Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Ken`ichi - Anime - AniDB (2024)

show review

by ThatAnimeSnob on 2011-05-09 21:29

Rating:5.33

Approval:47.2% (1 votes)

KenIchi: The Typicaliest Shonen…

So much fanbase exists behind this title and as usual it is overexaggerated. Although Kenichi is doing many things right, it is otherwise following the fighting shonen formula down to the last detail and that is practically why it never elevates to a great status. Before I move on, I must point out that I DON’T GIVE A DIME ABOUT HOW GREAT THE MANGA BECOMES LATER ON since this is a review about the anime adaptation. Let’s stick to what we have.

I will start by the easiest part of them all, the production values. They are nice. And that is all I have to say about anything that is average. Nothing great but nothing lame at the same time. The setting is typical, the character figures are typical, the coloring is… yes typical. Music and voice acting are ok to listen to but don’t have anything exceptional in them.

Now about the plot. It is the expected story of a weak boy training to become stronger and gradually fighting stronger and stronger opponents. Why? Well… BECAUSE! He is a man and men fight; end of story. Although they occasionally throw in some excuses such as justice, honor or the right to defend yourself, it practically boils down to ZOMG YEAH BRAWLING TIME and one should never try to look for further explanations. But for the sake of reviewing let’s just say it’s the comical adventures of Kenichi, a very weak boy who is constantly bullied, going to train in a weird dojo so he can protect himself and before one notices it, he is fighting for his life and against a gang of other very strong street fighters who simply follow the logic of might is right.

That is the premise and it sounds just fine for such a show. The thing is, there is nothing more other than that. It’s… typical. It quickly becomes expectable and that lowers your enjoyment a lot if you want some plot twists. But the thing is, the fanbase of the title does not love it for that but for the simple reason of it NOT STALLING TOO MUCH. Since most fighting shonen are notorious for their dragged out plot, Kenichi stands out for its quite fast pace at training and short fighting interludes. Not only that, but it also offers simple explanations around how martial arts work. Kenichi is constantly told the various advantages and disadvantages of each fighting style, as well as training methods that will help him attain the proper body mass and stance to achieve the desired result. So each opponent he faces is practically a procedure of exploiting the disadvantages of his fighting style. All that is making the simple mind of a viewer to consider this show as very smart and educational, besides being fast and funny.

Of course a more mature or demanding mind will easily see through the deception of the above skit. Anyone with a basic knowledge of martial arts can easily tell you that you CANNOT master EVERY FIGHTING STYLE IN EXISTENCE even if you train hard all your life. The reason is simple; each fighting style requires different training that leads to different weight distribution and muscle formation. A sumo wrestler can’t just change his fighting pose and suddenly he is now a capoeira fighter; it’s plain impossible. Yet in the series, we see Kenichi constantly training in ALL different arts and changing his style in the middle of the battle without any problem. Well sorry, that can’t happen in real life.

Of course this is fiction and above all it is meant to be entertaining. If all you expect is fighting, comedy and some basic explanation for how all that work, I am sure you will definitely enjoy it. It is not that different from Naruto and its constant explanations of how jutsu work. At the same time it is much better than Naruto because the battles are based on existing martial arts and not magic and the action is as I said not stretched to last as much as possible.

Anyways, the internal logic of the series is fine as it is presented and there is constant progress of sorts as you are made to think Kenichi is really improving, his opponents are gradually stronger, and his allies are increasing as his victories are pilling up. It is all part of the shonen formula and it works fine. It is also TOO based on the formula and does not try to differ at any point from it so at best you can see this as a mediocrity done perfectly. If that is what you want, you will get it in spades.

But in the end, the thing that kinda ruins it is that the story is not really completed. Kenichi is far from being the strongest and although his main rivals are all beaten or tied, you can still see side stories that are left open for a continuation. And yes, the manga is progressing the story much further in the same manner. Anyways, the low score in the story is the result of it being plain and incomplete. Plus, its real charm was never the story but its characters.

