Hokuto no Ken Gedoden Tsuioku no Heavy Metal

Tsuioku no Heavy Metal (北斗の拳 外道伝 追憶のヘヴィメタル) is a one-shot published on December 25, 2012 in Monthly Comic Zenon. This four-page humorous story focusing on Club and Diamond belongs to the Hokuto no Ken Gedoden block published for the series' thirtieth anniversary. It was subsequently collected at the end of the first volume of Ichigo Aji.

Synopsis

Before the nuclear war, two heavy metal musicians take stock of their career in the night of the capital. When a shooting star crosses the sky, they prepare to make a wish…

The Wish Upon a Shooting Star

The one-shot opens before the cataclysm, at night, in the streets of the capital. Two musicians are taking stock of their band. Their drummer just quit, heavy metal is no longer in fashion, and their move to the capital ended in failure. The first page reveals their names, Shimatani Kouhei, the future Club, and Yamamura Takashi, the future Diamond, who justifies his permanent makeup by his fear of people. With no money, no job and no success with women, they console themselves by saying that, when it comes to energy, nobody beats them, and that if a profession required only that, they could aim for the top. A shooting star then crosses the sky. They are about to make a wish, and it is at that moment that the world is engulfed by the flames of nuclear war.

A time skip finds them after the apocalypse, members of the KING gang, gathered for their leader's birthday. Diamond performs his signature trick, swallowing rocks, Club slices the cake before mimicking the Platoon pose, a note reminding the reader of the 1986 film, and Heart hands out the slices while everyone encourages him to eat and get even fatter. Then the party turns into a massacre, the men of KING explode one by one under the blows of Kenshiro, each death is illustrated by a verse of the song Happy Birthday, and Heart passes away with his usual "hidebu." Deprived of his "merry companions," Shin announces the ultimate arcane of Nanto Seiken, bungee jumping without the bungee, and throws himself into the void before Kenshiro's eyes.

A gaiden against type

Tsuioku no Heavy Metal is the only one of the three stories in the Gedoden block to adopt a resolutely comedic tone from start to finish. Where HEART of Meet and LIFE is OFFSIDE transform their protagonists' pasts into tragedy, this one uses the same principle to produce the opposite effect. The revelation is not one of men who became monstrous, but of two failed musicians who remain so after the nuclear war, carrying the same frustrations, the same makeup, and the same energy into a world that finally offers them a place.

The story is also the only one to provide a full identity, surname and first name, whereas HEART of Meet only gave Heart a first name and LIFE is OFFSIDE left Spade anonymous. In the original manga, Club and Diamond are known only by their playing card insignia.

The wish itself is never spoken aloud. The story leaves only one clue: the sigh breathed just before the shooting star, that dream of a profession where only their energy would matter. The post-apocalyptic world grants it to them, in its own way. It is the only melancholic note in a story that, down to its very last panel, chooses humor.