The ZONE Podcast: Nerdy News and Reviews
We, the Zealots of Nerd Entertainment (or the ZONE Alliance), are a group of eople talking about old and new movies, television shows, video games, and everything else in nerd/pop culture!
The ZONE Podcast: Nerdy News and Reviews
History's Strongest Disciple, Kenichi: Mastering the Martial Arts Life
Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple mixes humor with martial arts action, portraying a relatable underdog's transformation from bullied to disciplined warrior. We discuss Kenichi's growth under the tutelage of six distinctive masters, highlighting deep themes of perseverance and self-improvement.
• Introduction of Kenichi, the bullied protagonist
• Overview of martial arts realism in Kenichi
• Insights and character dynamics with Miu and the masters
• Exploration of the show's abrupt ending and impact on fandom
• Discussion about the balance of comedy and action in the series
• Future episodes promise more discussion on character growth in anime
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- J.B.
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what's good nerds is jet black extreme, and we are back at again with another episode of the podcast. With me today is kokugasu, and we're going to be joined by professor tuck and mirror jane later on. A review of kanichi the mightiest disciple, um. Without further ado, let's go ahead and start. First of all, let me go ahead and say I was really digging.
Speaker 1:It was an action comedy, martial arts anime to where basically Kenichi Shirahama he's this bully victim you know, people keep bullying him and shit and at the beginning he befriends Miu Purinji and Once he becomes stronger he decides to follow her to her dojo Um, which actually happens to be her house. Uh, ryo Zanpakou Um. Did I Pronounce that? Yeah, it's fine, whatever. Um, where they have several masters of diverse martial arts and heading all of that is her grandpa, hayato Berenji. Before we get deep into it, kokugatsu, what's your impression of the show or anime? Because personally I'm sorry. Kokugatsu, what's your impression of the show or anime? Slash anime, because personally I'm sorry. I really wish they continued the anime at the very least, because when you read the manga like bro, a whole lot of shit pops up in the manga Like why?
Speaker 2:didn't you?
Speaker 1:finish the shit. Well, you know, whatever reason I can't understand. But I'm just saying but go ahead, go.
Speaker 2:There's not really a real explanation of why. The most understood is that the anime stayed close to the manga, which is one of the reasons why this anime is considered great. It's not just because of good comedy elements. It's an older school anime so it was always really good comedy elements, animation being hand-drawn, the great martial arts that's in there. It's an older school anime so it was always really good comedy elements, um animation being hand-drawn, the great martial arts that's in there, and great depiction of the martial arts being more realistic. So like realistically, if you're a fan of like oh, I love baki and they really do a great job explaining martial arts. There's a lot of book explanation and a lot of fantasy shit that happens, shit that happens. Um kanichi is actually a little bit more grounded, is very much so a pretty like more realistic aspect of things on how the, how all of it is explained, how all of it's kind of put together and stuff. So I really do like the show into that.
Speaker 2:There's not really much of explanation in um in this cancellation, because it stick close to the manga and it didn't want to like overtake it. So I think what my guess is that they went on to a hiatus, but then it just never picked back up again, unfortunately, and yeah, I don't know, there's not much I can give on to that, but otherwise it's a great show. It was definitely one to enjoy watching. My brother actually recommended it for me one time. This is one of those ones that my brother recommended to me, a bunch of different anime. He was like if you, you know, since you enjoy Dragon Ball Z, it's time for you to branch off into other anime. And I'm like I watch other stuff. I watch inuyasha, I watch yurika seven and he's like yeah, you watch tanami shit.
Speaker 2:So you're saying that tanami have they kind of dropped after a while, which I don't understand. That either. It kanichi was shown on tanami for a little bit and then they dropped it. I have no idea why. Actually I think I do. It might have been the big boobs because miyuki wears so much. She wears nothing but tight clothes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was saying, like to be fair, I did like the drip when she's like in her fighting uniform, but like those things. Yeah, I think that's probably too suggestive. Also, to be fair, the other one, shigure. Pretty much all the women are like sad, also Kisaru who's in Ragnarok. To be fair, it's good character design in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Of course. Of course it'd be good character design in your opinion. No, for real, though. I think that's pretty much one of the main things. He was like you're very standard as far as Toonami. He says you need to branch out. Okay, you need to branch out. Don't look at just what's on tv, look at some other stuff. So he wanted to recommend to me s cry ed, which I hope we review at one point. Oh yeah, you can love that. Oh, it shows that anime is fucking awesome. Um, but yeah, he recommends me as cry ed. That was like the first time also.
