Kengan Omega

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This review contains very slight spoilers. Shoutouts to lewando321 for proof reading.
EDIT2. Lowered score to 3 due reasons I will mention down below.

I stumbled upon Kengan Ashura on Netflix back in 2020, I binged it, then I binged the manga. I absolutely loved every page of it, every single panel, once I've heard there was a sequel I knew that once again I would be hooked. Did it met my expectations? It exceeded the expectations with flying colors, the characters had great chemistry going between them, the art was amazing as always and overall the manga was promising.

So why would I give it a ... 5? What happened?

Well... Imagine creating a likeable protagonist with a very good character development, who wishes to catch up to the rest of the cast, giving him a training arc to show his improvement and development as a member of the crew. What would you do with him as a writer? Continue his adventure? Expand on his character and his past or whatever? Well.. In what would appear to be absolute genius of Sandrovich, he decided to bench him and show him from time to time for two or three panels. I wouldn't have much problem with it if it wasn't an ongoing issue for more than half of the manga's run.

The fights are incredibly predictable and there's little space given for character development outside of few flashbacks and backstories for every character introduced. With KA you had room to breath in between the fights, to see how the characters develop and what's going on behind the scenes.

But those two things aren't the worst offenses, the worst offense is how author had this beautiful conclusion to the story in KA but decided to completely crossed it out with two chapters in KO. I won't be going into details because I don't want to spoil it but it's just terrible. Not AOT kind of terrible, just terrible on it's own right.

As of now I see the light of hope for the series because recent chapters were good, surprisingly really good compared to what I would call a "festival of "mediocreness"".

Know that I absolutely adored KA (and still do) as if it was the best thing in the world. It kickstarted my interest in reading mangas and in martial arts. I am saying this so that you know that everything I wrote in here came from a very emotional place and that Kengan has influenced my life.

Don't let my review stop you from reading KA or KO, both of them are absolutely worth reading even if KO is of questionable quality as of now (Though as I said, it seems we are finally heading back into the right direction with recent chapters).

I kept some issues and explanations of them out of this review because I would need to spoil huge parts of KA and KO.

I might change the review as the series goes on or delete it altogether if the series actually steers into the right direction and my points won't be valid anymore.

EDIT. Hey, the points here are still valid, the recent arc has been completed and it's been... underwhelming. Between few good chapters here and there, nothing changed in my opinion on Omega. While the art is still incredible, the story is still lacking with nowhere near as much impact as Ashura did.

EDIT2 cont. Sandrovich plays far too safe in many situations resulting in the fights either being predictable or absurd. I reckon he is being regulated by the editors or the publisher because he didn't do something like this in Ashura.

Like Kengan Ashura? You'll love Omega!

Easy review aside, KO is the sequel to the hit martial arts manga and takes place 2 years after the Kengan Annihilation tournament and follows two new protagonists, Kogu Naroshima and Ryuki Gaoh, a hot headed street fighter, and a mysterious, calm, yet secluded from reality warrior from the "Inside", the same as our previous protagonist, Tokita Ohma, and their journey into the Kengan matches and a mysterious organization destroying it from the inside called, "The Worm."

Kengan's fights and art are as good as ever, impactful action, detailed artwork and martial arts explanations, and the fighting banter is as ... good as ever. Omega is as strong as it's predecessor and may easily well go beyond it as well.

Kengan Omega's most redeeming quality is its cast of incredibly memorable characters from Kengan Ashura.

The first manga was complete in and of itself. The few loose ends at the end of the manga weren't interesting enough to warrant a sequel. And yet, 106 chapters in, and those few loose ends have only made occasional appearances, and still do not pique my interest at all. During their best, they feel unnecessary, and during their worst, they degrade the quality of BOTH Ashura and Omega. What Chapter 50 alone introduces heavily degrades what Ashura had done, all for a plotline that I really could not care less ... about.

