Anything Goes Martial Arts

I have just finished reading Ranma 1/2, one of my first exposure to japanese comic that is known as ‘manga’. Thanks to the internet I’m finally able to catch up to the last volumes and read it until the end of the manga at volume 38.

I won’t talk about the manga itself, but about Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū – School of Indiscriminate Grappling or also known as Anything Goes Martial Arts, the martial art style created by the great Happosai with Ranma as the heir of the style. The principal idea about this style is to take the best for the practitioner and leave the techniques that is deemed as ineffective. For me, it brings back the martial arts to the individuals itself. Nowadays, a lot of masters train their disciples as a mass, treating all of them as a similar entity, expecting their disciples to move the same way and use similar movements and techniques. Maybe they need to once in a while go out and read the manga, it’s funny and entertaining, but amazingly, the martial arts that’s being practiced there is very individual, although some of the characters come from the same school of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū, but the way they fight is different from one another.

As the name implies, it is a style that allow everything to be used as a technique, even using taunts, running away to distract enemies, and bowing for your life well, although the author might meant it as a joke, but in my view, it’s the true martial art that we must aspire. Training is tailored to our capabilities and preferences, with rigorous training and using our head and heart when the need to defend ourself comes. Anyway, it’s very funny how the manga can give me inspiration for my training, but aside of all those thing, it’s still one of my favorite manga. Dai ryo ja!!!