Speaker 2:Um, he was like you know, you watch you hawker show, but you, they're never. They're not really going to finish that on tsunami. You need to actually go watch and finish it. And I'm like you, sure enough was right, they didn't really finish it. I had to go and find it to finish it. So I'm like oh yeah and uh, you know stuff like that. So I was like, oh, okay. And then kanishi was also one he recommended to me, but he was like I'm going to recommend this to you. He said, but I recommend this to you as your big brother, and I didn't understand what he meant by that until I started watching it and I'm like oh Yo, speaking of on, did you know that the original run was on 4th of July in 2001?
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:That was a good year, 2001. Yep, that was a good year. It was, but it was. But, yeah, man, um, so this was one that, like, I watched a long time ago, recommended to me by my big brother, by my eldest brother. So it's pretty funny in that aspect that this is one of the shows that I keep in regards, because I'm the one recommending animated him now. So it was like it was pretty, pretty different on today. We are like 20 something years later and I'm like, yeah, hey, have you seen this one? No, I haven't seen that. You should watch it. Um, but yeah, no, overall, this is a pretty great show.
Speaker 2:Um, there's a lot of story elements that happen, uh, story elements that happen, uh, mostly more so in the manga, because the anime never finished, like since, since the anime didn't really continue further, we're not gonna go too much into detail as far as the masters, but understanding that each master actually does have a past and pretty much what led them to coming to that, to the dojo. But other than that, it's a really great show, definitely one to encourage to watch if you have finished watching all the newer styles and you want to say, hey, I'm going to see some of the older style anime that actually might still be funny. This one is funny great action sequences it's. I highly highly recommend it. Even if you've never like been a big fan of old animes, this one would be one for you. And it's not too often that they wind up saying they have like, oh, watch until next time and stuff like that. You know it does get a couple episodes to finish a fight. Some fights are finished within the same episode. So there's that.
Speaker 1:And, of course, this anime cannot be complete without a little bit of fan service, because not just with the character designs, but the fact that Kenichi gotta be like that harem MC, because he's winning the affections of Renka Ma, mew Izumi and Lee Raichi.
Speaker 2:It's too much. Lots of fun, though.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about the action. How honestly I really like, how with they tell you about all these different martial arts styles, like Muay Thai, karate, how Jiu Jitsu, what was another one, fuck, I'm forgetting yeah, we have Kenpo.
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, because it's six masters, so he has to learn six styles in order to be able to make it through right.
Speaker 1:So it just kind of makes you think, oh well, essentially you're just going to be a mixed martial artist, cool, that's kind of funny thing. Like it's going to be kind of blasphemous. I don't know how some people gonna take this, especially skip, because, like she was telling me about sports anime, I'm like bro, I just don't care for sports that much. But that's just the thing is like um, sports are fun to play, not so much to watch, unless it's a combat sport like martial arts or boxing or wrestling. You know, like WWE, I'm like, okay, I can watch that, but I'm like all the rest of the time I'm like fun to play, not so much to watch. That's just my opinion.
Speaker 2:That's fair. It really depends on what gets your adrenaline pumping. You know, some people are more than others. Like I mentioned before, I've been in marching band, so I was in marching band in high school, so I've seen football games. Was I that kid that was like super excited about it? No, not at all. I got in trouble multiple times for sneaking my PSP into my coat. I'm not your game boy. And just being there playing games, I'm like, hey, it's time to play. Okay, put it down, play and then go. It's time to sit back down again. Alright, time to go back to my game. It just wasn't my cup of tea, that's okay. That's not for everybody. Just give it a try. See if you like it. There you go. Yeah, I'll see if you like it. There you go. Yeah, martial arts, mostly fighting anime, is usually what you expect because it's action. Everything actually involves punching someone in the face or someone getting hit. It usually gets your attention. Sometimes that's what some people like hockey Just randomly getting punched in the face.