Moving to said characters, the show is full of likable stereotypes. Nobody ever escapes his mold but he is very colorful and thus easy to sympathize with him if you dig his style. For example, Kenichi is your typical shonen lead, good heart, full of ideals, mr. vanilla personality, wants to protect his friends, blah-blah-blah we have seen that a billion times. At the same time, he is funny because he never wanted to be THAT strong when he started his training. He just wanted to be able to fend against a few bullies and make his neighborhood a more secure and lawful place. As a result, stronger and stronger street punks are coming after him. Why? Because might is right; don’t try to see past that. And don’t go asking why do parents, teachers and the police allow all that to take place either; they don’t exist or don’t care. Otherwise we wouldn’t have ZOMG YEAH BRAWLING TIME.

So what other people are in this show anyway? Let’s see, there is Miu, the super blond bimbo. She is a great fighter, great cook, great housekeeper, great boobs, blockhead and has a crush on Kenichi. And that is all there is about her. She is practically in the story to inspire him to keep training so he can be a better man in her eyes and not a weakling. Not that she can’t jump at him at any moment even if he is made of rice paper but hey, this is a shonen show, we need a platonic relationship that never heads anywhere with the lure of possible marriage in the future. She is otherwise funny simply because she is not a useless fighter like girls almost always are in such shows. She is not a terrible cook either, as only frail girls almost always are. She is both at the same time and that is a joke on its own.

Then we have the teachers of the dojo. Each one of them is as strong as superman and constantly provides harsh training for Kenichi, just so he can become ALMOST as powerful as them. Why? Well, to them only power matters so don’t try to reason it further. Even their income is based on beating wandering fighters and winning bets. It’s a style of life almost excused and accepted as it is. Plus they are very eccentric to the point of mockery.

Then we have his second in command, a weird looking alien who exists to create havoc in his attempt of world domination or something. He is funny for being so… alien. He is also weaker than a baby yet many think he is satan himself. Weird but funny.

Then we have his opponents, who are… well, just like his teachers eccentric. Most don’t appear for more than a few episodes, so you only get to like those who return after they are defeated. As allies of course; no sane mind can resist the friendship speeches of a shonen lead that has kicked the crap out of it.

Then we have some support characters like his family (yes, they exist) and some school buddies that are practically background decoration and an excuse to talk to someone other than his masters. Don’t mind them; they are to remind us normal people still exist.

So as you can see, there are lots of colorful characters in this show and they are all comical stereotypes and nothing more. If all you expect is that, you will love them. I otherwise don’t consider them great because they don’t develop or they are not anything more than the obvious.

Now, as much as I wanted to just shut off my logic and just enjoy the show, eventually my orthological side was getting the better of me. Kenichi for example has infinite stamina and hit points, so it is not possible for him to die and performs a comeback in a few seconds no matter his injuries. Plus he is constantly surrounded by supermen teachers who remain indifferent to all the fighters plaguing the world and just throw all the work on Kenichi. They otherwise remain in the side and intervene only as last-moment-save, which is all too convenient. The friendship speeches are also too annoying if you are no longer 12, the plot is all too expected, and the story is incomplete. All that can’t just be overlooked. But I admit it does a much better job than most shonens in terms of presentation but it is otherwise a typical shonen in execution.

And now for some excused scorings.

show review

by summoner on 2009-05-10 11:35

Rating:4.16

Approval:97.3% (1 votes)

Note: This review is based on umai-Doremi and Kuro-Hana subs, both of which possess average quality without wide-screen support and below-average translation. However, since I don't see anyone else doing this show you have little to choose from.

