Kaiji vs Hina is the best fight in ISSK
Tonight, i binge read all of ISSK, and first and foremost, i gotta say... That old lady is so fucking cool, i wanted her to go far as soon as she bullied kuno, and i have never been more hyped then i was seeing her get that rear naked choke on Hina after what I thought was the token "MC wins after antagonist gets to show off" moment. I was pumping my fists in the air, I dont think I've been this excited for a character to win in a long time.
It's hard for me to pin down why i love Kaiji so much. I've always been a sucker for the wise elder fighter trope, but i just love this take on that.
The fact that it starts out with her tossing around a bunch of important fighters is so cool. That line "Remember that adage about the elderly in lines of work where people die young?" Really struck me. Then she goes on to bully Hina as it turns out she knows her style, which is SO cool that that's the case and really had a cool. "How is rina gonna get out of this one?" Moment. She turns it around, which, of course, she does, and by then, i was SO SURE Hina was gonna take it as she's the MC. But fuckk, it was so cool how she got the upper hand there at the end,
having Rei come in and force her off to stop Hina from dying was good as we really got to have our cake and eat it too. And i haven't even started with her backstory, which is really up there for one of my favourites out of all of them in not just ISSK but Kengan, too.
For the few of you that read this, I hope you, too, appreciate this fight a little more. I literally just caught up with ISSK so i dont know if people think of this fight as utter shit or the best thing in the series or just mid but i loved it and wanted to dedicate a post to her and say that. Sandro fucking killed it