Speaker 1:Oh man, you know what that reminds me about. I don't remember exactly when, but I vaguely remember that I went to a hockey game. At one point we had to go way up north somewhere Artists want a hockey game. Man, I forgot who was playing and all that shit, but I just vaguely remember going to a hockey game once in my life.
Speaker 2:I think I've never been. I haven't been, so I don't know like.
Speaker 1:All I can tell you is that I definitely went to a hockey game, but I can't tell you all the details true.
Speaker 2:Alright, now here's one thing about it. I know we kind of had an idea on something, so I'm not going to talk about it right now. It's up for you to mention into this Getting a chance to remember this show. This show also is vaguely close to another show that I know we're going to be reviewing pretty soon, tenjo Tenge, and it his also regards of a character who's gone missing, who made a huge impact by going on a murdering spree.
Speaker 1:Well, hold on, I was thinking about that, see. This is why I say that we plan on doing a trifecta type reviews in the works to where we're going to be reviewing. Well, it's more like a versus between Enjo, tenge, tokyo Revengers and the new Windbreaker, because I figure, okay, a bunch of delinquents trying to take over the school through violence and whatnot, and it just feels like the same fight with those three. But I don't know if I can say the same for Kenichi, because I feel like Kenichi is more like anime karate kid, you know, self-improvement type shit, where he's not really asking for this moat like these guys this is true.
Speaker 2:This is true. Plus, you can also argue in the fact, like kanichi, his school is not necessarily a martial arts based school like his standard to learn martial arts, but it's still a regular school, unlike with tokyo revengers and tenjo um tenge is like there were actual like fighting schools. You were you, you were determined based on your fighting prowess and stuff. That's just pretty much how it worked.
Speaker 1:I mean, it wasn't like Icky Tosin or Mocking Key.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like that. It's been a minute since I've seen Icky Tosin. Actually, Icky Tosin came out around the same time as this one did too. It surely did. Yeah, that one has a lot more fan service, though he can totally do nothing but fan service.
Speaker 1:Oh, and Makiki Bro, what the I mean?
Speaker 2:God damn it, hold on. So let's put it this way we do have a martial arts anime that has fan service for the ladies or for those who are interested in muscular men. Ultimate Muscle is still a really good anime, but at the same time it is very much a fan service for those who are very interested to masculine muscles. Just mentioning that there's your fan service for that too, for martial arts anime. Oh gosh, I'm gonna throw that in randomly in that nerd group that I told you about, the one that's like all girl nerd group that let just a few guys in every now and again.
Speaker 1:I have not caused no type of ruckus, so they don't kick me out yeah, I'm just pretty much like just playing it cool, like I'll try to drop off like anime recommendations because you know, like as we talk about anime you know because you know how you see some posts and you're just like I kind of agree with some people where they just be making these posts like I thought it was an anime group. I'm like, yeah, I thought so too, like what's thought so too.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, for real, though. So, yeah, some of those ones onto that um. But yes, there's a couple different like fighting anime. Especially around that time period, there was a lot that came out um that you can compare with um kanichi as well. So it also understands why kanichi had a good balance. You know you had fan service, but you also had story. You had really great fights as well too. So it was one of those ones that you definitely enjoy it um, like, even if you've never seen it, you would. You have at least heard of it. Like, oh, you know another example. You're like I've heard of this before. I'm like, yeah, you have.
Speaker 1:Another example of a school that's pretty much centered around fighting, that also has fan service, but not crazy fan service, but more like okay, well, fair enough for a harem anime. You remember Magikoi?
Speaker 1:Oh, hmm, I like that, yeah, we might review that. See, yeah, let's. I know we kind of memed on it before to where it was like there's a school for that trope. So I think that's going to be a thing when we do like academy zone again. You know where it's like. We do like school based uh topics. You know like how we were going to do with x-men but deadpool 3 got moved up, so I'm like, oh well, fuck, uh, we gotta have to move up the x-men review. But, um, usually between august, usually between August and December and January and May, we try to do at least one. There's a School for that review and there's a whole bunch of examples.
