Aug 6, 2019
I'd like to start by saying this anime is very similar to Baki the Grappler (specifically the tournament arc of Baki) so if you enjoyed that chances are you will also enjoy this. If you haven't read Baki the Grappler, this manga is about a bunch of martial artists fighting in brutal matches with no restrictions (excluding weapons of course). So, if you don't like violent gory slug fests then you're probably going to want to skip this but if you enjoy them (as I do) then you'll probably want to pick this up.
Story 7: The story of this manga is
...
nothing special and in my opinion the least appealing part of Kengan Ashura. 80-90% of the story is just the Baki tournament over again and the other 10-20% is a combination of corporate big wigs sponsoring fighters and gambling (Yu Yu Hakusho) and orphan back stories. The redeeming part of the story I found was in the outcome of the matches being a bit unpredictable and random which gives you a feel for how in a real fight anything can happen.
Art 8: I'm not sure if my opinion is best on this category, but I liked the art style personally. There's a lot of crazy facial expressions, twisted limbs, blood and a lot of muscles.
Character 8: There's a good variety of character types and there are a lot more note worthy female characters in this than in Baki (to my memory) although none of them actually fight (which is odd considering there are no restrictions). There's a BL obsessed girl, a yandere man, a crazy doctor etc. Ohma is probably the least entertaining character in this series and I'm glad that the manga focuses a lot on other characters as his personality is pretty bland and his techniques are mostly ridiculous (but not in a funny way like some other characters).
Enjoyment 9: This will obviously be different for everyone, but the reason I give this section a 9 is because I enjoy crazy characters, fight scenes and the comedic moments of this series. Though, the fights can be pretty unrealistic (apart from a few real martial arts techniques ie. arm bars, triangle chokes, foot work, wrestling, jabs, throws etc.) it only adds to the overall enjoyment for me as manga/anime isn't meant to be completely realistic.
There is a bit of fan service in this manga if you don't like that. There are quite a few pretty boy types (whom are mostly naked because it's a martial arts manga). There's also some fan service on the other side as well with girls in revealing outfits and the one guy is having sex with multiple girls practically every moment he isn't fighting (though I'm not sure if that's so much fan service as it is just illustrating an aspect of that character). That said, it doesn't linger on these moments for too long and it doesn't zoom in on anything (it's not in any way an ecchi/BL series).
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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