Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting! Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Part One

The coming of age tale is designed to take a character on a journey from youthful adolescence into adulthood by way of trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, this process of discovery, the loss of a naïve and blissful ignorance, is accompanied by sadness and grief for something that can never be regained.

Don’t worry; Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Season One, Part One isn’t that deep of a tale (so far).

Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple

Plot Summary

Kenichi Shirahama is a complete wimp. His classmates call him “weak knees” for good reason. He’s a coward who tends to over think situations and is incredibly high strung. The only person in his life that remotely resembles a friend is the self-serving lowlife Haruo Niijima.

Kenichi’s fortunes change drastically when he meets the oddball Miu Furinji. She helps Kenichi avoid hospitalization in an upcoming fight by introducing him to the Ryozanpaku Dojo.

As Kenichi’s skill improves, word gets out, and the local thugs come out in force to test their skills against “weak knees”. The rumors (mostly started by Niijima), earn Kenichi the ire of a local gang known as Ragnarok.

Some fights Kenichi wins and some fights he loses. Through it all, he tries to overcome his cowardice and learn that, win or lose, showing up is all that matters.

Review

Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple works as an anime comedy, but falters at anything beyond the superficial. A coming of age story is supposed to be character driven, but the main characters just aren’t interesting or deep enough to handle that responsibility. And the plot is standard fare: Hero is beaten by villain. Hero trains harder. Hero beats villain. New villain emerges! By the end of disc two, it was obvious how repetitive the show had become.

Some of the fights are interesting, and feel like going through a basic course on martial arts. The names of techniques and lessons on how to use them are on display in force, and thankfully there are not many instances of a character shouting out the name of a technique while he performs it. Unfortunately, the battles aren’t very imaginative or varied enough to maintain entertainment value. There is rarely a sense of, “Oh, here comes the fight!” Besides, when you know that no matter how brutal a beat down might be, Kenichi’ll be up and running by the end of the episode, it is hard to care about his well being.

Motivation is another soft point for the series. I can understand having one fight based on the need to beat up somebody because they’re good fighter, but that seems to be the only motivation. Every challenge that faces poor Kenichi feels like a precursor to a greater obstacle, because in all likelihood, it is. Even if he is able to knock out the bully who has been pestering him for three episodes, there’s another threat waiting in the wings to trounce him just for winning. If only Kenichi would learn to throw a fight and break the cycle, he could live in peace!

There are times when Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple dons its business socks and tries to be serious. Too bad this ain’t Fruits Basket. The seriousness has a very fake feeling about it and leads to some unintentionally funny moments. For example, Kenichi is concerned about learning moves that could be used to kill other human beings. Not only is this an odd sentiment for a guy who has been beating the crap out of people for a few weeks, but it leads Hayato (Miu’s grandfather and head of Ryozanpaku) to inform Kenichi that techniques don’t kill people; people kill people. Deep, right?

Character Development

While Kenichi’s status in high school is (regrettably) relatable, the character’s constant whining is obnoxious. There’s complaining and self doubt in every area of his training and social life. Even when Kenichi decides to stop the crying, face his fears, and be brave, the growth is undone by the next episode where he is sure to start complaining again.

Perhaps it would be easier to forgive this flaw if Kenichi was more fleshed out as a character. For a loser with no friends, why does he join the karate club to protect the ones he loves? He mentions in one episode that his dream in life is to become a writer and win the Pulitzer. I don’t buy such ambitious dreams because never is he seen writing or doing anything associated with it at any time in the first two discs of the series. He fights, reads, and gardens; that is it. Even secondary characters are more fleshed out than Kenichi. One of the gang members, a boxer by the name of Takeda, has more depth extracted in one episode than Kenichi does from the first part of the first season.

Strengthening that argument is Miu. Physically, she is an akiba’s dream. She’s tall, thin, blonde, and her breasts are as big as her head. Even from first glance, it is obvious that Miu is little more than cheesecake. Sure, she can fight and mop up whole squadrons of goons without breaking a sweat, but it feels disingenuous to create a strong female that is also flighty, submissive, and top heavy. Oddly enough, I found myself rooting for one of the executive officers of Ragnarok just because she is strong without smuggling soccer balls under her blouse.

As far as characters go, it is the secondary characters that make Kenichi entertaining. Takeda, the boxer, is an empathetic fighter with a jaded opinion about friendship. Kenichi’s father breaks the stereotype of the overbearing parent by being the emotional wreck of the family. The best laugh I got from the show is the relationship that man has with his rifle, lovingly named Sebastian. Above all, the most entertaining character is the Muay Thai master, Apachai. With his physique and back story, Apachai should be hard as nails. Instead, he has a childlike spirit and can erase the tension at any moment with nonsensical gibberish that is absolutely endearing.

Animation

TMS Entertainment did a forgettable job as far as the animation goes, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, it’s not mind blowing, but you won’t be remembering it for being laughably bad, either. Some of the character movements are awkward earlier on, but that gets ironed out as the series progresses.

Music

The sound of silence isn’t used much in this anime. Music is almost always permeating the background, and it doesn’t evolve beyond what a Casio keyboard can provide. There are some moments of sweeping orchestral pieces that feel odd and out of place. However, the opening and closing tracks are pleasant. There probably wont be many people adding them to their iPods, but they set a nice mood and that is commendable.

Voice Acting

Apachai and Kenichi’s father are acted superbly by the American cast. The rest will have you switching over to the Japanese audio track with the quickness.

Conclusion

Kenichi is a comedy that lacks brains and hearts. The premise is entertaining, and could have probably worked if the main characters were remotely likeable and the story didn’t rehash the same situation a dozen times.

I can tell that the creators had lofty aspirations with this one; a comedic coming of age tale that walks a line between the silly and serious aspects of martial arts. Too bad the whole affair winds up being a forgettable series you’ll move on from without much thought.

Fortunately, the members of Ryozanpaku are interesting enough to warrant a rental.

Rating

Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple gets 1.5 outta 5 Hammies!

Retail Info

• Publisher:Funimation
• Release Date: March 10, 2009
• Retail Price: $49.98
• Number of discs: 2
  
• Run Time: 312 minutes
• Rating: TV-PG
• Language: English, Japanese
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled