Reviews for Kengan Ashura

Kengan Ashura is quite a unique and overlooked manga. While on the surface Kengan Ashura may seem like an average battle manga with big muscular men punching each other, it's so much more than that. While it does indeed include big muscular men punching each other in cool ways it also has a strong emotional core and it could even be said to be one of the greatest martial arts stories ever told. The story is simple but well executed. An average middle-aged salaryman by the name of Yamashita Kazuo just so happens to witness a street fight where a young man defeats a Yakuzawith ease. The young man introduces himself as Tokita Ouma. A series of events makes it so that two of them become involved with the Kengan Association and have to fight in the Kengan Matches. The Kengan Association is an organization made up of representatives from prestigious businesses where they can settle disputes and business deals between each other by sending out fighters they hire into the Kengan Matches. The Kengan Matches are underground fistfights with basically no fouls, so two men clash fists until one of them is knocked out or dies. Kazuo reluctantly becomes Ouma's manager in these matches. Soon after they join the Kengan Annihilation Tournament begins, a tournament to decide the next chairman of the Kengan Association. This tournament makes up most of the manga and is captivating the entire time. Strong fighters from around the world are gathered and there is no better arena for Ouma, whose only desire is to be recognized as the strongest. Of course, you've also got the politics of the Kengan Association going on in the background, with different factions vying for control and trying to outdo each other by any means necessary. This all makes for a grand display of strength and wit. The pacing is perfect, it never feels like it's moving too fast but it never feels too slow and drawn out either. There's a lot of humor and funny moments in the story but it never feels distracting or out of place. It's very well integrated into the story which has a mostly serious tone despite the bizarre premise.

Kengan Ashura has a fairly large cast of characters but the manga does a good job of giving all the fighters and their managers time to shine. Of course, some get more time and characterizations than others but even the characters that don't get much time are likable and memorable. All of the fighters have different fighting styles that match their personality. They all have different reasons for fighting, things like glory, money, and even love. All of the fighters have some interesting dynamics with their manager. Some of them have good almost family-like bonds while others have a purely professional relationship. All of these dynamics are interesting to watch. One of the best things about the manga is the sense of camaraderie and respect the fighters have for each other. Despite having to fights each other they still respect each other as a martial artist. Well, most of them anyway. A few of them are complete psychopaths or distance themselves from the other fighters for their own reasons. Some of the best comedy scenes in the manga are from some of the fighters just hanging out after the matches of the day are over or just cheering on their friends and peers during their fights. Even during matches these fighters still have respect for their opponent's skill and technique. This makes it so that there's not a character that's just purely evil, they all just need to have to fight each other to advance in the tournament. Even the more psychotic characters are sympathetic and likable. It's quite interesting how characters will continue to be important to the plot and their character arc will continue even after they've lost. A major theme in Kengan Ashura is how people shouldn't give in to despair and allow themselves to be consumed by their failures and instead learn from their failures and seek to improve. It's a theme that is conveyed well and will resonate with a lot of people. Yamashita Kazuo is an entertaining character and his development throughout the story is amazing. At the beginning he is a timid man and kind of a loser, his wife has left him years before the story starts, his two sons don't respect him and even his boss treats him badly. Throughout the course of the story, he finds himself in dangerous situations which forces him to try and find some confidence in himself. He is the character that perhaps develops the most in the story and he's a good source of comedic relief. He provides most of the commentary during the fights and often has some good insight. Another thing of note is his relationship with Ouma, they develop a really good friendship. Ouma himself is a fascinating character. His goal is simple, he just wants to be the strongest martial artist in the world and prove the strength of the Niko style and he will do anything to achieve this. He's so confident of his own strength that he's kind of arrogant but it's also obvious that he's got a lot of room to improve. This overconfidence is his greatest flaw. He's reckless and doesn't seem to have any regard for his own life. He's obsessed with fighting strong opponents and becoming the strongest to the point that he doesn't care about anything else except for eating which he enjoys quite a bit. while it sounds standard it's executed very well and he matures a lot in the story. Another character worthy of mentioning is Kiryu Setsuna, who is Ouma's main rival. He's got immense amounts of charisma which practically comes out of the pages whenever he shows up. He's totally insane yet is a joy to watch and the reason for his madness is one of the most interesting things in the manga.

The art of Kengan Ashura is absolutely stunning. Every character is extremely detailed and expressive All the characters have fantastic designs that are instantly recognizable. While a lot of them are big muscular men, there are also men with a more slim build as well as some beautiful women. So there's a good variety of characters. The panels flow very well, making it easy to understand what is happening during a fight. The fights all look stellar, turning each bloody confrontation into a beautiful clash of strength and willpower. Every punch and kick feels like it would be a final, grand attack in any other manga They are drawn with such passion and care that you can feel the impact. The fights are brutal spectacles, joints are dislocated, and people get sliced open. It's all drawn in such graphic detail and looks amazing. The fights themselves are not just tests of pure strength like in some common battle shounen. These are fights where fighters have to figure out what their opponent's technique is and how best to counter it. Strength is a key factor in battles but technique and strategy are equally important. The outcomes of the fights are unpredictable and leave the reader in suspense the entire time. The fighters use highly exaggerated forms of martial arts, some characters have superhuman strength, some are inhumanly fast, and a character who can manipulate his hair and use it to fight. These are only a few examples of how insanely bizarre all of the fighters and battles are. Even though a lot of it is exaggerated there are in-universe explanations of how these abilities work and there are still some very grounded characters that use real martial arts like a character that specializes in grappling or another character that uses real wrestling techniques. Kengan Ashura also has one of the coolest power-ups in any manga. Visually it looks rad and it's used in the story very well and has its own drawbacks. The only minor complaint I have with this series is that there are not enough female fighters. There's only one and she isn't involved with the tournament nor doesn't do much fighting.

Overall Kengan Ashura is spectacular. You can really feel the character's and even the author's love and passion for martial arts in every page. It's an inspirational story about persistence and not giving up. No matter how many times they get knocked down they get back up and improve. It's a must read for anyone with even a mild interest in martial arts and even those who don't typically read martial arts manga should give it a shot.

