Gouketsu

Gouketsu (ゴウケツ, Gouketsu; Viz: Goketsu) was a Mysterious Being and an executive member of the Monster Association.

He is a major antagonist in the Super Fight Arc.

Appearance
Gouketsu was a large monster with a muscular body and spiky arms and shoulders, donning a ripped black shirt black pants. Gouketsu had four vertical grey eyes with white pupils, sharp teeth (with two large protruding lower teeth), a defined jawline, pointy ears, and spiky black hair. He also had a dark, cross-hatched marking on his forehead and upper ears and X-shaped scar-like marks on his chin and neck due to injuries during monsterification.

Gouketsu's human form bears resemblance to his monster appearance. His face and hairstyle were similar with the major difference of his two sharp eyes.

Personality
For a Mysterious Being, Gouketsu is exceptionally calm, composed, and calculating, similar to a human villain. However, he also showcases the trademark cruelty and arrogance of a monster, similar to Bakuzan and Choze. For example, Gouketsu looks down on the participating martial artists of the Super Fight tournament, stating that their consumption of Monster Cells would only make them mediocre fighters rather than comparable to himself. As demonstrated in his fight against Suiryu, Gouketsu is confident in his abilities. Gouketsu also lusts for power, as evidenced in his pride in his monster transformation.

Despite this, Gouketsu is not without appreciation for individuals who impress him with their strength. For instance, he gives Suiryu a second chance and expresses the possibility of becoming an executive member of the Monster Association after witnessing him defeat all the newly transformed martial artists. Furthermore, he is also perceptive enough to realize that, no matter how strong a monster is, they will be eventually hunted down and killed if alone. As a result, despite his cockiness, he has some sense of cautiousness. After Bakuzan transforms into a Mysterious Being, he arrogantly attacks Gouketsu believing himself to be the strongest. Gouketsu does not kill or injure him. He empathises with Bakuzan for being drunk on his newfound power, and calmly demonstrates his superiority by blocking Bakuzan's attacks, in order to calm him down and make him realise that there will always be stronger monsters.

Gouketsu displays a dark sense of humor when he kicks both Max and Sneck into the air while wondering if they both died since he just simply poked them. This is furthered when he viciously toys with Suiryu to humiliate and torture him before he is fed to The Three Crows.

Gouketsu strongly follows the philosophy of the Social Darwinist world where the strong will rule the world and prey upon the weak through blood and violence.

Gouketsu's personality as a human is largely unknown; however, he is shown to be confident enough to challenge the intimidating Orochi to a one-on-one fight, only to end up losing to him and getting captured. The role his torture played in his willingness to become a Mysterious Being is unknown.

History
Gouketsu was a Martial Arts fighter and the winner of the first Super Fight eleven years before the events of the series. He later challenged Monster King Orochi to a fight, only to be thoroughly defeated and taken to the lair of the Monster Association, alive but presumed dead. There, his mind was broken under torture and he was offered to become a monster if he ate the Monster Cells handed to him by Orochi and Gyoro Gyoro. This resulted in him becoming a mysterious being.

At some point before Gouketsu's transformation, The Three Crows were his disciples. They transformed into monsters and lost their egos due to their weak will.

Super Fight Arc
Gouketsu managed to take out Genos on his way to the C-City Super Stadium, although this was after Genos had lost an arm and was already weakened from his battle. Gouketsu arrives at the Super Fight Stadium and catches Benpatsu as he was trying to leave. He then orders every Martial Artist to become a Mysterious Being.

Max and Sneck attempt to fight Gouketsu but were easily defeated in one kick. He then offered the lower class martial artists a chance to eat the Monster Cells to become monsters or they die. Those who joined him were Rosie (who was quickly killed), Choze, Benpatsu, Volten, and Hamukichi. Gouketsu was quite pleased with the results of the transformation, believing them to be interesting and Choze in particular to be a success.

After Suiryu refuses Gouketsu's offer, he orders the newly transformed martial artists to kill him. He silently watches the fight between Suiryu and Choze, with Suiryu being victorious. Gouketsu offers Suiryu a second chance and even offered him an executive positon in the Monster Association. Suiryu refuses and tries to defeat Gouketsu, but Gouketsu strikes Suiryu with a downward punch, heavily wounding him.

He then toys with Suiryu, showing the difference in their strength. After easily beating down Suiryu, he lets The Three Crows attempt to finish him off. As Bakuzan consumes the remaining monster cells, Gouketsu notes that he was being greedy and that his body could not withstand numerous monster cells. He is initially proven correct when Bakuzan collapses instead of initiating his transformation. To Gouketsu's surprise, however, Max and Sneck reenter the stadium, bruised but mostly unharmed, to help Suiryu fight The Three Crows. The Three Crows are quickly killed by the trio, and Gouketsu confronts the heroes, knocking them unconscious while Suiryu attempts to escape.

Bakuzan's transformation initiates, and he viciously pummels down Suiryu. Gouketsu assesses the newly monsterified Bakuzan as a success and rates his disaster level as Dragon. Bakuzan, drunk with power, declares himself to be the strongest monster and battles Gouketsu. Gouketsu effortlessly handles Bakuzan, lectures him on the Monster Association and the wealth of strong monsters, and intimidates Bakuzan with a powerful punch launching shockwaves that leaves a large hole in the stadium (the strike also served the purpose of creating an appropriate passage for large monsters like Gouketsu and Bakuzan). He then gives Bakuzan a firm warning about taking on the whole Hero Association alone and heads to the ruins of Z-City, the meeting point of the Monster Association. Along the way, Gouketsu is confronted and killed in a quick exchange by Saitama after Suiryu informs the latter on Gouketsu's strength. After hitting Saitama at least twice, which seem to have no effect, his head is ripped off by Saitama's normal punch and flies up into the atmosphere before landing in the Super Fight stadium in front of a shocked and weakened Suiryu.

