Kengan Ashura

This is my first review so I apologize in advance for poor formatting or it's not done well but I just thought I'd have a go at it.

First of all to all of those reading this please please please please try and look past the fact that it's 3D CGI as it's not as bad as you might think. It's not nearly as bad as Berserk was and in fact feels like it excels over traditional 2d when it comes to fighting scenes. The movement feels fluid as well as the choreography is very well done with no repeating actions and speaks well ... to the source material. The downside being that there is quite a few moments of exposition where a commentator or the peanut gallery may through in a few comments but overall wasn't too jarring.

The story felt true to the manga however it doesn't have as many interpersonal character development as the manga which is okay considering they have to fit the story down in to a 12 episode season. It certainly was able to transition well between the comedic moments as well as those that were more serious in nature and the impact of certain scenes were conveyed well.

I think the sound was one of the highlights of the show, every fighter has had theme song which really made their entrance into the fights feel more memorable and sometimes even gave more character to the fighters or fleshed them out a bit more. The sound effects in particular never felt like they were dull or out of place and felt natural as well.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation, it deserves a 2d animation medium for sure but don't let that distract you that the anime direction, sound, choreography and overall feel of the show felt like it was a memorable use of my time.

The Kengan Ashura anime is the most disappointing thing I've seen all year. I love the manga, it's one of the best martial arts stories and I wrote an entire review on how cool it is. I've been wary of the anime adaptation ever since I saw the first trailer and realized it was going to be in CGI. Being a Kengan Ashura, I felt obligated to watch it but I set my expectations extremely low. apparently, those expectations weren't low enough because I am still baffled at how awful this show is.

The most glaring problem with the anime is the CGI animation. While not ... the worst CGI that I've seen, it's far from what I'd call good. Character models are clunky and stiff, the attacks lack impact. The CGI does a poor job of emulating the beautiful art of the manga. The fight choreography is terrible, the camera is all over the place, never knowing what to focus on. At best it's uninspired and at worst it's just disorientating. It doesn't feel like it's ever taking advantage of the fact that it's CGI. The anime tries its best to replicate the exaggerated and detailed facial expressions characters have and it often falls flat. Sometimes they look fine but other time it just doesn't look right on a 3d model. The presentation of some of the techniques used by the characters is just abysmal. Raian's Removal and Ohma's Advance look ridiculous in the anime. Something about the way they glow is just off. There some 2d scenes during flashbacks, which are mostly still images with very limited animation. They're not great but they look better than CGI. The switching between the 2d and CGI scenes can be quite jarring at times.

The CGI is bad, but the real problem with the Kengan Ashura anime is the story. I've already talked at length about how good the story is in my review for the manga. It's a simple story but well thought out and executed. The anime somehow completely butchers it. The anime adapts 73 chapters from the manga, not counting the extra chapters. Obviously, a plethora of stuff was cut to make it fit into twelve episodes. Entire subplots and characters are just gone, it's a mess. For example, the anime just skips the second major fight of the series and jumps right to the third fight. I'm astounded that they would skip a fight, in a series all about fighting. The character that Ohma fights against is also important to a later subplot, so of course, that entire subplot was axed. I think the baffling change is the absence of Yamashita's secretary Kushida Rin. She's an integral part of the story and she just doesn't show up at all. They even cut some vital character development for Yamashita. He's more a comedic relief character than anything else in the anime. It's upsetting because he's one of the most well-developed characters in the series. The side characters suffer the most from the cut content. There are a lot of good character interactions that give good characterization and flesh out character relationships between side characters and most of them were cut. Because of this you're never really given a good feel for or reason to care about characters other than Ohma and Yamashita. The most these characters get is a flashback during their fight. The manga excelled at fleshing out all the characters and the anime seems focused on getting to the next fight as quickly as possible. Another bizarre change is that in the manga there's a character named Adam Dudley, a fighter from Texas. He's a rude and vulgar man with "FUCK" engraved on his teeth. Oddly enough this was changed to "DAMN" in the anime. It's a minor change but it feels unnecessary. He's still just as foul-mouthed as he was before, so why change it at all?