The manga starts off promising enough, I actually quite enjoy the training arc (would be nice if it actually built up to something). Characters from the first manga being reintroduced is cool in the moment, but often feels like a cameo appearance of something, like however they ended up in Ashura is how they are forever. A couple characters have positive changes in this manga, but they are, unfortunately, a minority positive.

The "A Plot" of the manga (assuming those loose ends from Ashura are the "B Plot") isn't engaging either. In Ashura, its A Plot was a fantastic setting for almost all elements of the manga to flourish. I would go as far as to say that Kengan Ashura has the greatest tournament of any manga, ever. The amount of moving parts throughout the manga, and how each one is actually interesting, makes it one of my favorite manga ever. Kengan Omega's, on the other hand, just feels watered down in comparison. One half of the characters we know everything about, the other half we know literally nothing about. The stakes, while high, aren't interesting. In Kengan Ashura, I found myself interested in almost every character; in Kengan Omega, I found myself interested in none of the characters. My only interest was just residue from Kengan Ashura. The fights in Kengan Ashura felt iconic, while the ones in Kengan Omega are forgettable.

This manga does not need to exist. If it didn't, it would actually make Kengan Ashura better.

I really wish I could cite specific examples in this review, but no spoilers allowed. :(

Story - 8/10

Kengan Omega takes place 2 years after the events of Kengan Ashura and follows 2 new MC's on their journey to become stronger; Narushima Koga and Gaoh Ryuki. Yamashita Kazuo (one of the Ashura MC's) is the leader of his own company which is known as Yamashita Trading Co. The Kengan Association is facing a major threat; a secret organization known as the Worm. To deal with this, they plan on performing a merger with another underground Organization known as Purgatory. A tournament is held where the winning organization absorbs the former, allowing them to have enough collective power to deal with ... the enemy. The story has tied up several loose ends that have been left unclear in Kengan Ashura. From chapter 1 to 50, the story was much better than Ashura ever was. There was a clear focus for our weaker MC (Koga) and it showed his growth and development very well, as well as his budding friendship with Ryuki. The story is currently in the tournament arc, which has been a little bit disappointing, but more on that later.

Art - 9/10

Daro's art does not disappoint. He is excellent at drawing people and has continued to illustrate the series wonderfully. The fights look fluid and crisp and you can visualize the fights incredibly well with his artwork. The only criticism I have is that there are sometimes certain inconsistencies with certain characters' heights and/or proportions (i.e. Julius) and sometimes certain limbs get mixed up when attacks are drawn (i.e. A character attacks with a right leg but a left leg is shown in the next panel for the attacking foot). Compared to most other manga that I'm invested in, Kengan's art blows them out of the water.

Character - 8/10

In Ashura, one of the highlights of the series was that you got to know a bit about each and every character in detail and they were all wonderfully developed. Several of these characters have made recurring appearances in Omega, which was refreshing to see. Yamashita Kazuo's development is wonderful, and he shown almost none of the fearful and timid attitude that was prevalent in his character at the beginning of Ashura. Koga started off being a slightly unlikeable character but definitely grew onto me. His humility and hard work ethic remind me of many shonen protags, but he more enjoyable than most MC's (I can't exactly place a reason behind it tbh). As for our other protagonist, Ryuki, he is an enigma. He is a "blank slate" and has a very limited moral compass. He is neither bad nor good, and would become a product of the environment around him. Ryuki's development has been quite interesting. It will certainly be interesting to see how he develops after the current arc is complete. As for the new characters (Purgatory Gladiators), they have been somewhat lackluster so far. Memes aside, Carlos was a pretty neat character. Falcon was pretty interesting too, with his views on rationality shaping his life. Toa, Yumigahama, Lu Tian, and Alan were all incredibly boring one dimensional characters. Naidan was simply used as a plot device. Jurota was pretty cool though. For the Worm characters, Xia seems like an irredeemably evil (albeit pitiful) character but he is somewhat interesting and entertaining as well. Eddie is one of my favourite characters introduced simply because he radiates chad energy but that might just be me.

