A fun and oddly educational martial arts series, Kenichi: The Mightiest Discpile, focuses mainly on the main character, and the trials and hardships that accompany not only training in martial arts, but the challenges that result when every thug in town hears you’ve been getting stronger. It seems that every time Kenichi manages to win a fight, three more challengers stand up to test his mettle. To make matters more difficult, the masters at Ryozanpaku don’t know the meaning of the word “easy,” and some of them are some truly outlandish characters.
From the child-like innocence of the master of Muy Thai (“The art of bare-handed mankilling,” according to him), to the voyeuristic antics of the master of Chinese martial arts; from the stoic Karate Master, to the mysterious lady ninja; each wants nothing more than to help Kenichi achieve his dream, but he doesn’t have the time to train slowly with all these constant attacks from local gangs. Still, it seems the gangs waver between wanting to test his strength and attempting to forcefully recruit him. Is there an even bigger fight on the horizon?
The art in this series is somewhat less-than-stellar, but it makes up for it in in-depth research into the many types of martial arts it features. The voice acting is fantastic, and if I could change one thing, it would be to BEG the creators to limit their cutscenes to a brief recap. Their current method of recapping previous episodes by abridging all the relevant data is fantastic for catching up, but if you plan to marathon more than 2 episodes, you begin to suspect you’re having flashbacks. Still, the recap that plays out like mini-episodes are amazingly accurate in summing up all the relevant info into a few minutes, and they are flawlessly integrated into a current episode story arc, so I probably shouldn’t judge too harshly. All in all, a fun and definitely action packed series for any fan of martial arts. Pick it up, and you might actually learn a thing or two!