Originally created as manga by Matsuena Shun and directed by Kamegaki Hajime (Naruto Shippuuden Movie, Air Gear) History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi[/b] is your everyday martial arts inspired shounen which follows the life of a complete wimp Kenichi who decides to take up martial arts to protect himself and his friends from the bullies. He gets accepted into a dojo where six different martial art experts live in and then, well, you know the drill, hard work, determination and lots of butt-kicking. I must say that the first impression this show leaves is simply horrendous. Broken production values accompanied by some of the most annoying character archetypes and plot which revolves around beating some sort of school bullies. Well, thankfully the show gets better the further it goes as the scale moves from school bullies to street gangs which conveniently rank their members by their power levels and give them exaggerated names from Norse mythology. But hell, though it's stupid, it's still quite cool to see the wimpy guy have showdowns with martial arts geniuses who call themselves Odin or Loki. Anyway, the main point of why this show is above the quality of floor-cleaning rags is that it actually presents an interesting idea of main character learning six different martial art types at the same time and though it never uses its full potential, it manages to implement it quite well in some of the climatic fights. It's not a good show, but it's fun, sometimes.

Animation: 3/10

I can say nothing else but that TMS Entertainment (Itazurana Kiss, Buzzer Beater) has absolutely no shame to produce such.. such... disgusting animation in this day and age. Backgrounds are average for the most part. They don't possess much detail or artsy hints, but the bright color palette makes them good enough to work with the show. Unfortunately character designs is the part where the show falls on its head - they are plain ugly, with body parts disproportioned and facial expressions or even simple movement messing their faces into unrecognizable lumps of flesh. Some poor attempts at ecchi are completely ruined by the horrible drawings, as rather than erotic, most of the sexual innuendo stuff appears gross. Finally, low frame rate, lame choreography and overused still images during the fight scenes bring overall quality of the show even further down. Indeed you can notice more fights done in real time in the second half, but once movement kicks in, deformation of character designs kicks in as well, and I found watching those deformed lumps of flesh not the best of my martial arts anime experience. Frankly, if I hadn't known, I would have thought this show has been done in the early Nineties.

Sound: 6/10

The only aspect which actually manages to climb up as high up as average in Shijou Saikiyou no Denshi Kenichi is its sound. Though both OPs and EDs are completely generic and boring songs meant to be skipped, background music composed by Rinoie Joe offers quite a few entertaining and fitting pieces. I particularly liked some dramatic pieces where piano and flutes came into action. For some reason, they fit the mood very well and are quite pleasant to listen to. Of course, this show has a fair share of generic and bland pieces and some vocal music falls flat because it doesn't suit the mood, but good timing of good compositions in important moments won this show a good atmosphere and a positive grade.

Voice-acting is surprisingly average considering the fair share of expert seiyuu in action. Frankly I couldn't believe that Tomokazu Seki (Full Metal Panic! as Sagara Sousuke, Nodame Cantabile as Chiaki) was forced to act the extremely geeky and wimpy voice of Kenichi. It's not like he is bad at voicing him, it simply feels like a shame for someone with a voice as cool as his talk in such wimpy manner. You can even notice Nakata Jouji (Hellsing as Alucard), Hiyama Nobuyuki (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as Viral) or Ohtsuka Akio (Metal Gear Solid as Solid Snake) doing some side roles and sounding awesome, but never used to their full potential. Women seiyuu bench is considerably weaker with an exception of Noto Mamiko (School Rumble as Tsukumato Yakumo, Monster as Anna Liebert) who barely says more than two or three words per episode... Well acted ones though. All in all, though voice work technically is well done (especially in the males side) it doesn't always fit its respective characters leading to awkward performances. I say lame characters are at fault here, not the voice-actors.

Story: 5/10

The plot of Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi takes place in normal every day Japan. Well, not so normal, as school kid gangs have members strong enough to trash down buildings and martial arts teachers who can run on water leisurely live on every corner. Also the show offers a complete absence of police or any other logically existing institution to suppress the gangs. Other than that though, everything is perfectly normal in that world, so there is no need to save it or anything. Fights revolve around the main character's Kenichi's struggles to fight off the bullies and street gangs who get interested in his paranormal fighting prowess.

