’s neck with one hand and adding insult to injury, slams his lifeless body
into the ground. Earlier in the match Mokichi attacked Raian in such a way that he nearly
paralyzed Raian with an extension type cervical spine injury after a throw from a height. As
a finisher, Raian returns the favour but here using only his superhuman strength.
With only a single hand, Raian forces Mokichi’s head into maximal extension. Think of this as a
joint lock of the cervical spine. As with the locks of the wrist and fingers, once
maximal range of motion is attained, something is going to give, either ligament or bone.
With this injury mechanism we are anticipating a disruption of the anterior longitudinal ligament
that runs down the anterior aspect of the spine, a fracture of the posterior elements of the cervical
spine, or a combination of both. Unfortunately, unlike in the other joints of the body, the spinal
cord runs down the middle of the spinal column. With the injuries to the spinal column mentioned
above, the column itself would become unstable and leave mOkichi unable to protect his spinal cord.
Imagine smacking your funny bone, only about 100 times worse, and affecting your entire body.
Instant paralysis. And, if the injury occurred at or above the level of the 3rd,
4th, or 5th cervical vertebrae, motor control of the diaphragm, and hence control of breathing
might also be affected. And in case you were wondering, this is a really bad thing and can
make survival after this injury really, really challenging because not only would Mokichi not
be able to move, but he wouldn’t be able to breathe independently either. Set, game, match.
At this point in the series, it seems that Mokichi has indeed had his flame extinguished
by the ruthless Kure Raian. For my part,
I hope the priest has a miracle recovery in his back pocket. Let me know down in the comments what
you guys would like to see next. This has been a word from Dr Chris, not your everyday ortho.