Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

Japanese: 史上最強の弟子ケンイチ

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 61

Chapters: 584

Status: Finished

Published: Aug 9, 2002 to Sep 17, 2014

Genres: Action, Comedy, Drama, Ecchi

Theme: Martial Arts

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Sunday

Authors: Matsuena, Syun (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.09¹ (scored by 37,213 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #595²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #225

Members: 70,265

Favorites: 3,439

Resources

Wikipedia

8.09

Ranked #595Popularity #225Members 70,265

MangaShounen SundayMatsuena, Syun (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /61

Chapters: /584

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Synopsis

Kenichi Shirahama is a good-natured but bullied 15-year-old boy. Tired of being weak, he joins his school's karate club to grow stronger, only to end up as mere target practice for his seniors. However, the beautiful transfer student Miu Fuuriniji changes Kenichi's undesirable fate: she is a first-rate martial artist who introduces him to Ryozanpaku dojo.

There, Kenichi meets the dojo's six eccentric masters, who then decide to take him in as their disciple! Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi tells the story of history's strongest disciple Kenichi as he trains tirelessly under the world's greatest martial artists—who each specialize in their own martial art—to gain the strength to protect the people and values important to him.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi has been published in Italian by Panini Comics under the Planet Manga imprint since March 22, 2014.

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Characters

Shirahama, Kenichi

Main

Hopachai, Apachai

Main

Kousaka, Shigure

Main

Fuurinji, Miu

Main

Koetsuji, Akisame

Main

Sakaki, Shio

Main

Fuurinji, Hayato

Main

Ma, Kensei

Main

Niijima, Haruo

Supporting

Tanimoto, Natsu

Supporting

Reviews

May 20, 2024

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A very long but high quality battle shounen with somewhat of a weak supporting cast and a rushed ending.

This manga is about Kenichi, a boy who after being bullied tries to overcome his weak self by joining a dojo. However, as luck would have it the dojo he ends up joining is Ryozanpaku. This dojo is unique in that it isn’t dedicated to a particular type of martial arts, rather each of six masters that inhabit the dojo practice completely different styles. The only thing that the masters have in common is that they’re absurdly strong. It turns out that Kenichi has absolutely no ... talent for martial arts of any style. However, he has the genuine desire to get stronger and the willpower to push himself beyond his limits to do so. And thus, all six masters of Ryozanpaku agree to take Kenichi as their disciple.

As is the case with a lot of shounen manga, this manga starts off small scale but grows tremendously in scale as it progresses. I think this takes it farther than most though, with the only shounen I can think of with a similar level of progression being Air Gear. It starts off with Kenichi simply using martial arts to stand his ground against bullies. This catches the attention of the most prominent gang in the town, Ragnarok, who he then ends up having to face off against. And then an even bigger gang. And as things keep going, suddenly Kenichi is fighting with the fate of modern civilization on the line.

Despite that, this manga actually does a pretty good job at power scaling. This is because it keeps two very distinct tiers of combatants, master and disciple level. While Kenichi certainly does get stronger over the course of the manga, he remains a disciple to the end. And thus, over the course of the manga he fights stronger and stronger disciples. These disciple fights are the only fights in the early parts of the manga, but as the manga progresses there are more and more fights between masters, and by the final arc it has both tiers in equal. Master fights are at a completely different level from those of Kenichi and also have a completely different flow to them. While disciple fights are about showing the results of training and growth, the master fights are about crazy super human combat spectacles. The manga having both allowed the overarching plot to grow massively in scale while giving Kenichi’s growth arc breathing room to be well written. The two tiers being intermixed also helped with variety, thus allowing the manga to flow better which helped with pacing. Add in that there’s also a lot of good comedy and that the mangaka knows when it’s time to wrap up arcs and move on, and you get a manga that was pretty interesting all the way through, which is impressive considering that it’s 61 volumes long.

That’s not to say there weren’t issues. The manga did a pretty good job with the members of Ryozanpaku, by which I mean Kenichi, Miu, and the six masters. Kenichi’s and Miu’s relationship development was slower than I would have liked, but all in all was solid enough. Both of them have decent character growth, and Miu and the six masters all get pretty well fleshed out backgrounds as well. The side characters unfortunately were handled nowhere near as well. The issue seemed to be that it was trying too hard to keep characters relevant long past when they stopped fitting into the story well. There were characters like Nijima, Hermit, Sieg, and Renka that were cool all the way through, but a lot of Kenichi’s ‘party’ felt like it had no place taking part in the conflicts they ended up in, such as Takeda, Ukita, Freya or Valkyrie. There were lots of colorful and more interesting characters introduced after them that the focus would have been better spent on. The manga also seems to suffer the standard issue of villains being forgiven or redeemed too easily, but I suppose that’s par for the course and this manga is better than most shounen I would say.

The biggest issue with this manga was definitely the ending though. The final three volumes are rushed to the point that it’s hard to appreciate any of what it’s trying to do. It tried to wrap up a whole bunch of plot threads while also trying to give a lot of characters their moment to shine, and in the end, it just ends up as a mess. Characters behave in ways that feel incredibly inconsistent, and as a result a lot of the plot feels pretty forced. The pacing is also terrible. The epilogue is good in terms of what it shows the ending is, but at the same time it goes through it so quickly, especially the most important parts, that it’s not all that satisfying. In the end while I was satisfied with the manga overall, I was pretty disappointed with the ending.

The art of the manga is fantastic, especially the color art. It started off a bit rough, but improved tremendously. Character designs and framing are also excellent. The scanlation involves a lot of different groups, which I suppose shouldn’t be surprising considering how long it is. Thus, the quality of the translation, and the quality of the scans, ranges from good to awful. Still, all in all even the bad quality parts weren’t too difficult to push through.

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Oct 26, 2022

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi is about a human punching bag who is mistreated by everyone, until one day the manic pixie dream girl of the story suggests learning martial arts so he can defend himself, just like she does. Like the beta male simp he is, he accepts not only for protecting himself, but also because she’s hot. If it was a sweaty ugly man making the suggestion, he would refuse.

A charming aspect of the manga is the explanation they have for every martial art technique someone is using. Although it’s clearly an infodump, it provides the overall logic behind how something works ...

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Jan 11, 2013

lostinthevoid

Not Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/584 eps)

Short'n sweet folks. This is a hentai masquerading as a action manga. I didnt even think someone could write a piece of work with more fan service than Hiro Mashima. Which is an accomplishment in its own. And is the only accomplish of the series. 500+ chapters in and he has yet to surpass the woman he swears to protect. Someone whom has watches over him get his ass stomped by multiple people... people she is capable of beating, but lets him because he has something to prove.

Granted some of the Master's fights are hoss. Nothing else is memorable.

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'Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi' Manga to End This Month

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Sep 8, 2014 12:17 PM by Dunois | Discuss (36 comments)

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Poll: History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi Chapter 407 Discussion dr_dante - Nov 15, 2010	26 replies	by iScream4z »» Jun 3, 4:20 PM
Unnecessary Fanservice MaceTheDon - May 18, 2013	12 replies	by Mazdite1 »» May 7, 3:05 PM
Poll: History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi Chapter 409 Discussion VitaX - Dec 3, 2010	9 replies	by RicFie »» Jun 6, 2023 10:44 PM
Poll: History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi Chapter 406 Discussion Shiken - Nov 10, 2010	17 replies	by RicFie »» Jun 6, 2023 10:28 PM
Poll: History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi Chapter 400 Discussion KantonKageX - Sep 27, 2010	37 replies	by RicFie »» Jun 6, 2023 10:06 PM

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