Kengan Asura is refreshingly straightforward about what it wants to be. Even though I had many issues with it over the course, it’s still nice to read a manga where the team behind it clearly knew what they wanted to do and were passionate about executing it to the best of their ability. Kengan is first and foremost about action, action and more action. To a point where nearly entire 27 volumes of it are a single, gigantic tournament where not a single damn fight is omitted. Plot, while present, takes a back seat or rather gets shoved in the trunk. As such, I thinkit’s fair to say Kengan lives or dies based on quality of action.

This is where things get tricky though cause despite all the good decisions it makes, there’s plenty others that undermine them.

The premise itself is extremely simple. Early in Japan’s history, conflicts between merchants and companies led to much bloodshed, that was until an emperor suggested that instead, they should solve their conflicts through martial arts matches between fighters representing involved companies. That’s how Kengan association was created. Skip to current day and we have a sad salaryman Kazuo, who randomly stumbles upon Ohma beating the shit out of a muscle mountain. The next day it turns out that this Ohma will represent the company Kazuo works at and he’s appointed as Ohma’s manager.

It’s a nice and easy ways to set up a story that will directly revolve around fights and little else. There’s more to come but I’d like to first talk about the most important part, the fights.

This is where Kengan gets pretty interesting, cause it sets up its universe in a rather particular way. Usually action manga go for either superhero level shenanigans, where everyone is impossibly strong (like in Dragon Ball), or something more grounded, with at most some visual flair to make real life look more exciting (like with Ippo). Kengan attempts to take the best of both. Real world laws and logic make the action feel a bit more tangible and relatable cause every exceptional display of power is relative to normal people like you or me. At the same time majority of fighters have some unique quirk about them, be the extreme grip strength or absurd range of joint motion or simply reaction time that adds quite a bit of variety.

At its best Kengan presents many interesting what-ifs of martial arts variety that make for exciting match ups. Like pitting a fighter with incredible strikes against a top tier grappler or pro wrestler fighting an unconventional sumo wrestler and other such thing.

Another strong point of the better fights is choreography and strategy. Not all, but plenty of fights in Kengan are a genuine battle between two excellent combatants who all have plans of their own. Seeing how they adapt on the fly and interact with the moveset of their opponent creates a tense dynamic where everything could change at any moment.

Unfortunately some of those are either ruined at times or significantly undermined. When it comes to strategy and realism, Kengan just goes dumber as it goes on. It’s easy enough to accept some oddities at first cause they aren’t too exceptional and usually come with a decent explanation but then horseshit starts to slide in. A guy who uses his super dense controllable hair as a weapon, a guy who unlocks his brain power that makes him absurdly strong, a guy who spent some days starving himself out in the forest without sleep to become one with the universe, a karate master who trained to stop a bullet from a few meters away, secret technique that makes your heart beat faster which someone turns you into a god of fighting. Also the more ridiculous it gets the less does it feel like any of the characters actually represent their martial art, even though the manga loves to remind you about their fighting style, history behind it and some of its strengths. Even though the writer and editor have a lot of martial arts experience, I’m disappointed that even something like Street Fighter is closer to being a faithful depiction of martial arts than Kengan Asura.

None of this over the top shit does Kengan any favors cause instead of at the very least serving as some interesting condition, they usually just become straightforward shonenshit powerups that “dramatically” turn the tides. The fights lose tension they once had and the damage done to either fighter means nothing as it could just lead to them getting stronger or simply still having all the strength they need to win. There are regular cases where manga waves away physical condition with endorphins, adrenaline or painkillers, which is interesting at first since it’s a real thing that at times keeps people going beyond their limits but when this idea gets overused, it becomes an obvious crutch for writers who think pulling a rug from under you is epitome of excitement.

This fetish Kengan team has for epic twists is another weakness in my opinion. It’s fucking wild how often they try to catch you off guard. It gets to a point where you can easily figure out what’s going to happen by thinking what’s the most logical flow of events will be and inverting it. A guy is beaten into puree of meat, blood and bones? Well don’t discard him just yet cause he’s actually gonna win! This spreads to the overall plot too, where everything is filled with attempts to create exciting twists. It peaks when one of Kengan participants tries to usurp the leadership and it’s like two kids playing war and making up new tools of attack of defense to prove that they’re the winner. There’s no build up or any proper setup, Kengan often just goes “KA-POW DIDN’T EXPECT THAT DID YOU, FUCKING IDIOT, HOW COOL IS THIS SHIT OH WHOOPS LEMME REVERSE THAT AIN’T THAT WILD HOLY SHIT I’M INSANE”. The only enjoyment I got from stuff like that is only in laughing at how stupid it is.

Well back to action, I can overlook the lack of tactics and over the top bullshit if at the very least it looks cool and visceral, and admittedly, Kengan Asura has pretty damn good art. Dorameon gets better over the course of the manga and at around half-point or even earlier he gets excellent at depicting muscular bodies. The perspective, proportions, their overall dimensions and everything else helps you to build a very solid image of what each fighter’s body looks like. This would be even more impressive if Kenga didn’t go full unga with power levels cause before that, physical appearance of the fighter and their weight would give you a general idea for how strong they are.

Art unfortunately falters when it comes to actual fighting. Many of the fights feature moments where both opponents actively exchange blows and instead of depicting it with more clarity, you get a bunch of noodles and non-specific explosions in the air that come together to form polluted, busy panels that carry no impact. Even when things get more specific the noodle limbs persists and actively diminish visual power of the strikes. This is why many of better fights share a common characteristic like characters who are too dangerous to casually exchange blown with or rely on grappling where things are obviously not fast enough to warrant the noodle treatment.