Plot follows the most basic stairs pattern of a shounen show. Kenichi trains, beats a bad guy, then another, stronger one pops out and the cycle is repeated. What made the show interesting to watch, even despite the horrendous animation, was that Kenichi had actually something personal to do with some of the top villains of the show, so it kind of eliminated the feeling of randomness many shounens spurt left and right. It's also good that this show throws very few fillers at you and that there are very few fights which take longer than one episode to finish. Though Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi never really achieves the grand scale of better shounens, it keeps its steady pace and ass kicking up until the very end which actually concludes something! It still leaves much room for a second season. I actually think that the second season of this show would be considerably better, since the main weakness of this show is its tiny scale of power levels, which finally hit cool in the last ten or so episodes. I would also like to see those martial arts masters have a serious fight with someone for a change. Also it kind of eliminates the feeling of desperation when you know that if Kenichi will lose or something his masters will save him anyway. Heck, I could have reworked this 'many different martial arts on one character' premise into a much better show, though I would have had to throw away 95% of what this show contains. Anyway, the plot is not epic, but it's not boring as long as you are interested in fighting shounen. And since it appears that manga is still ongoing, we can expect new seasons and bigger things from this show in the future.

Character: 4/10

All characters in Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi are completely stereotypical. It's actually not so common to see a show spurt so many characters which seem to be copied line by line straight from a "Shounen Archetypes book". Nijima might be the only exception to the rule, but, heck, he is a side character rarely used for anything besides humor.

Anyway, the worst of the stereotypical bunch is the main character, Kenichi. If you have seen more than five shounen anime in your lifetime - you've seen him, you know him, you are aware of where he will end up. He is wimpy, but kind, has no talent, but is hard working and will always win spouting some hollow nonsense about friendship and protecting others. Judging from the lack of originality in this show I am pretty sure the author of the manga didn't even come up with those obvious ideas himself. On the other hand, it's relatively funny to see how his masters bully him, as he deserves all the bullying he gets, the wimp. So though he is annoying and completely devoid of originality, he at least moves the show forward to the direction it intends to go. Though I would refrain from saying that it's a direction I like shows going...

It was hate at first sight when I've seen the main heroine of the show, Miu, for the first time. Her design is terrible, terrible in more ways that I can count to, without a calculator. Well, looks don't have anything to do with personality so I will end my superficial rant here, but... bleerh. Anyway, her personality is little better than her design. Again we have a complete stereotype, which is only there to advance the plot and offer some unfulfilled romance innuendo. She is one-dimensional, clumsy, hard-working and likes Kenichi for no particular reason. ...Hey. I'm out of ideas. She is so devoid of interesting traits I can't name anything else what would be interesting and would apply to her. It seems fun and her personality goes ways really far apart from each other.

Anyway, even though the main leads are horrible, I found some side characters to be quite entertaining. Not deep, mind you. All of them, including the villains, are more or less one dimensional with their stereotypical personalities fully fleshed out through their first words, which usually start with lines you get the feeling you've heard in other shows of this genre already. Anyway, though not interesting in the same sense as realistic characters are, I found some villains and the main character's friend Nijima, who looks and acts like a cross between alien and devil, quite peculiar. Each master of martial arts also has, though stereotypical, but full fledged personality and I only found Apachai on border between annoying and funny. All in all, though characters were obviously done without a drop of soul or passion, some of the side ones are funny enough to keep you watching. Though the motives behind their actions are questionable at best... Sometimes they follow complete strangers to their houses and force their labor unto them, who rather than calling police welcome them with tsundere attitude. So yeah, logic is not the strongest trait of characters in this anime (bet the crisps of logic came with the stereotypes anyway). It's best if you'd turn off all intelligent functions in your brain or you'll be annoyed more than amused otherwise.

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:

Value: 3/10

Fifty episodes of lame characters and mindless ass kicking... I'd rather kill my time with another stereotypical martial arts shounen. Since Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi spurts little to no originality and its animation is horrible, there is little sense in re-watching it. At least I'm certain I wont.

