Perhaps this is your usual martial arts manga, but it is also so much more. The story is about a talentless, downtrodden boy who works towards developing his martial arts skills through sheer hard work and will - much like Naruto. Along his journey his enemies become his friends and together they wage war against a greater evil - again, we've heard this before - what makes it special is the delivery and the characters.
Through humor and hyperbole the masters who teach young Kenichi are made into caricatures and parodies of older martial art manga characters that we're so fond of, like "Hokuto no Ken" for instance. The various individual supporting characters have also been given much thought and characters who you thought were gone come back to play the part of an important piece in a larger puzzle. With every chapter, with every fight sequence we learn about the characters and what makes them human, sometimes even evil is compassionate. It is a very optimistic manga.
With all the action and adventure, there is also a darker, more sinister and intriguing story that rears its head in the latter stages of the manga. The constant cliffhangers at the end of every chapter are so gripping that they can be called annoying!
The artwork is not extraordinary, but takes a back seat to the story and characters - which is the primary driving force of this series.
This wonderful blend of action, adventure, humor, martial arts, intrigue comes together in a very feel good package. If blood, gore, death and evil is your thing, this is probably not for you. Naruto fans will enjoy it, and I highly recommend it to fans of martial arts manga and anime like "Kenshin", "Shura no Toki", "Bleach" et al.
I also recommend the TV series which visualizes the first 100 or so chapters of the series.
