NOTE: Netflix’s Kengan Ashura Season 3 (Part 3) anime is confirmed to be in the works as of March 23, 2022. Technically, the third part is the first cour of Kengan Ashura Season 2.
On August 31, 2022, a new key visual (see below) confirmed that Netflix’s Kengan Ashura Season 2 release date would be in September 2023. Please see the newer 2022 article in the links to the left for more details. The remainder of this 2019 article remains as last updated.
Netflix’s Kengan Ashura Season 2, or Kengan Ashura Part 2, was inevitable considering that the match for Episode 13 was previewed during the after-credits. Netflix has already confirmed that the Kengan Annihilation Tournament will continue during the fall 2019 anime season.
Kengan Ashura Part 2 will consist of Kengan Ashura Episode 13 through 24. What’s more, based on the pacing of the anime in comparison to the manga series, it appears the adaptation will finish the story by ending with Kengan Ashura Season 3 (or Kengan Ashura Part 3).
(Please see below for the exact release date.)
This quick turnaround should not be surprising based on the way the TV streaming giant has promoted anime in recent years. After all, Netflix anime exclusives have a solid history of being renewed.
In 2019 alone, there is The Seven Deadly Sins Season 4, Hero Mask Season 2, Forest Of Piano Season 2 and Kakegurui XX (see our article on Kakegurui Season 3).
The Kakegurui example is especially notable since the anime flopped in Blu-Ray/DVD sales in Japan. While the anime’s story is catching up with the manga, it managed to receive a second season. So, why not a Kengan Ashura sequel?
Ultraman Season 2, Grappler Baki Season 2, and Aggretsuko Season 3have been confirmed to be in early production. The ending of the 2019 Revisions anime also seems to set up Revisions Season 2.
Netflix is also likely to release all three parts since the Kengan Ashura anime is based on a manga (Japanese comic book) story with a complete ending. Therefore, the company has a vested interest in seeing the anime’s story through to the end, assuming the TV show is popular enough.
The Kengan Ashura release date for the first season/Part 1 happened July 31, 2019. Back in 2015, fans of the Kengan Ashura manga voted for the series to receive an anime adaptation, so it’s taken about four years for the vision to become a reality.
Netflix U.S. provided a Kengan Ashura English dub immediately. A dubbing is also available in Spanish, French, and Italian. Subtitles are available in English, Japanese, Italian, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
Here are some of the Kengan Ashura cast members (the anime has a huge supporting cast due to a large number of fighters):
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- Tatsuhisa Suzuki as main character Ohma Tokita
- Cho as Kazuo Yamashita
- Jouji Nakata as Hideki Nogi
- Yumi Uchiyama as Kaede Akiyama
- Hayato Kaneko as Rihito
- Tetsu Inada as Jun Sekibayashi
- Junya Enoki as Cosmo Imai
Kengan Ashura Part 2 will add these new cast members:
- Akio Ohtsuka as Agito Kano
- Atsushi Ono as Yoshinari Karo
- Mai Kanazawa as Honald
- Naomi Kusumi as Yohei Bando
- Tessho Genda as Gensai Kuroki
- Misao Kobayashi as Korinmaru Ajiro
- Koichi Gomi as Ken Ryuozan
- Shouzou Sasaki as Sanemitsu Yoroizuka
- Ryota Takeuchi as Kirimi Takakaze
- Yūsuke Hoshino as Masami Nezu
- Yasunori Masutani as Yukio Dazai
- Hiroshi Matsumoto as Kunihiro Yumeno
- Kenta Miyake as Takeru Kiōzan
- Masumi Yoshida as Karugo Kurachi
The anime is produced by animation studio Larx Entertainment (a subsidiary of Studio Hibari) with director Seiji Kishi at the helm. The director is probably best known for his work on Angel Beats!, Assassination Classroom, Asobi Asobase (see our article on Asobi Asobase Season 2), the Danganronpa series, the Persona series, and Yuki Yuna Is A Hero.
