Anime Review: Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

[Fasckira]

I thought it was awesome. Sure, the pattern was amazingly predictable with its "be defeated, learn new moves, win!" formula but some pretty odd plot twists do keep you entertained from episode to episode. Just as you may start to get bored however, it picks up and finishes the season with a nice bang.
I know a lot of hardcore anime fans will be disappointed with it but I've recommended this series to quite a few people and they've always come back to me with nothing but good things to say.
In short, I wouldn't be too quick to skip over this anime if you have yet to see it. Its worth at least checking out the first few episodes and going from there.

 

[kenichi episodes]

this anime is very good, not as extreme as dbz or bleach and with a pretty standard plot it still delivers a very good story along with its unique humour through out the anime, i do recommend it as a must see anime if you are really into your martial arts/action animes. if you have trouble finding episodes you can always find them at http://www.watchkenichiepisodes.com/. With still an ongoing manga which seems to be pretty popular it wouldnt surprise me if they release a new season, they have enough material to work with to do so.

 

[winnkey]

I have to disagree with this review completely. this is my favorite battle manga that is running at present.

I love the manga and the only problem i have with the anime is how early it finished. true that the anime is not as strong as the manga but that is always the case.

and what i find that put it apart from Bleach or naruto and other battle manga is that there is no super powers, no stupid powerups that make him win. he starts off weak, trains and train and trains. and slowly gains strength. where Now in the manga he is amazing and there is really no set time where i can say o he powered up through magic training lessons or yelling alot. its a build up manga and my favorite battle manga

but yea to bad the anime only covered the starting story. the whole 52 episodes really only cover the prologue of the whole story.

 

[D_linquent]

This is a great series. i have only recently been introduced to Kenichi: the strongest disciple ( April 9 2010), and i have watched all the episodes and read all the manga releases.

I disagree with the review. I am a die hard naruto fan, but this series has attracted my attention more.

Though the review say it is standard plot, the main character does not have it easy. unlike all the other anime i have watched, this character is a total loser at the start, he has no talent no special features. He does not have the 'i can do anything, nothing is a problem' attitude like naruto, he is a complete coward. Indeed no one will go through such difficult training without some fear. kenichi has demonstrate that and even showed it openly, however it is because he has a goal that he over comes his fear (along with his masters advice and trickery). everytime he trains and defeats an opponent, a stronger one is introduced an he has to train even more. He has grown to become very strong and yet he is still has a long way to go. the series lack alot of special features that other anime have such as super powers, but that is what makes this more realistic than any other anime.

I hope that they would continue with the anime as it is indeed one of my favorite battle manga ( one of my top ten).

 

[Necromancer1991]

A relatively good series, you have a point about the show spreading itself out too thin though, it's certainly not terrible by any stretch but it fails to be as awesome as some of my favorite series.

 

[Kolgroth]

OK, I just need to get this off of my chest right now, and I apologize to the people who like this show, so here goes:

God, I really hate this god damn show.

OK. now that I have that out of the way: Kenichi is by far one of my favourite manga to date. Easily ranking up there with the fun weird screw-ball weirdness of Beelzebub and of course the clichéd 'overly hated because it's so popular' Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, collectively known as "The Big Three".

so obviously, when I saw that there was an animated adaptation, I feared for many things that I hold sacred. Now that I've watched the show, I can honestly say that it was really one of those anime that could have been amazing, but didn't deliver where it counted most. The major thing that drew me into this show was, (other than Miu, Shigure-sensie and the, in my opinion total hotties, Kisara and Freya) was the possibility of seeing the masters of all of the most brutally efficient martial arts in the world, and in the case of some of the villains some of the most brutally effective but relatively unknown martial arts in the world, brought to life in a martial arts anime that didn't involve spiky golden hair and apocalyptic battles that never f&%#ing went anywhere for 6 episodes.

So, what did I get? Stop motion! No, not even stop motion. I got the exact same pages that i had just read in the manga, with the manga making it seem more awesome and action packed because that's what I go into a manga expecting. (and really they are the same frames, I checked most of them, before getting tired of reading the manga again)

Now to be fair, there were a couple of episodes that i did kind of like, but depressingly, those episodes had nothing to do with martial arts. probably my favorite is the episode when Kenichi finally gets his chance with Miu, but he keeps blowing it, or it keeps getting blown by other people. sorry if i just spoiled a rather pointless filler episode, that really has nothing to do with the main plot, or was even a chapter in the manga. (thats right, i liked the f&$#ing FILLER episode more than the real show)

But otherwise it was a decent show, for the most part the voice acting is dead on and your wondering how other shows cant match voice to character this well. And I admit that it is awesome to see the characters brought to life in full animation. although I would LOVE to see them remake this and actually bring in 1 Shadow 9 Fists (or known more compactly as: Yami). I think those guys are great Villains and Anti-Heros who make for a more compelling story by actually giving the Masters of Ryōzanpaku a real reason to show off their awesome skill other than just... showing off their awesome skill for the sake of... showing off their awesome skill... you get the picture.

Bottom line for me: Love the manga, really thought that the anime could have been so much more.
P.S. sorry if this reply went to long. I've been meaning to get this off my chest for a while. sorry readers.

 

[Kolgroth]

unlike all the other anime i have watched, this character is a total loser at the start, he has no talent no special features. He does not have the 'i can do anything, nothing is a problem' attitude like naruto, he is a complete coward. Indeed no one will go through such difficult training without some fear. kenichi has demonstrate that and even showed it openly, however it is because he has a goal that he over comes his fear (along with his masters advice and trickery). everytime he trains and defeats an opponent, a stronger one is introduced an he has to train even more. He has grown to become very strong and yet he is still has a long way to go.

For more "true zero-to-hero" Epicness of a similar subplot: read Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It rocks.