COBALT RETURNS: What we know about the Zinc and Cobalt gangs
And all the metal gangs that hate Shishitoren (Manga Spoilers)
Cobalt returned in the most recent episode of Lion’s Fury, so let’s talk about what might be Shishitoren’s main rivals. I've been waiting for a while to make this post because I was waiting to see if they’re actually coming back and here they are.
The mere mention of COBALT sends everyone into a worry and starts the dramatic music…
Translated by winterglaze
Until it’s revealed Choji completely forgot who they were….
In fact, you, the reader, might have already forgotten who these metal gangs are. As a refresher, COBALT is the gang that attacked Shishitoren when it was choosing its new leader in special chapter 172.5. This is now the 5th time the metal gangs have been teased, so I’ve compiled everything we know about them for you. This is the start of what could be a bigger series of posts where we’ll be exploring the possibilities regarding the rock/metal gangs that hate Shishitoren, which collectively seem to be their archenemy.
All you need to know is that Metal gangs love attacking Shishitoren.
We see BOTH of them attack Shishitoren TWICE.
And in all cases they always start the fight too. In the first case Zinc attacked Kanuma, and in the second case Cobalt was “messing” with Shishitoren. You might be asking:
Who are these metal gangs?
Where are they coming from?
Why do they have beef with Shishitoren?
What role will they play in the story?
The answer: We don’t know yet. They might just be assholes. Just like the Spaltips and all the other dumb throwaway gangs that Nii-sensei has been pumping out lately. In all likelihood, Nii-Sensei didn’t put much thought into Zinc’s name and just needed a name for a heavy metal punk gang for Choji to fight. He probably pulled the name Zinc out of a hat, because that’s the name of a metal and didn’t have anything special in mind for them. However, this doesn’t invalidate Zinc’s importance moving forward. Series evolve. Things change. The Kraken line suggests these guys might be central now. And also, it IS possible Nii-sensei had a plan for these guys from the start. It’s hard to say.
What do we know about ZINC?
Zinc is a rival gang of Shishitoren that appears in chapter 19. They attacked Kanuma while he was on his own, and seemingly hit him in the face. Choji gets revenge for him, wiping them out. This happens shortly after Choji and Togame join the team.
Zinc is the team that gave Choji a name for himself. But it’s also the team that indirectly led to his downfall… Much later, shortly after Choji becomes leader, Zinc attacks another member of Shishitoren. But this time, Choji does not come to his team member's aid.
This is all to say that Zinc is intimately tied up in Tomiyama’s character arc.
In this same episode we do get to see Zinc’s logo! Arima holds it up in the anime and I painstakingly restored it by removing the wrinkles and stretching it out. The Zinc logo seems to have this generic “Rock and Roll” or “Heavy Metal” flames.
This logo basically confirms that the “METAL” of these metal gangs are inspired by a devotion to “Rock/Metal Music”. And In the manga, they also dress up in black heavy metal attire, so that’s just more evidence. Their appearance however changes in the anime.
ZINC guy’s wear:
>brown jersey-like jackets,
>probably have the ZINC logo on the back.
>various jeans & t-shirts.
They were clearly redesigned in the anime to look more like Shishitoren’s baseball jerseys. But their jackets look thicker/heavier and appear to have light brown trim. Their jackets vaguely look like flight jackets, and their hideout appears to be some kind of hangar. It could also be an ordinary warehouse, but unlike KEEL’s lair it’s strangely horizontal, so it screams aircraft hangar. But it could also be a biker gang’s automotive shop. It’s hard to tell, but it certainly looks rusty and industrial.
Zinc seems to come from an industrial part of town. We only get a glimpse of it but it has a redbrick and a brownish theme. We also get a view of an industrial area across from KEEL’s turf in the anime. This would presumably be neighboring Shishitoren’s territory.
Steelmill District? Ironworks District? Mining District? Is that the home of the metal gangs? Who the hell are these people? Though we don’t get a clear picture of ZInc’s exact nature, we do get a much better idea of their presumed allies Cobalt.
What do we know about COBALT?
Cobalt is a rival gang of Shishitoren that appears in special chapter 172.5. They attacked the lions the day right after Sako joined the gang. This takes place before Choji turned evil, further suggesting the metal gang's beef is long standing and flared up around the time Shishitoren was picking a new leader. There’s a strange level of coordination going on here. Whenever Shishitoren appears weak and leaderless the metal gangs swoop in like vultures.