Speaker 2:There are. There's actually a lot. Yeah, there's a School for Everything. I'm going to be the sumo wrestler. There's a whole anime about that, so there's a school for that. Damn, fencing, yeah, magic, several. God damn, there's several. You're a demon. There's a school for being a demon. You're an angel. There's a school for being an angel. I want to be a fantasy hero and go to a fantasy world. There's actually an anime where they literally train kids who do that shit. They train kids to actually become heroes in other worlds. It's an actual anime for that too.
Speaker 1:Aesthetic of a rogue hero.
Speaker 2:Right, there's literally a school for fucking everything Shit Okay then. Well, there's literally a school for fucking everything Huh, shit Okay then. Well, there you go, um.
Speaker 1:But hey, the one of the best schools ever Is the one from Baca and Test.
Speaker 2:We're not gonna go into that. We already did, bro. That was a. Bro, listen that school is funny as hell we've already done a review on that one, so we're gonna wait on that. We've already done that one. I don't think we did. I thought, we did nah I would've remembered if we did. I'm gonna go back and check. I'm gonna go back and check.
Speaker 1:I must be like punch drunk or some shit. I would have remembered reviewing Baka and Tess.
Speaker 2:I think we did. I don't know. I'm gonna have to go back and check. We're a guy, we did.
Speaker 1:No, in fact it's on the fucking Schedule for August. This August, really, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna check because if we did, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to put it on the schedule Like it's a redux and you'll be like what?
Speaker 1:And bullshit. I know we didn't.
Speaker 2:Oh god, okay, but for real. So Kenichi very simple Story, like his story is a very Simple underdog. He is a Normal kid who Suffers for being short, and a normal kid, literally. It's just the fact that he gets bullied. And because he's so easy to get bullied on, they always constantly keep getting it to him, and it's a group that calls themselves Ragnarok. So you know, of course, yeah, we are the ultimate destruction, the finalization of the world.
Speaker 2:And even more hilarious is how each member is literally named something from greek not I say greek, good lord, from norse mythology, like you literally have an odin. There's loki it's literally named as a thor. Yeah, for it like literally just with they nicknamed themselves based off of that as well too. So it's like seriously, um. But it's also one of those ones that the fights are pretty realistic. They're with a sploosh of fantasy, like you know they normally be like oh my gosh, it's like getting hit with thor's hammer the lightning is striking, and it's not real. The lightnings don't strike, it's just the extra little fluff that's there. But when they actually get into the actual fights, actual dodging and evading, it's pretty good, like it does pretty good to that one, um.
Speaker 2:But yeah, the pretty biggest thing is is that kenichi just he's tired of being bullied. Then the new girl shows up, miyu winds up giving him some pointers and he manages to actually like beat someone in the karate club. And so at that moment now everybody's after Kenichi and she's like you're going to have to protect your ass. And I like how literally everybody at that point was like trying to protect Kenichi To where I think there was like I don't remember if it was a scene. It like trying to protect Keniji to where I think there was like a scene that was like in an alleyway and like these girls weren't necessarily like picking on him too much. But old girl showed up, pulled out her sword like she was ready to murder them. This is not, he said. We're just pretending to fight.
Speaker 1:It's not what you think he does not care, he does not care, he he does not care.
Speaker 2:He turned to them and said y'all need to leave. Y'all need to leave now. Your life is in danger. Oh gosh, it was so fucking funny. But at that point they were really just trying to look out for Kenichi and help him out. And what I appreciate also in this anime is that you see his growth throughout the series, really like an absolute shout out to the animators on that one, on the fact that he doesn't just go from all of a sudden. It's like, oh, he has a training arc and then he comes back and he's like extra buff and muscular, he's got all these special attacks and stuff.
Speaker 1:No, we are with him throughout the entire show and if you're in the manga, that's why I say that's why I said this anime karate kid, because the whole point of it is for him to improve over time to where he's not supposed to take shortcuts like having a whole training montage like that would just ruin the whole point of the show.
Speaker 2:True, because most anime does that nowadays, where you have, like they go through a mock training montage either in one full episode or like halfway through an episode, and then they just explain what happened versus no, this entire anime is the training montage.
