力王

RIKI-OH

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
12
RELEASE
January 1, 1990
CHAPTERS
75

DESCRIPTION

In the late 1990s, society is descending into ecological collapse and totalitarianism. Saiga Rikioh, 21, finds himself in jail.

Set in the near future, at the privately-owned Tokyo State Prison. Like the chilling wind of the end of a century, a mysterious man with a six-pointed star on his fist entered the pen.

Saiga Riki-Oh--serving a term of three years, due to assault, his first offense. Riki-Oh openly antagonizes The Four Emperors, four powerful prisoners that control the prison and keep the rest of the inmates in line.

CAST

Riki-Oh Saiga
Kitamakura
Wakamatsu
Iwata
Bandou
Imura
Narumi
Asa

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO RIKI-OH

OVA ActionRiki-Oh: Toukatsu Jigoku

OVA ActionRiki-Oh 2: Horobi no Ko

REVIEWS

Erroratu
65/100
Jewish Kenshiro and Nazi Jesus do not need pressure points to make people explode
Riki-Oh is certainly a strange piece. Its starts off as the basic "Tough guy vs obviously horrible people" with a lot of gore added on and with a few honorable opponents here and there that either make our protagonist sad or become his temporary allies. But then it devolves into a big bunch of different themes, such as the negative side effects of nuclear power, world war 2, religions, politics, armageddon and whether one's life is worth more than the others.
I will only be talking spoiler-y about the first chapter or so, and will just talk about the next ones without mentioning anything specific

This tale follows a man named Riki-Oh who is in jail for murder, in a world where prisons have become private establishments, and the goverment is mostly corrupt. Which allows the creator to completely mistreat the prisoners and other characters without having us, the reader, wonder why its even allowed. The general history behind the character will originally be barely explained, and then slowly built upon as the story progresses. The story itself is cut into 5 different arcs, and they all have their own set main antagonist who Riki-Oh will aim to defeat. All 5 of the arcs reveal more about Riki-Oh, and reveal to him what he must do next.

During each arc he will amass one or two allies, which usually will not follow him into the next one, and usually are pretty forgettable and used mostly to get Riki-Oh into trouble or to attempt to hit the reader with an emotional scene or two.
The story suffers from rushing characters other than Riki-Oh. If you're not Riki-Oh then you're just kinda there. They're rarely expanded upon and looked at in any other light other than "This guy follows the protagonist now". Characters are also hard to connect to because the series just treats everyone but the main character like the most expendable piece of dirt.
_Pic 1: Riki-Oh showcases his Jewish power alongside his tagline_
The story itself is somewhat held back by Riki-Oh himself a few times, as he ,despite being a man that is heroic and strong and eats his greens and all that good protagonist stuff, is very very gullible. There is a lot of times where there is an absolutely obvious trap yet he will walk right into it. Or he'll just play right into the hand of a villain. Villains themselves comment on how easy he is to figure out as he only follows 2 basic principles in his life:
Be nice and punch the bad.
Until they're good or until they're dead.

Another problematic part of the story is that it...kinda forgets certain plot points. These are mostly a few small plot points introduced early in the story, in the first 2 arcs,when I feel the author himself hasn't fully realised what he wants to do with the series.
If people took breaks instead of marathoning the series they would have probably forgotten about them by the time the story finishes so it wouldn't be such a big deal, but I went throught the entire story in 2 days and everything was really fresh when it ended.
_Pic 2: The story's rather unexpected focus on hebrew tales suprises the man_
The story is heavily influenced by the Old Testament, the hebrew religion and the treatment of Jews during WW2.It speaks of Solomon,David,Isaac,Abraham and others. I can't attest to how correct the retellings of these tales are as I am not Jewish myself, but I will warn you that the writer confused Austria-Hungary with Africa once so he may not have the best knowledge of history.

The battles themselves remind me of both JoJo and Fist of the North Star, where you KNOW the main character will win and completely destroy his opponent , but you just have no idea how. Unfortunately for Riki-Oh there is a LOT of "Filler" battles,that are basically just the enemy showcasing his abilities and then Riki-Oh destroying them with one or two hits. The "Non filler" fights are a joy to read through however, as they usually end with Riki-Oh barely leaving the fight alive because he probably got smacked through several walls and trees in his attempt to find a weakness in the enemy, and do manage to keep you on the edge of your seats.

Riki-Oh also contains 2 side stories that are in no way related to the main story. I recommend skipping the first then coming back to it later,as the first one is positioned right between 2 very intense chapters. The second one is nicely positioned at the end. If you're from Hong Kong then your manga version will not have these, sorry. Don't ask me why, I don't know.

In short, Riki-Oh is a strange piece that attempts to tackle a large variety of themes in a series thats meant to be mostly just people punching each other till they explode. Its a very interesting read that suffers from the writer abandoning plot points, not really focusing at all on characters other than the protagonist and going into incredibly strange directions that sometimes make it a bit hard to take fully seriously.
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Shellshock
50/100
The tone of the series kept changing from serious to campy ruining the flow. Amongst other issues.
oh boi where to begin

This is the kind of series you have to shut your brain off. Any attempt to understand the story will simply backfire on you.

There are 5 main arcs in this series. Every arc feels like the last one. Everytime your like ok now this is the end. turns out there is a bigger bad waiting for you.

The story changes per arc. Mostly because the information isn't revealed then. At first its prison break. Than its underground fighting, than its something, than its something else. You think this series is crazy now? Wait till you read the next chapter. There is so much bullshit in this series im astounded that i thought for even a moment that this series can't get crazier.

The first 2 arcs of this series are a bit mundane but thats because the series doesn't accept itself for what it is. The series is very stupid with a lot of over the top bullshit. But it takes itself seriously. As such campy moments aren't that fun, and the emotional moments in the series have 0 impact. It kinda sucks it takes so long for the series to get together.

Though there are still crazy ass moments that are enjoyable there are just spread too thin in the first 2 arcs. Also the fact that there is supposed to be the emotional tone that doesn't really work.

I did enjoy the last 3 arcs. They weren't spectacular or anything. But it seems like the author accepted the fact that this is a stupid series and as such should go crazy. Though i do believe that he went absolute batshit in the last arc. I'd say it in more detail but that would be spoiling the ending.

As far as the action, its as crazy as you'd expect from the 80's. Its absurdly violent and there is so much blood you think everyone is holding a ketchup bottle. The main character Riki is absolutely ridiculous. He punches characters and the other side of there body explodes. The MC gets shot and is fine 5 seconds later because he missed all his vitals and only scratched his heart. His powers are also absolutely inconsistent. He can break steel and bend iron yet he can't handle a couple punches.

There is this Ki thing which is basically this manga's Ex-machina. Enemy too strong? Just use Ki. You need some sort of extremly specific power that won't be mentioned ever again? Use Ki to channel it. and so on, and so on. I mean at least it looks cool.

The story falls apart (Even more so than it already had) at the end but by then i don't care. Like who gives a shit about the story when you have a characters that chokes people by using his own intestines that he brought out from his own stomach in the heat of battle. This is one of the calmer scenes before it turns into dragon ball z.

If the art reminds you of the Fist of the North star thats because the artist was an assisstant for HARA Tetsuo. No doubt he picked up a few tricks

Despite the campy fun for the later half of the series. It just isn't good enough. I think they wasted too much time on exposition and other uncessary components for it to be enjoyable as a whole.

TLDR: The tone of the series kept changing from serious to campy ruining the flow. Amongst other issues. 5/10
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