Cobalt guys' wear:
>a loose white tee over a long black sleeves
>with baggy jeans
>and a cap or beanie.
There is some variation in the ranks, but as shown above most stick to this outfit. Cobalt basically dresses like skater kids. Which is why I’m 1000% certain these guys are skaters. For one, they’re fought at an underpass, a common locations of skateparks.
What a lot of people don’t know is that the long sleeves and baggy jeans skater’s wear actually serve a purpose for skating, it's not just a fashion choice. The long sleeves protect the arms from scraps when a skater falls, and the thick baggy jeans protect the ankles from rouge boards that ram into their legs.
Unfortunately, we only see them in the manga, so we don't know their team colors yet. Note that in the manga, only white shirts have no shading. So they are probably wearing white shirts. I suspect they also wear some “cobalt” blue apparel as well given the name of their team, making them yet another winter-colored evil gang, like KEEL and Kraken. So this is what I suspect they look like in color:
Like their sibling Zinc, they don’t appear to be too powerful. Whatever relevance Cobalt will have will probably be in their leaders as part of some super team. In other words…
I don’t think ZINC is the main threat
Zinc's whole gang was taken out by two dudes. There’s no way they’re gonna be the big bad. The leader of Zinc might pose a challenge to someone like Kanuma, but I don’t think Zinc’s Leader is gonna be the next Takiishi, powerful enough to take on Shishitoren and its Bofurin allies. It all lends credence to the idea that there’s someone bigger pulling the strings… All these gangs seem to have a shared past, why else would they have similar names. Kinda like how Bofurin’s teams have Buddhist themed names…
Perhaps all the metal gangs used to be part of one big team that fell apart? Like, imagine an alternate universe where Bofurin was broken up, and there were all these “Buddhist gangs" around Furin High. But once reassembled…
A reunited metal gang might be Shishitoren’s version of Noroshi, a specter from their past…
The strange alliance Kraken spoke about, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves, there’s so much we don’t know about the metal gangs despite their reoccurrence in Shishitoren’s past. I suspect every metal gang leader will be like an “Evil Heavenly King”. Perhaps ten members? Just like Noroshi. Perhaps based on the metals on the 4th row of the periodic table. (4 = death, ie death metal).
We have to make a lot of guesses… So now that we’ve covered everything canon, I kinda want to delve into the realm of speculation and what some of these leaders might be like…
LEADER SPECULATION BONUS SECTION!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
This next section is very special. Planning this post months in advance, I decided to make a drawing of what these gang leaders might look like. I enlisted the help of Sukishoo to draw Cobalt’s leader as I drew Zincs. We basically created OCs, but they’re not just OCs, these guys are approximations of what we could expect from these leaders in canon. So it's kinda like a weird speculative oc showcase. Enjoy!
What to expect from ZINC’s Leader?
So the closest thing to a Zinc leader we’ve seen is this guy but for all we know this could just be a rando.
It doesn’t really tell us much… It is kinda funny how the anime ‘dorkified’ him. But all we know about him is that he’s an enemy of Shishitoren and he picked on Kanuma. I suspect the Zinc leader is going to be somebody Kanuma will have to fight. Nii-sensei has a way of tying in old characters and making a connection, like how he made Choji fight the two Noroshi goons that caused the old beef with Bofurin. The writer could have made Choji fight some random Noroshi goons, but instead he put a personal connection there.
Going by this logic, if Kanuma fights in a war with the metal gangs, who do you think he’s gonna end up fighting huh?
And if Kanuma fights the Zinc leader, it only makes sense that he would be nimble and hard to hit like Suo. A spiritual rematch if you will. I’ve even mused about the idea of Kanuma fighting Obiki, but that’s not gonna happen (because Noroshi is on track for redemption) so it’s probably gonna be the Zinc leader.
Putting this all together, the Zinc leader has to be:
- Dieselpunk
- A childish foil for Kanuma.
- Who’s nimble and hard to hit.
