«Kengan Ashura - season 1», it's a blast on Netflix!

Saturday's Netflix & chill - Ivan Garcia

Kengan Ashura, a new Japanese animated series produced by Netflix, has landed on the streaming last July. Two seasons are currently available, and it's safe to say that fight fans are in for a treat. Incredible techniques, great tournaments, blood and other fantasies are all part of the game to determine the strongest fighter. Immerse yourself in the world of «Kengan fights».

In recent years, Netflix has begun to diversify its range of series and films and, of course, the American giant couldn't avoid taking an interest in the traditional anime Japanese. After producing and distributing Devilman Crybaby and Baki (2018) - which we'll perhaps talk about next time - it's now the turn of the manga Kengan Ashura its own adaptation. For once, it's about a anime and we're not complaining. But with so much competition out there, you have to stand out from the crowd. And I do believe that this one stands out for its scenario, as well as its design special.  

An interesting scenario

Our story begins in a dark alley. Hiding in a corner, fifty-six-year-old Kazuo Yamashita, a modest office worker for a subsidiary of the large Nogi Group, Yamashita observes a street fight between two men. The first fighter, a colossus with titanic muscles and a tattooed back, is, according to Yamashita, a «Terminator». As for the second, he's a young man called Ohma Tokita, rather athletic, who hides his face under a hood. While Ohma seems doomed to be slaughtered, he defeats his Goliath opponent with ease. Yamashita is taken aback... and from then on, his life changes.

Quickly recruited by Nogi Group Hideoki Nogi, Yamashita and Ohma form a strange tandem and enter the world of «Kengan fighting». Since the XIX^th In the 19th century, companies in Japan recruited fighters to compete in organized battles for certain contracts or rights. All under the umbrella of the «Kengan Association» and its diabolical chairman and bank manager. Dainippon, Metsudo Katahara, who is organizing the «Kengan dead or alive» tournament to choose the association's next president.

The scenario of this anime is based on a very simple principle: a large tournament, into which are introduced a myriad of different characters with their own techniques, psychologies and personal histories. Before each fight, the fighter is introduced, given his or her own musical theme and, often during the confrontation, their past is recounted through flashbacks. It's all quite pleasant, but the explosive number of characters (over thirty-two) makes it hard to keep track...

The plot quickly focuses on the protagonists (Ohma and Yamashita), as well as on a few secondary characters who are likely to play a major role in future seasons, such as the prodigy of the jiu-jitsu Brazilian Imai Cosmo or Ohma's sworn enemy, the psychopathic «hunk» Kiryu Setsuna, to whom Omha has a murderous hatred because he is said to have contributed to the assassination of his master, Niko Tokita. A master to whom Ohma owes his particular fighting style, the «Niko style», and about whom we're very curious.

A design successful

In terms of graphics, the’anime alternates between 3D and 2D sequences; the latter is generally reserved for flashback scenes - which give them an air of the past. cartoon - which is quite successful. In Japanese animation, the use of three-dimensional technology had provoked a lot of rejection, because it made the confrontations artificial and not very fluid, as was the case in Berserk (2016).

And yet 3D is well suited to confrontations Kengan which are not only fluid and dynamic, but also much more realistic, both in terms of special effects and character anatomy. It's also worth noting that the adaptation doesn't lack for humor, parodying certain figures and companies. For example, one of the first fights features a fighter, Adam Dudley, a representative for Boss Burger whose CEO is none other than Ronald Haraguchi, a red-haired clown in a yellow and white suit... The same goes for other adaptation companies called Nentendo, Penasonic or even 22th Century FAX Corporation...

This first season of Kengan Ashura, divided into twelve episodes, lays the foundations for a rich universe that, for the moment, still doesn't reveal enough. Our minds are assailed by many questions: where does Ohma come from? Who was Niko? When will the reigning champion, aka «Metsudo's Fang», appear? And so on. But the quality of the fights, as well as the diversity of the martial arts, is there for all to see, which is a real pleasure.

With this great tournament, Kengan Ashura this obligatory stage of any good manga and anime, the famous tournament«, a veritable topos of the Japanese audiovisual imagination. As the episodes unfold, the viewer can't help but sympathize (and rejoice too) with Yamashita, who overnight finds himself propelled into an extraordinary world that takes him out of his daily bureaucratic torpor. It's also a good excuse for a good fight.

Write to the author: ivan.garcia@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Netflix