Speaker 1:This is.
Speaker 2:Apollo.
Speaker 1:Creed. This is why I have appreciation for mob psycho 100 now mob very powerful, um, psychic. Of course he's like the most op motherfucker there is. But his, uh, his arc is improving as a person and also being in this self-improvement club, you know, trying to get his muscle up because he can try to impress that one girl. That's his arc, right there. Uh, he's not trying to impress them with psychic powers or whatnot, it's like he's smiling on that aspect, but it's more like he's just trying to improve as a person.
Speaker 2:You kind of see that, uh, throughout those three seasons most definitely, and so we actually just absolutely appreciate that depth of being able to follow the character. It doesn't feel so fantasy, it feels more realistic. You're watching kanesha even as he loses. It's not even one of those ones like, oh, it's also not even one. Oh, he's the main character, he's gonna win these fights. He's lost quite a few fights. I'm not just talking about the fact of like, oh, at the beginning, because you know, because you know he didn't know. No, I mean, he straight up got his ass kicked to him and had to go back train more and go back for a rematch.
Speaker 1:And see, this is why I say you can't compare this to Tenjo Tenge, where Buddy was just getting his ass kicked, like all, almost every fight.
Speaker 2:You're not wrong. Yeah, the enemy like oh, but like Rob, I'm not gonna lot best black animation that's black character. Yeah, yeah, bob is fantastic, but still, even he called my, he said let's be real, you haven't won a fight yet and he's like wait.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, you're right, no, that's a wild thing to think about. Shoichiro was trying to take over the school and lost every fight. Kenichi's not even trying and he's just steamrolling through everybody. I mean he, I'm gonna say he's not even trying, but more like he's not trying to take over the school, he's just trying to improve as a person. That's what I meant.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. So that's one that we get a chance To see Kenichi's growth. You see him win, you see him lose. You see how everything is kind of going forward. You see everything that's happening there. You also see how his daily life, ch changes, having to be under the lineage of six martial arts masters because once he gets taken in, this is also one of the funniest things. Like you, I've seen this, I think, like even demon slayer has been one that's most iconic that I can reference here. Whereas tundra is switching from master to master per se, he's learning one style and then goes to another style and then goes to another style. Kenichi does not have that luck whatsoever. This nigga gets thrown into all six at the same time. He has to train all six every fucking day.
Speaker 1:Nah, these masters are like fuck your feeling, you're gonna get strong boy. Exactly bro. They straight up don't care.
Speaker 2:They're like fuck your feelings, you're going to get strong boy. Exactly, bro. Like they straight up don't care. They're like you're weak. We need to beat the weak out of you and then we need to train the weakness out of you. And it was like wait, what?
Speaker 1:No? Straight up, it was like when Kenichi was like. You know what I think?
Speaker 2:for the best.
Speaker 1:I need to move out. Mom and pa Like so it's going to be. Oh, you thought you were sweating when you were living with your parents. No, we're going to have you really sweaty now.
Speaker 2:Exactly, it was so horrible. But then, like you, can see the progress happen. Like the beginning of the anime, he has like no muscles, he's skinny. And by the end of the anime he has like no muscles, he's skinny. And by the end of the anime, and of course even further along in the manga, he gets even more developed. But he's like immensely ripped, as hell dudes can have actual abs of steel, muscles of steel he can actually like almost off the level muscles, yeah, like literally, like midget strong.
Speaker 2:No, I don't want to say that Short people are just short, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Hey man, leave the short king alone.
Speaker 2:Oh god, you're not wrong. I'm so sorry. I just I just rolled off the tongue and I feel bad about that. But for reals though, um, but no, that's literally what it is. You get to see his um, his progress, but you see how they work things through. But then I also mentioned about this whole silent uh protagonist that, like this silent antagonist that's there that actually helped me move things forward. Um, is hayato, uh, muse, father or grandfather yeah, grandfather when literally Mew's dad Went ballistic and Killed fucking everybody Killed his friends, his wife, but didn't kill his daughter and then is gone and you're just like, holy fuck, wait, imagine that for a story like my dad just went ballistic, killed his friends, killed my mom, and he looked at me.
Speaker 1:Incredible.
Speaker 2:Depends on the iteration.
Speaker 1:Well, I would say the originals, where you know, bruce's dad was an alcoholic, just beat him, yeah, he did kill His wife, yeah, and then you know, banner tried to fight him off. That was the whole thing. That's pretty much Almost the same backstory, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:So you're saying Prior to the 80s? Cause, like that's why I said it depends on the iteration, that's not necessarily thes, because, like that's why I said it depends on the iteration, that can't not necessarily the original per se. That's the Early 2000s Revamp. That's where he wound up changing about his dad, because in the original his dad wasn't really Like that. He wasn't that.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Marvel is one. They change up those stories all the time. But yeah, if you're going based on to that revamp from the first um movie because one thing that I learned my mom is a very big marvel fan, like old school marvel fan howard the duck, and I'm talking about the original fucking uh hulk, who literally was just the big muscle man who was painted green and given a weird ass green afro wig. What the hell go through that dark time. And you're like what the fuck did they do? My mom told me she said this is the original Hulk. I said I could tell. Actually they really just told this dude rip off his shirt and they just spray painted him green. This is really what happened, said they really just told this dude rip off his shirt and they just spray painted him green. This is really what happened. It was so horrible. So I've seen that. I have seen that iteration.
Speaker 2:I come from a family of nerds, obviously, but most definitely those iterations can be very different. And yeah, the revamp, they did want him changing that to where he did want him killing his wife in a drunk rage, abandoning his son, and yeah, it just became a whole thing in itself but Constance kept experimenting on his son, which wound up leading to Bruce Banner being the Hulk and pretty much the Hulk being an alternative personality. So that's a whole other thing in itself. But yeah, so Mew's dad just straight up went ballistic being the Hulk and pretty much the Hulk being an alternative personality. So that's a whole other thing in itself. But yeah, mew's dad just straight up went ballistic and fucking killed everybody and then left, and so she's now adopted by her grandfather.
Speaker 2:His response is you need to be strong so that way you can't be like your dad. And I didn't really know how to take that shit as a kid. It's like wait, because my dad was gone as a kid, so I was one of those ones. Like you need to be strong so you can't be like your dad. Oh well.
Speaker 1:Well damn, I wish I can relate.
Speaker 2:I want to say be happy. You can't relate because that's a. I don't know how to feel about that. That's one of those ones. You really don't know how to feel about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's like On my hands, like oh well.
Speaker 2:That's a hell of a thing to tell your Granddaughter. So I was like, okay, we're here, I guess. But Hayato is the elder. But it's one of the funniest things of like he really likes kanichi. But it's funny why he likes him. He likes him for two reasons. One, because the fact that he sees that this boy has very like likely potential.
Speaker 2:He's like he doesn't give up very easily, even though he's very weak, and he did not believe that kanichi was really going to master these styles and thought he was pretty much going to be bullied for the rest of his life. But he wound up seeing this boy persevere and that was a good thing. He was like okay, he actually has perseverance. He might defy my expectations, which of course kanichi does. But then he also likes him on the fact that he really just thought that he was just a cute, like just a very cool little kid who never really complained much.
Speaker 2:He just took whatever harassment and was, even though he was upset about it and kind of felt like giving up, and he didn't give up. He was like I can abuse this kid as much as I want, he's like I'm a little walking mat, and then just calls him kenshan, but however, he does wind up being nice and does wind up apologizing to kenichi a lot, so it was one of the funniest things to seeing the elder being so humble. At moments he was like oh, I'm so sorry that these are so difficult for you, but you got to push through. You could do this all the while. Really, this man's I think this man's a saint just I'm not gonna. I think he enjoyed watching Kenichi get tortured all this time. I thought that shit was funny as shit.
Speaker 1:Can I talk about one motherfucker that I really don't like in this show?
Speaker 2:There's a couple motherfuckers in this show, but continue please.
Speaker 1:But just the main one fucking Nijima the goblin-looking motherfucker.
Speaker 2:That nigga look ugly as hell too. I'm like.
Speaker 1:I'm all. Can I meet your parents? I just want to see what they look like. I don't want to. I'm just so curious, like how did you come out like that?