I think this problem could be solved if Kengan took a lesson from Ippo or even Dragon Ball who both had their own approach. For example Ippo often featured “phantom” limbs or bodies all going in very particular directions. This ends up looking like a composite photo where multiple frames are combined into one. When done well it allows the reader to complete a coherent sequence of events in their head without making them completely make up what happened like in Kengan. Dragon Ball on the other hand takes an even simpler approach. Toriyama doesn’t have throwaway brawl panels like so each one usually focuses on specific action that thanks to the way manga is paced and paneled, smoothly flows into the next one to form a well choreographed scene reminiscent of classic action movies. Even if battles are done at insane speed it was very easy to follow and didn’t lack clarity nor impact.

A small issue with art that I think is also worth noting are very poor backgrounds. It’s very negligible most of the time because fights happen within a white, empty arena that doesn’t warrant a detailed depiction, especially considering that the spotlight is always on the fighters anyway. However outside of that whenever I had to look at the backgrounds they went from either mediocre to terrible, like in the forest areas where the background are made out of poorly glued together photographs. It’s not a great flaw but it can be distracting nonetheless.

It’s hard to say Kengan is completely bad at anything cause it’s so bizarrely inconsistent with it. At times you can tell the team practiced the moves to depict them with true to life accuracy, other times it’s so lazy and vague that I have to wonder what’s even the point to show it. It’s a mixed bag that never lets to ride out the high nor suffer from a bad streak, for better of for worse.

I think that about wraps it up for action. So, what does Kengan have going on outside of that? It has fun characters, who despite being very flat, have interesting and diverse personalities that make it fun to just see how they do things and interact with characters and the world around them. It has comedy that can be hilarious at times. And finally, it has story that regularly shoots, stabs and punches itself in the foot by trying to be more than it actually is.

At the beginning I deliberately pointed out how simple and effective KA’s opening is. After all, when your series is all about fighting, that’s what you should be concerned with first and foremost so a simple plot only helps to avoid hindering it. As story goes on Kengan throws in completely unneeded details about everything and tries to build mysteries which are so hard to care about that when big reveals drop my reaction was just “so what?”. Why would I care about who taught Ohma the secret technique or who “the real Niko” or any other garbage? Kengan treats this stuff as if you’re supposed to at the edge of your seat in anticipation while doing no set-up whatsoever. For example in the last few volumes there’s a hint that that Kazuo might be more important than he seems (mild spoilers ahead). A bit later we find out that he’s a descendant of the old clan and his ancestor fought to death for the ancestor of his boss so entire reason this tournament was initiated is to repay the debt. So what? What does this add? What is gained by knowing this? Who even wanted to know this? The initial explanation of Nogi wanting to be the boss of Kengan was good enough.

Manga ends in a similar way, teasing a sequel by revealing characters who worked for “the real Niko” and it’s another so what situation. I don’t know them, “the real Niko” is barely even a character and could be easily cut out of the story without losing anything and yet this is what’s supposed to hook me into checking out the new manga, just laughable.

Similarly awful are attempts to raise the stakes. Kengan starts off trying to make you feel like it will be a manga that’s rough around the edges. Many characters love and some even live to kill. The setup itself implies that there are basically no rules and deaths are mundane (in fact, the amount of careers that end in death is so common it’s used to explain the high amount of fighters with XX wins, 0 losses fight records). What actually happens though? Among important characters only 1 dies (not counting the super amazing twist nobody will see coming) and 2 come back to life after actually dying, what a joke. Even characters that are meant to be evil or set on murder either mellow out or start being presented as “lovable assholes” who don’t actually mean it. Kure Raian is a best example of that. An insane guy who actually tried to kill someone for no damn reason, then just goes around all willy nilly making casual comments that are meant to make you like him despite the guy having no redeeming qualities and arguably not enough charisma to be lovably evil like Dio. There’s also quite a few under the table deals going on in the tournament with some company owners usually fretting over being pressured by more influential CEOs or potential financial ruin but guess what none of that has any consequences, the manga is filled with duds like that. It might be redundant but I want to shoot another example which is the Fang of Metsudo, the guy who’s supposedly so scary, people can’t keep on fighting after facing his overwhelming power. This could’ve been a very immediate threat and consequence. You don’t need to see people years into the future to know their spirit really is broken and losing their spirit is everything for people who live to fight. You guessed already what happens. It doesn’t actually hinder anyone, in fact people who fight him are completely cool with it shortly after, amazing.

Either way, this review might paint a very negative image of the manga and I do think it has great many flaws that ruin what could’ve been a modern classic for the action genre but I do still think it’s a relatively entertaining manga. There’s a decent amount of actually good fights, art is usually very pleasant to look at and brief moments between fights usually have neat comedic and SoL moments. Even when Kengan is at its absolute worst it can almost be funny how stupid it is, even if it probably would’ve been better without it. It’s also a relatively easy read thanks to how it’s paced, I think I finished the whole thing in about two by reading it for a few hours every day. It’s hard to make a definitive recommendation but I think this manga is at least worth a try. At best you might find a thrilling action manga, at worst you’ll have a laugh at how dumb it gets while still enjoying the good parts.

P.S. There’s also volume 0 of Kengan Asura but it’s just a bunch of bland and predictable (when not outright obvious) backstories of some characters that has very little action and adds next to nothing to most of them. The only part worth reading in my opinion is the one that shows how Metsudo and Kure met and lived. It’s not vital either but it’s the most entertaining one out of all of them and helps to flesh out Metsudo a tiny bit.

Boys, what a damn piece of art we got here ! I'm not a professional, but I'll try to give you all a good review. First, the story. Even if I love it, I must say it's a bit simple (excluding character's development), I mean, it's a series of fight, even if there are some events which come enrich the story. The humor, just like the fights, is pretty good. Second, character's development. I rarely see a manga with such great and well-developed characters. Everyone is fascinating, even the useless ones. It make the story much better, because we know why all of them are fighting. Finally, theart. Every panel is powerful enough to give you shivers. The fighting ones might be some of the best I have ever seen, and the funny ones are nice too. The cutting makes fights really energetic, we can feel every blows, and even the strength put in each one of them. There are some nice idea of drawing, it innovate every time and never let you getting bored.

