Business deals are usually made through meetings and contracts; but in the world of Kengan Ashura, businesses resort to other means to make their decisions: by hiring gladiators. Yabako Sandrovich's Kengan Ashura depicts a world brimming with action, violence, and martial arts—one where powerful gladiators have fought in grand arenas since the Edo Period to settle the disputes of wealthy businesses and merchants.
Ouma Tokita, who is nicknamed "The Ashura," is a fighter trying to prove himself as the strongest. Hideki Nogi, a member of the Nogi Group, hires Ouma to fight for him and makes Kazuo Yamashita, an average middle-aged man, his manager. The duo is thrown into fights facilitated by the Kengan Association. Their journey will be full of ruthless battles with other fighters aiming for the same goal. Do they have what it takes to be the best?
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Iyarashii
This is my first review so I apologize in advance for poor formatting or it's not done well but I just thought I'd have a go at it. First of all to all of those reading this please please please please try and look past the fact that it's 3D CGI as it's not as bad as you might think. It's not nearly as bad as Berserk was and in fact feels like it excels over traditional 2d when it comes to fighting scenes. The movement feels fluid as well as the choreography is very well done with no repeating actions and speaks wellto the source material. The downside being that there is quite a few moments of exposition where a commentator or the peanut gallery may through in a few comments but overall wasn't too jarring.
The story felt true to the manga however it doesn't have as many interpersonal character development as the manga which is okay considering they have to fit the story down in to a 12 episode season. It certainly was able to transition well between the comedic moments as well as those that were more serious in nature and the impact of certain scenes were conveyed well.
I think the sound was one of the highlights of the show, every fighter has had theme song which really made their entrance into the fights feel more memorable and sometimes even gave more character to the fighters or fleshed them out a bit more. The sound effects in particular never felt like they were dull or out of place and felt natural as well.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation, it deserves a 2d animation medium for sure but don't let that distract you that the anime direction, sound, choreography and overall feel of the show felt like it was a memorable use of my time.
Bored_Ronin
The Kengan Ashura anime is the most disappointing thing I've seen all year. I love the manga, it's one of the best martial arts stories and I wrote an entire review on how cool it is. I've been wary of the anime adaptation ever since I saw the first trailer and realized it was going to be in CGI. Being a Kengan Ashura, I felt obligated to watch it but I set my expectations extremely low. apparently, those expectations weren't low enough because I am still baffled at how awful this show is. The most glaring problem with the anime is the CGI animation. While notthe worst CGI that I've seen, it's far from what I'd call good. Character models are clunky and stiff, the attacks lack impact. The CGI does a poor job of emulating the beautiful art of the manga. The fight choreography is terrible, the camera is all over the place, never knowing what to focus on. At best it's uninspired and at worst it's just disorientating. It doesn't feel like it's ever taking advantage of the fact that it's CGI. The anime tries its best to replicate the exaggerated and detailed facial expressions characters have and it often falls flat. Sometimes they look fine but other time it just doesn't look right on a 3d model. The presentation of some of the techniques used by the characters is just abysmal. Raian's Removal and Ohma's Advance look ridiculous in the anime. Something about the way they glow is just off. There some 2d scenes during flashbacks, which are mostly still images with very limited animation. They're not great but they look better than CGI. The switching between the 2d and CGI scenes can be quite jarring at times.
The CGI is bad, but the real problem with the Kengan Ashura anime is the story. I've already talked at length about how good the story is in my review for the manga. It's a simple story but well thought out and executed. The anime somehow completely butchers it. The anime adapts 73 chapters from the manga, not counting the extra chapters. Obviously, a plethora of stuff was cut to make it fit into twelve episodes. Entire subplots and characters are just gone, it's a mess. For example, the anime just skips the second major fight of the series and jumps right to the third fight. I'm astounded that they would skip a fight, in a series all about fighting. The character that Ohma fights against is also important to a later subplot, so of course, that entire subplot was axed. I think the baffling change is the absence of Yamashita's secretary Kushida Rin. She's an integral part of the story and she just doesn't show up at all. They even cut some vital character development for Yamashita. He's more a comedic relief character than anything else in the anime. It's upsetting because he's one of the most well-developed characters in the series. The side characters suffer the most from the cut content. There are a lot of good character interactions that give good characterization and flesh out character relationships between side characters and most of them were cut. Because of this you're never really given a good feel for or reason to care about characters other than Ohma and Yamashita. The most these characters get is a flashback during their fight. The manga excelled at fleshing out all the characters and the anime seems focused on getting to the next fight as quickly as possible. Another bizarre change is that in the manga there's a character named Adam Dudley, a fighter from Texas. He's a rude and vulgar man with "FUCK" engraved on his teeth. Oddly enough this was changed to "DAMN" in the anime. It's a minor change but it feels unnecessary. He's still just as foul-mouthed as he was before, so why change it at all?
