Synopsis

Member Review

A very horrible anime that's a mediocre cookie-cutter at its best. *Possible Spoilers*

Point: Within the first few episode Kenichi trains to take on a bully at school. All the masters give him brutal non-stop training for a few days. He encounters the bully again and loses. Kenichi cries and his resolve seems to dissapate. After a little more training and pep talk he beats the bully.

Analysis: Kenichi cries for not being able to beat the bully and mutters something similar to "after all that hard training". He expected to beat somebody who's twice his size and has years of experience under his belt and to top it all off, Kenichi himself is a daisy-fresh rookie. How can anybody expect that small amount of training to tip the scale in Kenichi's favor? Muscle isn't built over a few measely days. If anything Kenichi would be weaker in the time immediately after training while the muscles recuperate to become stronger. Oh, and he uses one single "technique" to beat the bully. The bully gives up after one punch to the stomach. Apparently his blackbelt and large stature meant nothing at all.

I am a blackbelt in Taekwondo and this kind of "technique/special move" imbalance thing seems completely ridiculous to me. I agree that technique is very important, but it means nothing without the body/ability/experience to back it up. That's not to say that a smaller person can't beat a bigger person or that a low belt can't beat a blackbelt because I've seen these things happen too. Some small people/low belts are really good while some big people/black belts suck.

Someone earlier mentioned that this is good because of the lack of superpowers and focus on training. This series might as well have superpowers because some moves are still super-human. Kenichi manages to throw a sumo wrestler up into the air. One master even gives a Moses-esque parting of the water with a simple kick.

Point: Kenichi also refuses to hit girls.

Analysis: At first, this may not seem wrong at all, howver, Kenichi actually managed to debunk this belief for me. One of the female character trained and trained just to be able to prove that women can be just as strong as men. Kenichi refuses her fight despite all her training just because the is a girl.

Kenichi finds it perfectly fine to grab breasts during training. He finds it grossly wrong, however, to even spar a girl.

At one point in in the series a girl holds a knife to Kenichi's sister. Miraculously, somebody else saves his sister and Kenichi is able to magically avoid confrontation with his philosophy on hitting women.

Kenichi wishes to protect Miu. Miu is one hundered times stronger than Kenichi. Now how do you protect somebody that is stronger than you? You can't. It's useless chivalry. Boys should not protect girls, the strong should protect the weak.

End: Maybe this show is good as a comedy because there are actually some episodes that are pretty funny. Many characters, with exception of Kenichi, are also very likeable. For example, most of Kenichi's masters are very funny and cool.
Any "life lessons" or philosophies in this anime are still completely absurd. This anime also makes a mockery out of martial arts in my opinion.

Characters