Kishin Douji Zenki

In ancient times, a great battle was waged between a master mage, Enno Ozuno, and an evil demon goddess, Karuma. Unfortunately, Enno didn't have the strength to defeat her alone and was forced to call upon Zenki, a powerful protector demon. After Karuma was defeated, Enno sealed Zenki away in a pillar located inside his temple.

1,200 years after this epic battle, Enno's descendant, Chiaki, spends her days showing tourists around her hometown of Shikigami-cho and doing exorcisms to pay the bills. One day, two thieves enter the town in hopes of opening a seal in the Ozuno temple and releasing the hidden treasure from within. However, what actually pops out is a dark entity that attaches itself to the henchmen, transforming them into demonic beings. After this transformation, they begin a rampage through the temple, terrorizing poor Chiaki.

It is now up to this young progeny to unleash her family's powers to summon Zenki and save Shikigami-cho from these demons, as well as the evil entities sure to follow in their footsteps.

Zenki Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Enno, Chiaki Main

Yokoyama, Chisa Japanese

Miki, Sohma Supporting

Yanada, Kiyoyuki Japanese

Anju Supporting

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Kobayashi, Noriko Producer

Nishimura, Junji Director, Storyboard

Wakabayashi, Kazuhiro Sound Director

Shirahata, Bob Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 8, 2022

Pages_Pages

Recommended

I understand the first review people see when looking up this anime is a 3/10, so please bear with me.

Otakus today have grown a recency bias when it comes to anime, it is nobody's fault and hardly anyone is consciously doing it, but it is something that happens, and I feel that taking a look at older shows (1960s-2000s) is a necessary task in order to draw attention to series that would go other wise unnoticed.

Here are the stats of this review:
Story: 7/10 (Good)
Art: 7/10 (Good)
Sound: 6/10 (Fair)
Character: 7/10 (Good)
Enjoyment: 8/10 (Very Good)
... Overall: 7/10 (Good)

Kishin Douji Zenki, known to some quite simply as Zenki is an anime from 1995 from Studio Deen. It is an action anime with relatively quick (5-10 minutes on average) fights between monsters drawn in the traditional Japanese style and usually spawned by some nefarious being or beings and the guardian demon Zenki. The show has two main arcs featuring different villains in each one and takes on different tones, with the second one being somewhat darker than the first.

As far as production values are concerned the anime is good for the era, having everything that one could expect from a show like this: hand-drawn art, usage of theme variations as incidental and battle music, a growing cast of characters and elements of comedy. These are all done to an acceptable standard.

As far as personal enjoyment is concerned, the show was very entertaining and always had my attention for the entire episode and kept me guessing as what was going to happen next, as there would be occasional plot twists as well.

Overall, this show receives my recommendation as one to watch, even if it is lesser-known.

Additionally, subtitled and dubbed offerings are available, so everyone should be satisfied with their show requirements.

I have averted spoilers outright, but if you want more, then I have written a more detailed review on my website, but due to review guidelines, I cannot leave it here, so please view my profile in order to get the link. Thank you

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 19, 2020

Ninachu

Recommended

The Kishin Douji Zenki anime series consists of 51 episodes, which were based on the work of Kikuhide Tani and Yoshihiro Kuroiwa.

This was one of the few anime that were on TV in my country, but it never reached the same popularity as Dragon Ball and Yugioh.
I have no idea how popular Zenki is outside, but seeing the lack of it everywhere it's probably not that popular.

STORY/PLOT:
The story is nothing special, it follows a school girl named Chiaki Enno who is able to free Zenki, a powerful Demon God and together they try to stop Karuma and other bad guys. While ''main character ... who owns demon'' is pretty common trope, you have to remember this was made in the 90s.

CHARACTERS:
I have no idea how to feel about cast. It's small and it lacks development, but it's not like they are bad.
In the second arc the cast becomes bigger and Zenki even gets a teammate, who’s name is Akira, but despite having powers he doesn’t do much (well until the latest parts), which is a shame because I was really hyped, only to be met with the wasted potential.
The best characters probably would be Souma and Dog Deity.

SOUND:
The opening is banger. It is in the top 10 best old school anime openings, for sure.
As for voice acting, well I’m not a pro when it comes to it but I didn’t see any problem with it. I think it was fine. I mean I absolutely loved Zenki’s voice, when he was in his real/adult form of course.

ENJOYMENT:
Some episodes were meh, but most were nice. Even though I don’t like episodic anime, Zenki was surprisingly fun.
I just wish Zenki spent more time in his real form, instead of his dwarf/shota/little kid form lol.

OVERALL
Underrated gem. Despite it flaws, I had fun with it. If you love old school anime you should definitely check this one. Just don't except this anime to be on the same level as Yu Yu Hakusho or Dragon Ball.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 28, 2015

Razgrizghost

Not Recommended

Funny

To sum up this anime in three words: "It's very 90s"

Art and Sound: 5/10
-The demons, besides the 'nice' ones, look like classic demons from Japanese paintings. They're fairly well drawn and interesting to look at.
-The overall art is a little dated and generic but is still nice to look at.
-The music is pretty forgettable and the sounds used throughout sound as if they were ripped from well known audios that have been heard a hundred times over.

Characters: 3/10
-There is very little to no character development and they all fall into tropes. The perverted old grandfather, the whiny high school girl, the all muscle ... and no brains demon who yells about everything and cares about no one (if zenki isn't basked off goku i'll eat my left shoe).

Enjoyment/Story: 1/10
-I wanted to like this show. I kept skipping large chunks of each episode hoping something interesting or new would happen. Nothing ever did. Even the ending climaxes for archs were meh.
-My biggest peeve is it suffers from magical girl transformation syndrome. First, it's one stock transformation. Then two. Then three every episode as the show progresses. It gets redundant and is a waste of screen time.
-You could probably watch the first episode of each arch then skip to any of the episodes and feel like you haven't missed a thing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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2000 or earlier

by rt_lf

42 Entries · 5 Restacks

One Year Run Part 4

by MissMisu

50 Entries · 4 Restacks

Anime available in youtube with Spanish dub and subs Part 4

by Giulichan04

50 Entries · 5 Restacks

	Poll: Kishin Douji Zenki Episode 5 Discussion Dyslexic - Dec 16, 2016	2 replies	by patkarunungan »» Aug 11, 1:30 AM
	Poll: Kishin Douji Zenki Episode 4 Discussion patkarunungan - Feb 22	0 replies	by patkarunungan »» Feb 22, 8:37 PM
	Poll: Kishin Douji Zenki Episode 3 Discussion patkarunungan - Feb 17	0 replies	by patkarunungan »» Feb 17, 8:05 PM
	Poll: Kishin Douji Zenki Episode 2 Discussion vizhmaster_vizhu - Jun 24, 2011	1 replies	by patkarunungan »» Feb 12, 4:15 AM
	Poll: Kishin Douji Zenki Episode 1 Discussion JuanDi_09 - Nov 18, 2021	2 replies	by patkarunungan »» Feb 8, 8:02 PM