June 2024

Greetings, anime fans, martial arts aficionados, fighting game devotees, and enthusiasts of all things about anime, martial arts, video games, and fighting tournaments. Antoni here with another written entry. It is no secret that I revel in my fourteen seven-anime-character martial arts team AU headcanon, as I have been developing this concept since a year ago. However, this concept has been tried and tested from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. From 1998 to 2009, I have been traveling with my family and by myself on a couple of occasions to various locales, encountered different television stations, and played a good chunk of fighting video games. Cebu and Manila in the Philippines; Oxford, England in the United Kingdom; Hong Kong; New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, California, Florida, North Carolina, and Hawaii in the United States of America were among the many destinations my family and I traveled to, especially when it came to searching for anime that I still hold dearly to this day. Whenever I tuned in to ABS-CBN, Adult Swim, Animax, The Anime Network, AXN, Cartoon Network, the Funimation Channel, GMA-7, Hero TV, QTV, RPN 9, Studio 23, Solar TV, Toonami, and even on YouTube, I have always kept my mind open to the characters I enjoyed the most and delved into a lot of the fan-related discourse on various anime and pop-culture magazines. Bulking this passion for anime with fighting video games I played on Play Station 1, 2, and 3 as well as in the arcades such as Tekken, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, and King of Fighters also helped to feed the ever-burning flame. All of this led me to create the pipe dream of wanting to be a voice actor for anime and video games and even want to go the direction of announcing, being the performing arts aficionado I have always been. However, I am glad to have taken a more objective route with the visual media I care for the most in written-discourse and video-review forms. Cutting this long prelude short, I want to thank my family and extended family from the Philippines to the United Kingdom to the United States of America to Canada to various parts of the world for encouraging me to be open-minded, passionate, and maintain high interest in anime, martial arts, and fighting video games. I owe it to each and every one of you for giving me the drive and determination to create my anime martial arts teams AU headcanon. This anime fan-related AU headcanon concept has been on the backburner for over two decades, especially since I started to become a full-fledged anime fan as a 12-year-old sixth grader in 2004. Now that I am a 32-year-old man about to finish my Master’s in American Studies degree in a couple of months, I am more determined as ever to cherish my anime martial arts teams AU headcanon and learn a lot about the martial arts I have been providing to the anime characters I have always enjoyed on the small screen.   While I truly revel in my fourteen seven-anime character martial arts teams AU headcanon, I realized that some of the team-ups did not make sense in hindsight. Granted, I am still happy and satisfied with a good number of the team-ups. However, some of them must have the switch-up treatment. This has also extended to some of the martial arts I gave to a good number of them, which did not hold up as well as I thought it did. After much reflection, reassessment, and rethinking, I present you the fourteen anime martial arts teams I have formulated consisting of seven anime characters per team. The selected characters come from Inuyasha, Baki the Grappler, Shura no Toki, Shootfighter Tekken, Hajime no Ippo, Fullmetal Alchemist, Solty Rei, Ultra Maniac, Wolf’s Rain, Texhnolyze, Geneshaft, Chrono Crusade, Samurai 7, Kiddy Grade, Hungry Heart, Full Metal Panic, GetBackers, and Cardcaptor Sakura. Some of the martial arts choices I have come up for some of the characters might seem bizarre and contradictory to some of the anime series’ canon universes. Nonetheless, I can roll with those choices and thrive at them with all of my being. Furthermore, I am arranging the team members from oldest to youngest that include their main martial arts, their birthdays, and their ages as of 2024. With that said, let’s get ready to rumble and may this be a full house in the anime martial arts tournament arena. Osu! Hajime!   The Splendid Seven (Sesshoumaru, Shuran, Inuyasha, Hakkaku, Ginta, Ayame, and Shunran) The arena resounds in triumph and majesty when Sesshoumaru, Shuran, Inuyasha, Hakkaku, Ginta, Ayame, and Shunran take center stage. Opponents would be foolish to trounce two dog yokai brothers in Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, three spiky-haired yokai brothers in Shuran, Hakkaku, and Ginta, and two auburn-haired sisters in Ayame and Shunran. Sesshoumaru’s German suplexes, Shuran’s torture racks, Inuyasha’s piledrivers, Hakkaku’s upward headbutts, Ginta’s downward headbutts, Ayame’s elbow slashes, and Shunran’s leopard blows can cause collateral damage to their opponents and leave them half-dead. Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha– Mixed Martial Arts with a background in Vale Tudo, Kapu Kuialua, Folkstyle Wrestling, Pancrase, Combat Sambo, Catch Wrestling, and Huka-Huka; April 30, 1981; 43 years old Shuran from Inuyasha– Professional Wrestling with a background in Sumo Wrestling, Lutte Traditionelle, Gidigbo, Malla-yuddha, Pehlwani, Boli Khela, and Mongolian Wrestling; March 12, 1981; 42 years old Inuyasha from Inuyasha– Ancient Greek Wrestling with a background in Ancient Pankration, Modern Pankration, Luta Livre, Ssireum, Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, and Shoot Wrestling; April 1, 1982; 42 years old Hakkaku from Inuyasha– Muay Boran with a background in Lerdrit, Bokator, Muay Lao, Muay Korat, Muay Chaiya, Muay Lopburi, and Muay Thasao; May 13, 1983; 41 years old Ginta from Inuyasha– Lethwei with a background in Bokator, Lerdrit, Muay Lopburi, Muay Lao, Muay Thasao, Muay Korat, and Muay Chaiya; May 15, 1983; 41 years old Ayame from Inuyasha– Xtreme Gladiator Kickboxing with a background in Shooto, Shootfighting, Shoot Boxing, Draka Kickboxing, Kyuk Too Ki, Muay…