If there's one positive thing I can say about the anime, it's that the music is pretty decent. The opening song is good, even if the visuals of the opening leave a lot to be desired. The ending song is terrible, the rap does not complement the series at all. The background music does its best at trying to get the audience hyped for the fights and would succeed if not for the fights themselves didn't look so bad. The voice actors are fantastic for the most part Daisuke Namikawa is absolutely perfect as Kiryu Setsuna, he gives the best performance in the show.
Quite simply Kegan Ashura is a bad adaptation of a brilliant manga. The visuals and all the cut scenes are just horrid. It's an insult to both Daromeon's art and Sandrovich's storytelling. The manga was full of passion for martial arts, and I didn't feel any passion for martial arts or even love for the source material in the anime. It's such a hollow and soulless adaptation, and it's unlikely there'll ever be a proper adaptation. I'd advise anyone who was put off by the anime's visuals or story to try and give the manga a shot, it's a far better experience.
richardphat
I'm sorry but if you're going to thrash out an entire anime for CGI, you should stop doing reviews for this anime. There's more than just graphic or double standard. (Kingdom S1 for instance...) The story was able to capture the interest at episodes 2, which is quite a slow paced for a short series. However, the wait was worth so far. The story was quite straightforward by episodes 2, basically, our main fighter has some sort of vengeance plot while his rep. company has a twisted goal in mind. It's from that episode that you slowly learnt the protagonist story. Sound details were also fine,the add of bone cracking sound and other miscellaneous did enhanced the fight.
Yes, animation isn't anywhere close to typical anime post 2015, but overall it was enjoyable and nowhere cringy as people make it sound.
abiisu
I loved the manga. It's the best thing I've read so far and it's honestly great. But this is just a mockery of what the manga was. I was disappointing when I saw the trailer for this ONA but actually watching it is another level of terrible. Story- 7/10 The story is simple and interesting but it's not exactly what it was in the manga. I feel like the pacing was far better in the manga. Things were also explained far better in the manga too with a lot more detail and making the read a lot of fun but its numbed down in the anime. Art- 3/10 The art stylein the anime is truly terrible. I hate it so much. There are so many awesome moments in the original manga that just have no where near the same impact here. The main cast of characters looks so much better in the manga due to the amount of detail put into it but it's nowhere to be seen here. I would love to see how scared Kazuo would get in the manga due to his facial expressions but those are just missing in the anime.
Sound-
5/10
The sound design is pretty mediocre. Often during the start of the episode I was thrown out of immersion purely due to the sound of the drums making me think I'm watching Naruto. I also don't like the generic impact sounds during the fight scenes as it just doesn't carry that heftiness.
Character-
8/10
I like the characters, I really do. There are so many charming and interesting things about these characters that make them compelling to me but it's just all over thrown by the awful animation and how they decided to go about the character designs.
Enjoyment-
2/10
Yeah... It wasn't an enjoyable experience at all.
Overall- 4/10
I really wish Kengan Ashura gets turned into a proper anime at some point in the future as there is so much potential in it. I hope it gets the same treatment as JoJo where it gets fully remade somewhere down the line.
Zeroflamez
I noticed some reviews of this show have been biased from manga readers. I have also read the manga too, but I wanted to try and give a review from the point of view of someone that hasn't read the source material. Lets get started - Brief synopsis A middle aged salary man named Yamashita Kazuo on his way home runs into Fighter Tokita Ohma and see's him beat up a another huge fighter. The next day Kazuo is invited to talk to the owner of his company where he is dragged into the world of the Underground fighting circuit called "The Kengan fights".There he is re-acquiantedwith Tokita where their journey begins to compete and attempt to win the Kengan Tournament.
- Story
The plot is basic enough. Company CEO's have fighters represent them and fight for them in Kengan Matches. Fighters fight to see who's strongest, and other personal reasons. Their CEO handlers are in it for the prize(money, property, and whatever to further their companies.) Every so often there's a Kengan Tournament where only the best of these fighters come together to compete to be Champion and win their boss the position as the new Kengan Comittee Chairman. The whole story is basically one big Tournament arc. I know that will scare many away but it's really about all the subplots between characters that really makes it not just another "people fighting" anime.
