You Should Be Watching: KENGAN ASHURA

When I think about it, I should have been a fan of Anime all along. It’s full of violence, weird cartoon nudity, and ridiculous action that just couldn’t be possible in any other medium. I guess the diversity of anime was never apparent to me and the only programs that were known by me were Pokemon and Dragonball Z. Neither of those ever moved my needle and it wasn’t until I watched Fist of the North Star recently that I decided that this whole anime business was much bigger than what I had seen.

And then one day I saw some new pre-orders for collectibles based on the Netflix series Kengan Ashura. I had no idea what a Kengan Ashura was but the poster and synopsis of the series had my interest piqued. It sounded like an animated version of Bloodsport and that was about all I needed to dig deep into the action.

I’m several episodes into the first season of Kengan Ashura and I can say without a doubt that it is “my kind of shit”. Massive Japanese and global businesses use individual fighters to compete to put their business front and center in their field. Whether it is to earn the rights to build a massive new skyscraper in downtown Tokyo, or to be the ones to represent the nation globally, the members of the Kengan Association use their fighters to earn their way to the top. The story of Season 1 of Kengan Ashura is when the CEO of the NOGI group, who has been using fighter Tokita Ohma as its representative, to fight for the Presidency of the Kengan Association. There is also the running angle where Tokita Ohma wants revenge against the man who killed his teacher. All in all, it’s a shitload of fighting and with the Annihilation tournament starting you can be sure that it is only going to get more wild. I recommend you check this one out whether you’re an “anime guy” or not. It’s a doozy.