1. Conclusion[/u]:[/b] Suitable for anyone 13 years old or older History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi is your everyday stereotypical shounen show with few redeeming factors. I recommend not touching it unless you are a big fan of the genre and have already stormed through the truly good shows which include Rurouni Kenshin TV, Hunter x Hunter and Scryed. As a matter of fact I even find Naruto, Bleach and One Piece better than this show, even though I myself am not a big fan of them.

show review

by bensam123 on 2007-12-18 14:33

Rating:6.16

Approval:89.7% (2 votes)

Hmmm, where to start out. First thing first. If you're skimming the reviews to see if this is worth watching this should catch your eye. THIS IS NOT A 8+ ANIME! It is somewhere in the 7.5ish range.

I started watching this anime because of the good rating. I thought it would be a decent action anime with some mediocre plot, what I got was not what I expected at all.

In a nut shell? This anime has the plot, depth, character development, and cliche antics akin to DBZ. I was going to throw action in there, but DBZ is superior to this. I'm not a firm advocate DBZ fan here, but from what I saw this anime isn't all that great when it comes to action. As another reviewer pointed out, once you've seen enough action driven animes you know what to look for and this has it all.

Lets hop into some catagories as I'm already ready to make my closure.

Animation: Isn't all that amazingly well drawn out. The characters are nice, but are rather cliche. The drawing style is stero-typical and when animes come out that are drawn as well as Seirei no Moribito and Seto no Hanayome you start to expect more. If you look at each individual character, they're all drawn very well, but that needs to translate over to actual action portions of the anime.

Sound: Nothing special here as well. The opening and closing aren't my taste and there is very little music throughout the anime. They recycled a few of the voice actors for sub characters (see if you can spot them too) and some of them are very annoying. Even at the end when the 'hero emerges' his voice acting isn't heroic at all.

Story: A guy is a wimp, he wants to get stronger, people picked on him in his school, his masters picked on him at the dojo after he goes there (different form of being picked on, but the same). There is no plot development. The most minute amount of plot development appears at the end when you find out the end to a fight which was cause he wanted a pin cause he liked a girl, thats it! 50 episodes on a guy who wanted a pin back.

Character: EVEN at the end of the series when he puts together everything he learns he doesn't come up with anything worthwhile. There is no fusion of all his masters training, no masterpiece, no 'death blow' or signature move, he just copies all of them. Every single one of his masters he copies to the best of his ability and defeats the ultra bad guy who trained his life and had lots of talent merely cause his character was made to do so. His character doesn't develop mentally, emotionally, and about the only thing you can say is he develops physically.

Forget the side characters or the master. The main character has no epiphany or realization. He just can defend himself and beat up other people at the end.

Value: I don't think I'll remember what this anime is if I look at the name in a half a year, I'll probably forget it after watching the next one.

Enjoyment: I did enjoy certain parts of this anime. Parts made me laugh and others made it so I wouldn't look at the clock and wish it would end soon. I would say it held my interest, but wasn't overly exciting.

In closure. What really pissed me off about this anime was the coolest part, the parts which really got the viewer going and felt for the character were deemed evil and unobtainable; basically taboo.

After Kenichi encountered the Saint of Fists I was waiting for him to accept the training, evolve as a character, and then demonstrate that he control rage with the crystal clarity of the other side. No, no he doesn't do anything special. Even at the end of the anime after all his hardwork training fails against Ryou he beats them with a magic act from the producers. He magically just defeats him. No explanation, no power up, no hidden move, nothing. He just can beat him cause he cares. It's like the carebear stare.

In truth I found Goku's Spirit Bomb more entertaining and believeable then the climax of this series. It left me feeling hollow inside. The guy I knew should've won through superior skills, training, and talent lost. All through this series the highlights turned into disapointment. The masters never get involved with anything and basically maintain god mode status, the disciplies never develop into anything or are able to get anywhere near there masters, and basically in the end they are just their masters puppets they let dance on their strings.

Kenichi is NOT Historys Strongest Disciple, if I had to pick I would say Ryou qualifies for that. He even goes above and beyond what his masters taught him in order to obtain greater strength to defeat his enemy. He even sacrafices his body and self in order to obtain it. I found myself cheering for the enemy more then the hero of the series. That's just ridiculous.

show review

by butthead on 2007-10-19 11:36

Rating:7.5

Approval:15.0% (1 votes)

Animation: The anime has it ups and downs,some fights looked some how...cheap other (mostly main events) looked allright so that u can enjoy it.Non-Action scenes are ok as well nothing special.