If there's one positive thing I can say about the anime, it's that the music is pretty decent. The opening song is good, even if the visuals of the opening leave a lot to be desired. The ending song is terrible, the rap does not complement the series at all. The background music does its best at trying to get the audience hyped for the fights and would succeed if not for the fights themselves didn't look so bad. The voice actors are fantastic for the most part Daisuke Namikawa is absolutely perfect as Kiryu Setsuna, he gives the best performance in the show.

Quite simply Kegan Ashura is a bad adaptation of a brilliant manga. The visuals and all the cut scenes are just horrid. It's an insult to both Daromeon's art and Sandrovich's storytelling. The manga was full of passion for martial arts, and I didn't feel any passion for martial arts or even love for the source material in the anime. It's such a hollow and soulless adaptation, and it's unlikely there'll ever be a proper adaptation. I'd advise anyone who was put off by the anime's visuals or story to try and give the manga a shot, it's a far better experience.

I'm sorry but if you're going to thrash out an entire anime for CGI, you should stop doing reviews for this anime. There's more than just graphic or double standard. (Kingdom S1 for instance...)

The story was able to capture the interest at episodes 2, which is quite a slow paced for a short series. However, the wait was worth so far. The story was quite straightforward by episodes 2, basically, our main fighter has some sort of vengeance plot while his rep. company has a twisted goal in mind. It's from that episode that you slowly learnt the protagonist story.

Sound details were also fine, ... the add of bone cracking sound and other miscellaneous did enhanced the fight.

Yes, animation isn't anywhere close to typical anime post 2015, but overall it was enjoyable and nowhere cringy as people make it sound.

I loved the manga. It's the best thing I've read so far and it's honestly great. But this is just a mockery of what the manga was. I was disappointing when I saw the trailer for this ONA but actually watching it is another level of terrible.

Story-
7/10
The story is simple and interesting but it's not exactly what it was in the manga. I feel like the pacing was far better in the manga. Things were also explained far better in the manga too with a lot more detail and making the read a lot of fun but its numbed down in the anime.

Art-
3/10
The art style ... in the anime is truly terrible. I hate it so much. There are so many awesome moments in the original manga that just have no where near the same impact here. The main cast of characters looks so much better in the manga due to the amount of detail put into it but it's nowhere to be seen here. I would love to see how scared Kazuo would get in the manga due to his facial expressions but those are just missing in the anime.

Sound-
5/10
The sound design is pretty mediocre. Often during the start of the episode I was thrown out of immersion purely due to the sound of the drums making me think I'm watching Naruto. I also don't like the generic impact sounds during the fight scenes as it just doesn't carry that heftiness.

Character-
8/10
I like the characters, I really do. There are so many charming and interesting things about these characters that make them compelling to me but it's just all over thrown by the awful animation and how they decided to go about the character designs.

Enjoyment-
2/10
Yeah... It wasn't an enjoyable experience at all.

Overall- 4/10

I really wish Kengan Ashura gets turned into a proper anime at some point in the future as there is so much potential in it. I hope it gets the same treatment as JoJo where it gets fully remade somewhere down the line.

I love the manga of Kengan Ashura and have finished the manga and when I saw it was getting an anime I was excited. It is CG anime but honestly it isn't as bad as people are making it out to be.

Story: 6 The anime dosn't have much of a story going on at the moment and has cut out some stuff from the manga but it never ruined my experience mainly because the fighting is more important to me then the story (at least for this anime not the manga.)

Art: 7 For a CG anime it is pretty good it feels more fluid then ... most do at least during the fights. It can feel a bit clunky and sometimes people will just look so weird and bad. Sometimes it seemed like they had normal non CG characters talking with CG characters so that looked very weird and off. But you get used to it unless you just hate all CG anime.

Sound: 7 The sounds for the punching and kicking and whatever during fights was fine. I loved the soundtrack and music and the voice acting for the most part. Not much else to say.

Character: 6 We don't get to see much character depth or anything, at least not yet. But for what we have I enjoy the main characters. Not much to talk about unless I go into the manga but this is the anime so yea.

Enjoyment: 9 I don't mind or hate CG anime's and I love the manga so that already makes me happy and t he fights to me looked awesome and I think wouldn't look as good without the CG because there are a lot of fights. But I loved the fights that I saw, I like the music and soundtrack I heard, and the characters but only cause I read the manga so im biased a bit.