To conclude, Kengan Ashura is one of the best manga I've ever read, it's an example for all fighting manga, you must absolutely read it !

It's pretty cool to be the first to review this manga. Just as much as it is surprising, as I think Kengan Ashura is probably the best fighting manga out there at the moment. The basic plot of the Manga revolves around the idea that companies from around the world champion street fighters to compete gladiator style on their bosses behalf to win business opportunities or property in Japan, which is a pretty interesting concept. But, plot aside (because, let's face it, this is an action manga) the fighting itself is great! Every character has their own unique fighting style which pairs well with their equallyexpressive character designs, not to mention that every fight scene (which there are plenty of) is choreographed well and drawn beautifully.

Super cool, would recommend to any fan of the genre.

I have sort of just started reading manga really so not sure how great my opinion or review would be but eh. I love fighting stories or whatever for anime or manga like baki,hajime no ippo, and even this. I think the art is amazing and all the characters are interesting and cool to me. The story isn't a masterpiece or anything but I love it and love almost all the fighters minus some. The non fighters are entertaining and I enjoyed watching how everything would unfold. I think the art is great and gets better as the series goes on and I enjoyed thismanga all the way through. The ending left me sad but there is a sequel so I will fully enjoy reading that too.

Yamashita Kazuo, a middle-aged man leading a boring life, once stumbled upon a street fight in a dark alley. He meets there a certain individual, who after a quick exchange of punches easily defeats his opponent. Kazuo didn’t realize that he just met a man, who would change his life forever. That man was Tokita Ouma - a fighter, who just signed up as a participant in Kengan tournaments - big scale events, where martial artists from all over the world beat the living shit of each other, and Yamashita Kazuo just became his manager. When it comes to the plot, this manga doesn’t havemuch to offer, it’s just a one big TOURNAMENT ARC!!! and the things that matter the most are the constant fistfights. These tournaments are a true goldmine for gamblers since betting on a fighter, believed to win, is a commonplace and huge amounts of money are being thrown around all the time. Each contestant is a representative of a company, for which their manager works, and relationships between certain companies are often used as an emotional background to give battles some weight. These fights are 1vs1 duels, and because usage of any weapons is prohibited, it makes a great opportunity to show off many different styles of fighting. Karate, Judo, Sumo, Wrestling, you’ll find here every martial art under the sun, and even more, because the author certainly doesn’t lack creativity, and he does an excelent job at making every duel feel fresh. Every bout is drastically different from the previous one, but they all share one feature - they are all unbelievably brutal. Here the amazing artstyle comes to play. Everything is drawn with massive amount of detail, so that you can very easily feel the impact of each blow and its consequences. Each contender is an absolute monster, so scenes showing body parts being completely demolished after taking one punch aren’t a rarity. With some scenes it’s easy to tell that the author has clearly drawn inspiration from series such as for example Grappler Baki. It’s also worth mentioning that in spite of such variety in characters, it’s pretty hard to predict the results of most squabbles.

Characters are here pretty distinctive, everyone has an original design, and all relevant contestants have their backstory, so no one feels like they’re purposless. Our main heroes are also an interesting couple. Tokita is a typical badass MC, he doesn’t care how strong you could be, and he’ll do everything in his power to defeat you. Tokita is your new god, and he’s fresh out of mercy.

Kazuo plays a role of a comedy relief character, since he’s usually the source of all the jokes. It’s not unusual to see him accidentaly get into various dangerous situations and unwillingly makes his life a bit more intense.

To summarize, this manga isn’t an outstanding masterpiece, and it doesn’t try to become that. It’s just a mindless, but compelling story about ripped men beating each other up to the point of unconsiousness, and even more. I reccomend this series especially to people that like ceaseless action, martial arts, and brutal battles with their usage. If that sounds like your type of story, then you’ll feel like a fish in the sea :>

If KENGA ASHURA were a fighting game I would like to play as Cosmo. (Tell me your choice) All the fighters are distinct and fun to watch , they each have personality and a common goal , which makes the fights unpredictable. There are a lot of characters that I can't say anything meaningful about their characterization , being nothing more than shonen stereotypes , Ohma falling in the same category. The art is a bit rough in the beginning but it improves , becoming quite unique. The story is similar to Baki's , in that it's about fighting for the sake of fighting. The story it's inconsistent atbest becoming clear that it was probably written around the fights , which is not a bad thing because those are the best parts of the series. Baki get's away with it easily because of it's focus on the philosophy of fighting , Kengan Ashura isn't entirely lacking this aspect but it's mild. Kengan's characters fight for victory. Baki's characters are fighting for the pleasure of it to put it simply.

Really fun if you are into martial arts , even if this one becomes science fiction at some points ( like Baki in an enjoyable way)

I'm sorry I kept comparing the two series . I just felt it has to be this way.

Kengan Ashura is one of the, if not, the best fight mangas. The story is not the best story in the world, but that's the point. The story is not the focus of this manga, the fights are, and let me tell you, the fights are fire. There's a lot of differente martial arts, and all of the martial arts are well represented. The fights fell natural, of course there is some fantasy during the fights, but mosstly, the moviments fell natural. Every fighter have a different personality and there's a lot of comedy in the manga, good comedy by the way.

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 isnothing 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).

pretty shallow story. despite that, i did think some of the character designs were really cool. there was this dude who was a ballerina and uses that in his kicks or this blind assassin guy who's practically the god of sex. the research in martial arts also goes pretty deep. i thought it was really interesting learning about these really ancient or obscure martial arts like pankration or bare-knuckle burmese boxing. it gets even more interesting then, seeing these martial arts get pitted up against each other. the actual bulk of the manga is tournament arc, so if you're not into tournament arcs, you're outof luck. the fact that they set it up like this lets us see a lot of fights though.

the art is absolutely fucking phenomenal. i swear to FUCKING god no action manga even comes close to it. i've never seen any other manga pack as much power or impact in their art. i literally fucking felt like i could practically FEEL the visceral energy from fucking page. the fight scenes are so incredibly well-done, and the anatomy is on-point.

