Fence by C.S. Pacat & Johanna the Mad follows the journey of underdog Nicholas Cox as he earns a coveted spot on the Kings Row fencing team. Unbeknown to his teammates and his rival/roommate Seiji Katayama, Nicholas is the illegitimate son of world-renowned fencer and Kings Row alum Robert Coste. Against all odds, Nicholas is driven to become a fencing legend to finally reclaim his place in the world from his half-brother and current champion Jesse Coste.
How are character relationships developed through fast-paced action scenes?
To those familiar with the medium, it is clear that Fence naturally falls into the category of what is commonly known as “sports anime.” As the term explicitly describes, they are anime series that feature a particular sport and the stories of those who practice it. The storylines mostly focus on an individual’s or team’s journey towards success while developing the characters’ through the trails and tribulations brought by competition, rivalry, camaraderie, and slim chances of success. As such, this genre provides the perfect backdrop to showcase character breakthroughs during intense competitive moments. In this regard, Fence is no exception, and the rapid style of its panel layout mirrors the speed of fencing perfectly.
Credit: C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente & Jim Campbell
A four-panel page.
First panel: Nicholas and Seiji are fighting in a utility closet. Nicholas has his right fist in the air while Seiji has him by the front of his fencing jacket with his left fist.
Text box: Jesse—
Second pane: Nicholas and Seiji are fencing. Their poses mirror almost exactly the ones from the panel before.
Text box: —it’s like he’s the one you want—
Third panel: Nicholas and Seiji are shown fighting in the utility closet again. Nicholas is keeling on his left knee while his right leg is stretched in front of him; he has Seiji by the back of his jacket with his right hand. Seiji is falling over Nicholas’s outstretched leg.
Text box: —it’s like he’s the one you’re looking for—
Fourth panel: Nicholas and Seiji are fencing. Like before, their poses mirror almost exactly the ones from the panel before.
Text box: —inside me.
While Fence is obviously rich in action scenes, a particularly significant one takes place in chapter 10. After being crushed 0-15 by Seiji earlier that summer, Nicholas has a lot to prove to himself, Seiji, and the rest of the team. However, tensions are high as Seiji deals with the ghost of defeat himself, but on the global scale at the hand of his rival Jesse Coste who, unbeknownst to Seiji, is Nicholas’s half-brother. Nicholas and Seiji’s tension reaches a boiling point mere moments before their rematch which leads to blows in a utility closet. As depicted in the panels above, through the use of flashbacks and parallelism, Nicholas and Seiji’s fight remains unfinished during their match. It matches the closet fight beat-by-beat as Seiji demands Nicholas tell him why his fencing style is so similar to Jesse’s while Nicholas demands Seiji acknowledge him as a rival in his own right and forget about Jesse. In fact, the mirrored action in the panels also strengthen the symbollic duplicity between Nicholas and Jesse, which Nicholas himself is keenly aware of and Seiji has noticed through his fencing.
Credit: C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente & Jim Campbell
A five-panel page.
First panel: Nicholas and Seiji are facing each other with their epées in hand.
Seiji: I know you’re faster than this. I’ve seen it. Show it to me.
Second panel: An action shot of Nicholas lunging, but Seiji hits him first under his outstretched arm.
Seiji: No. Faster.
Third panel: The scoreboard reads 0-7 with 2:58 minutes left.
Fourth panel: An action shot of Seiji’s hit right in the middle of Nicholas’s back.
Fifth panel: The scoreboard rads 0-9 with 2:03 minutes left.
Credit: C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente & Jim Campbell
A five-panel page.
First panel: A close-up of Nicholas, his face is visible through his fencing mask as he yells.
Nicholas: Look at me.
Second panel: Nicholas is blocking an attack from Seiji.
Seiji: Show me—
Third panel: Nicholas fends Seiji off.
Nicholas: Look at me!
Fourth panel: A close-up of Seiji, face visible through his mask, his teeth are clenched and eyebrows narrowed.
Seiji: —Show me what you got from Jesse.
Fifth panel: A close-up of Nicholas, perfectly centered in the panel, with a furious look on his face.
Nicholas: Jesse didn’t give me anything! Everything I have—
Credit: C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente & Jim Campbell
A two-part panel.
First panel: An action shot of Nicholas hitting Seiji on his left shoulder. His face scowling with determination.
Nicholas: —I got on my own!
Second panel: A close- up of Seiji, stunned that Nicholas could land a hit on him.
Because of the nature of fencing, the tension between characters can be effectively depicted as physical hits. Here, Nicholas and Seiji’s match isn’t the same as the chaotic and passionate blows in the closet; they are the calculated, precise, and taunting touches of a fencing match. The rules they both have to deftly adhere to set Nicholas at a disadvantage as he fails to keep his cool. Seiji’s superior training and annoyance towards Nicholas make the action flow quickly from panel to panel guiding the reader’s eye between them, with the same speed and split-second action seen during a fencing match. With the same breakneck speed, the tension breaks the second Nicholas lands a hit on Seiji, and within that moment captured by the panel, there is recognition on Seiji’s behalf. Depicting a fast-paced sport such as fencing in comic-form necessarily requires the panels to showcase split-second moments of not only those of related to the sport, but also snapshots of human emotion. It’s in those fleeting moments when characters change and grow.