Overall: 7 If you don't mind CG anime's and like fighting shows or martial art stuff like Baki I'd say you should watch this for sure but also read the manga cause it is so much better.

I noticed some reviews of this show have been biased from manga readers. I have also read the manga too, but I wanted to try and give a review from the point of view of someone that hasn't read the source material.

Lets get started


- Brief synopsis
A middle aged salary man named Yamashita Kazuo on his way home runs into Fighter Tokita Ohma and see's him beat up a another huge fighter. The next day Kazuo is invited to talk to the owner of his company where he is dragged into the world of the Underground fighting circuit called "The Kengan fights".There he is re-acquianted ... with Tokita where their journey begins to compete and attempt to win the Kengan Tournament.

- Story
The plot is basic enough. Company CEO's have fighters represent them and fight for them in Kengan Matches. Fighters fight to see who's strongest, and other personal reasons. Their CEO handlers are in it for the prize(money, property, and whatever to further their companies.) Every so often there's a Kengan Tournament where only the best of these fighters come together to compete to be Champion and win their boss the position as the new Kengan Comittee Chairman. The whole story is basically one big Tournament arc. I know that will scare many away but it's really about all the subplots between characters that really makes it not just another "people fighting" anime.

- Characters
Characters are everything from cool looking to Drag Queens
To walking stereotypes that have their own fighting styles. That's about it. No developement of any sort in the 12 episodes. Though some of the cast do have their back stories touched upon.

-Pacing
Very fast. It can be jarring at times when it goes from fight to fight so fast with no grace period in between.

- Art and Animation
The anime consists of 3D CG models and 2D hand drawn art. CG is used for the fights and 2D is mainly used for static stills or scenes with not much movement. Sometimes however you have one character thats CG in a frame with another character drawn in 2D in the same frame. It looks odd but I didn't find it as jarring as other people have said.

They also use a really stylish way of presenting the visuals to the viewer during flash back scenes or when the narrator is explaining something. It's a combination of still images and audio showing you what's going. So the camera would show an image then pan over to another image that will either have the narrator speaking or a character(or character's).

Overall the 2D art looks fine. The CG is decent and surprisingly quite fluid(can be clunky at times). Is it as good as say the "Ultraman" 2019 CGI Anime? No, but is it as bad as the "Berserk" 2015 CGI Anime? No. In my opinion it's a decent middle ground.

I personally didn't mind all of the different art styles and techniques used though I do understand how some would dislike it. I'm unsure whether it was a design choice or budget issues. I jmagine both due to the fact both the video for the OP and ED are quite lackluster and you can tell they didn't have the funds to put effort into them they'd have liked to.

- Music

The opening theme (The King and Ashley by My First Story)
I really enjoyed the opening song and was anticipating it ever since I heard the snippet from the PV(Preview) for Kengan Ashura months ago. It's a Pretty good Jrock song that does the job to set the tone.

The ending theme (Born this way by Bad Hop)
I enjoyed the ending. It's Japanese Rap. It balances out the hard hitting opening by having a more mellow and melodic ending. Works especially well since every episode ends with a fight.

The rest of the music consists of heavy metal and other insert music that is quite forgettable.

- Sound
Sound effects are fine, the audio sounds great. When the announcer is introducing fighters and commentating, her voice is powerful and has a lot of energy and flare. You really feel like you're actually at the Kengan Tournament.

Voice acting (viewed in Japanese)
All the characters sound exactly as I'd imagine. They really put together a great cast. I'm especially impressed with the announcer Sayaka Katahara(voiced by Mana Hirata). She really did a fantastic job playing the role of "Master of Ceremonies" and doing super hype fighter introductions and commentary.

I can't speak on the dub but it does have veterans like Johnny Yong Bosch so it should be pretty good even if they used the same actors for multiple roles unlike the Japanese version which is understandable.

- Enjoyment
This is where I'm going to diverge from looking at the anime as is.
Honestly it was just ok. Even before the anime aired I knew it would be hard to adapt it properly and I was correct. A lot of character interaction was axed as well other events that took place before the tournament started that are referenced later in sub plots and in the plot itself. What makes Kengan Ashura is its characters more than the fights.

