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Nowadays Manga have a habit of revealing their release schedule months in advance, so it's rare that anything comes as a surprise. However, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple was unusual in that it popped up on Manga's schedule just a couple of weeks before release. However, what's particularly odd is that it should have come out two years ago, it was originally licensed and even given a release date back in 2011, but never hit the shelves. It wasn't revealed why it disappeared, but now it's here was it worth the wait? The story focuses on the titular Kenichi Shirahama, a student
who joins his school's karate club in the hope of becoming strong enough to
stand up to the bullies that plague him. Unfortunately even at the karate
club he is bullied, being forced to clean and act as a punching bag for the
other club members. He's never actually taught anything at the club, and
when a musclebound club member challenges him to a duel he thinks he's in for
the beating of his life. However, possible salvation comes in the unlikely
and decidedly shapely form of the new transfer student Miu Furinji, whom he
witnesses easily defeating a street gang and who directs him to the martial arts
dojo Ryozanpaku. The dojo is run my Miu's grandfather, and is home to only
five other people, each a master of their particular form of martial arts.
Firstly there's Akisame Koetsuji, a Jujitsu master who is also a skilled in
traditional arts and crafts, then Kensei Ma, a lecherous master of Chinese Kenpo,
Shio Sakaki, a 100-dan Karate master, Apachai, a gentle giant who is also a
fearsome master of Muay Thai kickboxing and finally the beautiful but withdrawn
master of weapons Shigure Kosaka. The masters devise a punishing regime of
training for Kenichi, which he puts up with out of fear of his forthcoming fight
and also his attraction for Miu, and with the help of their training he defeats
his opponent from the Karate club. However, in doing so he piques the
interest of other fighters in the school, including those belonging to the
semi-criminal street gang Ragnarok, and with his classmate Niijima spreading
rumours about his fighting prowess he soon finds he has plenty of other people
looking to fight him. Scared of even more confrontation Kenichi continues
his training at Ryozanpaku, but trying to learn five different martial arts
disciplines at the same time is not exactly easy, and there's a good chance the
training could finish him off before any rival fighters can! |
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Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is a bit unusual in that it's an action-packed 50 episode anime based on an epic 500+ chapter manga, but it doesn't have the profile of action series like Dragon Ball or Naruto. It's not a major franchise, having only spawned one console game and a couple of OVAs on top of the anime series which ended in 2007. The manga is pretty popular in Japan, but it's like the Virtua Fighter to Dragon Ball's Street Fighter II - the fighting may still be heavily exaggerated, but it's based more around real martial arts than its fireball-laden peers. This leaves it feeling quite refreshing, unlike many action series Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple takes great pains to point out that its main |
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character has no hidden powers or natural ability for martial arts, in fact any gains he makes is simply through extreme dedication and hard work. It's interesting to follow how Kenichi grows over the course of the series, gaining strength and confidence as he pushes himself through his training and takes on a string of enemies. His straightforward attitude and approach to martial arts often inspires even his enemies to re-assess their reasons for fighting, often turning them into allies. However, whilst it's an action series which takes its martial arts relatively seriously, it is also a broad comedy which incorporates numerous familiar anime comedy tropes alongside plenty of slapstick humour. The comedy is one of the series' strongest elements,
and most of it revolves around the bizarre and intense training methods
employed by the Ryozanpaku masters. Whether the old anime staple
of wearing weights or simply trying to survive a training session with
the over-enthusiastic Muai Thai master Apachai, Kenichi is pushed to his
limits at Ryozanpaku - so much so that he frequently tries to escape
from his masters, only to be apprehended by the enjoyably deadpan
Shigure. For the most part it's the characters that makes the
series entertaining, each of them is memorable even if some leave a bit
to be desired in the originality stakes. The martial arts masters are all
superhumanly strong, but
also interesting and likeable characters in their own rights.
Despite their OTT personalities and abilities they don't unbalance the
series, in fact they're often the best thing in it, with Shigure and
Apachai frequently stealing the show. Apachai is probably the most
likeable character, immensely strong, unable to hold back his abilities
even in practice matches, but generous and great with children and
animals. He has a childlike innocence which contrasts well with
the deadpan Shigure, and as the series progresses he forms a bond with
Kenichi's younger sister who frequently visits the dojo to keep an eye
on her brother. Even side characters like Kenichi's parents are
great, especially his gun-toting father who's more than a little
reminiscent of Duke Togo from the assassin manga Golgo 13. |
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To be fair there's not a huge amount of originality about the series. The main character is the usual pure-hearted weedy schoolboy made good, and the way the series pits him against a series of progressively stronger foes who often end up as his allies has been seen a million times before. Miu is a typical buxom anime airhead, Kensei Ma is the usual pervy old master, but there's a few twists on the tired archetypes that gives the series its own character. Niijima is one of them, he's a sneaky, snide and cowardly character who shamelessly uses Kenichi's strength to further his own ambitions yet is still one of the good guys, and there's also Kenichi himself - a person with no natural martial arts |
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ability who works hard to get strong yet is constantly trying to run away from his training. Kenichi sets himself the goal of trying to be strong enough to protect Miu, and that vow keeps him coming back to Ryozanpaku despite the fact that Miu is far stronger than him and is in absolutely no need of his protection. If anything this could be the only bad note in the series. Kenichi may seem to be driven by chivalry but his belief that Miu is in need of physical protection and his stubborn refusal to fight women comes across as a bit patronising, especially as Miu is far stronger than him and he meets female enemies who are fighting to prove they can be as strong as male fighters. It's a shame that this approach is taken, especially when there are hints at some tragedy in Miu's past that aren't really explored, and facing them could prove to be a far more believable way for Kenichi to support her. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it is nonetheless an entertaining and enjoyable series. The characters are good, if a little bit stereotypical, and whilst the story may be little more than a mix of training montages to set up a series of fights, punctuated with a healthy dose of light romantic comedy, it is perfectly sufficient to keep things moving along at a fair pace. The series' strength is in its slapstick comedy and action sequences, the jokes frequently hit home and many of the fight scenes are excellent, with a focus on more realistic martial arts than you'll find in many anime action series. In fact the skills that Kenichi learns and uses are not unachievable in real life, with superhuman abilities only really displayed by the masters. It's a nice touch and the series does display a very wide range of real-life martial arts, ranging from boxing and karate to kendo, judo and taekwondo, whilst Kenichi's multiple disciplines look to be turning him into a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. The series has the same kind of inspiring angle to it as series like K-ON! and Bamboo Blade, promoting martial arts whilst simultaneously delivering an entertaining series packed with great characters. It's not perfect, but for a series with a pretty low profile it's certainly a decent action series that's well worth a look. Extras Only clean opening and ending sequences, a bit of a shame as some information on the martial arts featured would have been nice. Ratings Feature:
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