Shamo

**Shamo** (軍鶏, *Shamo*) is a Japanese action manga series written by Izou Hashimoto and illustrated by Akio Tanaka. It was started to be serialized in Weekly Manga Action in 1998 and moved to Evening in 2004. It was discontinued in 2007 due to creative differences but returned in 2011 and ended in 2015. It tells a story of a boy who killed his parents and turned himself into a cold-blooded martial artist. The manga inspired a Hong Kong film adaptation that was released in 2007.

## Plot

At the age of sixteen Ryou Narushima was a genius and looked to have no trouble of getting into Tokyo University and joining the elite of society. However, that summer something cracked inside Ryou's head. With a small knife he brutally murdered both of his parents only leaving his sister alive and cowering in a corner. It is at this grotesque incident that the story begins.

Shamo differs significantly from other seinen manga in that the story's protagonist is actually an unrepentant and often unsympathetic criminal. Throughout the manga Ryou Narushima is depicted as being unrepentant for the murder of his parents (who are later implied to have been physically abusive towards Ryou and overly controlling of his life) and is shown committing crimes such as assault and rape for the sake of making himself stronger. Though capable of redemption (as evidenced by his care-taking of his sister and various small charitable acts shown throughout the manga) ultimately Narushima is a Byronic hero spiraling into darkness, his chances at reform slowly ebbing away as he gives in to more and more of his depraved and brutal tendencies. However, Ryou seems to genuinely care for those close to him, and will not hesitate to help them if they are in trouble. He is also shown to have fallen in love with En, the granddaughter of the master he studied under while he lived in China and was crushed by her suicide, which made him hellbent on killing the man who drove her to it.

Various supporting characters within Shamo act as dramatic foils to Narushima, with Naoto Sugawara being the primary example of this. Famous, rich, and beloved for the same abilities that make Narushima a social pariah, Sugawara's presence can be seen as an example of society's cognitive dissonance towards violence. Narushima is reviled for his violent traits, while Sugawara is praised & rewarded for using those same traits in a slightly different context. This is part of the recurring theme of "traditional vs. modern karate" in which Ryou (who uses traditional karate meant for combat and self-defense) and the various elder members of Banryuukai find themselves hopelessly lost in a world where such karate is scorned in favor of modern sport karate, to the point where Resshin Daitou, the man who founded Banryuukai along with his late brother, contemplates suicide due to his despair at living in a country of "declawed men" where the style he and his brother used to survive the Second World War has been hopelessly defiled by modern ideals.

This story was inspired by the Kobe child murders of 1997 that a 14-year-old "Boy A" ("Shōnen A") killed and decapitated several children.

## Synopsis

### Part 1: Reformatory Arc

**Part 1: Reformatory Arc** (第一部・少年院編): Ryou Narushima, a talented highschooler who was about to enter Tokyo University, the most prestigious university in Japan, killed his parents before his successful life could begin. The perfect family and perfect life seemed to devour the young boy's restless soul. In a beautiful sunny afternoon when cicadas were singing, he stabbed his father and mother to death with a short knife repeatedly before he came to his senses.

The 16-year-old bookworm murderer was convicted and sent to a reformatory where he was gang raped by other boys. He also meets with his sister Natsumi Narushima, who blames him and says she must start working as a prostitute to survive. Kenji Kurokawa, a jailed man who nearly assassinated the Japanese Prime Minister decades ago, was sent to the reformatory to teach the youngsters karate every week. He discovered Ryou's talent and taught him self-defense. Ryou survived and thanks to a law that protects minors, was released two years later, but not before beating several would-be attackers with such savagery that his previous tormentors became terrified of him. He also engaged Kurokawa in a sparring match as a final test of his skills. Ryou returns to society with the mindset of gaining strength so as to survive and never be a victim again.