In the manga they're so individualized with their personalities. We don't get to see that in the anime due to them removing interactions. In turn it just makes the whole show feel like a bare bones adaption that's too fast paced. The anime rushes from fight to fight with just enough plot so you don't get completely lost. I can understand why they did this though. The way the Manga is presented makes it hard to adapt. Easier to adapt fights than a ton of character dialogue and interactions that only real work in comic format and don't translate well when animated

. Overall I'd say it's more of a Kengan Ashura lite. If you just wanna see cool characters fighting each other and don't care about much else than I recommend this. In my opinion they accomplished what they set out for. A show that can be enjoyed on its own as a stand alone and that can also make people want to seek out the manga for a more complete experience.

Have you read the manga? read it before reading this review. Have you read Berserk? do you know about Berserk (2016)? Search about it before reading this review.
I have created an account here on MyAnimeList just because of this abomination that is sorely called an "anime", imagine reading the most epic history in the world with artistic choices worthy of an award, getting hooked on it and then discovering there is an anime for you to watch, all those scenes come back to you as you imagine the thrill of seeing everything unfold with top-notch animation making justice to the beautifully drawn pages of the ... manga, then you see it is only available on Netflix, it is the most gut wrenching feeling you have ever had, you let that aside because you really like the manga, it couldn't possibly be done wrong... IT'S. 3D.
Well you only had one other passion as of manga, called Berserk, you recall how they destroyed it, it hurts. But with Berserk they chose an horrible studio who only had 3D experience with small bits in anime, only animated comedy shows and such, and you think: "well, Netflix wouldn't make this mistake." they did. Studio Larx was a bad choice, they have ONE complete show under their belt and it is awful, the 3D is so bad it makes your head hurt, i do not recommend that you watch this BEFORE reading the manga, have your first experience as God intended. READ. THE. MANGA.
Maybe by some sort of divine intervention someone will make a good adaptation of this amazing manga, but not yet.

Haven't read the manga, so unbiased at time of reviewing.

Story:
The biggest companies in Japan are all members of the Kengan Association. Whenever these companies come into conflict, such as both wanting to build on a particular spot, or bid on the same contract etc, the matter is resolved in an underground street fight known as a Kengan match. The Kengan association president oversees these matches and makes sure that the agreed upon terms are enforced. So the better the fighter is, the more money the company makes.

A few episodes in it is decided that there will be a Kengan tournament. Each company in the ... Kengan Association can put forth a fighter to compete for the right to become, or to name the next Kengan Association president.

The majority of this series is based around the tournament, with one or two fights in each episode.
And the good thing is, they show a lot of the fights, not just the main character Oma. Sometimes Oma doesn't fight for several episodes.

The fight scenes themselves are enjoyable and the episodes move along at a decent pace.
I found it a bit unusual that the 12th episode didn't end in a big fight scene involving the main character, but I guess this series is planning to have multiple seasons.

Art
I wasn't a huge fan of the style of art used. It was fine during the fight scenes, but when not fighting, the characters sometimes looked odd, particularly when talking.

Characters:
I found the characters a bit hit and miss. Some of them are downright annoying. Although having said that, Yamashita did start growing on me a bit in the later episodes.

Overall:
I enjoyed the series. If you like martial arts based anime and don't mind blood filled fighting scenes, then I recommend giving this one a go.

Well this is my 2nd review ever sorry for the future mistakes of the reviews

In this story the main character is trying to become the best fighter in the world and trying to take revenge on a certain person with the help of an old man who actually sponsor him .... in a underground society of business class society where businessman hire fighter to fight for their reputed company in a kengan match .... various types of fighter clash with one another like ninja ,psycho killer , sumo , pro wrestler etc

the art quality is quite good enough & the actions are ... awesome ..... as for the character development i must say it's also good there are characters like weird fighters , funny old man some beautiful women ( not very ) , crazy women & men

the best part of this series is, it's not only focused on the main characters like in anime 80% of times show how the main character and it's supportive character struggle and overcome instead in this series it almost focused on every kengan matches , where the outcome is almost unpredictable and the clashes of crazy fighters make it worth of time