Kengan Ashura is one of those ‘fight scenes’ manga. I’ve never used that phrase before but it popped into my mind when I was 80-something chapter into the manga and I thought it fit pretty appropriately. What makes me think this phrase is that Kengan Ashura is basically 95% fight scenes. The story feels tacked on and just serves as a flimsy excuse for why the fights are happening. Plot/character development – what little there is – are often forced and contrived because they happen seemingly on the fly. Even major plot points sometime seemingly come out of nowhere. The manga basically resembles ‘Baki’ (seems like a commoncomparison), except with much better art. If you like Baki or manga with endless fight scenes, then Kengan will be a very enjoyable read to you. For me, it dampened a lot of the enjoyment.

Kengan suffered from much the same problems as Baki did and often to a worse degree. I enjoy fight scenes too but a great deal of the enjoyment stems from external factors. There must be a decent story to get you emotionally immersed and there should be suspense about how the fight will turn out and who will win. Kengan has neither of these.

It’s very difficult to get immersed in the story precisely because of the problem of the story being so thin. Even if one were to ignore the premise – corporations hiring fighters to fight for money and power – there’s the issue that much of the manga doesn’t even focus on the primary protagonists or even antagonists.

The manga has a massive cast and a huge portion is dedicated to showing long, drawn out, multi-chapter fights between these people…most of which you can’t remember anyway as most don’t have any real distinguishing features. They can all (including the main character) be described the same way: big, heavily muscled, highly competitive, and extremely strong. I suspect the author knows this too as he endlessly reintroduces the characters and reminds readers of what makes them special.

You can’t even look at them and try to guess their fighting style as it’s completely random. You could see a sleek, highly toned guy fighting a gigantic ‘powerlifter’ looking person and you might assume the former would have a faster agile fighting style while the latter would have a hard hitting tank-like style. Then the fight starts and, in reality, the sleek guy is the tank taking all hits without problem and the giant person is flying around like a ballet dancer. All the while, both would be pulling out techniques/capabilities that you never seen them use or would possibly guess they have.

The above would be why there’s no suspense with fights. When all the fighters are so similar and fights are so completely random, how could you have suspense? That comes with predictability. At some point, you must think ‘I don’t think that guy could beat the other person’ or ‘that guy is way too strong’ and be able to logically theorize why.

There are such cases in the manga where one person is overwhelmingly stronger than the other and the fight becomes a curbstomp, but it’s hard to guess because you can’t see it from their appearance, previously shown feats, or even hype…because, again, everyone in the manga is presented similarly. All of the fighters will look strong, show great feats, and be relentlessly hyped by side characters.

Ultimately, I ended up getting tired of the manga and dropped it. However, it isn’t completely without merit.

As I pointed out, if you like Baki or any manga with an extreme focus on fight scenes, you probably will enjoy Kengan Ashura. Furthermore, although I didn’t really enjoy the fights, I did think the manga did humor fairly well.

Overall, though, it just isn’t for me.

---> [BE AWARE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER]The history follows Tokita Ohma, a child who grew up under a famous martial artist, and now seeks to prove to the world that he is the strongest. During a fight against a Yakuza, Ohma meets Yamashita Kazuo, a lone salaryman who's picked every day by his boss and has a [VERY] poor relationship with his two children.

After finding out about the history of Kengan Matches, Yamashita Kazuo's boss assigns Tokita Ohma to be his fighter and someone who will represent them on the upcoming Kengan Annihilation Tournament, in which Yamashita's boss, Nogi, challenged the Kengan Association Chairman for his post as the Big-Boss-Man.

After that, many associative from the Kengan Association joins the tournament, hiring many different fighters to go all-out in the tournament, in hopes to win the whole thing and become the boss of the Kengan Association.

--> [THE ART: 9/10] <--

What can I say? This thing is beautiful, baby! It is full of details on the characters and scenarios alike. The attacks are well-designed, cool-looking, and work very well the manga's art style. No matter who's the one fighting, or what style they use. Jiu-Jitsu? Pro-Wrestling? Jabbing your heart? Twisting their arms in a 360° to disable your limbs? You name it, they make it work very, VERY well.

The countless styles are very pretty and interesting to see if you're into that sort of stuff. The characters also have a great design that the artist managed to work very well with his style. From their design to the clothing they use in fights and outside them, all the characters and all the scenarios look very unique and beautiful.

--> [CHARACTERS: 10/10] <--

I don't think I've ever seen a piece that shows better characters before. Seriously, you name it, we have it! Do you want a very stereotypical USA citizen from the south? Adam Dudley. A man who's hobbies is to collect guns and has no problem in saying things such as: "Enough foreplay" or "From where I come from, only ketchup goes with fries, by law! Only faggots and bitches like to swallow sticky white shit". His words, not mine.

Do you want a character that goes from being angry and stoic to almost always smiling or smirking, showing his emotions to others and having no problem with it? You have Tokita Ohma, the very own protagonist of Kengan Ashura, who has a lot of charm to him.

Do you want an innocent-looking boy who can snap your arm in half in a blink? You have Cosmo Imai, one of my favorite characters in the whole series. From being so innocent-looking and lovable to a total psychopath who's addicted to winning and is known as the "King of Stranglers".

Or would you prefer a stoic and calm-looking boxer who can throw 13 Jabs in a breath? Bang! Gaolang Wongsawat. Collected, chill, and very easy-going. Unlike his self-proclaimed rival, Yorozuika Saw Paing, who's always a ball of hype, screaming and showing that he's excited all the time.

Not to mention characters such as Kaneaeda Suekichi, Kanoh Agito, Lihito, Bando Yohei, Hajime Hanafusa, Setsuna Kiryu, Gensai Kuroki, Muteba Gizenga, Jun Sekibayashi and so many more!

--> [ENJOYEMENT: 10/10] <--

I'm not usually a person who has a problem with spoilers. I was never salty about them and handled them with a chill and uncaring expression... Kengan Ashura wasn't one of those cases. I never knew who would win the fights, and HOW they would win them.