Sound: its ok.It didnt maked love but i also i didnt hate it.So nothing special here to say about it

Story: i think the turns in the story are not that exited but it was realy funny to see the training(and there is a lot of training).Its all the time satire and that is ok as it is.

Character: I personally liked the Imba Masters of kenichi and some of the enemys.Kenichi himself is a funny guy and like all heros in animes,he has nothing that you would call extra ordinary.

Value]: Its not the best anime for fighting and maybe not the funniest anime in my eyes but the combo hit quite well.
I think when you dont know what to watch take this one.

Enjoyment: i liked this anime even i only watched it because i couldnt find a better one at that time.

show review

by dudester on 2007-10-02 22:24

Rating:8.83

Approval:30.2% (2 votes)

I'd just like to start off with a general rule when reading reviews: Please rate, and comment! Authors thrive off of constructive criticism! However, this does not mean that you should comment saying that I'm wrong. Keep that to yourself. I don't want that part.

Moving right along, Kenichi and his training! I say this in earnest, because really, that's all there is in this show. Training and fights. And some very slight ecchi. And parody, satire, and plain comedy. Wow, wait. We've got all those out of a shounen/action/martial arts anime?! Wait.. he didn't mention a tournament?! That's right folks. I was rather surprised and hooked myself, but History's Strongest Diciple Kenichi manages to sate all those shounen cravings, and still remain satisfying in terms of structure, character development, and plot.

Kenichi starts off a weak, pathetic little thing that is picked on by everyone. We don't see any of his moral values at first -- infact, we don't see anything! But then.. he's challenged to a Karate fight by some punk (a big one). What can he do? Please remember.. the characters don't know how to say "no" in a action/martial arts genre. This remains a constant. If someone challenges a nerd to a fight, the nerd must agree. So, Kenichi, of course, is feeling a little down, because he is going to be murdered by the end of the week. This is where Miu comes in. Miu just happens to be this babe (why, WHY, must they always be babes?) who decides to help Kenichi out. Why? Well... I don't want to spoil anything.

In anycase, Kenichi gets introduced to the dojo of Ryozampaku, the craziest, scariest, and most unrealistic dojo there is. There he endures harsh training (highly comedic, as well), and scary teachers in order to become stronger. All for the sake of.. -- (it's a shonen, remember) -- you guessed it! Protecting those close to him.

I guess I've babbled on enough. To all those faint of heart, and those who really are doubtful.. let me tell you here. Watch it. If you don't like it at the end, you can send me hate mail, and add bad comments, and swear at me online. These will be ignored, but feel free to do it anyway. However, I almost guarantee that you'll like this anime.

So onto the "categories" that ANIDB has shoved down all of the reviewers' throats:

~Animation~

The animation is pretty decent. Don't just judge by what I say, reason being that I've been watching a lot of old anime lately. However, I still believe that the animation was excellent, and not only art wise. The concepts are quite good, too. I get so cynical in some of those other Martial Arts animes.. like.. how often do you see flames burst out of someone's hand when he's punching? What? It's fast? There are special lines for that too! The viewers aren't that stupid!

~Sound~

It's always so hard to say anything in this category, because everyone loves their own type of music, and hates others. However, this was definatelly the highest point of the series. I'm not talking the OP and ED. I rarely listen to those, and those collectively only make up 10% or less of the anime. In short.. who cares? I'm talking the OST. The OST fits incredibly well with the action, and has a way of making your blood rise. It ranges from symphonic, to pure electric techno. The character voices were also quite well done.

~Story~

By far the weakest part of the anime. But hey, it's a shonen. A weak story is almost part of the criteria these days. Nevertheless, there is a story behind everything. Not as earth shattering or perhaps as good as Get Backers (best action/shonen on the planet), but still there to keep you intruiged. However, you only really find out about the story around episode 38 or so? Around there.