Enjoyment - 8/10

I really enjoyed this manga and would have given this a 9 or 10/10 right up until about the 4th match of the tournament. It was interesting to see how our new MC Koga was developing and it was enjoyable to see his little interactions with Ryuki. Most of the early plot was a totally different route compared to Ashura but it was certainly an enjoyable route. The main reason for my enjoyment of the Ashura series was for the fight scenes, but I feel like Kengan Omega has not delivered very well with the fight scenes. All the fights pre-tournament were not bad at all but they could not compare to the quality of fights found in the KAT. If I were to compare it to fights in Ashura, it would be the equivalent of the fights Ohma had before the KAT. Now, onto the major fights. The Kengan vs. Purgatory tournament has definitely been lackluster as far as fights go. Round 1 was ok at best. Round 2 was excellent and reminiscent of the high quality fights found in Kengan Ashura. Round 3 was also not bad. However, from Round 4 up until where I have currently read to (Round 8), the fights haven't been nearly as good. I've been disappointed with the quality of the fights but there are still a few left to go in the tournament so hopefully they do not disappoint.

Overall - 8/10

Would I recommend it? For anyone that has read the Kengan Ashura series, absolutely. If you haven't read Ashura, I'd suggest reading that first. This series is still ongoing so I'll update my review every once in a while, but so far, this manga is definitely worth reading.

You know how hit movies often have unnecessary, cash-grab sequels? this is what this manga feels like.

Ass pull after ass pull that are not only made the story feels without stakes but also retroactively ruined plot points from Kengan Ashura. Plot twists are given so generously without any setup, it might as well just be called a plot hole instead. They try to do everything to make a character look cooler except actually making them involved in an entertaining and intense battle and giving them fun dynamics with one another. This is primarily due to this series' heavier focus on the underground thriller rather than ... the sports combat aspect of it. Well, it never had great writing in Kengan Ashura, but at least it is great in the latter aspect. The writing in this series seems to be worsened.

But hey, it's always fun to meet old characters again. So perhaps you might want to stick around just for that.

Kengan Omega, the sequel with so much potential. Mostly wasted potential.

Kengan Omega is the sequel to one of my absolute favourite series of all time, and it does not hold the torch to its predecessor. Omega takes place two years after the final events of Ashura and follows a new protagonist duo in the form of Gaoh Ryuki and Koga Narushima. They act as Kengans Gon and Killua.

The main premise of Omega is following the journey of Koga and his desire to become a stronger fighter. Ryuki serves as his partner in his journey and provides a hint of mystery and intrigue. We aren't ... told a lot about Ryuki, but what we are told is very important and will raise the eyebrows of everyone who read Ashura.

Slightly further into the plot the main villains of the series begin to develop. A secretive organization pulling strings in the underworld. We also learn of Omegas version of the KAT. The Kengan vs Purgatory Tournament. A high stakes tournament pinning our Ashura favourites against interesting new characters in a team based format. This is where the story begins to fall apart. Slight spoiler warning.

When it's time for the tournament to roll around, the MC gets completely sidelined. We lose the protagonist of the series in favour of old characters. All the progress and evolution we see the MC go through is all wasted for the large majority of what is published right now. All the new characters we see in the KvP are largely irrelevant. Many of the opponents we see are cool characters, but that doesn't matter when they're largely just fodder for team Kengan. The fights are all over the place. Some fights are total garbage with "who thought this was a good idea" writing behind it. Some are intense, intriguing and extremely enjoyable fights to witness. But overall the new opponents, which are hyped up to be fighters which could easily compete in the KAT just end up as pathetic punching bags for team Kengan that can only achieve a win by cheesing the fight. This series has a serious issue with consequences. This applies to the main villains of the series as well, not just the tournament opponents. It feels like this series exists as a way to power scale old characters to obscene heights, and not to tell a new story.

