I've been reading a manga called Kengan Ashura for quite a bit. Big muscles. Blood. Lots of graphic violence as fighters go mano a mano. This isn't your usual shonen fare. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that an anime was announced, and under Netflix's ever-growing umbrella no less. The project began in 2015 after being the winner of a fan vote for anime adaptation and is finally coming to fruition.
Kengan Ashura is written by Yabako Sandrovich and drawn by Daromeon. This was one of publisher Pony Canyon's many properties being premiered at Anime Expo (we've got upcoming coverage on some of those too - Liz and the Blue Bird and Kase-san and Morning Glories) and a stand out for me.
The story can be summed up as thus: Japanese conglomerates settle things with fists. Normally you have negotiations in back rooms hashed out between CEOs but in the underground, there's a different sort of negotiations located in delerict buildings and underground parking garages. Kengan Ashura covers the latter. Every major corporation in Japan (and even a few smaller ones) has fighters who duel for the fate of their companies. Business contracts are won and lost in the Kengan fights so you want the strongest and most brutal fighters in your stable.
The protagonists of Kengan Ashura are largely aligned with the fictional Nogi Group. Protagonist fighter Tokita Ohma is backed by bumbling salaryman Kazuo Yamashita. Hideki Nogi, a namesake of the Nogi Group, helps fund the Ohma/Yamashita pair and has his own fighter. Nogi has big ambitions and aims to become one of the largest names in Japanese business thanks to the Kengan fights.
Some of the key members of the development team behind the Kengan Ashura anime were present at Anime Expo. Veteran director Seiji Kishi (winner of the 19th Animation Kobe individual award), screenwriter Makoto Uezu, musician and composer Yasuhara Takanashi, and producer Yuji Higa were on hand. These are all creators who have been in the industry for a while and they have decades of combined experience between the four. They've actually worked together on many of the same projects including Assassination Classroom, Persona 4 the Animation, Boruto, and more. The team's goal is to make Kengan Ashura the pinnacle of fighting anime and in particular real-life fighting. No fantasy swords and shields, no ninjas, no magic, just pure fighting.
Now what sets Kengan Ashura apart is how they went about animating things. It's 3D and that itself is nothing new; we've seen it more than a few times in the past. What is different is how Larx Entertainment decided to bring in the real deal for reference. Real fighters in their respective disciplines performing moves and techniques and filmed from all angles. I'm told they even used properly sized fighters so the animation staff could see the difference when a big man punches down at a smaller foe as opposed to one on his level (spoiler: there's going to be a lot of that going on). The devil is in the details and things like that are important. The animators even had to take a punch to the face so they could experience the hit and channel that into their work. I didn't have the opportunity to ask just how hands-on the fighters were with the animators (or vice versa) but I'd assume they were instructed in the finer points of body mechanics like how to throw a punch or apply an armbar or triangle choke. It's one thing to have reference material on hand and another to truly understand what makes a human move and the technical intricacies involved. With all those hours of footage, you can count on Kengan Ashura to raise the bar for fighting anime.
Something that Kishi-san really wanted to stress is that there is ZERO motion capture involved. A lot of companies use motion capture when it comes to complex animations in 3D or when they're going for a "real" look; for Kishi-san motion capture is a little too boring. Doing it in the traditional manner where animators use reference is definitely more interesting for everyone. As an animator I'll agree; cleaning up mocap is not the most fun thing in the world and in some ways puts you to sleep.
On a side note, I asked if any of the development team present were fighters themselves; the answer was unexpected in that Takanashi-san practices sogo jujitsu. Going just off of appearances I figured Kishi-san would have been the one; he definitely looked the part. As one of the people working closely with the fighters brought in he does have a bit of knowledge in a lot of different disciplines as a result.
I decided to stop in for the premiere on Saturday (I'd be lying if I said the highly-touted animation wasn't a big draw for me). Within the two episodes shown the story goes at a blistering pace; there's a little bit of background setup but by the end of the premiere the Kengan Zetsumei Tournament has already been announced and many of the upcoming fighters have been hinted at or seen onscreen. I'm curious to see how far the anime goes. There's a lot of material to cover and if it is received well Netflix might greenlight more than one season. It will definitely take a whole season just to get out of the first round of the tournament alone.
The animation is fluid and thanks to all of the abovementioned reference material come off extremely well. Roundhouse kicks and knee strikes have a visceral impact that makes the viewer both groan at the damage they're seeing done but also excited to see it in motion. It's one of those things that makes you happy to see when a manga become an anime and if Netflix sees fit we'll have plenty of fights to go around. There's a little bit of liberty taken in terms of physics and realistic fighting (after all we've got a guy who rips things apart with his knife-like fingers and a souped-up pro wrestler who can take hits like he was the main battle tank) but I think we can ignore that. The hour of animation drew to a close rather quickly and left me wanting to see more even though I already know what's going to happen in the near future of the story.
Yasuhara Takanashi's music matches well with the action onscreen. There's just something about a good guitar riff that goes hand-in-hand with a good fight and gets your blood pumping. Takahashi-san's fifteen years of work in the industry has had him take part in many a show and if you've watched Naruto Shippuden or Fairy Tale amongst many, many others you've heard his work. He even worked on the theme song for Pride Fighting (quite fitting given the project being shown) around the turn of the century. Takanashi-san went as far as to say he'd love to play the music from the show live at an upcoming Anime Expo. He's played onstage before at France's Japan Expo so it's definitely a possibility.
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— ???????????? (@kengankai) July 8, 2018
Kengan Ashura will premiere on Netflix in 2019. The exact date has not been hammered down yet but it's going to be a long wait. For those of us at Anime Expo, we got a sneak peek and our unfortunate friends will have to wait quite a while till they can see exactly what we're talking about. For now, they'll have to be content with reading the manga which is a fun, bloody ride itself.