~Character

My fingers are seriously getting tired.. well anyway, the character development was amazing. In that.. you know how in shonen animes, the protagonist always talks to everyone he beats, and then shortly after saying "we can all be friends!", both the protagonist and the defeated bad guy hold hands and sing Kum Bay Ya? Well.. it happens here too. But it happens in a realistic fasion! You can actually see the characters slowly developing to the good side! So I was impressed.

~The Rest

What can I say? Not the greatest out there (Get Backers is), but definatelly one of! I recommend you watch it. Now. Don't waste any time, and get going!

show review

Rating:6.33

Approval:77.8% (9 votes)

I can't believe how high other people are reviewing this so I decided to write my own review. I won't judge what other people say but I'll voice my own opinion. For starters I did like this anime but I don't want anyone to be disillusioned into believing that this anime has something it does not. This anime has martial arts and action but its main focus is parodying these genres. It took very stereotypical themes and blew them out of proportion and it was a good joke. This anime begins with your main character who is a weak, untalented perverted male "Kenichi". He is constantly picked on but after meeting a mysterious girl and attempting to save her he starts some special training and it goes on from there.

Animation
The animation is bad probably some of the worst i've seen for 2006-2007. Although it is terrible it suits the anime since they are not trying to make it beautiful. Rather they are portraying the genre that in most cases HAS bad animation. I.e. they have extra long limbs sometimes, lack of backgrounds to make moves seem faster, blacked out screens when they need extra fast weapon movement and many other things. Its hard to explain these things but if you are watch enough of these animes you will know what I'm talking about. I think a good comparision to this anime is ikkitousen. If you've seen that the fighting animation isn't far from that. Even so this series does have a FEW episodes where the animation is a little better then the rest but its rare and you'll know which ones when you see it.

Sound
This does not stand out either besides some very annoying voices and subpar opening and ending themes. The opening themes both start with upbeat and happy music but also a little actiony. Whereas the ending themes are just "funny" kind of music and they have entertaining animations and cut scenes to watch. With regards to the voices I didn't like many of them. Miu the lead female character had a ditzy voice that suited her. Kenichi was ok. Then most of the sides characters annoyed me. His sister I think was the worst and she always showed up in random episodes. I couldn't stand hearing her constant whining.

Story
You can't get more typical then this story. Pretty much the entire story revolves around Kenichi fighting this "gang" organization called Ragnorak. It progresses in linear motion too. He beats one person then the next stronger person comes followed by the next and so on. The only stray you get is sometimes he refuses to fight some people I.E. he refuses to fight girls. Also you have some side stories too. But by all means its not original and not creative. You don't get any big plot twists or surprises and also as you get further into the series fights get longer. I guess in a way the crappyness and straightforward made it work but I still can't give this a good mark.

Character
The cast is built on again stereotypes. I can't emphasize this enough because thats all you really see in this anime. I actually liked this part of it because it amused me. I think most of the characters were funny and also added whenever they were used. They had a huge cast too so some annoying characters got weeded fairly quickly. I also think that the hardheaded Kenichi with his unquestionable justice suited the series perfectly. He rarely strayed from his beliefs and so made others around him adjust to him. Obviously not very pratically in any real world scenario but interesting to watch.

Value and Enjoyment
You can't consider or find any value unless your around 5 years old. Most of the concepts they use are basic and very idealistic. They don't provoke any thought or realization. In fact I would say you would get stupider if you actually tried to think about anything they said in the anime. Thus the value is VERY low. In terms of rewatching the anime I could argue that some parts are amusing and I would rewatch them. Thus the anime didn't completely fail in this aspect. However I did enjoy this anime quite a bit. If I didn't I would not have finished it. It gave me endless laughs and amused me to no end. So if you are looking for a ridiculous anime that serves no real purpose this is for you. So if you give it a try ENJOY! :)

Side note: I hope that if you decide to post a comment and rating it is not based on the fact that you felt the anime was good therefore my review sucks.