- Characters
Characters are everything from cool looking to Drag Queens
To walking stereotypes that have their own fighting styles. That's about it. No developement of any sort in the 12 episodes. Though some of the cast do have their back stories touched upon.
-Pacing
Very fast. It can be jarring at times when it goes from fight to fight so fast with no grace period in between.
- Art and Animation
The anime consists of 3D CG models and 2D hand drawn art. CG is used for the fights and 2D is mainly used for static stills or scenes with not much movement. Sometimes however you have one character thats CG in a frame with another character drawn in 2D in the same frame. It looks odd but I didn't find it as jarring as other people have said.
They also use a really stylish way of presenting the visuals to the viewer during flash back scenes or when the narrator is explaining something. It's a combination of still images and audio showing you what's going. So the camera would show an image then pan over to another image that will either have the narrator speaking or a character(or character's).
Overall the 2D art looks fine. The CG is decent and surprisingly quite fluid(can be clunky at times). Is it as good as say the "Ultraman" 2019 CGI Anime? No, but is it as bad as the "Berserk" 2015 CGI Anime? No. In my opinion it's a decent middle ground.
I personally didn't mind all of the different art styles and techniques used though I do understand how some would dislike it. I'm unsure whether it was a design choice or budget issues. I jmagine both due to the fact both the video for the OP and ED are quite lackluster and you can tell they didn't have the funds to put effort into them they'd have liked to.
- Music
The opening theme (The King and Ashley by My First Story)
I really enjoyed the opening song and was anticipating it ever since I heard the snippet from the PV(Preview) for Kengan Ashura months ago. It's a Pretty good Jrock song that does the job to set the tone.
The ending theme (Born this way by Bad Hop)
I enjoyed the ending. It's Japanese Rap. It balances out the hard hitting opening by having a more mellow and melodic ending. Works especially well since every episode ends with a fight.
The rest of the music consists of heavy metal and other insert music that is quite forgettable.
- Sound
Sound effects are fine, the audio sounds great. When the announcer is introducing fighters and commentating, her voice is powerful and has a lot of energy and flare. You really feel like you're actually at the Kengan Tournament.
Voice acting (viewed in Japanese)
All the characters sound exactly as I'd imagine. They really put together a great cast. I'm especially impressed with the announcer Sayaka Katahara(voiced by Mana Hirata). She really did a fantastic job playing the role of "Master of Ceremonies" and doing super hype fighter introductions and commentary.
I can't speak on the dub but it does have veterans like Johnny Yong Bosch so it should be pretty good even if they used the same actors for multiple roles unlike the Japanese version which is understandable.
- Enjoyment
This is where I'm going to diverge from looking at the anime as is.
Honestly it was just ok. Even before the anime aired I knew it would be hard to adapt it properly and I was correct. A lot of character interaction was axed as well other events that took place before the tournament started that are referenced later in sub plots and in the plot itself. What makes Kengan Ashura is its characters more than the fights.
In the manga they're so individualized with their personalities. We don't get to see that in the anime due to them removing interactions. In turn it just makes the whole show feel like a bare bones adaption that's too fast paced. The anime rushes from fight to fight with just enough plot so you don't get completely lost. I can understand why they did this though. The way the Manga is presented makes it hard to adapt. Easier to adapt fights than a ton of character dialogue and interactions that only real work in comic format and don't translate well when animated
. Overall I'd say it's more of a Kengan Ashura lite. If you just wanna see cool characters fighting each other and don't care about much else than I recommend this. In my opinion they accomplished what they set out for. A show that can be enjoyed on its own as a stand alone and that can also make people want to seek out the manga for a more complete experience.
Myemoshadow
I love the manga of Kengan Ashura and have finished the manga and when I saw it was getting an anime I was excited. It is CG anime but honestly it isn't as bad as people are making it out to be. Story: 6 The anime dosn't have much of a story going on at the moment and has cut out some stuff from the manga but it never ruined my experience mainly because the fighting is more important to me then the story (at least for this anime not the manga.) Art: 7 For a CG anime it is pretty good it feels more fluid thenmost do at least during the fights. It can feel a bit clunky and sometimes people will just look so weird and bad. Sometimes it seemed like they had normal non CG characters talking with CG characters so that looked very weird and off. But you get used to it unless you just hate all CG anime.