Writer Makoto Uezu (Akame ga Kill, The Heroic Legend of Arslan) is handling series composition. Youko Satou (who also worked on Assassination Classroom with the director) will be doing character design. Yasuharu Takanashi (Fairy Tail, Naruto Shippuden) is doing music composition. The OP song is My First Story’s “King & Ashley” and the ED song is Bad Hop’s “Born This Way.”
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Updated October 10, 2019: Added Kengan Ashura Part 2 trailer.
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Updated October 1, 2019: Added Kengan Ashura Part 2 cast members.
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Updated September 6, 2019: Added weight training video featuring the anime director and manga creator.
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Updated August 16, 2019: Kengan Ashura Season 2 release date confirmed!
This article provides everything known about Kengan Ashura Season 2 (Kengan Ashura Part 2) and all related news. As such, this article will update over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known.
Kengan Ashura manga compared to the anime
The story for the anime is based on the Kengan Ashura manga series by artist Daromeon and writer Sandrovich Yabako. The writer is also the creator of Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? (How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Life?), but he almost didn’t become a professional manga creator even though he’d previously been releasing a webcomic called Fist of the Seeker. Instead, Sandrovich was mere weeks away from becoming a fisherman, but fate stepped in when his now-editor asked, “Would you like to draw manga?”
The Kenga Ashura manga was serialized from 2012 through 2018, with the ending released in August 2018 as Volume 27. There is also a Kengan Ashura sequel manga called Kengan Omega that began serializing in January 2019. The story is set two years after the ending of the first manga series.
The Kengan Omega manga just got started so animation studio Larx Entertainment is highly unlikely to create a Kengan Omega anime any time soon. Kengan Omega is already up to Volume 2 as of the airing of the first season of the Kengan Ashura anime.
(Check out this above video where Kengan Ashura anime director Seiji Kishi and manga creator Yabako Sandrovich face off in a weight training challenge.)
Unfortunately, an official English translation of the Kengan Ashura manga has never been released. However, there are fan-made scanlation projects that have translated the entire first story arc of the first manga and most of the sequel Kengan Omega.
However, Kengan Omega is already up to Chapter 31 and new chapters are released weekly by MangaONE and UraSunday. Therefore, assuming the anime is popular enough, there could be enough chapters for creating a Kengan Omega anime by the middle of 2020.
The Kengan Ashura anime will be divided up into multiple parts, which are called cours in Japan. A “cour” is a three-month TV broadcasting unit based on the physical seasons and animes usually have between 10 to 13 episodes per cour.
However, since the anime is released for binge-watching rather than weekly TV broadcast, the number of episodes per part/cour can be arbitrary. But in this case, Larx Entertainment is keeping to the same format since Part 1 ended with Kengan Ashura Episode 12.
Both Kengan Ashura and Dumbbell nan kilo materu share a universe and characters even cross over. That’s hysterical lol pic.twitter.com/4NEBRBSfoY
— fategfwhere (@fategfwhere) July 25, 2019
The story of the manga follows Ohma Tokita, whose nickname is Ashura, as he enters the fray of the Kengan fights. Like many anime adaptations, some of the manga plot elements are reordered for dramatic effect. Unfortunately, other plot points are skipped entirely in order to condense the story into a 12-episode format and this was usually done at the expense of character development and backstory.
The first part of the manga introduced the characters and the kengan world and the anime adapted the first seven chapters in a very straight-forward fashion with two episodes. The anime began skipping manga content around Chapters 8 through 11, which featured a cheating fighter named “Medicine Man” Kaburagi Koji who was known for incapacitating his opponents with a hidden weapon even when he lost.
This story arc was interesting since it had Kaburagi using a blinding poison and a high-frequency noise generator called The Mosquito that only affects the young. Despite being blinded and having his hearing impaired, Ohma manages to overcome the cheater even when Kaburagi flings his own broken teeth like bullets!
Setsuna Kiryu’s introduction in Chapter 12 was heavily condensed since most of the leadup was skipped. Chapter 13 was also skipped and it contained a funny scene with Kazuo Yamashita being threatened with a knife by two punks, but he’s more scared of Ohma for arriving five minutes late due to the altercation.
