I had heard quite a bit about this anime on the cyberspace, and managed to watch it recently. Here is my quick review about it:
Anime: History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi (based on: Shijō Saikyō no Deshi: Kenichi )
Genre: Martial arts, Comedy, Romance
Story: 6/10
Animation: 5/10
Sound: 6/10
Recomended Audience: 13+ (No nudies, little blood)
The story revolves around timid Kenichi Shirahama, a high school student who is bullied by many in his school. He joins a karate club in school to learn marshal art so that people stop calling him weak-legs.
Gradually he meets Miu Furinji, a new student in his class who introduces Kenichi to Ryōzanpaku, a dojo where she stays. The several masters who live in the Dojo, take Kenichi under their wing, and what follows is bone-breaking training for Kenichi.
Between the training, Kenichi has to fight several opponents from Ragnarok, a gang of delinquents. The more Kenichi wins against the members of Ragnarok, more he gains attention from Ragnarok’s elite Eight Fists, the top 8 generals of the gang who controlled their own teams.
As a guy with no talent for Marshal Arts, his masters at the dojo cram him up with various techniques and trainings that improve his strength and skill to new height after every match, until he faced the next opponent of yet superior skill.
The story line is simple with the themes of honesty, hardwork and friendship. The story is actually about the growth of Kenichi’s personality from a timid teenager to someone who believed in protecting his loved ones from the harm’s way.
The masters at Ryōzanpaku have interesting characters. As correctly described in the review by THEM :
“Hayato, the dojo's elder (and Miu's grandfather), a blond, bearded giant of a man, has a friendly demeanor and outgoing personality, if a vaguely intimidating one. Akisami is a jujitsu master as well as the dojo's intellectual (on the side, he's a philosopher, sculptor, painter, and "bonesetter".) Sakaki is a karate master (and street fighter, which is the skill most pertinent to Kenichi), and has a "gruff uncle" manner toward Kenichi. Kensei Ma is the Chinese martial arts master, and token dirty old man; we'll see some of his family members over the course of the series. Shigure is the token female master; a weapons specialist, she speaks rather slowly and haltingly. Throughout the series I felt she was rather under-used (apparently she got more attention in the manga.) Finally we have Muay Thai boxer Apachai, the main comic relief, a hulking doofus who doesn't know his own strength.”
Don’t expect too much from this series. It’s for those who are interested in Martial Art themed animes. The story is light hearted. Nothing to complicated to give a thought twice to understand.
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