Customer Reviews

Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - Season One, Part Two

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The No. 1 student of Ry'zanpaku is about to face his greatest, most terrifying challenge -- moving into the dojo!

And unsurprisingly the training and action are amped up considerably in "Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - Season One, Part Two," which follows Kenichi's life as an official student who lives, works and trains at his dojo. And while the sitcom antics take center stage for several episodes (gratuitous beach episode ahooooooyyyy!), Kenichi's fights start to shift from fighting one-off thugs and into tackling Ragnarok's strongest fighters.

Kenichi is shocked and horrified when the masters suggest that he move into the dojo... until Kensei points out that he'll be living under the same roof as Miu. From then on, Kenichi's training becomes even more hardcore -- and he also deals with island vacations (and swimming lessons from Shigure), teacher visits, romantic rivalries, hot springs, Honoka's infiltration of the dojo (and discovery that the masters aren't actually that bad), and challenges from another dojo (Crab-head!).

But the threat from the megagang Ragnarok hasn't vanished, and Kisara has become one of their highest-ranked fighters, the Fists of Ragnarok. She sets out to destroy Takeda for his defection, leaving it up to Miu and Kenichi to rescue those who have left the organization. And Kenichi is horrified when Miu is cast as Juliet in the school play, opposite the school heartthrob Tanimoto -- but he'd be even more horrified if he realized how close Ragnarok is...

The first five episodes of "Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - Season One, Part Two" are rather fluffy and lightweight compared to the ones that precede it, with classic sitcom antics like Shigure and Sakaki pretending to be Miu's parents. And there's plenty of fun comic relief, especially from Apachai ("When she turns you down, please don't hurt yourself! Live is worth living!") and Kenichi himself (stoically slapping Nijima while the latter rants about world domination). The mass shark attack was kinda silly, though.

But the rest of the season gets darker, bloodier and nastier -- there are savage street fights, Takeda and his buddy beating up/being beaten by Ragnarok, Miu and Kisara's heated brawl, and the formation of Nijima's own bizarre gang, the Shinpaku Alliance. It climaxes on a slightly unsatisfactory note, since Kenichi's nervewracking bus-top fight doesn't have much of an ending, but it is fun to see Kenichi becoming strong enough to take out the bad guys without much visible effort.

And Kenichi is getting a lot stronger, to the point where the lesser Ragnarok thugs see him as a cat-eyed black demon figure -- but he's still the same kind, sympathetic guy who flies into a teary fit at the idea of Miu dating someone else. Miu shows what she's capable of when she's mad, reveals her longing for a "normal" nuclear family, and her determined ambition to play Juliet in the play; while Takeda shows the depth of his friendship with Kenichi and Ukita.

The masters all get some fleshing out too, whether it's Shigure's gentler tutelage, Akisame's friendship with Miu's dad, or Apachai's basketball fun. And the voice actors all deserve a great shout-out -- Josh Grelle and Carrie Savage are brilliant as the kind, flaky Miu and Kenichi. Christopher Sabat, Sonny Strait, Trina Nishimura, Vic Mignogna, and Kent Williams are awesome as the masters, while Jason Liebrecht is both warm and creepy as Tanimoto, and J. Michael Tatum is great as Takeda.

The second half of "Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple's" first season has a slightly unsatisfying ending, but it leaves you eagerly waiting for what comes next. A must-see.

I was very satisfied with my purchase. It arrived in good shape and also the episodes arrived sooner than I expected.

This is one of the best and most fun series I have seen! I totally fell in love with this show and I highly recommend it for just about anyone!

I enjoy this show very much, but i'm not sure when the next one will be released. I would like to hear back if you have an idea of when the next volume of kenichi will be released. I would appreciate it greatley

There is plenty of humor throughout the series to keep you going, make sure to read the manga after episode 50 :D

To me this show is simply amazing. I love the humor in it as well as the characters, specially Apachai. I could probably watch this show over and over, it keeps me laughing. The martial arts and fight scenes are pretty good too, so theres a great balance of comedy and fighting. I highly recommend this series to anyone.

KenIchi the Mightiest Disciple Season 1 Part Two is a continuation of TMS Entertainment's (best known for properties like Case Closed and Lupin III) silly but energetic Shonen (fighting) anime title.

Containing episodes 14-26, the Season 1 Part Two collection is a two-disc set packaged in a pair of thin packs. Coming in at a total runtime of 312 minutes, the show wears a conservative TV PG rating (what attempts at fan service that do exist are intentionally censored). Extras include textless songs and a crop of Funimation property trailers on the second disc.

Language options are typical sub and dub variety meaning original Japanese dialog or English dub options with English subtitles available under either.

The story, while in no danger of being mistaken as a modern day masterpiece, is certainly serviceable in maintaining the upbeat, oft goofy theme of the visuals. Following the exploits of cowardly (but big hearted) kid KenIchi, Season 1 Part Two continues with said kid's training at becoming a master of martial arts. This time KenIchi is invited (or perhaps manipulated as the case may be) into coming to the dojo to live while continuing his intense training.

The show's pacing is a bit irregular at best with the first nine episodes contained being little more than exercises in masochistic behavior with our lead character getting tortured continuously in the name of training. Sure slapstick abounds in these initial episodes, the humor tends to get bogged down a bit, however, in the simple fact that the plot itself seems to have stalled. The final four episodes start to pick up with a much grander sense of conflict right up until the show comes to a rather abrupt end (let's not forget that that this is simply the second half of the first season of a 50 episode saga).

The dub work is especially noteworthy as Funimation manages to outdo themselves with voice acting that captures the feel and emotion of the Japanese source material.

In all the show isn't for everyone and in fact seems to struggle to commit to a genre throughout. Its most prominent and consistent trait (fighting) places it in a class with Dragon Ball Z and Bleach but the abundance of over-the-top slapstick and high school era humor attempts keep it from ever being taken too seriously. However, the mood is consistently cheerful and the characters have enough depth to them to hold the viewer's interest.

My only complaint is the pacing itself; had this entire 13-episode run maintained the pace and motivated-plot presented in the final few episodes, this program would easily be on par with the best entries in the Shonen genre. As it stands however, many episodes of KenIchi Season 1 Part Two come off as simply a tool used to slowly advance the gap between the first episode and the start of the second season.