Sound: 7 The sounds for the punching and kicking and whatever during fights was fine. I loved the soundtrack and music and the voice acting for the most part. Not much else to say.
Character: 6 We don't get to see much character depth or anything, at least not yet. But for what we have I enjoy the main characters. Not much to talk about unless I go into the manga but this is the anime so yea.
Enjoyment: 9 I don't mind or hate CG anime's and I love the manga so that already makes me happy and t he fights to me looked awesome and I think wouldn't look as good without the CG because there are a lot of fights. But I loved the fights that I saw, I like the music and soundtrack I heard, and the characters but only cause I read the manga so im biased a bit.
Overall: 7 If you don't mind CG anime's and like fighting shows or martial art stuff like Baki I'd say you should watch this for sure but also read the manga cause it is so much better.
SuroAsura
Have you read the manga? read it before reading this review. Have you read Berserk? do you know about Berserk (2016)? Search about it before reading this review. I have created an account here on MyAnimeList just because of this abomination that is sorely called an "anime", imagine reading the most epic history in the world with artistic choices worthy of an award, getting hooked on it and then discovering there is an anime for you to watch, all those scenes come back to you as you imagine the thrill of seeing everything unfold with top-notch animation making justice to the beautifully drawn pages of themanga, then you see it is only available on Netflix, it is the most gut wrenching feeling you have ever had, you let that aside because you really like the manga, it couldn't possibly be done wrong... IT'S. 3D.
Well you only had one other passion as of manga, called Berserk, you recall how they destroyed it, it hurts. But with Berserk they chose an horrible studio who only had 3D experience with small bits in anime, only animated comedy shows and such, and you think: "well, Netflix wouldn't make this mistake." they did. Studio Larx was a bad choice, they have ONE complete show under their belt and it is awful, the 3D is so bad it makes your head hurt, i do not recommend that you watch this BEFORE reading the manga, have your first experience as God intended. READ. THE. MANGA.
Maybe by some sort of divine intervention someone will make a good adaptation of this amazing manga, but not yet.
Jezza_G
Haven't read the manga, so unbiased at time of reviewing. Story: The biggest companies in Japan are all members of the Kengan Association. Whenever these companies come into conflict, such as both wanting to build on a particular spot, or bid on the same contract etc, the matter is resolved in an underground street fight known as a Kengan match. The Kengan association president oversees these matches and makes sure that the agreed upon terms are enforced. So the better the fighter is, the more money the company makes. A few episodes in it is decided that there will be a Kengan tournament. Each company in theKengan Association can put forth a fighter to compete for the right to become, or to name the next Kengan Association president.
The majority of this series is based around the tournament, with one or two fights in each episode.
And the good thing is, they show a lot of the fights, not just the main character Oma. Sometimes Oma doesn't fight for several episodes.
The fight scenes themselves are enjoyable and the episodes move along at a decent pace.
I found it a bit unusual that the 12th episode didn't end in a big fight scene involving the main character, but I guess this series is planning to have multiple seasons.
Art
I wasn't a huge fan of the style of art used. It was fine during the fight scenes, but when not fighting, the characters sometimes looked odd, particularly when talking.
Characters:
I found the characters a bit hit and miss. Some of them are downright annoying. Although having said that, Yamashita did start growing on me a bit in the later episodes.
Overall:
I enjoyed the series. If you like martial arts based anime and don't mind blood filled fighting scenes, then I recommend giving this one a go.
Zaky1435
Well this is my 2nd review ever sorry for the future mistakes of the reviews In this story the main character is trying to become the best fighter in the world and trying to take revenge on a certain person with the help of an old man who actually sponsor him .... in a underground society of business class society where businessman hire fighter to fight for their reputed company in a kengan match .... various types of fighter clash with one another like ninja ,psycho killer , sumo , pro wrestler etc the art quality is quite good enough & the actions areawesome ..... as for the character development i must say it's also good there are characters like weird fighters , funny old man some beautiful women ( not very ) , crazy women & men
the best part of this series is, it's not only focused on the main characters like in anime 80% of times show how the main character and it's supportive character struggle and overcome instead in this series it almost focused on every kengan matches , where the outcome is almost unpredictable and the clashes of crazy fighters make it worth of time
so if you are an action anime fan i must recommend you this anime
Hanma_Orochi
ONE OF THE BEST ANIME OF THE YEAR ! For real i loved it, alongside mob pyscho 2 and Vinland Saga, this is one of the 2019´s masterpieces, Kengan Ashura is the best martial arts focused anime i have ever seen, i am a HUGE fan of animes of that genre, and my favorite one is Baki, but Kengan is really astonishing. Kengan really bears a lot of inspiration from Baki, especially some designs and abilities(and no, they are not rip-offs), like in Baki there is a character that has a beastly grip power, in Kengan there also is, but the way they usetheir grip power is entirely different and extremely creative(and violent of couse!), for me what makes kengan so good it that it is really close written i could say, the plot goes really through a planned flow and i am looking for the conclusion of it, SEASON 3 COME SOON PLEAAAASEEEE!!!, and for me that is the thing that makes Kengan so good, it doesnt lose its essence and neither does make you feel "why is this happening ? boring..." it is a thirlling, testoterone filled, gruesome adventure, so if you like martial arts, over the top stuff, some good houmour and manliness, then Kengan is for you. And also the characters are fantastic, i love almost all of them, they are quickly introduced and also get along quickly with the audience, great charisma! So please, do yourself a favor and watch this !
