Kenichi The mightiest Disciple Review
Story
The story follows Kenichi Shirahama, an average 17 year old
high school student, who despite his good intentions, always ends up running
away from almost everything. However on the first day of the new school year he
meets a girl, Miu Furinji and decides after seeing her protect someone from
some street thugs, he wants to be stronger to protect her.
Over the course of the series, Kenichi learns various styles
of martial arts from his masters at Ryozanpaku, who instruct him using some
extremely odd techniques as well as some very harsh and punishing ones. Throughout
the series, Kenichi is pitted against stronger and stronger opponents and even
manages to make others see that there is more than just being a street thug. Kenichi
takes his training a whole new level when he moves to the Dojo, but his reasons
for moving in are not exactly martial arts reasons, more like marital ones.
But Kenichi soon learns the hard way that getting close to a
girl who has studied martial arts all her life is easier said than done.
Quality
The overall quality of the animation is very clean, but it
can be rough at parts. As the original series aired in Japan back in 2006-2007
It was created before the tools became wholly digital. As such there are some
odd occurrences of artifacts on the screen. Sometimes they are just an odd
line, other times they are the old gaffe of having a character hold something,
it gone in the next shot and then back again. These minor quirks do not
subtract from the overall viewing experience.
The fight scenes are also something to behold. Thankfully
they do not go the Dragonball route and make them super fantastically, but base
those in reality that shows it would be possible to fight with the same moves.
Of course they do add in a level of fantasy to the fights so people don’t get
the idea of actually attempting them. The character design is taken from the
anime, and each main character has a unique look that if silhouetted would
still make it easy to distinguish the characters.
Sound
Here is where the sound experience can vary. Because this
show was created in Japan first, there are two audio tracks and it depends on
your millage where you want to listen, but in both cases the Japanese and English
audio tracks are sublime. With both casts putting in a lot of effort into making
sure that the characters come alive. The effects for the fight scenes, or
Kenichi’s training are also quite impressive.
If you listen to the Japanese soundtrack there are more
examples of the transition period it was made it, with some parts being quite
clear and others not, but for the most part the audio is just as awesome as the
visuals that accompany it.
Packaging & Extras
Madman have over the years been able to perfect their
packaging of the DVD’s they release, and Kenichi is no exception. While the
collection is 8 discs in total, they take up no more room on a book case than 2
standard DVD’s. There are however some downsides to this collection. First up
is that this is a repackaging of the volumes that were released earlier, and as
such there are no new extras. In the original run you got 4 discs in a set, and
the final disc contained all the extras, and as such those are the only ones
you get here as well.
The other issue is that as a collection, you would expect a
certain level of pack ins, but this is not the case. It does not draw away from
the awesome series that you would actually buy it for, but it is a shame that
nothing extra is provided.
Overall
In short, Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple is a great series,
it shows that through hard work anyone can accomplish anything they truly
desire. The quality of the show is amazingly detailed, and apart from a slight
lack of extras is exceptional viewing no matter who the audience is.
Original Comic Books Created by Syun Matsuena © Syun Matsuena・Shogakukan/KenIchi Project All Rights Reserved Under License to MADMAN ENTERTAINMENT Pty. Ltd. Produced by TMS ENTERTAINMENT CO., LTD.
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