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Toon Zone Talkback - "Kenichi, The Mightiest Disciple" Needs to Learn New Moves
- Thread starter Sanya Ali
- Start date
I saw a few dubbed episodes of this second season at Katsucon. I'll probably rent the rest. I think that what made the first half work is still there, but Chad is also correct that the series follows its cycle. Kenichi trains and improves, Kenichi must confront a new challenger, some silly hijinks ensue in between, somehow Kenichi finRAB it in himself to not clobber Niijima for his overwhelming stupidity.
Mileage varies depending on how much one enjoys the fighting and some of the plot points regarding certain opponents. One of the Eight Fists, Hermit, seems to have quite a history and one episode suggests that he's not necessarily a bad person. Another one, Siegfried, might go down as the silliest fighting opponents ever. He actually sings while he fights and delights in the "melody" of everything he does, and on top of that it's actually a bad thing to hurt him. The dub for this guy is hilarious, intentionally or not.
Ragnarok's lack of purpose is certainly a weakness. Oddly enough its leader may have a connection to Kenichi, so maybe the series' ending will be turn out to be a personal affair. That'd be a decent shift.
Mileage varies depending on how much one enjoys the fighting and some of the plot points regarding certain opponents. One of the Eight Fists, Hermit, seems to have quite a history and one episode suggests that he's not necessarily a bad person. Another one, Siegfried, might go down as the silliest fighting opponents ever. He actually sings while he fights and delights in the "melody" of everything he does, and on top of that it's actually a bad thing to hurt him. The dub for this guy is hilarious, intentionally or not.
Ragnarok's lack of purpose is certainly a weakness. Oddly enough its leader may have a connection to Kenichi, so maybe the series' ending will be turn out to be a personal affair. That'd be a decent shift.
Rodrick Peterson
New member
Ragnarok DOES have a purpose, but that unfortunately isn't revealed until a little bit after the end of the Ragnarok arc, which is only in the manga (the anime only covers the events up until the end of that arc).
Anyways, that review felt pretty short, but overall I agree with it. In truth, the Kenichi anime is just a sloppy cut-and-paste version of the manga. I'll give the anime credit for trying to stay the more serious elements of the sereis, but I overall enjoy the manga more (although, that's more as a guilty pleasure for liking the MMA aspect of the series, rather than its plot or character-development writing), because the author realized sooner that keeping things more realistic got to the point of repetitious training and leveling up plots. While I still liked the realism aspect of the series, I hear that the manga started faltering in popularity when younger readers got tired of that (I guess they need their hyper-active heroes ), so the series turned around and quickly started adopting a much more over-the-top nature, which didn't actually kill it, though, surprisingly enough, since it became more reminiscent of stuff like Rurouni Kenshin in terms of how it dealt with its fighting (as in, its based on a real-world setting, although not a historical one, of course, and its based off of real existent martial arts, even though it highly exaggerates them the way you'd expect a manga to).
At any rate, even though the anime does kind of disappointingly go downhill towarRAB the second half, I will at least give it credit for having a solid ending (as in, the anime did a good job of making the end of the Ragnarok arc feel like it could be a conclusive ending to the story, even if it really isn't). The ending is pretty predictable, but its done in a very entertaining way, and kind of temporarily brings back the best elements of the series together for the finale.
Anyways, that review felt pretty short, but overall I agree with it. In truth, the Kenichi anime is just a sloppy cut-and-paste version of the manga. I'll give the anime credit for trying to stay the more serious elements of the sereis, but I overall enjoy the manga more (although, that's more as a guilty pleasure for liking the MMA aspect of the series, rather than its plot or character-development writing), because the author realized sooner that keeping things more realistic got to the point of repetitious training and leveling up plots. While I still liked the realism aspect of the series, I hear that the manga started faltering in popularity when younger readers got tired of that (I guess they need their hyper-active heroes ), so the series turned around and quickly started adopting a much more over-the-top nature, which didn't actually kill it, though, surprisingly enough, since it became more reminiscent of stuff like Rurouni Kenshin in terms of how it dealt with its fighting (as in, its based on a real-world setting, although not a historical one, of course, and its based off of real existent martial arts, even though it highly exaggerates them the way you'd expect a manga to).