so if you are an action anime fan i must recommend you this anime

ONE OF THE BEST ANIME OF THE YEAR ! For real i loved it, alongside mob pyscho 2 and Vinland Saga, this is one of the 2019´s masterpieces, Kengan Ashura is the best martial arts focused anime i have ever seen, i am a HUGE fan of animes of that genre, and my favorite one is Baki, but Kengan is really astonishing. Kengan really bears a lot of inspiration from Baki, especially some designs and abilities(and no, they are not rip-offs), like in Baki there is a character that has a beastly grip power, in Kengan there also is, but the way they use ... their grip power is entirely different and extremely creative(and violent of couse!), for me what makes kengan so good it that it is really close written i could say, the plot goes really through a planned flow and i am looking for the conclusion of it, SEASON 3 COME SOON PLEAAAASEEEE!!!, and for me that is the thing that makes Kengan so good, it doesnt lose its essence and neither does make you feel "why is this happening ? boring..." it is a thirlling, testoterone filled, gruesome adventure, so if you like martial arts, over the top stuff, some good houmour and manliness, then Kengan is for you. And also the characters are fantastic, i love almost all of them, they are quickly introduced and also get along quickly with the audience, great charisma! So please, do yourself a favor and watch this !

Kengan Ashura featuring intense combat sequences and a diverse cast of fighters. The anime captures the essence of the manga's fight-

till-you-drop ethos, with attention to detail in depicting martial arts techniques. The anime's strength lies in its character development,

with protagonist "Tokita Ashura" Ohma's journey from a mysterious fighter to a deeper character. However, the anime's major flaw is the

omission of several manga chapters, leaving fans wanting more. This omission is crucial to understanding the full scope of Kengan

matches and the complex relationships between characters. Despite this, Kengan Ashura remains an exciting and visceral journey into the

brutal world of underground fighting, making ... it a must-watch for fans of martial arts and combat sports.

The anime that revolves around one big tournament arc. Now how can an anime with only one plot be this interesting? How is character development present? I can tell you that Kengan Asura hadled everything nicely. We have fighters who act as company representatives and engage in the kengan matches where different martial arts and styles are used. I recommend, reading the manga for the full experience because the anime excluded the subplot and other characters who were important in the story.


I was suprised when I saw Kengan Asura had 236 chapters and only talked about ONE TOURNAMENT ARC. I started with the anime ... first and was quite displeased with the CGI. But as I continued watching, the problem with the animation didn't bother me as much. I was engaged in the storyline. The way Kengan Ashura portrayed martial arts was very realistic. It feels as if the characters in the story were real people. The fighters are overwhelmingly powerful but this doesn't mean that fights are one-sided. The case with Kengan Asura is, you won't know who wins or loses the fight and it keeps you hyped up every match. The stances are accurately drawn and their muscular figures don't seem disturbing. And I loved every part where the fighters showed fear and disappointment after their matches ended. The Opening and ending theme song also gave that underground fights vibe about the anime. 10/10. Don't worry about the CGI, the voice actors and actresses made up for it.

many people dismiss this anime due to the CGI how the anime is very entertaining when you move past that and i don''t think the CGI is a good reason to drop the show.
the story is pretty simple but its done well. In season 2 we are introduced to many characters, so many that its almost hard to keep track however they are all developed well in a short amount of time. the soundtrack is also very good and adds alot of hype to the fights. the anime has fantastic world-building and the choreography of the fights is goods. in the tournament arc every single ... fight is genuinely hard to predict and this includes the fights of the protagonist.
initially the main characters didn't necessarily interest me but they grew more likeable as the show went on.

Now i must admit this type of anime is really not my type at all and i suppose that is why i had to review this as soon as i had just completed the first season.
The premise is simple and yet in true Netflix style, there is always more underneath the surface!
Corporation select a champion to do battle for rights to do business..yes very fight club like indeed!
However, underneath the blood gore and kick ass action there is, character humor heart ....a story behind each fighter that ranges from emotional to bizarre to humorous!
The Art work of this anime HAS TO ... BE HIGHLIGHTED THOUGH.
Its odd to see an anime which has amazing animation during combat and technique during a fight but FAIL SO BADLY in the fighting characters day to day movement and interaction. Do not get me wrong, they did get the animation right where it matters but the rest is rather cringe- worthy!