Kengan Ashura had me locked on everything it had to offer. Characters, art, interesting martial arts, drama, and action. There was a point where I [HAD] to read about 50 Chapters in a single day because I was so into the plot and how the fights would turn out, that I couldn't take my eyes off the manga.

Overall, with how history progresses, characters, fights, and martial art styles, Kengan Ashura is very enjoyable for people like me, who just want to watch people going at each other's throats.

-->[OVERALL: 10/10] <--

If you enjoyed Baki, you may as well give Kengan Ashura a try. How the manga proceeds to show things that would be humanly-capable if our body wasn't so fragile, is incredible. The Niko Style and Kanoh Agito are two proofs of that. It shows humans who could be extremely overpowered if our body wasn't so weak.

You won't see someone using a Kamehameha or an overpowered super attack that will blow away the entire earth. You'll see hand-to-hand combat with humans with unusual bodies, and that's great! It shows that you don't need to be a Demon or inhuman to do all of that stuff.

If you enjoy animes such as God of Highschool, Baki, Hajime no Ippo, and Megalo Box, Kengan Ashura is a [MUST] when it falls in the martial arts and fighting series. All of what I said applies to the anime as well, except the part that falls to a 7/10 due to the CGI.

However, what it lacks in animation, it compensates in [GREAT] soundtracks. The opening King & Ashley is AWESOME! The characters theme song such as:

- The Beautiful Beast [Setsuna Kiryu]

- Karma [Gaolang Wongsawat]

- The Emperor [Kanoh Agito]

Are also incredibly enjoyable, and slaps REAL FUCKING HARD.

Originally posted on 14-7-2020 *SPOILER FREE* "I fight, therefore I am." -Kanoh Agito Now then, this is personally one of my favorite manga I’ve ever read. The art, characters and the suprisingly good story(that goes more in depth in the sequel). Hate to point out the obvious, but everything said in this review is of course my own personal opinion.Kengan Ashura portrays what it wants to be perfectly, you could tell from the beginning what the writers had in their minds when creating this. They handled their manga with the utmost care and poured all and i mean ALL of their passion in it. Being published for 8 strong years, it might have had a rough start in terms of originality and artwork. But man does it redeem itself.

Story N/A.

The story isn't anything groundbreaking and doesn't do anything drastically new. But it's also not trying too. It's quite simplistic and gets straight to the point, it's well executed and is doing it's job. The main focus is obviously on the character development and of course the fighting, which I will get into. (would still lowkey give it a 10 tho cuz bias)

And there's the fighting, man there's a lot to say about the fighting, I'll try to keep it short though. Kengan Ashura, has in my opinion, the most consistent, hyped and best fights in any manga when it comes down to hand to hand combat. Kengan is particularly noteworthy for it's fairly accurate portrayal of martial arts(especially grappling), which does gets mixed with some unrealistic fictional stuff to make it more interesting, albeit not too much(looking at you Baki). Every fight contains a solid explanation of how every technique and fighting style works. Combine this with the fighter's backstory, and explaining how one trained to master these, you'll get drawn in and the fights becomes several times more intense. I could go on about the fighting but i think you get my point.

Characters 10/10.

Jumping into Ashura, you'll notice how large the cast of characters is that we've got to work with. Every character has an unique, instantly recognizable design and personality with a supporting backstory and motive. They're introduced carefully, and blend well in the story. Some start of pretty grounded, giving our writers enough time to develop the characters through the interactions, events and of course fights that happen inbetween the main character and themselves. While the story continues, the reader can carefully observe the changes the main character experience and undergo.

Art 10/10.

As if this Manga wasn't great enough, it's backed up by arguably the best art of the last decade. Being gruesomely detailed, there is a certain ruggedness to this artstyle that drastically changed overtime. It did start of very poor but had an amazing leap of quality after the first few volumes. Every chapter flows fantastically and synergizes with the fights, making it more easy to understand what is going on in a fight. You can feel the weight behind every move, that is drawn with such passion that you can almost feel the impact of them in real life.

Enjoyment/Overall 10/10.

Kind of obvious given the above. You can certainly notice how much i enjoyed this series. This Manga is truly spectacular and i highly reccomend it to anyone who loves any type of Fighting/Action.

Easily one of my favourite manga out there u shud read it for the fight scenes and the vastness of it's cast there are so many interesting characters each with there own unique well-developed personalities and techniques that are somewhat down to earth ,the mc is quite mysterious and the unveil of his past was perfect, didn't quite like the ending though but what can you do huh. Just read this manga for the fight the scenes cause they are jaw-dropping and the techniques are diverse,the good thing is that even closing in on the end it still maintains it's earlier aspects or even enhances themhence it is steady and well paced （︶^︶）

Kengen Ashura is a manga series that revolves around underground gladiator fights, where powerful fighters compete for the sponsorship of wealthy corporations. The manga has a lot of action scenes, but also a lot of commentary from the spectators, the announcers, and the fighters themselves. The commentary often explains the techniques, the strategies, and the backgrounds of the fighters, as well as their motivations and emotions. The manga tries to balance the action and the commentary, but sometimes it feels like the commentary is too much and slows down the pace of the story. The commentary can also be repetitive or unnecessary, especially when it statesthe obvious or contradicts what is shown in the panels. The manga could have been more engaging and exciting if it focused more on the action and less on the commentary.

The manga also suffers from a lack of character development and depth. The fighters are mostly stereotypes or clichés, with little personality or growth. They are either good or evil, with no shades of gray or complexity. The manga does not explore their motivations or backgrounds in a meaningful way, and they do not change or learn from their fights. The manga relies too much on shock value and violence, rather than on character-driven drama or suspense.

The manga is not bad, but it is not very good either. It is average at best, and disappointing at worst. It has some good moments and some interesting concepts, but it also has many flaws and weaknesses. It is a manga that could have been much better, but it failed to live up to its potential.