### Part 2: Lethal Fight Arc

**Part 2: Lethal Fight Arc** (第二部・リーサルファイト編): Alone in a city full of crime, Ryou tried to look for his lost sister, Natsumi Narushima, but ends up mistaking a drug-abusing prostitute for her, Megumi Harada. Ryou started to fight for his living and used all imaginable dirty tricks to defeat his enemies. He also ambushed gangsters in dark alleys to perfect his fighting skill as well as working as a gigolo. In the meantime, he met his companion and later best friend named Kouhei Fujiyoshi. He later enters into a Banryuukai Karate tournament and spends time training his reflexes by kidnapping a woman and forcing her to attempt to kill him, releasing her after he successfully sensed her killing intent. He wins the tournament by blackmailing his opponents anonymously and throwing them off their game with his knowledge of their dirtiest secrets (e.g. an opponent whose wife is openly unfaithful). He wins in his weight class despite objections from the crowd and his fellow contestants over his vicious fighting style, but his victory is legitimized by Kensuke Mochizuki himself, who claims that Ryou's fighting is still superior regardless of the context.

In this part, Ryou meets Naoto Sugawara of the Banryuukai and later fights him twice. Kurokawa, a castaway from that elite dojo, helps Ryou to become stronger as a way to get revenge on Kensuke Mochizuki, his past foe and the current owner of the Banryuukai. Banryuukai is possibly modeled after the Kyokushin and Seidokaikan and Mochizuki is possibly modeled after Kazuyoshi Ishii, the founder of Seidokaikan.

Believing that he is the strongest, the "gamecock" starts to take on other good martial artists. Youko Kamio, a blood-thirsty TV producer notices that this street-fighting young man was the "Youth A" and pushes to have him join "Lethal Fight," a fictional combat arena modeled after Japan's K-1 tournament. Ryou, a dangerous man with an animal instinct who destroyed many good fighters in the ring, one day finds himself facing Rangah Gesmurit, Thailand's best fighter who was fighting to support his family. Before he is totally defeated, he tries to kick the Thai fighter's neck but the fighter ducks and is hit in the eye and blinded.

Ryou wants to take on Sugawara. However, Sugawara is much taller and heavier than Ryou, so his chance to fight him was remote. As a way to provide incentive, Ryou raped Sugawara's supermodel girlfriend, Moemi Funato. Sugawara vowed to kill Ryou with his hands in the boxing ring to comfort his woman and agreed to a televised fight at the Tokyo Dome. It was the duel between darkness and brightness. Only this time, Ryou (亮), literally "brightness," stands for the dark side.

Ryou goes through a painful bodybuilding regime where he used steroids to increase his muscle mass and strength. Before the fight began, his left eye became bloody under the non-human torture. He did not care. Bad luck was on Ryou's side. His small body still was no comparison to Sugawara's. However, he rediscovered his long-forgotten left-handedness suppressed by his parents since he was a child minutes before the end of the last round. Then he wildly gave Sugawara countless heavy left punches before Sugawara used his broken right fist to punch him out of consciousness. He survives the lethal fight and was defeated only five seconds before the fight was over. Sugawara fails to kill him in front of the crowd.

Out of anger and frustration, Sugawara invites Ryou to another private fight three months later in an abandoned temple. Sugawara takes several darts and a long wooden stick. Ryou takes a pair of tonfa with him. After a long and brutal duel where Narushima is almost killed, Sugawara is hit in the back of the neck and was hospitalized.

### Part 3: China Arc

**Part 3: China Arc** (第三部・中国編): When Ryou finds his sister in poor physical and mental condition, he travels to China where he works in an underground martial arts arena to earn money. He is the undefeated champion among all challengers and is nicknamed the "Devil of the Orient". In order to make even more money, he works after hours again as a gigolo. He soon fights a mysterious arena master named Seirin Ryuu and loses the battle.

Ryou also meets an old master of Chinese martial arts. After losing a fight in the arena, Ryou begins to learn martial arts from him and is shocked by the style that he has never known before in his life. He also meets En, a disciple of the old master.