Sound goes just beyond OP and ED. Though its not my style, it suits the anime! The action sequence sound is far more important here as each blow and break of the bone is what matters!

That being said its a great fun anime to binge if you feel like turning your brain off and just enjoying what happens on screen with over the top fight sequence and great character design.

THE CGI IS CRAP. TERRIBLE. HORRIBLE. And if you're one of those people who can't enjoy an anime if it looks bad, then you're going to hate this. But, if you've watched enough anime to know that animation is secondary to story, and that some of the best anime is hidden behind mediocre animation, then welcome to yet another hidden jewel.

A certain anime taught me a long time ago, never judge an anime by it's animation style. Always give it a chance. That anime was Gankutsuou. Since then, I've learned that whether an anime looks like it's for children (Made ... in Abyss, Madoka Magica), made with substandard animation styles (Now and Then Here and There, Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni) made with cheap CGI (Knights of Sidonia), or just weird styles you're not used to (Gankutsuou, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) you always give it a chance. I am adding Kengan Ashura to that list as yet another example of a great anime that was hidden behind trash design.

Beyond the atrocious CGI, is amazing action, intriguing characters, laugh out loud humor and over the top memorable moments. What other anime has Ronald McDonald out here participating in death matches while Barack Obama watches on? What other anime has a dude leaving trails of naked chicks in the entrance tunnel before coming out to fight? Kengan Ashura is like Tekken, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, Baki The Grappler, UFC and WWE all just got drunk and said: "Hey, you guys look sexy after these 9 beers.".

This anime is intentionally ridiculous. You've got Panasonic, Bandai, Nintendo and McDonald's, out here hiring mercenaries, psycho killers, and pro wrestlers to fight each other to the death to secure contracts for lucrative multi-billion yen deals in underground death matches. (Apparently "secret underground death matches" take place in massive stadiums before 70,000 people, though.).

In the middle of this, you have Ouma Tokita: Your typical stoic MC on a quest for revenge in the midst of the madness. And by his side, is the comedic relief, Kazuo Yamashita. Kazuo, in over his head as Ouma's manager, is the source of the best comedic moments of the anime and really breathes life into the duo. Ouma, by himself, would be boring outside of his fights. Just another brooding tough guy. But, paired together with Kazuo, it brings life to both of their characters.

As for the fights they are very entertaining to watch. While CGI is ugly as sin when not properly animated, it has one advantage over traditional anime, in that the motions are much smoother. This leads to some very fun fights. The fights in Kengan Ashura are brutal, nearing Mortal Kombat levels a couple of times. (But, the gore is not too excessive, and if you're not into that, probably only one fight will really bother you.) As with any tournament battle anime, you get all kinds of styles and powers. People who fight with hair, people who appear to transform, etc... It leads to some interesting combinations and characters and that's the main thing that sets Kengan Ashura apart from alot of tournament animes: Fights not containing the MC are actually interesting.

Usually, in these kinds of anime, the creators breeze through the rest of the cast's fights. There's not a lot of effort put into them. They may spend a little time focused on the MC's top sidekick fighting, or the main villain's fights in the tournament, and breeze through the rest. But in this anime, they actually put in the time to make each fight entertaining in it's own way, and flesh out the characters a little bit. While the focus mainly resides on Ouma, they actually put significant time into getting you familiar with other characters that have little or nothing to do with him, like Cosmo, Lihito, Sekibayashi and the Kure Family. This really helps the anime a great deal, as the rest of the tournament doesn't feel like filler when the MC isn't in it. In this entire season, Ouma only has 4-5 fights out of about 15-16 fights in the season, and I was still engaged and entertained by every fight.

There's a lot to love about this anime. It's a shame that the CGI drags it down for so many people. But, at the end of the day, this is anime and good animation IS important, so I don't blame those who are turned off by it. But, Kengan Ashura is much like an ugly date. It may not be much to look at, at first. But, if you get to know it, you'll probably love it.

Give ugly anime a chance!