Kengan Ashura is trying to be what Baki has been for the last couple of decades. Though succesfull in many aspects, particularlly art syle, kengan ashura just falls short where it really matters. The story is nothing new. there's a big fighting tournament and every fighter wants to win it. each with their own martial stlyes and motivations for winning the big price. Admiteddly, the fights are actually really entertaining, and the characters- although bland- really make you root for them during their combats. In short, I feel like kengan ashura set out to tell a story, and it told just that. Regretablly, nothing this story hasto say beats other combat combat-martial manga titans like Baki or Hajime no Ippo.

A more realistic and, in some ways, better “Baki” It's inevitable to compare Kengan Ashura with Baki. Both thrive on intense combat, absurdly strong characters, and unabashed violence. But, despite the superficial similarities, Kengan follows its own path, which for me is a more "down-to-earth" one. While Baki frequently embraces almost supernatural exaggeration (with physical feats that completely defy logic), Kengan Ashura works with a more palpable type of realism. There are still exaggerations because we're talking about a fighting manga, but everything seems more connected to the techniques, styles, and life experiences of the characters. Here there are no mythical figures or absurd powers coming "outof nowhere"; it's more about skill, strategy, and pure brutality.

And this brutality is one of its high points. The fights are raw, direct, and extremely well-choreographed. It's not just about exchanging punches: each fight tells a story. There's tension, build-up, movement reading, and, above all, consequence. You feel the impact of each blow.

Another point that caught my attention was how the work breaks certain clichés of the genre. In many fighting manga, you can predict who will win – "the protagonist always finds a way" – but in Kengan Ashura, that simply doesn't happen. The characters are so well-developed and balanced that each fight becomes a real enigma. This keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end.

Speaking of characters, this is another huge success. Each fighter has their own identity, both in personality and fighting style. The techniques aren't just "cool moves," they make sense within each character's story. This gives a rare depth to the genre, because you don't just root for the protagonist; you end up getting involved with practically everyone.

And I can't fail to mention Ohma Tokita and Raian Kure. The fight between the two was, without exaggeration, the point that hooked me completely. It's a brutal, intense, and personality-filled confrontation, one of those that stays in your head long after it's over. It was precisely there that my curiosity turned into real excitement for the work.

The art also deserves special mention. At first, it might seem a little "strange," with lines different from the more common style, but this quickly becomes charming. The style is solid, expressive, and perfectly matches the violence of the fights. At key moments, the art manages to convey impact in an almost visceral way.

Ultimately, I would say that Kengan Ashura is a fighting manga with a simple premise of tournaments and combat, but with extremely competent execution. It takes the basics and elevates them with well-written characters, intelligent fights, and a sense of unpredictability that makes all the difference.

I give it a 9/10 because it was a genuinely engaging experience. I started out of curiosity and finished completely satisfied.

If you enjoy works in the style of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, with intense combat and memorable characters, Kengan Ashura is almost mandatory reading.

=================================================================================================================Versão em Português=====================================

Um “Baki” mais realista e melhor em alguns pontos

É inevitável comparar Kengan Ashura com Baki. Ambos vivem de combates intensos, personagens absurdamente fortes e uma violência sem pudor. Mas, apesar das semelhanças superficiais, Kengan segue um caminho próprio que pra mim é um caminho mais “pé no chão”.

Enquanto Baki frequentemente abraça o exagero quase sobrenatural (com feitos físicos que desafiam completamente a lógica), Kengan Ashura trabalha com um tipo de realismo mais palpável. Ainda existem exageros pois estamos falando de um mangá de luta mas tudo parece mais conectado a técnicas, estilos e experiências de vida dos personagens. Aqui não tem figuras míticas ou poderes absurdos vindos “do nada”; é mais sobre habilidade, estratégia e brutalidade pura.

E essa brutalidade é um dos pontos altos. As lutas são cruas, diretas e extremamente bem coreografadas. Não é só trocar soco: cada combate conta uma história. Existe tensão, construção, leitura de movimentos e, principalmente, consequência. Você sente o impacto de cada golpe.

Outro ponto que me chamou muita atenção foi a forma como a obra quebra certos clichês do gênero. Em muitos mangás de luta, dá pra prever quem vai ganhar "o protagonista sempre dá um jeito", porem em Kengan Ashura, isso simplesmente não acontece. Os personagens são tão bem desenvolvidos e equilibrados que cada luta vira uma incógnita real. Isso mantém o leitor preso do começo ao fim.

Falando em personagens, esse é outro acerto enorme. Cada lutador tem uma identidade própria, tanto em personalidade quanto em estilo de combate. As técnicas não são só “golpes legais”, elas fazem sentido dentro da história de cada um. Isso dá uma profundidade rara pro gênero, porque você não torce só pelo protagonista, você acaba se envolvendo com praticamente todo mundo.

E não dá pra deixar de mencionar Ohma Tokita e Raian Kure. A luta entre os dois foi, sem exagero, o ponto que me fisgou de vez. É um confronto brutal, intenso e cheio de personalidade, daqueles que ficam na cabeça depois que acabam. Foi justamente ali que minha curiosidade virou empolgação real pela obra.

A arte também merece destaque. No começo, pode até parecer um pouco “estranha”, com traços diferentes do padrão mais comum, mas isso rapidamente vira um charme. O estilo é sólido, expressivo e casa perfeitamente com a violência das lutas. Em momentos-chave, a arte consegue transmitir impacto de um jeito quase visceral.

No fim das contas, eu diria que Kengan Ashura é um mangá de luta com uma proposta simples de torneios e combates, mas com uma execução extremamente competente. Ele pega o básico e eleva com personagens bem escritos, lutas inteligentes e um senso de imprevisibilidade que faz toda a diferença.

Dou nota 9/10, porque foi uma experiência genuinamente envolvente. Comecei por curiosidade e terminei completamente satisfeito.

Se você curte obras no estilo Mortal Kombat ou Street Fighter, com combates intensos e personagens marcantes, Kengan Ashura é uma recomendação quase obrigatória.

