The Brawler (喧嘩屋 Kenkaya) is a main character of Akudama Drive. Due to the chaos that he caused in his search for a strong opponent, he was classified as an Akudama and given a prison sentence of 348 years.
Background
The Brawler was one of the Akudama in the most wanted list. His love for fighting and finding the most challenging enemy to fight against, no matter the consequences, earned his sentence of 348 years.
Appearance
Brawler is a dark skinned individual with shoulder-length maroon locs.
He dons a military green high collared coat, dark cargo pants and black boots. His coat is always unzipped and he is bare-chested underneath. He has a number of ornaments on his person including two different beaded necklaces and several binders on his locs, one of them with a skull face. He has a trimmed goatee and dark, catty eyeliners.
Personality
The Brawler was pure and straightforward. He believed that power was everything and had no qualms of losing his life as long as he could fight strong enemies. As such, he was often criticized by the other characters behind his back for being "simpleminded" or a "meathead". He'd often fist bump people as a show of camaraderie.
History
Past
Not much is known about the Brawler's past other than him being a wanted Akudama who earned him an estimated sentence of 348 years, making him one of the most wanted Akudama in Kansai.
The Black Cat
Before meeting the other Akudama at the Central Elevator Hall, the Brawler, having received a request to rescue the Cutthroat from his execution with a total reward of ¥100,000,000, fought many police robots, causing disarray at the Police station. As he arrived at the Police Station, he met the Doctor, Hacker, Courier and later an Ordinary Person with a Black Cat who falsely introduced herself as the "Swindler".
Once they had met up, a tank came out firing missiles from the Central Elevator Hall causing the floor to collapse in the underground prison where they meet another Akudama, the Hoodlum, a lower-class criminal who joined them upon hearing about the mission to interrupt the Cutthroat's execution in exchange for a ridiculously large sum of money. Arriving at the location of the upcoming public execution in the underground, the Brawler started to fight the tank along with the other Akudama.
In the manga, the Brawler had made his first appearance earlier in a scene picturing him at a noodles stall, requesting another serving from the vendor. The latter informed him that he was out of noodles, which angered him in spite of his claim that he had already eaten 38 servings. The Brawler grabbed him, complaining, but he was interrupted by the arrival of the Bullet Train (or Shinkansen) on the rails above them.
Shinkansen Raid
Once the execution was successfully interrupted and as everyone was finally safe, the Courier revealed himself to have a different mission: to deliver a strange case to the Cutthroat. The latter gladly opened it, and suddenly bomb necklaces had been installed around all the present Akudama's necks, including the Brawler's. The Black Cat that had been rescued by the Swindler began to talk, revealing itself to be a robot controlled by an anonymous mastermind who planned to force the Akudama to participate in a raid at the Shinkansen, a sacred place found in Kansai to test them and see everyone's potential during this first phase of their plan. The mastermind proceeded, as they had completed the first part of their mission, to pay the Brawler along with the rest of the group a total of ¥100,000,000 each, sent to their seal e-payment, claiming that if the group successfully raided the Shinkansen they would get a total of ¥1,000,000,000. Although he was not interested in the money, the Brawler accepted the job in order to test his strength during the raid.
Outside the underground station, the Brawler and Hacker stole a flying bus to initiate their plan. Onboard, he properly met fellow Akudama the Hoodlum, who claimed he had an estimated sentence of 50,000,000 years and was one of the most wanted Akudama, which he believed and was greatly impressed by. Inside the bus, the Cutthroat, revealing a strong liking of anything red, pressed all the red emergency buttons, causing the bus to gain maximum speed and crash on Seven-Star Hotel Geisha and Dancing Girls.
Having survived the crash, the Akudama were attacked by the police, but fought them off and killed them. Considering the hotel a proper hideout, the Black Cat revealed the details of its plan to the Akudama. The mastermind intended to "steal" cargo from the Kyushu Plant, currently at the Kansai station to be transported to Kanto. As they discussed the plan, two Executioners arrived at their room and began to fight the Akudama. The Brawler started to fight the Execution Division Master and Execution Division Apprentice with the help of the Courier, but was seemingly defeated by the Apprentice. Having been defeated by the Master, the Courier used his bike to cause a massive explosion and allowed the group to successfully escape the Executioners and hide at the Abandoned Factory. At the Factory, the Black Cat assigned the Brawler along with the Doctor and Hoodlum to push a button located upstairs at the station in order to reach Kanto.
Initiating phase two, the three of them headed to their positions at the elevator station, only to find a barrier blocking their way, keeping them from going any further. In need for a way around it, the Brawler, a proud fist-fighter, found that he could break down the pillars surrounding the barrier one by one, allowing the Hoodlum to go through and awkwardly succeed in hitting the button, at which point they meet with the rest of their group and use the elevator to head to the Shinkansen.
Inside the Shinkansen, the two Executioners once again arrived, trying to stop them one last time. The Brawler, along with the Courier, Hoodlum and Doctor fight back in order to proceed with their mission. Having successfully fought them off, they finally reached the Vault car, at which point the Black Cat disintegrated, leaving behind him a key. They used it to open the Vault, in which they found two children, a brother and a sister, as such completing the second phase.