Bad CG’s reign of terror rages on.

Story:
When businesses have a deal to work out, they could just negotiate, but wouldn’t it be more exciting to have an underground fighting tournament? The series spends about half of it’s runtime setting up this simple premise before we move onto the fights. There’s really not much to say for the story other than it feels like an overjustification for creating a fighting tournament anime. To spoil the ending, it was “wait for season 2 or read the manga”.

Sound and Visuals:
The opening and ending were both good choices for trying to hype up the show. I have no complaints ... with the voice actors either. Mana Hirata as the announcer in particular was willing to sacrifice her vocal cords for the greater good of hyping up the fights. If you’ve seen any of this show, you’ve seen the absolute lows that CG anime has to offer. CG anime peaked a few years ago with Houseki no Kuni, since then a lot of shows seem to be using it just to save more money on their manga ad. This show is no exception. It hurts because I’ve heard a lot of good things about the manga, and you can see the effort put into the choreography during the fights. But it really gave off the feeling of watching someone else play a fighting game that keeps skipping cutscenes.

Characters:
There weren’t any standouts here. You could see everyone’s personalities just fine, but the anime never really tried to go any deeper than the surface. Also, the standard character design was rippling strongman. When everyone is an ugly abomination of CG, it’s hard to really latch on to any of them. If I had to choose a favorite it would probably be Karla, and that’s mostly just for character design.

Verdict: Hard avoid
There’s nothing really worthwhile here. If you want to watch an anime about bad CG buff guys fighting, you might as well just watch Baki instead. It’s also on Netflix but some scenes actually look fine, there are memorable characters, and there’s some semblance of a plot.

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Review ENGLISH / PORTUGUÊS-BR
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If you expect me to make comparisons to the manga, you're wrong. You can skip this analysis.

Well, as I said, I will only talk about the anime itself.

Kengan Ashura is an anime done in CGI and as incredible as it seems, as much as I am used to good old 2D (traditional anime design), the CGI of this work seemed to me very fluid.

This anime does not waste time, it is simple and objective in its presentation. It does not roll like most animes and one of the things I liked is that the beating happens all the time without mercy or ... pity, with a lot of blood and violence. The rating is not +18 xD.

Despite being a story centered and focusing his episodes on pure fighting, Kengan Ashura manages to amuse you with the absurd amount of characters (mostly fighters) and their unique personalities. You can also mix and work humor and drama effectively, being serious only when you really need to be.

It is not a magnificent anime, but it pleases me enough and enough that I continue to follow, entertaining and suffering from the bloody struggles and personal stories of its iconic fighters.

You can watch that at least you will have fun!

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Review em PORTUGUÊS
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Se você espera que eu vá fazer comparações com o mangá, você está enganado. Pode pular está análise.

Bom, como já disse, falarei apenas do anime em si.

Kengan Ashura é um anime feito em CGI e por incrível que pareça, por mais que esteja acostumado com o bom e velho 2D (desenho de animes tradicionais), o CGI dessa obra me pareceu bem fluída.

Este anime não perde tempo, ele é simples e objetivo em sua apresentação. Ele não enrola como a maioria dos animes e uma das coisas que gostei é que a porradaria ocorre toda hora sem dó e nem piedade, com muito sangue e violência. Não atoa a classificação é +18 xD.

Apesar de ser uma história centrada e focar seus episódios em pura luta, Kengan Ashura consegue te divertir com a quantidade absurda de personagens (a maioria lutadores) e suas personalidades únicas. Consegue também mesclar e trabalhar o humor e o drama de forma eficaz, sendo sério somente quando realmente o precisa ser.

Não é um anime magnífico, mas agrada bastante e o suficiente para que eu continue acompanhando, me entretendo e sofrendo com as lutas sanguinárias e as histórias pessoais de seus lutadores icônicos.

Pode assistir que ao menos você irá se divertir!

Story-
7/10
The story is simple and interesting Kengan Ashura provides an interesting tale of bloodsport to fix business disputes among busiess tycoons. It's your usual high stakes fighting anime, but the animation is flawless and they do a decent job of fleshing out the characters. They aren't the mindless meat puppets that just fight to spill blood. The pacing is on par with the story that is being told. We see a number of matches being fought and also a decent exposition of the plot, without it feeling rushed.