Speaker 2:Look, you seen the memes? I saw a meme pretty recently. You see a beautiful woman, you see a beautiful girl. You're like, oh, you're interested in a girl, but if she look this cute, what her mama look like, what your mama look like? This is one of those ones that you're like what your parents look like, because I'm trying to figure out what mix Should not have happened to create.
Speaker 1:Like see, nijima. Nijima looks like that one meme people would make to where uh dudes would say incel, type shit, and then look like this yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So I think that dudes would say incel type shit and then look like this yeah, I don't know. So I think that design was on purpose for his character. But yeah, mm-hmm, mm-mm, nijima was horrible, but I can definitely see what you mean on that. Now I also want to make sure we're not talking about like, in case you haven't seen, we're not talking about Nijima from. I always name the show Fuck Queen, the queen who's from, not Makoto Nijima, very different Nijima. I need y'all to understand that. Just want to mention that. Yeah, okay, but for reals, though, the story still continues.
Speaker 2:We get a chance to meet all the other different elders as well. I say elders, meet the other masters as well, of course. After Hayato, we get Shio, who is the karate master Dude, who's always wearing a leather jacket. Yeah, he was always so cool he wanted to fuck. He would just take every opportunity to start punching Kenichi whenever he had the chance. That dude's horrible. I would not want him as a karate master. Just to be honest, I would not want him as my karate master. He was not patient, he was ready to throw hands at all the time, and it's like I don't know how I feel about this. I feel like my life's in danger.
Speaker 1:You don't want to train with me, boy, you'll die in three days.
Speaker 2:He was not wrong. He legit almost killed him like several times. I was like I don't want to do this, no more. That's the first and the worst part. Imagine that being like the first boss you come up against. He's literally like elden rings lover level boss like this is those ones that you like this is like are you prepared for this game?
Speaker 2:I want you to understand, like every, every Dark Souls game, you know that first boss is to really tell you are you really ready for this game? Because this is the first boss. It only gets worse from here and he was like I'm about to rethink my life choices right now. Maybe this game isn't for me. I know Kinesia at that moment said maybe I'm gonna get my ass beat anyway. This is just. It's just whether or not I get my ass beat just because I'm getting my ass beat, or I get my ass beat to get stronger, but regardless, I'm getting my ass beat pretty much. Sir, welcome to life, welcome to neighborhood, but regardless, I'm getting my ass beat Pretty much. Sir, welcome to life, welcome to manhood. Oh gosh, I absolutely hate his shield. He was like oh fuck. But I will say that one of the things is that he, aside from his gambling and drinking problem, he definitely helps.
Speaker 2:Kenichi build the most when it comes to muscle and the only problem when I run out and also, um, he really helps out, because karate is mostly one based on using your opponent's weight and your opponent's um their own strengths against them against them, so it's always like continual reversals. So Kenichi's first fight that he wins was based on a very simple karate technique that he was taught by Shio. That Shio made him practice over and over and over and fucking over again until he got it right. So it's like that's the only way to learn something is to keep the more you practice it, the better you get. So it wound up definitely helping Kenichi win his first fight. I am actually learning something. This is actually important. It's one of those ones you really do appreciate into that, definitely. Also, we wound up having our Muay Thai master, as you mentioned, apakai. Now I don't really know how to.
Speaker 2:I thought he was cool, to be't really know. I thought he was cool, to be honest with you. He was funny. He was, especially considering that you don't understand his tragic past. He's been forced to fight in underground since he was a kid. I think it was like a teen or a kid, since he was young. Whatever, he was a young boy.
Speaker 1:He's been having to fight for his life since he was a young boy. He's he's been having to fight for his life since he's. I'm not comparing him to spider-man, but there's this one aspect to where you know how spider-man makes his jokes and whatnot, even though you know spider-man got the most fucked up um track record of you know relationships and um fights and all that shit. And it was like, how can you crack jokes, uh, with the um past that you have? I'm like, hey, man, sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from crying. And it's kind of like that same thing with apache, to where it's like, um, how are you so silly and goofy with the past that you have? I'm like, how do you think I survived so far?