The art also is pretty incredible. Much love to Daro.

Despite all my issues, I like Kengan Omega, but this series cannot share the spotlight with Kengan Ashura.

TLDR: This series has so much potential that it completely wastes in favour of telling a story with little to no real consequences that would rather scale up old characters than develop new ones.

This has to be one of the worst sequels ever made. I am genuinely impressed at how awful this manga is compared to the predecessor, Kengan Ashura.

Everything that was good about Ashura is here for the first 50 chapters or so. A good cast of characters, nice if somewhat inconsistent art, interesting fights, training, and some likable protagonists in Koga and Ryuki. Everything is set up very well for Koga to continue to become skilled enough to join in on Kengan matches as one of the new fighters under Yamashita Kazuo.

Then we get to chapter 50. Not only is this chapter in itself terrible in ... terms of writing, overall story, and how much it jerks off two characters that didn't need any more hype, it retroactively manages to ruin the ending of Kengan Ashura, and the most surprising part about all of what I am writing is that the manga continues to get even WORSE afterwards.

Antagonists that have been set up for years are thrown away like jokes and fodder to make Raian and another character look even more impressive. By thrown away, I don't just mean that they lose and could possibly show up again later, the antagonists are just straight-up killed or removed from the story the second they have served their purposes in making our two unlikable 'golden boys' seem even more 'badass and cool'.

The art remains reasonably good, but you can tell that the artist is NOT enjoying himself with how much of a step down it is from Ashura. Backgrounds are low quality or nonexistent in mos scenes, there are many inconsistencies between panels, even in the same fight, character heights are changing constantly, among other issues.

Why is the enjoyment still rated so high at a 7? Because this manga is a great example of a train wreck. It's fun to see how awful it is and how much worse it gets every chapter, and to discuss it with other people. That's literally it. There is no joy or soul in this manga anymore, and it would be sad if it wasn't so obvious that the author wants it to be this way.

Alright so there are tons of issues in Omega that arise after a certain chapter (around 50) and the quality of the art, story, direction, fights, etc just plummet exponentially. May contain slight spoilers.

Basically the story introduces 2 new main characters and revolves around a new tournament with a rival organization. Everything is going great, there's lots of hype, fights are good, great world building... until the "something" happens around chapter 50 (which is before the tournament) and the main character gets side lined and basically is reduced to a joke. The comfy training arc was for nothing and if you read up to ... this point you can see why they did it, but it was still a bad decision and was the start of the series downfall.

Now the story is still fine even with sidelining the mc, but when the tournament starts, everything starts falling apart.

*Most fights have little hype, bad fight choreography, and just very lazy. If you compare fights to Ashura, the art and choreography was way better. The fights have devolved to just 2 characters punching and kicking each other like DBZ or JOJO. There are some fights that are decent but not a single one is better than any of the Ashura fights.

*Tournament rules are stupid and just less hype then the Kengan rules.

*Worm plot is predictable and as expected, turns out to be stupid, and every enemy that was hyped up turns out to be complete loser jobbers.

*Lots of logical errors that make no sense. Things like early in the tournament, no one knows anything about the other fighters or didn't bother to do any research on the enemy. Then later, those characters start giving exposition about them and are suddenly experts.

There's tons of other things but would take too long to write up without spoilers. Overall the only good thing that has come from the series are the memes and shitposts. The series had a lot of potential but the author is a hack and even the fanfics on /a/ are better than this.

Feels rather forced to be a sequel. It has some ups and downs. It for sure did what people wanted, but its not precisely the best for it. Morever the plot quality is unstable on its own. Some parts felt rather forced to statisfy the fans while some others showed great promise.

The series takes a rather confusing and perplexing approach the further it goes. Some scenes may happen with or without reasons. A little too much sudden movements. Characters being showed just for pure plot reasons, the enviroment seems so ever changing, and the quite twisted power standards as per before.