Art-
6/10
The art style in the anime is truly is something that many hate as they use 3D ... models which a lot of people don't like, but it's good enough as far as I'm concerned. It isn't the smoothest thing, but it gets the job done just fine. What I really liked about the animation is the fact that they got most of the martial arts moves right and captured their essence pretty well. They showed combat where it was time to show combat. This is in contrast to Baki where combat is mostly just one-sided beatdowns. This anime actually shows the struggle behind combat and even the most overpowered character in the anime actually has to fight instead of just walking up to a guy and crushing them like a can of soda. People are all human in this anime complete with their weaknesses which are accurate from a martial arts perspective albeit dramatised. The violence is also pretty exciting and how it actually is when it comes to martial arts instead of the cult-like Baki violence full of shock content. The violence in this anime can get brutal and there are deaths and severe injuries as well, but they're few and not focused upon too much. They're more like the natural course of events in a fight to the death. All in all, I'd say that the animations in this anime are quite accurate, exciting, and enjoyable.



Character-
8/10
The characters in this anime are another story entirely. It is full of people with amazing physiques to start off. Even the extras look simply scrumptious, the characters do have their own backstories to them which do have humane content to them. Some of them make mistakes or go adrift from their paths, others are simply born evil, there are those who have great ambitions, then there are those who fight for the sake of others, and finally, there are those who want to prove a point to themselves and to the world. At a few points, it feels like they're just spamming you with character backgrounds to increase air time without having to animate a whole lot, especially since the backstories are often just still frames with sounds. But it all works out in the end. The anime also has a pattern of giving you backstories to certain characters just to make them lose in the end, probably to stoke your empathy on the broken hopes and dreams. Apart from that, even the secondary characters have quite some content to them than simply existing. In contrast to Baki the Grappler, there is much more by the way of content as far as characters are concerned. In fact, the characters and their struggles in the fights and the changing tide of the fight itself is pretty much what adds to the excitement of the Anime.

Overall- 8/10

I would definitely recommend this if you enjoy mixed martial arts anime or if you like watching weirdly powerful characters fight to the death It simply portrays the elements to martial arts and combat quite accurately and the only other anime I've seen which does it better would be Hajime no Ippo.

I will never be a huge fan of the mix between CGI and drawnscenes. I made it through it when i watched kingdom and i made it through with this one. But it is a huge negative in my eyes.

Theres alot of history explained that i didn't care much for. I found myself skipping most the explanations surrounding who someone was and why. There were just too many of those, i like the way AoT does it, with static screen with the info if you want to read it.

Overall found myself skipping everything before and after the fights.

Fights are cool tho!

First 5 eps ... are great the rest are very filler heavy.

Kengan Ashura is clearly inspired from Baki and like Baki, Kengan Ashura is about high action tournaments, sleazy buisness men, and very unrealistic fighting. It's mindless fun for the most part. Just something notable was that even knowing the show is supposed to be ridiculous, there were times I cringed a bit when they tried to explain some ridiculous move or technique. The animation for the most part is pretty good but nothing extraordinary or ground breaking. I'd say it's a step below something like Ajin in terms of 3D animation. The blood effects feel pretty cheap and there's definitely a sense that at some ... points a 2D animation style would be better.
The characters and their abilities aren't exactly very compelling a lot of times sadly. They are just simple things like the person being agile while being fat, being very sturdy, or like a kaio-ken thing where they "unlock" their potential and two characters have essentially the same ability in the show but they're just called different things. The main character also has an ability to control "the flow" of energy or whatever and that allows him to basically do advanced parries on the opponent but it's not really explained that well.
The relationships between characters also feels a bit tepid, with me not really feeling like there is a clear cut villain that I can hate or a rivalry that I feel is iconic. In the show there is also a relationship between our MC fighter and a salaryman who is forced into being his manager. That relationship works pretty okay at it's role as comic relief and seems like there are hints that there will be something more than just that in the second season, though in this season comic relief for the most part is the extent of it.
Kengan Ashura has enough problems to make it feel more generic than not, but it's not a bad watch if you don't expect anything too special from it.