=== This is the concept of what the Zinc leader could be like. Not an exact prediction ===
=== This is the concept of what the Zinc leader could be like. Not an exact prediction ===
I love the idea of Zinc being a historian which would tie into his aviation obsession, especially considering that zinc is used to galvanize steel and prevent rusting. Imagine a history nut that's obsessed with war. Kind of like how Choji used to be obsessed with fighting. I imagine him being a weaker version of Choji that Kanuma can fight and beat. One very childishly stuck in his ways and point of view. Once again, Kanuma would struggle to land a hit on him, just like he struggled with Suo. And the Zinc leader would dodge and spin away saying “YOU CAN’T CATCH ME!” like a child.
In the end, Kanuma would give this kid a very shocking lesson in empathy, and the Zinc leader would come crashing back down to earth. In this same vein, I could see the Cobalt leader having a fateful encounter of his own…
What to expect from COBALT’s Leader?
My first thought is Sako because he joined the team during Cobalt’s debut. Having Sako fight Cobalt again is sort of like him reckoning with his past, but Sako might be too strong to fight the leader of an ordinary gang, and would be better served fighting the Metal leader’s No.2 or someone stronger.
Rather, I think Arima would be a better match up.
Skaters are stereotypically cool! Radical!
And it invites comparison to Arima, who’s big thing is being the “most popular guy on the team” on social media. I suspect Arima’s communication quirk is supposed to be a reference to his horse motif. It’s no surprise the horse guy is the communication guy.
Being cool and popular is central to Arima’s identity. So why not have him fight someone with a more toxic view of popularity…
=== This is the concept of what the Cobalt leader could be like. Not an exact prediction ===
=== This is the concept of what the Cobalt leader could be like. Not an exact prediction ===
It’s about Healthy Popularity Vs Toxic Popularity
This skater dude would be an asshole with a superficial view of what’s cool. It's possible the guy Arima fights might have a degrading view of what’s “popular and cool”, scoffing at the idea of Arima hanging out with somebody as “lame” as Kanuma. Claiming that a loser like Kanuma is holding him back. (It’d also give a great opportunity for a childhood flashback). But Arima would shut him down. Arima is cool because he actually cares. His view of popularity is based on friendship, not clout, appearance or trends.
It's strange how the Cobalt leader didn’t appear in either the special chapter or the lion’s fury chapter. Which begs the question…
Will the METAL GANGS be a thing?
I genuinely don’t know. It’s a coin flip.
This recent Lion’s Fury chapter almost mocks the idea of COBALT being a threat. The COBALT grunts don’t even get models. But somebody was decidedly absent. The leaders.
It’s very possible the metal leaders are being saved and we haven’t seen the full power of what this “Metal Alliance” is capable of…
In all 5 interactions with Cobalt and Zinc, the leaders are never mentioned or seen. Now, you could counter by saying this is because they’re so irrelevant, (despite always being there for Shishitoren’s character development.) But even Spaltips and Vermilleo had nameless leaders present. The metal leaders could be on a whole other level. Imagine judging Noroshi, when you’ve only seen its throwaway goons. A Noroshi henchman can be dispatched by Nirei. Hell, even worthless Kraken's leader put Choji on the ropes…
Lion’s Fury still hasn’t caught up with the Noroshi War, and we still don’t know who put Wanijima in the hospital. Perhaps Shishitoren encounters a powerful metal gang in Lion’s Fury’s next big arc? Let’s call it "IRON". Shishitoren will have a tough run-in with IRON and its leader turns Wani into a mummy. Then maybe IRON’s defeat will finally bring the metal gang's true leader out of the shadows, sort of like how Endo finally revealed himself. Basically, this would be their “Gravel Incident”, and ironically it would happen around the same time as the Gravel arc. Like how Kraken happened around the same time as KEEL. But this could all be wishful thinking.
Maybe they are a nothingburger. But personally, they’re still on my radar. These Metal Gangs have been teased and looming in the background so much that any substitute now would be pig-iron.
Thanks for reading. Big thanks to @winter-glaze for doing god’s work by translating all the Lion’s Fury episodes. And thanks for @sukishoos for helping with the artwork. I knew going in I wanted to draw my concept art for the Zinc and Cobalt leaders, and thankfully Shoo volunteered and saved me the hassle of drawing Cobalt’s leader. I drew the Zinc one tho. That was all me.