KingBoss_
Kengan Ashura featuring intense combat sequences and a diverse cast of fighters. The anime captures the essence of the manga's fight- till-you-drop ethos, with attention to detail in depicting martial arts techniques. The anime's strength lies in its character development, with protagonist "Tokita Ashura" Ohma's journey from a mysterious fighter to a deeper character. However, the anime's major flaw is the omission of several manga chapters, leaving fans wanting more. This omission is crucial to understanding the full scope of Kengan matches and the complex relationships between characters. Despite this, Kengan Ashura remains an exciting and visceral journey into the brutal world of underground fighting, makingit a must-watch for fans of martial arts and combat sports.
JJMFREAP
Cute girls doing cute things? NAH NAH! This is BIG MEN DOING MAN SHIT! Come on over and put some hair on your chest. If you thirst for a return for the bygone era of manly battle anime, this is one series for you. Punchfighting, martial arts and ridiculous techniques galore, Kengan Ashura is a must see. (P.S. This review is for the whole season, not just this half. I refuse to conform to Netflix' stupid release schedule) Right, have you seen or read Baki? Well, if you have, this is basically the guy that copied his homework from there. The overlap is significant and if youenjoyed one, there's no reason not to experience the other too. Thankfully though, Kengan Ashura is more than different enough to stand on its own muscular legs. Because you never skip legday, ya pansies! Here, the ridiculousness is much more subdued and it's more focused on straightforward martial arts. It's also centered around a singular lengthy tournament arc that takes up pretty much the whole season here. Also, unlike Baki, the female characters aren't just walking "woman moments" and are actually interesting and engaging. They're also really sexy and what is a good action series without some eyecandy, amirite? The setup and worldbuilding is alright, nothing to write home about, but then again this isn't trying to be anything deep. The main goal is to have amazing action every episode and that much is done wonderfully. Set a clear goal and motivation, establish some awesome fighters, give them a ring to fight in and let them have it. Pure awesomeness distilled to the core.
A good reason for the quality of action and one of the most recognizable things about this anime is the use of CGI. Normally anime fans recoil at the mention of this, but here I think it works great. Almost the entire anime is CGI, so it feels more like a stylistic choice than a budget cut. It makes sense, since Kengan is 90% action and by using these graphics, it allows the fights to be much more fluid and dynamic without burning money. Every hit is fast, fluid and impactful and it's very refreshing to see an anime where the attacks per minute is higher than the words per minute. Just straightforward brawls that are always a joy to behold. During flashbacks and other such moments, the artstyle also loves to shift into various artistic modes and this is really cool too, gives each flashback its own feel and adds great visual variety. Overall, I think only some snob would have an issue with how the CGI is used here. We've come a long long way from the Berserk abomination. Oh, and the music is really solid too, especially the wrestling style entrance themes for each character. The voice acting is super over the top and energetic too, makes every character stand out and become memorable.
Granted, the anime is not perfect. Firstly, it is just a straightforward tournament, so if you wanted something deeper go watch some artsy fartsy shit like Death Note or something, idk. This is a fighting story first and foremost. The other thing is the use of some characters. Tokita Ohma is a great protagonist imo and I find him very interesting, but because of the format of the series he gets sidelined for a vast majority of the season and that kinda sucks. He feels like a side character in his own show. The other thing is because these first brackets need to be gone through to get to the bigger meatier fights, some showdowns end way too quickly. It happened a couple of times where a character with a very interesting design, backstory and fighting style would show up, I'd get excited to see what he does and then he'd get demolished with just one or two attacks and are never seen or heard from again. Just feels disappointing. I get that the creators wanted to put some special sauce into every character, but please don't go through so much effort to make me care about somebody just to one shot them and dump them forever afterwards.
