Kengan Ashura Season 2 Part 2

This new season of Kengan Ashura was fun to watch, as I've already read the entire manga, I wasn't surprised by the story, but we all know that this work was never focused on the story, but rather on the fights. The fights were phenomenal, well choreographed and with an impressive fluidity, a lot of this is due to the fact that the animations are with 3D modeling and this is a point that many people don't like. The 3D of this work doesn't bother me, quite the opposite, I think it works very well with the style of the anime and I like how ... the characters look. I really liked this season, I watched it very quickly, I just didn't think it was better than the season where there was the fight between Raian VS Ouma, but that's because I like Ouma's animation when he uses his life advances. Overall, it's a good season and it surprises a lot for those who only watch the animation, I really liked it, I would easily watch it again.

=================================================================================================================Versão em Português=====================================

Essa nova temporada de Kengan Ashura foi divertida de se ver, como eu já li todo o mangá, não tive surpresa com relação a historia mas todos sabemos que essa obra nunca foi focada em historia mas sim nas lutas. As lutas foram fenomenais, bem coreografadas e com uma fluidez impressionante, muito disso se deve ao fato de que as animações são com modelagem 3D e esse é um ponto que muita gente não gosta, o 3D dessa obra para mim não me incomoda, muito pelo contrario, eu acho que funciona muito bem com o estilo do anime e curto como fica o visual dos personagens. Gostei muito dessa temporada, assisti muito rapido, só não achei melhor que a temporada em que teve a luta do Raian VS Ouma mas isso dai é porque gosto da animação do Ouma quando usa os avanços de vida. No geral é uma temporada boa e que surpreende muito quem só acompanha a animação, gostei muito, veria de novo facilmente.

I really wanted to like this one, I really did. The extremely abrasive interruptions totally derailed the flow of each fight this season. Establishing backstory is key for character development & viewer attachment, I understand, but man, this was done so poorly. I really don't remember it being this bad & interruptive in the seasons prior. It absolutely killed the mood for me.

The non-cgi animations looked terrible as well, which is weird because they looked totally fine in the Baki crossover.

As someone who enjoys, big over-the-top, crazy martial arts fights, the end of Kengan Asura was kinda disappointing. It just left me feeling ... bummed out.

6/10 not as good as Baki

In term of action animation, Kengan Ashura is very underrated, little dialogues and many action, I would say that this is the anime equivalent of The Raid, if you know, then you know. However, at the end of the day Kengan Ashura is just... nothing more than a story crafted by a Japanese who thinks too highly of their own martial art.. Karate.. now, I will criticize and explain why I perceive it that way with spoiler alert.

After all what is Kengan Ashura supposed to be? Wasn't Ohma supposed to be the Ashura of the Kengan match who wins until the end? What was it ... all for? What is Kengan match supposed to be? Isn't supposed to be lawless martial art match to the death? Then how come so many useless martial arts that would've been nothing in real life street fight kept winning until the end? I am extremely disappointed with the ending, and I will point out three reasons why the ending is not acceptable.

First, Kengan Ashura is not a tragic drama series with rich philosophical metaphor, at least not supposed to be one or even pretending to be one, it is an action genre that prioritize strength and victory within its typical story, this is why the main character's defeat as part of the conclusion of the ending is unwise, it is unnatural, immature and pointless.

Second, the story revolves around Ohma's development, his effort and struggle to overcome obstacles both physically and mentally, every time he would come out winning with a more developed fighting skill and at the same time mental maturity, his development is in sync with his Kengan match victories, while I understand that Ohma has to die to become a legend, I don't see why it's necessary to make him lose his final match, after all what kind of legend doesn't have 0 loses, he could've just died after winning, to symbolize his final development he has to win, so I don't see anything meaningful behind his defeat, all I see is just everything, his development, struggle, effort, simply every build up so far just up and gone to be meaningless, because he lost his final match, everything became pointless, because after all why even bother with the story of Ohma the guy who lost in the end? why not a story of Kuroki, a 50yo man who suddenly shows up and won instead?

Third, the winner of the Kengan match is just a guy who practice karate, now, I practiced karate for a year as part of my middle school curriculum, I at least have a little credibility when I say karate is nothing. Kengan match is supposed to be a match where the absolute best of martial artist win is it not? Then why is the winner just a karate old man? in real world scenario karate would not stand a chance against other type of martial arts, let alone street fights.. let alone.. "Kengan match".. haha.. I must say it's very frustrating every time I see a match with Kuroki, karate is nothing more than a sportsmanship, karate is only useful for fighting another karate practitioner in a sportsmanship context, and that's it. Why do I say all this? if Kengan match is actually a death match it's claiming to be, karate isn't supposed to win at all, especially against Agito who is supposed to be able to imitate dozens of other martial arts, because karate is a very stiff straight forward martial art with many openings, karate is simply not versatile enough to win, Kuroki would've been easily defeated with his achilles tendon ripped out and there are many fighters who can do that, especially Agito. Karate doesn't do much, they just stand there punching straight punches and kicking straight kicks occasionally and that's it. There are few deadliest martial arts in the world and karate simply ranks way lower than them. This is just not realistic enough, I understand that it's fiction but this just shows incompetence when story is written without the absolute best of simulation, for example Kung Fu or Capoeira would've win against karate because karate is just too immobile to be realistically winning against more fluid martial arts.

Obviously the author is biased and favor Karate too much, despite daring to bring in many martial arts from outside of Japan into the series, the author is in the end just biased, either from overestimation of Japanese martial arts or ignorance of possible fighting choreography, either way the author is simply incompetent, both in term of writing and martial arts knowledge.