Ryou gets closer to them and gets stronger and stronger thanks to the old master's training, but at one point Seirin Ryuu arrives at the temple and murders the old man and then En dies as well. Ryou fights with the attacker and manages to deal him some damage. Eventually Seirin Ryuu commits suicide in front of him by jumping off a cliff.

### Part 4: Grand Cross Arc

**Part 4: Grand Cross Arc** (第四部・グランドクロス編): It tells a story that Touma Takahara, a successful male ballet dancer with a savior complex, mysteriously abandoned his dancing career to pursue martial arts. It is revealed that the reason is because, after witnessing Ryou's fight with Sugawara, he became obsessed with Ryou and desired to 'save' him like he has others before. The new volumes (20, 21) pick up with Ryou fighting in a club in Japan. Ryou discovers after one fight that his ability has dropped significantly (implied to be due to the experimental steroids he had taken before) and he decides to start training hard. Ryou enters a martial arts competition in a mask and after losing in the finals by disqualification, is spotted by Kensuke Mochizuki. Later, Mochizuki offers him money to enter a tournament fighting against Touma. Ryou, desperate for money, accepts and begins training with Gosaku Tengenji, the master of Makoto Kunou, the man he lost to in the finals (who has since returned to being a "hikkikomori"). Meanwhile before the tournament, he visits the comatose Sugawara in the hospital and, after Ryou emotionally implores his rival to wake up, Sugawara hears Ryou's voice and comes out of his coma.

Ryou is placed on Team Banryuukai Karate, made up of himself and the four Black Dogi (Banryuukai masters wearing black gi) and Team Touma is made up of Touma and four masters of various styles ranging from well known to esoteric (Daigo Yoshioka, Ilyukhin Valeri, Shizuka Uesugi and Fabio Marcos Sanshiro). Ryou also discovers that Kenji Kurokawa was the one who trained Touma, as he now desires to undo what he had done by turning Ryou down the path of violence. This revelation only spurs Ryou on, as he becomes determined to defeat his master, who was now a part of the same society he had taught Ryou to hate and war against. The first four fights end with two no-contests, two wins by team Touma and one win for the Banryuukai. While waiting for his turn to fight, Ryou was stabbed by Moemi Funato. However, he still plans to fight.

Ryou and Touma start fighting with Touma at a heavy advantage. However, before he can win a sudden thunderstorm floods the stage. adapting more quickly to this new field Ryou turns the tables and begins using mind games to overwhelm the more naive Touma. Having so far fought calmly Touma becomes enraged and afraid further playing into Ryou's hands. As Ryou begins to gain more and more of an advantage, he begins to realize that Touma isn't actually a good person, but rather had just never encountered someone who was truly evil or in need of actual salvation. The damage from the stab wound was too much however and Touma manages to win thanks to Ryou fainting from blood loss, but he is mentally crippled by Ryou's nightmarish fighting style and the hallucinations he had during the fight.

### Part 5: Dobu-Gumi Arc

**Part 5: Dobu-Gumi Arc** (第五部・どぶ組編): After the Grand Cross tournament, Kensuke Mochizuki is replaced as chairman and the Banryuukai is split into two factions (True and New Banryuukai) and officially breaks all ties with Lethal Fight, pinning all of the more sordid things Banryuukai members did under the label on Mochizuki. After a night of drinking Mochizuki is mugged and killed. Ryou finds out that Kenji Kurokawa and his ringside doctor have both died during the night. Ryou begins living with his sister and her caretaker, Kouhei Fujiyoshi.

Later, Ryou meets a girl on the street. Her name is Sakiko Wakui and she is very introverted painter. Her father doesn't approve their relationship. Soon he hires Dobu-Gumi, two hit men to deal with Ryou and get his daughter back despite the fact she is there of her own free will. After a confrontation at his house, Ryou agrees to fight the younger brother. While Ryou wins he is mortally wounded and later dies from his wounds. This concludes the story.