Crazy Monk

Crazy Monk
Health	medium
Species /Role	ground enemy
Colors	black / white
Attacks	clawshot teleport leap
Weakness	Raigeka
Introduced in	Manga: Kishin Douji Zenki Volume 6 Ingame: Kishin Douji Zenki - Battle Raiden (Stage 1-1)

The crazy monk is a minor antagonist from the Kishin Douji Zenki series.

They make their first appearance in Volume 6 of the manga, where they serve as the Inugami's henchmen, which have been ordered to collect seeds to feed Kokutei, which would allow the latter to become a "world ending beast".

They later make a cameo in the first Kishin Douji Zenki SNES game Kishin Douji Zenki - Battle Raiden, where they serve the ingame counterparts of the Jushi (aka "Curse Samurai"), that were adapted from the manga's Jushi ark (Volume 1-3).

The crazy monks are individuals of ambigious gender, and each of them could be male or female. The game takes this a step further by giving them a voice that sounds like a man's and a woman's voice mixed together.

Differences (Battle Raiden/Manga)

All crazy monks wear traditional buddhist monk clothing, a belt, sandals and a straw hat, but from there on, their appearance differs depending whether one refers to the ones from Battle Raiden or the ones from the manga.

The crazy monks from Battle Raiden wear a white garb, a red belt, white sandals and a beige straw hat. They also wear a white loincloth with a red outline, which is worn over their pants.

Now there's a stark constrast in coloration from their manga counterpart, which sport a black garb, white belts, white sandals and a white straw hat with a black stripe, the latter of which isn't present in their ingame counterparts' hats. Their manga incarnation also sports a long robe with a white outline, which is worn over their pants. They lack the loincloth of their ingame counterparts.

Manga

Abilities

The crazy monks from the manga possess the exact same abilties as their ingame counterparts. They are able to teleport, leap to cross long distances and have a clawshot as their weapon.

But the manga not only actually did add some abilties, but also some limitations to their already existent ones.

While they can still teleport, they can't flee from Goki's Heavenly Shield by teleporting themselves away, which implies that Goki's aether element seems to null their teleporting abilty.

Also their clawshot has been altered, now acting as both the clawshot seen ingame and an improvised whip. When the leader of the three crazy monks attacks Chibi Zenki, Goki, Jukai and Chiaki by whipping the clawshot at them, the claw is actually on fire, so it becomes a burning whip.

Luckily, it is easily deflected by Goki, who blocks and successfully deflects the crazy monks' burning whips by using his Heavenly Shield.

Volume 6

Unfortunately Goki can't do much more beyond catching the crazy monks with his shield, as current form (Level 1) limits him to his aether element and thus exclusively defensive, reviving and healing abilties. He could beat them up physically, but this would destroy the whole point of catching them in first place. Soon enough, the crazy monks break the shield that is holding them and are on the heroes toes again.

More content on the crazy monks' manga appearance will be added soon.

Ingame

The crazy monk is a slender humanoid enemy who serves as a minor foe. The crazy monk is introduced in Stage 1-1. He/She starts out teleporting into the fray to attack Zenki. The crazy monk will then shoot a claw on a chain from his/her sleeve in an attempt to hurt Zenki with it. Zenki can dodge this by crouching.

If Zenki walks or jumps away from the crazy monk he/she will walk after Zenki and then leap at him, again shooting the aformentioned claw on a chain at Zenki, while being in mid-air. Zenki can dodge this by taking a backstep or dashing if he's on the ground. If Zenki is currently jumping, he has to use the double jump to avoid the crazy monk's attack.

While Zenki is in range, the crazy monk will keep following him around and attack him. If Zenki moves out of the crazy monk's range, he/she will suddenly be gone when Zenki leaves the portion of the screen the crazy monk was located in. If Zenki reenters the same location, the crazy monk will teleport into the fray again.

Sometimes there's also a glitch where the crazy monk either gets stuck in mid-air or the floor and vanishes. Sometimes he/she also doesn't reappear when Zenki reenters the location without defeating the crazy monk. It is still unknown what causes these glitches.

If the crazy monk hits Zenki, Zenki will receive a low knockback and take a medium anmount of damage. Also, if the crazy monk is too close to Zenki or Zenki is too close to a wall, he might get hit twice in a row by the crazy monk's claw. If both circumstances apply, Zenki might even get hit thrice, which is a bad situation.

If Chibi Zenki was hit thrice at full health, he will only be left with a low anmount of health, while Demon God Zenki will lose almost half of his health. (keep in mind that this is because Demon God Zenki's maximum health is about thrice as much as Chibi Zenki's)

This enemy isn't too complex, but he/she will still take some hits before going down and might counter Zenki while he's attacking him/her. You also need to be aware that the crazy monk sometimes also does a backstep on his/her own and counters with his/her clawshot.

Weakness

Using the Raigeka (Thunder Smash) will take out the crazy monk in a single hit, yet it is hard to utilize as you need to know where the crazy monk is going to appear. Otherwise, he/she will attack Zenki while charging, interrupting and hurting him.

Rudra will take him/her down instantly, but it will also drain some of Zenki's health, so it's not advised to use it against the crazy monk unless Zenki gets cornered.

Gallery

Manga (Volume 6)

Crazy Monks

A single crazy monk as he/she appears when he/she attacks Chibi Zenki, Goki, Jukai and Chiaki

When Goki blocks their leader's attack with his Heavenly Shield, all three crazy monks are caught by surprise.

Goki immediately reacts and takes this to his advantage, catching them with his shield and preventing them from acting.

Jukai's Exotic Crane Dance

When the crazy monks break Goki's shield and continue chasing the heroes, Chibi Zenki calls out on Jukai and the latter tosses Chiaki into Goki's arms.

What follows is Jukai showing that he's a much bigger deal than his anime counterpart. Performing an Exotic Crane Dance, Jukai takes down the three crazy monks all on his own.

As Jukai lands, he takes a badass pose, winking at Chiaki and the others and telling them that it was no big deal.

Chibi Zenki is proud of Jukai and pats him on the side to show his respect, but as Jukai is old and tired, Zenki ends up hitting him to hard, causing Jukai to put on a pained grimace. Chiaki can be seen taking a breather as well.

Goki is in awe as well. He wants to learn the Exotic Crane Dance and asks Jukai about it, which immediately revives the old man, who starts bragging about his skills.

Ingame Variants

The crazy monks as they appear in Stage 1. This palette shows them wearing a white garb, which makes them blend in with the snow in Stage 1-3. Their hat has an ochre coloration.

The crazy monks as they appear in Stage 4. This palette shows them wearing a spring green garb, which makes them blend in with the plant themed background in Stage 4-1. Their hat has a rock-like coloration.

Trivia

Ingame

• While the crazy monks occassionally yell while using their clawshot move, the developers cleverly used the technique of overlapping a male and a female voice actor, thus ensuring that Anjura isn't the only female, humanoid foe ingame. This also makes every single crazy monk's gender ambiguous and thus up to the player.
• This obviously excludes animal-like foes, Kishin-eating plants, zombies, ghosts and undead, which have ambiguous genders by default.
• This also excludes the Rock Turtle and Fire the fire breathing dragon mini-bosses, whose genders are unknown as well.

Manga

• Unfortunately a manga features no audio cues and the crazy monks don't appear in the anime, so it is likely that the developers intentionally kept the crazy monks genders ambigious. This also implies that the manga has both male and female crazy monks, just like the ones ingame.