Overall, Kengan Ashura can best be described as a ton of fun! It's some oldschool action that doesn't pretend to be more than it is. The main goal is to get big muscular men to beat the crap out of each other for grand entertainment and boy does it work. A worthy entry into the BIG MEN DOING MAN SHIT genre and a must watch for any fan of good fighting. It really Kengans my Ashura.
Scritscrat
The anime that revolves around one big tournament arc. Now how can an anime with only one plot be this interesting? How is character development present? I can tell you that Kengan Asura hadled everything nicely. We have fighters who act as company representatives and engage in the kengan matches where different martial arts and styles are used. I recommend, reading the manga for the full experience because the anime excluded the subplot and other characters who were important in the story. I was suprised when I saw Kengan Asura had 236 chapters and only talked about ONE TOURNAMENT ARC. I started with the animefirst and was quite displeased with the CGI. But as I continued watching, the problem with the animation didn't bother me as much. I was engaged in the storyline. The way Kengan Ashura portrayed martial arts was very realistic. It feels as if the characters in the story were real people. The fighters are overwhelmingly powerful but this doesn't mean that fights are one-sided. The case with Kengan Asura is, you won't know who wins or loses the fight and it keeps you hyped up every match. The stances are accurately drawn and their muscular figures don't seem disturbing. And I loved every part where the fighters showed fear and disappointment after their matches ended. The Opening and ending theme song also gave that underground fights vibe about the anime. 10/10. Don't worry about the CGI, the voice actors and actresses made up for it.
shoxs84
Now i must admit this type of anime is really not my type at all and i suppose that is why i had to review this as soon as i had just completed the first season. The premise is simple and yet in true Netflix style, there is always more underneath the surface! Corporation select a champion to do battle for rights to do business..yes very fight club like indeed! However, underneath the blood gore and kick ass action there is, character humor heart ....a story behind each fighter that ranges from emotional to bizarre to humorous! The Art work of this anime HAS TOBE HIGHLIGHTED THOUGH.
Its odd to see an anime which has amazing animation during combat and technique during a fight but FAIL SO BADLY in the fighting characters day to day movement and interaction. Do not get me wrong, they did get the animation right where it matters but the rest is rather cringe- worthy!
Sound goes just beyond OP and ED. Though its not my style, it suits the anime! The action sequence sound is far more important here as each blow and break of the bone is what matters!
That being said its a great fun anime to binge if you feel like turning your brain off and just enjoying what happens on screen with over the top fight sequence and great character design.
Injenss
THE CGI IS CRAP. TERRIBLE. HORRIBLE. And if you're one of those people who can't enjoy an anime if it looks bad, then you're going to hate this. But, if you've watched enough anime to know that animation is secondary to story, and that some of the best anime is hidden behind mediocre animation, then welcome to yet another hidden jewel. A certain anime taught me a long time ago, never judge an anime by it's animation style. Always give it a chance. That anime was Gankutsuou. Since then, I've learned that whether an anime looks like it's for children (Madein Abyss, Madoka Magica), made with substandard animation styles (Now and Then Here and There, Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni) made with cheap CGI (Knights of Sidonia), or just weird styles you're not used to (Gankutsuou, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) you always give it a chance. I am adding Kengan Ashura to that list as yet another example of a great anime that was hidden behind trash design.
Beyond the atrocious CGI, is amazing action, intriguing characters, laugh out loud humor and over the top memorable moments. What other anime has Ronald McDonald out here participating in death matches while Barack Obama watches on? What other anime has a dude leaving trails of naked chicks in the entrance tunnel before coming out to fight? Kengan Ashura is like Tekken, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, Baki The Grappler, UFC and WWE all just got drunk and said: "Hey, you guys look sexy after these 9 beers.".
This anime is intentionally ridiculous. You've got Panasonic, Bandai, Nintendo and McDonald's, out here hiring mercenaries, psycho killers, and pro wrestlers to fight each other to the death to secure contracts for lucrative multi-billion yen deals in underground death matches. (Apparently "secret underground death matches" take place in massive stadiums before 70,000 people, though.).