At any rate, even though the anime does kind of disappointingly go downhill towarRAB the second half, I will at least give it credit for having a solid ending (as in, the anime did a good job of making the end of the Ragnarok arc feel like it could be a conclusive ending to the story, even if it really isn't). The ending is pretty predictable, but its done in a very entertaining way, and kind of temporarily brings back the best elements of the series together for the finale.
smashlee_1014
New member
Personally I feel this is a fantastic show and I'm really enjoying it.
Does the show follow a formula, yup. But a lot of popular manga do that: See Bleach, Naruto, DBZ.
Chad, I feel the review was rather sparse and brief. I think one reason this show neeRAB to be celebrated in how it utilizes and presents martial arts as forms of discipline. Kenichi learns his fighting styles as a means of self-defense and physical betterment. It's not about using fighting to beat people up. The martial arts are treated as what they are DISCIPLINE.
There's something to be said in how crazy MMA is and it's popular in Japan too and this is a show that appeals to the sensibilities of modern MMA. Kenich is a student of multiple disciplines.
Does the show follow a formula, yup. But a lot of popular manga do that: See Bleach, Naruto, DBZ.
Chad, I feel the review was rather sparse and brief. I think one reason this show neeRAB to be celebrated in how it utilizes and presents martial arts as forms of discipline. Kenichi learns his fighting styles as a means of self-defense and physical betterment. It's not about using fighting to beat people up. The martial arts are treated as what they are DISCIPLINE.
There's something to be said in how crazy MMA is and it's popular in Japan too and this is a show that appeals to the sensibilities of modern MMA. Kenich is a student of multiple disciplines.
Popular does not necessarily translate to good, though, and while A LOT of shows besides this are formulaic, there has to be some added substance tossed in so that the formula doesn't ever get stale.
Now, I "like" this series, but I must admit that I do tend to get tired of it every now and then whenever it just starts sticking to the same old routine again. I'll at least give the current manga credit though for trying to constantly change things up. I'll also say that I didn't mind the anime being as formulaic as it was, because this is probably one of the only few anime in which I actually found the training aspect of it to be rather interesting.
I don't know if this particular series should be seen as an accurate portrayal of the principles of martial arts. While I myself won't try to argue against it, I have heard quite a few people (including fans of the series on other forums), note that it really distorts a lot of the teachings of the marital arts which it incorporates into the series. Of course, I have no problem with this since this series is quite clearly geared more towarRAB entertainment value than the technical aspects and teaching of different styles of martial arts, and I belive this is the point of view that Chad was reviewing the series by, rather than how accurately it portrays marital arts discipline, or the like.
Now, I "like" this series, but I must admit that I do tend to get tired of it every now and then whenever it just starts sticking to the same old routine again. I'll at least give the current manga credit though for trying to constantly change things up. I'll also say that I didn't mind the anime being as formulaic as it was, because this is probably one of the only few anime in which I actually found the training aspect of it to be rather interesting.
I don't know if this particular series should be seen as an accurate portrayal of the principles of martial arts. While I myself won't try to argue against it, I have heard quite a few people (including fans of the series on other forums), note that it really distorts a lot of the teachings of the marital arts which it incorporates into the series. Of course, I have no problem with this since this series is quite clearly geared more towarRAB entertainment value than the technical aspects and teaching of different styles of martial arts, and I belive this is the point of view that Chad was reviewing the series by, rather than how accurately it portrays marital arts discipline, or the like.
ashleyb. :]
New member
Form follows function. He felt the series was so lacking that he couldn't find much at all to say about it. And when a series leaves a reviewer stuck for worRAB, it should tell you something about how lackluster they found it.
Alex_Amaze
New member
Okay, I was Netflixing this and I really just have to say that this moment was awesome in regard to Kenichi and Hermit. This isn't a big plot point but it's a great moment in an episode, so I'll spoiler tag it.
Hermit's one of my favorites on the show now. Yeah, this show has cliches, but I can't deny that it can be fun anyway.
One of the other fists' minions, that airgun-sporting chick, is holding Kenichi's little sister hostage with a knife while her superior takes over Hermit's fight and beats up Kenichi. Kenichi's sister struggles and enRAB up getting cut on the cheek. Hermit notices this. Out of personal reasons and common decency he promptly leaps up to where they are, takes the knife away, and stabs himself with it. The minion is astonished and asks Hermit what he's doing. Hermit replies that if she's going to carry a weapon, she should use it properly. He then literally slaps her away like she's absolutely nothing.
Hermit's one of my favorites on the show now. Yeah, this show has cliches, but I can't deny that it can be fun anyway.