Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi

Title:Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi
History`s Strongest Disciple Kenichi
Kenichi
The Mightiest Disciple Kenichi
史上最強の弟子ケンイチ (Japanese)
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , ,
Notables: R1 License - FUNimation
Shirahama Kenichi was tired at bullied by his classmates, so he joined the school’s karate club, but they were no better. They nicknamed him ‘sandbag’ and treated him like a practice dummy, refusing to teach him any of the moves. Then one day he bumped up against a new transfer student and she unconsciously threw him for a full body flip. The cute new student is Furinji Miu and she seems to like Kenichi. She encourages him to think about attending a new dojo and even gives him a map. The dojo is the home to a number of scary martial arts masters, the worst is perhaps Miu’s grandfather. And so, Kenichi begins a grueling and harsh training program at the home of his new school friend, under the instruction of her strange housemates.

Animation by TMS Entertainment
New Series first aired in Oct, 2006
50 TV Episodes.
R1 licensed by Funimation.

Also see Wikipedia Entry for more info.


1:29min Series Opening - YouTube Video
Episode Details 
01
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Avoid 5 2 4 3 1 1 manganime [series:1490#1633]
I watched this horrid anime around a year ago and I could not believe how cliche, formulaic and unoriginal it was - it got to a point where I began to question whether this was just parodying other shounen. I do not want to give away any spoilers but I truly felt as if the same pattern was repeating over and over for the 50 odd episodes that this dribble ran for, I am currently watching Hajime No Ippo which is VERY similiar to this storywise, but done MUCH MUCH better with significantly better animation and artwork. I would recommend you stay away from this and watch Hajime No Ippo instead, especially if you have already seen a fair share of Shounen Series. I rarely ever dish out an 'Avoid' rating, but I think History's Stupidest Deciple Kenichi deserves it! Many animes I dislike, I can at least find some good points about them but sorry to say - I cannot say a single positive thing about Kenichi (okay, apart from a few jokes that probably made me grin at most...but that's it!).

It may be a case that I have seen too many shounen and am tiring of the genre generally since I know people who actually enjoy this.

Last updated Monday, July 11 2011. Created Monday, July 11 2011.
Rent 8 8 8 6 7 8 chibi [series:1490#2380]
This is a meat-and-potatoes shounen story, but a satisfying one. Kenichi is a looser high-school boy getting beat up by bigger guys, and wants to learn martial arts to protect himself. His immediate concern is surviving a grudge match he was forced into by a hulking member of the school karate club, but he gets unexpected instruction from a cute new transfer student and manages to prevail. But winning one fight leads to a challenge by a yet stronger opponent who thinks his win was a fluke, and then another, and so Kenichi embarks on an odyssey of martial arts improvement with the help of an array of weird but friendly instructors in order to stay alive.

There are attempts at humor throughout, often based on Kenichi's fear of getting beaten up or killed by his enthusiastic trainers. Most of the jokes were pretty broad and didn't do much for me; at the end I can't think of a single one that I remembered as particularly funny. That's not really a negative, but I wouldn't go into this show expecting lots of LOL moments.

What kept me interested, though, was the strange allies and enemies that we meet along the way, and Kenichi's development as both a fighter and a human. Pretty soon it becomes clear that Kenichi's secret weapon is not his fighting ability as much as it is his good nature.

Bottom line is that this is not a very complicated story, but it was done very well, came to a satisfying conclusion, and, with very few exceptions, was a fun ride all the way.

Last updated Wednesday, October 10 2007. Created Tuesday, February 06 2007.
Unevaluated Forbin [series:1490#1573]
Analysis : 40 Episodes Watched
  • Drama : Low
  • Comedy : Med
  • Action : High
  • SciFi : None
  • Ecchi : Low
    • None at all except for Miu is drawn very prominently.
Not a bad little series. While watching this I kept thinking this was the Fighting version of Yakitate Japan

I still don't know why Miu picked Kenichi in the first place, there is some drama hiding in this comedy.
  • 7-23 : You know, this reminds me of Yakitate for some reason. 40 episodes later and I'm still watching and still laughing. And yes #40 finally puts everything together in one episode.
MAISM

Last updated Tuesday, July 24 2007. Created Tuesday, February 06 2007.
Unevaluated Jan-Chan [series:1490#967]
(one episode seen so far)

A cute story about a loser boy who is trying to change his fate, when a chance encounter with a cute martial arts girl sets him on a new and difficult course.

The first episode is a bit juvenile - mostly in that Kenichi is very fearful of confronting people and always seems to go into an exaggerated SD mode (minus 2 pts) whenever he is cowering from a fight.

The fansub title for this series is Kenichi.

Last updated Monday, November 13 2006. Created Monday, November 13 2006.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/kenichi/
Wikipedia entry - Kenichi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenichi
Funimation (R1 English) web site http://funimation.com/kenichi/

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