Speaker 2:dude understand some of the most the funniest comedians have the most tragic ass life. Like for a lot of these comedians, if you just go back and listen to what they're saying and not just laughing at it, but like go back and actually listen to it. Don't listen to the punchline, just listen to the story itself and you're like this shit is tragic as a motherfucker. Yeah, and usually the people with the most tragic lives become the funniest Because that's how they had to cope. If you can't laugh, you're stuck in forever darkness. Nobody likes being there. Misery loves company, but I don't love misery so I don't try to make comedy with it. You gotta find a place to laugh. It takes time to get there.
Speaker 1:Can you continue? Hold on. I'm um getting some sort of interference, but um what else you?
Speaker 2:got all right. So I know we wind up also meeting um shigure. We we don't really see too much as much as shigure in the anime as we would in the manga, because we get more shigure in the manga. So there's not much to say based on anime, wise um.
Speaker 2:So she's a weapons master, always dressed in the pink um, in the pink kimono, and she wears the bandages that's all over her chest, you know, as standard for most samurai, because it's still been a big thing where it's like having big breasts counterbalances your weight. It makes it more difficult for you to draw your sword, use your weapons and stuff, because that's a big thing for, like, where there's always been a big issue for women who were training to be ninja or samurai, and so it's like if you wind up having big breasts which of course every female in this anime has big breasts unless you're a background no, even some of the background characters had big breasts, to be honest with you you could look to the background and not see a woman with a chest. I don't think the anime just really wanted to emphasize that, but anyway, it always had to be a big thing to that to go ahead and literally bind your chest in order to tighten it up so that way you can go ahead and use your weapons and stuff. That's also um appearing in the most recent netflix. Uh, well, netflix mostly claimed it, but the most recent anime, blue eye samurai, um, with our main character, like people confused the fact that she's a woman, but it's also the fact she's had to keep her chest bound for almost her entire life, so her breasts never properly developed. So with that it's still kind of a thing into that too. It makes a difference in being able to have a balance in your weight as well as to be able to use your weapons and stuff. So it was a very important thing to do, but it does wind up stunting growth and cause actually a lot of heart problems and a lot of breathing problems as well too.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I just felt like giving that little nitbit of different things because that was something that was important for her life. But again, in the anime we don't get as much of her story from just what would have been only season one. Had we been able to get a season two, we would have gotten more of her life and more of her story of how important it was. Right, yeah, so otherwise she's also a sadist, there's no question of that. She was sweet, yeah, kind of a yes, mommy, kind of sweet I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm not wrong, alright.
Speaker 1:Alright, some things came up, so you got anything else, because I need to run some errands real quick.
Speaker 2:You are good, I'll be very quick, three minutes. Next week we do have an Akisame. We do want to have him with the Jiu-Jitsu Master. He was the first one to be able to train Kenichi's old friend of Miu's father, who, surprisingly, was not killed, even though he wound up killing a lot of people.
Speaker 2:There's so much of a big story that kind of goes into this one, because we get more understanding of Miu's father, saiga, and understanding more about what was really kind of going on. And so even also one of the things about Akisame is that he seems so frail and weak, but he is immensely strong and he's very well-spoken as well too. He's a very calm person as well. And then, last but not least, we wound up getting our Kenpo master, kensei Ma, just literally the prime example of don't be fucking with old people, man.
Speaker 2:You have no idea when it comes down to martial arts, the Chinese culture, japanese culture, whatever and Asian culture, and they, old as hell, and they tell you that they know martial arts. Believe their ass, because you will get your ass fucked up, without question. But that's all I got for right now, so I'll go ahead and turn it back over to you. So that way also Tuck, and I'll go ahead and turn it back over to you. So that way also, tuck and skip and go ahead and get some of their points as well too right.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, uh, we're gonna go ahead and wrap up the expository part of the kenichi review, then we're gonna have professor tuck and mirror jane on for the highlights, to where we get really fun with this. So we're going to go into intermission, enjoy the music and we'll be right back. Okay, so you can consider this one of the lost episodes of the Zone podcast, because really, we did this a year ago but we were kind of waiting on other guests. They seemed interested but they never got back to us and things happened, things got lost in the sauce and I just remember oh shit, you already did this like a year ago. So
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