Kengan Ashura & Omega

Surprised this series didn't have a dedicated thread yet, but anyway, Kengan Ashura and it's sequel Kengan Omega is a martial arts manga centered around the "Kengan Matches", where figthers represent companies in underground matches in order to settle business disputes.

It's violent, gory, generally unhinged and tons of fun! Netflix made an anime about it not too long ago which seemed to have been well-receive despite being all-CG.

I'm currently starting volume 7 and I hope Haruo gets to shake off the toxic effect of modern society because I was really bummed out over his fall-from-grace.

Big fan of both series. The art style changes significantly over the run of the series and (in my opinion) it looks so much better in the end (i think the artist settles down his style aroung the middle of round 1 of the tournament). I would say Ashura has one of my favourite tournament arcs ever, but all except the first 40 chapters or so the whole manga is one single tournament (32 fighters, all fights shown in detail) so i wouldn´t really call it an "arc". Most of the fighters also have a lot of personality, far more than one would usually except from such a manga.

I remember when the original manga was still being translated, it was original the first match of the 2nd round the dates all stoped.

Then some time later it came back with a little catch, the updates became daily. A new chapter every day, just a speed to the end of the manga.

Man that was exhilarating.

I must have been really lucky then. I got into it around fight 1 round 3. Getting daily chapters was just great, especially because the fights aren´t drawn out(i think most fights only last 3-5 chapters) so there is actually stuff hapening. But it made the switch to the weekly release of Omega hard. It felt like the pacing was so fucking slow in Omega when compared to Ashura, when it was just getting 1 chapter a week instead of 7...

Edited by Samaldin on May 3rd 2020 at 11:22:15 AM

The pacing is really good in these fights.

There is always at least a sense of progression with every chapter even in the nonfight chapters, characters busting out new moves or maneuvers but at the same time there's generally at least a back forth between the combatants.

This is especially compared to Baki who has completely glacial pacing now with entire chapters being dedicated to characters busting out 1 move & the rest of the chapter being characters analyzing said one move.

You really got a chip against Baki, huh?

Kengan gets compared to Baki quite often, which i find unfair. Baki ist just so inferior to Kengan in most to all aspects (except amount of reading material) that it´s insulting to compare them (but to be fair i was never a fan of Bakis art, so that one is personal preference).

The 2 are heavily compared to each other a lot.

Kengan can be considered the modern successor to Baki especially since it averts the flaws Baki currently has with its story & use of characters.

Edited by slimcoder on May 3rd 2020 at 2:45:48 AM

I don't think Baki is that flawed at all, and I love both it and Kengan Ashura.

Got sorta mixed feelings about the end of the Haruo vs Kamen Punisher.

On the one hand, it is very thematically appropiate that Haruo's own vices end up doing him in. Poetic, even.

On the other, I was always found this "guy gets beat down, guy tries to use his uber super technique, other guy falls down before he can" to be very blue-balling.

I understand why that's used, I would probably end up using anyway if I ever wrote a martial arts story, but it always leave the fight feeling like it stopped rather than ended.

Other than that, chapter 56: Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus

Rain completely averted the final secret art save by just no-selling the fuck out of it.

Man it’s weird looking back on old chapters before Art Evolution fully set in.

Edited by slimcoder on May 3rd 2020 at 3:33:09 AM

Man, this is KA at its worst, artwise?

Well it’s before the art-style fully solidified I guess.

And volume 7 done, Karla said lesbian rights, I learned of the existence of "omnivore fujoshis", and apparently Texas is even hotter than a sauna.

So that's one less place to visit in my lifetime.

Got college stuff to do, so I'll stop it here for today.

I still wonder what Testicle Tuesdays are.

I find Nezu and especially Chiba among lamest. I actually like Akoya, he is a Knight Templar Vigilante Man with extreme attitude and scary for it. I don't like Rei at all however.

I already caught up with Omega and... yeah.

Edited by Dhiruxide on May 3rd 2020 at 1:52:14 PM

Easy on the spoilers, I'm still in the first third of Ashura.

Don't worry my dude, I am tight-lipped about what happens later on in Ashura and Omega.

Edited by Dhiruxide on May 3rd 2020 at 1:45:28 PM

Who’s China?

...I hate typing on the phone. I meant Chiba.

Edited by Dhiruxide on May 3rd 2020 at 1:53:51 PM

Oh him.

Uh, what's with the crossover?

Something fun the editor worked really hard to get.

Chapter 77: oh so that's where you got that avatar from.

You mean the wrestler one?