In the middle of this, you have Ouma Tokita: Your typical stoic MC on a quest for revenge in the midst of the madness. And by his side, is the comedic relief, Kazuo Yamashita. Kazuo, in over his head as Ouma's manager, is the source of the best comedic moments of the anime and really breathes life into the duo. Ouma, by himself, would be boring outside of his fights. Just another brooding tough guy. But, paired together with Kazuo, it brings life to both of their characters.
As for the fights they are very entertaining to watch. While CGI is ugly as sin when not properly animated, it has one advantage over traditional anime, in that the motions are much smoother. This leads to some very fun fights. The fights in Kengan Ashura are brutal, nearing Mortal Kombat levels a couple of times. (But, the gore is not too excessive, and if you're not into that, probably only one fight will really bother you.) As with any tournament battle anime, you get all kinds of styles and powers. People who fight with hair, people who appear to transform, etc... It leads to some interesting combinations and characters and that's the main thing that sets Kengan Ashura apart from alot of tournament animes: Fights not containing the MC are actually interesting.
Usually, in these kinds of anime, the creators breeze through the rest of the cast's fights. There's not a lot of effort put into them. They may spend a little time focused on the MC's top sidekick fighting, or the main villain's fights in the tournament, and breeze through the rest. But in this anime, they actually put in the time to make each fight entertaining in it's own way, and flesh out the characters a little bit. While the focus mainly resides on Ouma, they actually put significant time into getting you familiar with other characters that have little or nothing to do with him, like Cosmo, Lihito, Sekibayashi and the Kure Family. This really helps the anime a great deal, as the rest of the tournament doesn't feel like filler when the MC isn't in it. In this entire season, Ouma only has 4-5 fights out of about 15-16 fights in the season, and I was still engaged and entertained by every fight.
There's a lot to love about this anime. It's a shame that the CGI drags it down for so many people. But, at the end of the day, this is anime and good animation IS important, so I don't blame those who are turned off by it. But, Kengan Ashura is much like an ugly date. It may not be much to look at, at first. But, if you get to know it, you'll probably love it.
Give ugly anime a chance!
raphaelM
many people dismiss this anime due to the CGI how the anime is very entertaining when you move past that and i don''t think the CGI is a good reason to drop the show. the story is pretty simple but its done well. In season 2 we are introduced to many characters, so many that its almost hard to keep track however they are all developed well in a short amount of time. the soundtrack is also very good and adds alot of hype to the fights. the anime has fantastic world-building and the choreography of the fights is goods. in the tournament arc every singlefight is genuinely hard to predict and this includes the fights of the protagonist.
initially the main characters didn't necessarily interest me but they grew more likeable as the show went on.
azumue
Bad CG’s reign of terror rages on. Story: When businesses have a deal to work out, they could just negotiate, but wouldn’t it be more exciting to have an underground fighting tournament? The series spends about half of it’s runtime setting up this simple premise before we move onto the fights. There’s really not much to say for the story other than it feels like an overjustification for creating a fighting tournament anime. To spoil the ending, it was “wait for season 2 or read the manga”. Sound and Visuals: The opening and ending were both good choices for trying to hype up the show. I have no complaintswith the voice actors either. Mana Hirata as the announcer in particular was willing to sacrifice her vocal cords for the greater good of hyping up the fights. If you’ve seen any of this show, you’ve seen the absolute lows that CG anime has to offer. CG anime peaked a few years ago with Houseki no Kuni, since then a lot of shows seem to be using it just to save more money on their manga ad. This show is no exception. It hurts because I’ve heard a lot of good things about the manga, and you can see the effort put into the choreography during the fights. But it really gave off the feeling of watching someone else play a fighting game that keeps skipping cutscenes.
Characters:
There weren’t any standouts here. You could see everyone’s personalities just fine, but the anime never really tried to go any deeper than the surface. Also, the standard character design was rippling strongman. When everyone is an ugly abomination of CG, it’s hard to really latch on to any of them. If I had to choose a favorite it would probably be Karla, and that’s mostly just for character design.
Verdict: Hard avoid
There’s nothing really worthwhile here. If you want to watch an anime about bad CG buff guys fighting, you might as well just watch Baki instead. It’s also on Netflix but some scenes actually look fine, there are memorable characters, and there’s some semblance of a plot.