Kengan Asura is a bloody bare-knuckled slugfest from beginning to end, and while it may lack a bit in the story department, it makes up for it with unique and detailed artwork, expertly crafted fight scenes, and a level of intensity that barely slows down at all in over 200 chapters. Occasional comedy and tragedy elements also come up for better or worse, but if you're into a good old-fashioned fighting manga then Kengan Asura should be on your must-read list. The story of Kengan Asura is probably the weakest element, and it's still fairly interesting and original. The majority of the manga takes placeduring the "Kengan Annihilation Tournament" which consists of a series of one-on-one hand-to-hand fights where weapons are prohibited but killing is not. The winner will be able to select a new leader for the Kengan Association, and our MC Tokita Ohma is seeking revenge against one of these fighters, as well as answers to some questions that you may or may not care about by the time you actually get them.

The art is one of the strongest elements of the series. The facial expressions are very animated compared to most mangas' tendency towards stiff unmoving faces, usually done to add a comedic element or excitement to a scene. The muscle and skeleton structures of the fighters are very detailed as well, making each fight feel painful to watch as we see every small bit of bone and flesh as it gets torn apart.

The characters are pretty great as well, as with any fighting series you will need to have a strong supporting cast to keep things interesting, and this manga does that almost perfectly. My only complaint would be that there are so many good characters it starts to feel like none of them get enough screentime to make them worthwhile. They all get to have a little moment towards the end but at that point does it even matter?

As far as the ending goes you will just have to decide for yourself if it works for you. I didn't particularly like it so much, but I definitely enjoyed the ride getting there.

I read through this while I was 18 and it was LIFECHANGING. This inspired me to start working out, to start creating things, to spend my time more wisely, and got me generally interested in the medium of manga. So this in my heart Kengan will always be a 10/10... but since I'm reviewing the manga in a more "professional" environment I had to read it again with a more critical view and sadly some cracks ​started showing. I have made a whole video review about this if you want you can check that out from my profile. Story - 7 The fights. The main (and kindaonly) focus of the manga. I love that, my issue is not with that, my issue is with the fact that fights are constantly interrupted. This is fine if we interrupt the fight after it has started to explain a very core technique or to insert some backstory BUT on the 5th time when we stop the action to talk about something for a page or two it feels kinda bad. I'm not saying that the manga shouldn't explain stuff or give the backstory of the characters. I am saying that this was not the way to do it.

Apart from that, I adore some backstories and in general, the fights feel great when you ignore the pacing. And a small shutout to the "politics" of the manga, that shit was cool.

Art - 8

Okay please don't crucify me on this one. I like the art, I do. But go look at ANY chapter of One Punch Man then come back look me in the eye and tell me that they both have 10/10 art. Things in here can look stiff and weird sometimes (and that's okay), proportions can be a bit of, and in general, the moment-to-moment art is not that spectacular. With that said of course most of the time, it looks beautiful and it's good. (also there are 3D models that look very bad but they appear only like 7/8 times so it's fine)

Characters - 9

I adore them. Or at least a good bit of them. Some just exist for filler and that will always feel bad. Others are mediocre. But when the characters are good, they are DIVINE. Ouma and Kazuo are a masterpiece of a relationship that in my eyes has cemented itself as a peak manga moment. Also, Sekibayashi is my zodiac sign and nobody can convince me otherwise.

Enjoyment - 10

Incredible fights in which you have basically no idea is going to win. Superb action and flow of a fight (once they let the fight flow without interruptions). And a touch of that nostalgia and I was happy for those short, short hours when reading this.

Overall - 8

This sometimes can waste your time for what it feels like no reason. Which is the biggest issue here that is stopping this from the title "masterpiece". And yet there are so many unbelievably good chapters, peak action, and heavy (in a good way) characterization that this should most definitely be considered a modern classic.

Is this a good fighting manga? No, it's fucking amazing.

You know how there's a tournament arc trope in shounen manga, whether it be a fighting tournament arc like in dragon ball, or maybe more of a school festival event competition for the most votes for a club. The precedent and use of "competition" with people in a bracket format is an overall kind of predictable, but at the same time, fun way to bring about strong individuals to fight each other in a story. Usually, tournament arcs are established well into the story, or at the very least, is just a single arc of many Kengan Ashura is essentially, a 256 chapter tournament arc. That's it.There's a brief prologue and some introductory chapters, but by and large, a Kengan Ashura is a single tournament arc. This puts a lot of strain on the story. While it is fun to see people pummel each other with their different techniques, you're really not getting a lot of story, and you sure as hell don't get a lot of character development. So your enjoyment of this manga is almost entirely dependent on if you like the fights. Good thing for me, I like the fights. I really like the art style. I agree, perhaps the fight scene choreography are a bit rough on the edges, but when there are a lot of stunning moments in this story, and I just dig the art. Volume 2's cover art is just the highlight of the artstyle.

Not to say that there is no story at all in the manga. There is, but it's not well developed or a huge focus. There's an entire coup arc in the story, but to tell the truth, it's more of a filler arc that's of low quality than anything else. In this coup arc, people use anything from swords to blades: anything but guns. Seriously, that alone made that arc a joke, but the timeline of events and lack of explanation or details on a lot of them just make that arc really bad and felt nothing more than bad filler. It just felt like everyone had plot armor and magically managed to make out of the situation alive and well.

Characters, on the other hand, are a lot better. They are quite solid for the lack of time dedicated to them. There are a decent bit of side and extra stories are are interesting and add to the characters. The fighters, especially, have their personalities showcased in all of the tournament matches, so it's actually not that bad. There's also a decent bit if downtime between matches, whether it be parties or just relaxing between matches. This includes a few slice of life chapters. Yamashita and Ohma's relationship is quite solid, and every side character that supplements the story isn't bad either. Karla was just some bad fan-service, and she was one of the few characters that I felt was out of place

Kengan Ashura has nothing much to go for it in terms of story, and characters are surprisingly good, but 90% of the meat of this manga are still fights. For something so simple, you need to execute it right, and execute it does. Fights are good, so this manga was a good read.