Expo Park Escape
The Akudama successfully finished the Shinkansen Raid and rescued the two children known as Brother and Sister, who revealed themselves to be the masterminds behind the Black Cat. The siblings made another request to deliver them to Kansai and promised to double the amount of money intended. Uninterested, the Brawler initially refused, only to find out the bomb collar around his neck gave him no choice but to continue working for them.
Outside the Shinkansen, the group stopped and rested at the Abandoned Ward 3, waiting for the rain to stop, having left the Hacker behind. As they waited, the Doctor pressed the Brother and Sister to answer her questions, but as they refused, the Swindler requested that she stopped, claiming she was "being a bully". Despite not having intervened earlier, the Brawler agreed that bullying the kids was wrong and sided with the Swindler. On the next day, the group proceeded to the North Side of the Fortification wall where they encountered the Master one more time.
The Master first fought with the entire group, but claiming to have been waiting for this moment, the Brawler stayed behind to fight the Master on his own and let the rest escape. The two of them fought all over the Kansai Contaminated Ward in an all-out fistfight while the Hoodlum, his "bro", who had fainted when he earlier launched him at the Master thinking that he could fight, tried to catch up to him. Both the Brawler and Master were ready to die to give a satisfactory end to this fight, however, and the Brawler, who was already bleeding out from a wound administrated by the Master during an earlier fight, gave the last of his energy to give the final blow right as his opponent gave his. The two of them successfully killed each other and died on the Old Kansai Bridge.
Legacy
The Hoodlum arrived shortly after his death, only to stare at his body, powerless. Seeing that the Apprentice had found her Master's corpse at the same time, in an act of revenge, the Hoodlum ran to her to stab her in the eye, using the Master's weapon. He then returned to the group to reveal that the Brawler had passed away.
Later, the Hoodlum, having been manipulated by the Doctor, ambushed the Courier, Swindler, Apprentice and Execution Division Junior at the Shinkansen and threatened to kill the Swindler, but she reminded him of his moments with the Brawler and what he would have done if he were still alive. She mentioned how much the Brawler looked up to him, and his legacy successfully changed his mind, convincing him to turn against the Doctor at the cost of his own life.
Relationships
Hoodlum
The Brawler and Hoodlum share a brother-like bond. The Brawler believed the Hoodlum's false claims of greatness.
Execution Division Master
The Brawler and Master have similarities despite being at odds, possessing an immense fighting spirit and desire to fight. The Brawler considered him a worthy opponent and seemed to respect his strength.
Abilities and Equipment
Unarmed combat proficiency: Befitting of his name, the Brawler is extremely skilled when it comes to hand to hand combat. He is able to defeat multiple police robots with ease, despite them being able to easily capture an average person. He is also able to compete with other skilled fighters, such as the Execution Division Master, being able to kill him with nothing but his bare hands.
Superhuman strength, speed and durability: The Brawler has superhuman strength, speed and durability that exceed most people. With his strength, he can throw people up into the ceiling with one arm, jump vast distances and uproot gigantic pillars.
The Brawler has also proven to be fairly resistant to pain, being notably able to keep fighting after being stabbed by the Master's energy sword.
Another one of Brawler's superhuman abilities is his apparent resistance to drugs and toxins. This is seen when he is apparently immune to the toxic gas created by the Doctor, as she states that the dosage of it is supposedly strong enough to paralyze an elephant.
Fighting spirit: Besides his superhuman abilities and his fighting skills, the Brawler also possesses a powerful fighting spirit. He enjoys brawling and refuses to run from a good fight. Due to his immense willpower, he is able to ignore the pain from his injuries and fight until he dies.
Gallery
![Illustration of the Brawler by manga artist Rokurou Ogaki to illustrate the end of Akudama Drive Comicalize Chapter 26[2]](/wiki/File:Akudama_Drive_Comicalize_Chapter_26_-_To_be_continued.jpeg "Akudama Drive Comicalize Chapter 26 - To be continued.jpeg (271 KB)")
Trivia
- The Brawler's favorite food is meat.[3]
- In Episode 5, when given the lunch box, the meat he imagined was enormous. He was able to quickly finish it and even asked for seconds.
- Renta! hosted a popularity poll in December 2020, in which Brawler ranked 9th with 584 votes to his name.[4]
- His Japanese name, 喧嘩屋 Kenkaya, literally translates to "fighter".
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- Manga artist Rokurou Ogaki published two Tweets on November 29, 2021, to celebrate the Brawler's birthday. In one of them, he mentions the appearance of a younger Brawler and his grandfather in the manga, claiming that he wishes he could draw more stories about these two characters.[5]
External links
- Brawler on Miraheze
References
|
| Characters | |
| Akudama | Swindler • Courier • Brawler • Doctor • Hacker • Cutthroat • Hoodlum |
| Execution Division | Master • Apprentice • Junior • Boss |
| Other | Black Cat • Brother • Sister |
| Locations | |
| Anime | Kansai • Kanto • Shinkansen • Absolute Quarantine Zone • Expo Park |
| Akudama Drive Anime | |
| Episodes | Episode 1 • Episode 2 • Episode 3 • Episode 4 • Episode 5 • Episode 6 • Episode 7 • Episode 8 • Episode 9 • Episode 10 • Episode 11 • Episode 12 |
| Media | |
| Manga | Akudama Drive Comicalize |
| Corporate | |
| People | Kazutaka Kodaka • Rui Komatsuzaki • Cindy Yamauchi • Rokurou Ogaki |
| Companies | Too Kyo Games |