Cyranical
Kengan Ashura is an original netflix anime based off the manga of the same name by Yabako Sandrovich. It tells the story of Yamashita Kazuo an ordinary japanese corporate worker who one day meets Tokita Ohma a man that wants to prove that he's the world's strongest in a alleyway after a fight Ohma had with a random man. He is frightened and disturbed by him. The next day Kazuo is called in by his superiors and he meets Tokita Ohma in there as well, together the two will soon embark on a journey in the world of the Kengan Association where corrupt businessman pittheir own respective fighters against each other in order to gain power. The primary reason that I started watching Kengan Ashura is because I was looking for another anime just like Baki, and this one is quite similar to it, they both have the same epic, gory fight scenes plus the interesting characters that fight to become the world's strongest, to protect something, or to just be violent for no worthwhile reason. Kengan Ashura differs in a sense that it actually has a decent story behind it that can be related to our society, corrupt people whether they are
world leaders, politicians or businessman will do everything in order to attain power, prominence and wealth, this is portrayed really well in Kengan where the fighter's owners are mainly businessman, and people bet their fortunes on Kengan matches in order to attain power, wealth and the ever so coveted chairman position granted to the winner of Kengan Life Or Death Tournament, in society this type of stuff actually happens behind the scenes, and this anime despite being a gory martial arts anime known for its fight scenes has managed to show that in its story, that is the main difference it has with Baki, since that show pretty much has non-existent plot, the characters are interesting as well, some of them have decent backstories and interesting techniques, plus their power scaling is just right unlike in Baki where it is bat shit bonkers. Now let's talk about the CGI, at first I was really annoyed by it since it is really bad, to this day I still don't like it, the characters look horrendous and stupid due to it, but due to the story and how interesting the nature of the show is I've managed to set it aside and overlook past it, now I'm enjoying the show for what it is , a gory, carnage candy martial arts anime with a decent story and some crazy over the top fight scenes. Let me remind you all tho, despite the corrupt businessman and world leaders trying to attain power and wealth by using the Kengan matches the story is on thin ice, a lot of the backstories are standard, people fight cause they want to be the world's strongest, their family needs them to as assasins, trying to protect something and all that, although some of a selected few backstories are interesting, they are overshadowed by the overwhelming generic backstories and a story besides for its main plot is skating on thin ice. At the end of the day you watch anime like Kengan and Baki for the fight scenes, the inhuman techniques and the unusual characters that are violent for either shallow or no apparent reasons at all.
Pros:
-Epic fight scenes
-Decent enough story that can be related to society on how corrupt people will do anything for money and power
-Interesting characters and techniques
-Great Op and Ed
Cons:
-Besides main plot the story is lackluster
-CGI is dogshit, animation looks pretty bad
-Backstories are generic AF
-Some characters are introduced to either be throw-away characters, or get no follow up story about them afterwards
Overall Kengan Ashura is a gory, violent, carnage candy, over the top and fun fight scenes type of martial arts anime, that surprisingly has a pretty strong main plot, but all the subplots and other characters fall flat on their faces unfortunately, then again that's just how it goes for fighting anime and manga in general. If you're a fan of Baki, gory, carnage candy filled with over the top fight scenes then Kengan is for you, go check it out on Netflix if you're interested. In conclusion I give the first season of Kengan Ashura a 7/10 for my personal anime rating.
PedroDante199
Many people will go over as to how the CGI looks bad blah blah and so on, but we gotta take 1 thing in account. The studio that animated this one was a studio so unknown, it's only got other 3 anime produced, so their proficiency is clearly either bad or unknown. But that doesn't mean i didn't enjoy the CGI! The CGI did a great job handling the fight scenes and coreography, with a smooth flow and correct anatomy arrangement! What really bothered me A LOT within this anime was the fact that, in order to squeeze out most of the story in 12 episodes,they came as far as to skip not only crucial development moments for Yamashita and Ohma, world-building scenes but as well skip entire fights! (as seen that they didn't show Kaburagi's fight). Sometimes even deleting characters to fit the budget (as they erased Yamashita's assistant existence). Even though the CGI is quite bad rendered it doesn't make the art style any worse. The high constrasted colors, exclusive flashback panels that look like they were straight out of a Comic Book and opening has shown us the intensity the anime is bringing us.
The soundtrack is pretty great not gonna lie, the opening is a banger, the tournament themes are good to listen and has introduced me to very cool japanese metal bands and i really didn't expect to find a japanese Trap group to have the ending space.
The voice acting fits quite well, but I really expected Nogi's voice to be deeper, but that's just me. Also, I love Ohma voice acting, it fits him perfectly.
Overall, it's a good watch, but not the one the manga deserved. The animation could be better to match the flow the manga had, and i definetly want the anime to remade by an actual animation company that's not a "pay cheap get cheaper results".
