I watched Kengan Ashura after i stumbled on the trailer while doom scrolling through youtube, at that point i had not heard any MMA anime apart from Baki, so this came like an unexpected pleasant surprise for me. From the trailers and clips I had seen, it looked like an anime where people just enter an arena and beat each other up, and to be fair, that's basically what happens.
Kengan Ashura is a martial arts anime based on its manga version. It takes place in a world where powerful companies settle business disputes through underground fighting matches. Instead of sitting around a table and negotiating, companies hire powerful fighters to represent them, and whoever wins gets the advantage. Basically, imagine two companies having a disagreement and instead of calling their lawyers, they say, "Let's settle this with a fight." Somehow, this is completely normal in their world.
The story follows Yamashita, an ordinary salaryman who suddenly gets pulled into this strange underground world after meeting Ohma Tokita, an incredibly powerful fighter. Kazuo is nervous, inexperienced and completely overwhelmed by what he is seeing, while Ohma is the complete opposite. Ohma is confident, aggressive and seems to believe that almost every problem can be solved by fighting someone. At first, I thought Ohma was going to be the typical fighting anime protagonist but as the story progresses, his character has more depth to him and becomes much more interesting.
The biggest attraction of Kengan Ashura is obviously the fights and ..... these fights are crazy. Unlike some fighting anime where characters can spend several episodes charging up some ridiculous attack, Kengan Ashura focuses heavily on different martial arts and fighting techniques. You get karate, wrestling, boxing, judo, Aikido and several other styles, with each fighter bringing something different into the tournament. Some rely on technique, some depend on raw strength, some are incredibly fast, while others use strategy and psychology. Every time a new fighter enters the tournament, you're wondering what kind of monster this person is going to be. Sometimes you look at a fighter and think, "There is absolutely no way this guy is winning." Then the fight starts and suddenly you're questioning your first thought and the fights are so re-watchable, it almost never gets old. Another thing about the anime worth mentioning is that it doesn't treat the fighters as completely one dimensional characters. Many of them have their own backgrounds, motivations and reasons for fighting. Some want money, some want recognition, some want revenge, while others simply want to prove that they are the strongest. I also really liked Kazuo because he feels like the audience inside the story. He's just an ordinary man who suddenly finds himself surrounded by people capable of doing things that seem impossible.
Without Kazuo, I think Kengan Ashura could easily have become nothing more than a tournament filled with fights. His relationship with Ohma gives the story some emotional weight, especially because their personalities are so different as ive said earlier.
Overall, I really enjoyed Kengan Ashura. For me its the best fighting anime ive ever watched. The animation took some getting used to, but once I got into it, I found myself genuinely invested in the tournament and the characters. I started watching because I wanted to see some crazy martial arts fights, and I definitely got that but I ended up caring about the fighters and their stories too. So basically, if you enjoy anime where people settle business disputes by entering an arena and trying to beat each other, Kengan Ashura is definitely worth checking out. Image Source:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9058134/mediaindex/?ref_=mv?ref_=mv_sm
Rating: 85/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.