Abilities and Powers
Gouketsu is an executive member of the Monster Association. He was strong enough to win the first Super Fight as a human and effortlessly defeated Genos, an S-Class hero, two A-Class heroes (Sneck and Lightning Max), and Suiryu, a five time Super Fight champion, after his transformation into a Mysterious Being.

As Gouketsu is threat level Dragon, he is extremely powerful. Moreover, he is able to effortlessly demonstrate his overwhelming strength over Bakuzan, another Dragon level threat by his own observation. Genos even stated that Gouketsu's strength was in another dimension, exceeding all monsters he had encountered (including powerhouses like Carnage Kabuto and Pluton) and that even Saitama (which he had witnessed vaporizing mountain ranges with the shockwave of a punch and heard being kicked to the moon and jumping back) would be impressed by Gouketsu's strength and claimed that Saitama should team up with the S-Class Heroes in order to defeat him. Genos even states that facing Gouketsu is like facing Saitama himself. This was proven an overestimation, however, as Gouketsu was effortlessly defeated by Saitama in a single, nonchalant strike, which sends his head flying back into the stadium from the middle of the city. More than likely Genos made such claims because both Saitama and Gouketsu are so far above himself that he probably wasn't able to accurately determine their strength levels in comparison.

It is implied and probable that Gouketsu's human form outclassed martial artists like Choze and Bakuzan, as his monster form was far stronger than the monster forms of the latter two (especially the latter having ate multiple monster cells). Furthermore, Suiryu states Gouketsu is an elite martial artist superior in skill compared to himself as well. This suggests that as a human, Gouketsu was strong enough for the S-Class ranking of the Hero Association.

Physical Abilities
Immense Strength: Gouketsu is extremely strong, even more so than his stature demonstrates. A seemingly casual punch is able to send shockwaves that blows an enormous hole in the Super Fight stadium, and a punch that landed on Saitama splits the clouds above. Furthermore, Gouketsu was able to easily smash Genos into the pavement with a single punch, disabling him, creating a sizable crater, and causing Genos to remark that Gouketsu is far above himself and a coordinated attack of the S-Class and Saitama would be the safest way to take him down. Gouketsu was also able to heavily injure Suiryu with a single punch and break Suiryu's left arm with another. He was also able to block Suiryu's Void Quaking Tiger Fist (an all-out attack) with two fingers. He was able to casually block attacks from the transformed Bakuzan, another Dragon level monster, with only one arm and effortlessly pinched Bakuzan's spiked elbow strike. When approached by Saitama, Gouketsu demonstrated his power. Each one of his strikes produced shockwaves that could be felt throughout the city and he was able to slightly ruffle up Saitama, but ultimately he was unable to damage him. Genos mentioned that he is probably stronger than any monster that he had fought previously.

Immense Durability: Gouketsu has incredible defense as his stature demonstrates. He was able to effortlessly withstand Suiryu's Void Sky Dragon Fist directed toward his eyes without batting an eyelid or showing any signs of pain. He was again shown to have great durability when he was able to easily block all of Monster Bakuzan's attacks without receiving a scratch. His durability is vastly greater than most heroes and monsters.

Immense Speed: Gouketsu is fast enough to attack Genos before he could act, even when the latter sensed his approach and was fully prepared for battle. Gouketsu is able to follow Suiryu and Choze's immense speed during their fight whilst the other martial artists present could not. Gouketsu was also able to appear behind Suiryu in an instant, and Suiryu even remarked that Gouketsu was far faster than himself. In his fight with Bakuzan, Gouketsu effortlessly blocked his attack with one arm, despite Bakuzan using all of his four arms for the attack.

Fighting Style
Master Martial Artist: Gouketsu seems to have retained his martial arts prowess as a human, when he was able to win the first Super Fight tournament. This is evidenced in his fight against Bakuzan, when he casually deflected the latter's attacks with a single arm. Moreover, Suiryu remarked that Gouketsu was more skilled than himself. After becoming a monster, Gouketsu seems to toy with his opponents and deliver powerful strikes, as was the case in his fights with Suiryu and Bakuzan. However, Gouketsu has also been shown to quickly finish fights when on a schedule, as he did not toy with Genos when he travelled toward the Super Fight arena.

Miscellaneous Abilities
Keen Perception:  He is able to identify the strength level of others. He was able to identify the transformed Bakuzan as a Dragon Level Threat and note that Suiryu could possibly be an executive member of the Monster Association if he consumed a monster cell.

Trivia

 * The name Gouketsu can also mean hero (豪傑).


 * Gouketsu was originally designed without the black marking on his forehead and chin. His teeth were larger and sharper, while the redrawn version looks more human.
 * "I guess the reason why Frieza's final form looked strong despite its simplicity was that in contrast to the forms to that point, it looked (intelligent/calculating/rational). Being able to feel the intelligence is scarier (than not)." - Murata