The ending of Episode 2 finished with the final panels of Chapter 13 and then Episode 3 jumped straight into Chapter 14 and Ohma’s match with “Hell’s Angel” Jun Sekibayashi. In this case, the anime did a good job of capturing all the major moments from the manga.
By Chapter 17 the beginning of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament is announced. This tournament features the fighters of 32 corporations vying for control of the seat of the chairman of the Kengan Association. The anime focused on the setup of the crucial players while skimming over secondary plot points.
The anime skips the beginning of Chapter 18, which is a fight between two mass murderers (a crazed researcher and a religious zealot), and goes straight to the scene where Ohma is strangling Mr. Nogi. From there, Episode 4 adapts Chapter 19 and 20 with Sen Hatsumi’s intro and the unofficial match for Yamashita to win a Kengan membership.
Chapter 21 spent more time introducing Yamashita’s second son, the delinquent Yasuo, but the anime skipped the family problems. It was more of a comedic chapter since it had Ohma beating an entire biker gang without even showing the fight itself. Instead, in one panel the gang was all hyped for battle and in the next, they are broken and groveling on the ground. Needless to say, the delinquent son cleaned up his act instantly.
The next several chapters were adapted accurately and by Chapter 25 the Kengan Annihilation Tournament had arrived. However, 151 corporations initially enter the tournament, and only 28 of the highest-ranking corporations are afforded a spot right away. So, 123 of the fighters are forced to compete in a battle royale preliminary match to win one of the five remaining spots in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament.
As you’ve already seen in the anime, Ashura and Kazuo Yamashita emerged victorious as one of the five. But Episode 5 changed thing up a bit by having “The Arabian Whirlwind” Hassad unceremoniously kicked off the ship immediately instead of later on like in the manga.
Episode 6 started off by adapting Lihito’s story from Chapter 30 and then jumped to Chapter 31 only to skip a lot of fighters’ interactions, even including some crucial buildup for Ohma’s backstory. Instead, the anime adapted various elements of Chapters 31, 32, and 33 in order to focus on the fighting bartender Himuro Ryo losing to Kenny’s Shogi-playing “friend” Kaneda Suekichi.
Earlier on, it was mentioned how the cheating fighter Koji Kaburagi was skipped entirely by the anime. In Chapter 34, Kaburagi is trailing the Kengan cruise ship in a submarine and he also rescued Hassad from the ocean, but this scene is skipped.
The anime also skipped the conspiracy and character machinations of Chapter 35 to jump straight to the attack by fighters looking to steal slots in the tournament. Even then, the anime summarized two chapters worth of fights in under three minutes of runtime.
It can’t be denied that the anime got one thing right with Episode 7, which adapted Chapter 38. The comedic timing of Karura (Karla) Kure’s “proposal” and how she pronounced, “I want to have a baby with you,” was perfect.
Chapter 39 only quickly summarized every single fighter in the tournament and Chapter 40 was pretty much the obligatory “beach episode” chapter so both were skipped. Such a shame since it featured Ohma being chased by a bikini-clad Karura.
The anime could have afforded a more light-hearted episode by also adapting Chapter 40.5, which featured even more beach hijinks. Never mind the sexy bathhouse panels of Chapter 57.5.
Instead, Episode 7 skipped ahead to Chapters 41 and 42 which is when things got serious again with Yamashita winning the first pick of the matchup selection process. The anime covered the most important points but the manga spent considerable time giving more backstory on the company heads and the various factions within the Kengan Association.
In adapting Chapter 43, the anime continued to skip showing how Hassad and Koji were watching the matches from a tent on the island. The manga also explored the Kure grandfather’s relationship with the Kengan chairman Katahara and how Karla Kure was doted upon by her grandfather. The introduction of the chairman’s son, Metsudo Katahara, as part of a special bodyguard extermination force was skipped.
Other female characters like Suoh Mihono (Chapter 57) were similarly skipped. She was a young CEO who inherited her company after her father died shortly before a financial recession. Swimming in debt, she entered the Kenga Annhiliation Tournament as a last-ditch effort to save herself, but her fighter was eliminated in the preliminaries by Lihito. Fortunately for Suoh, she ended up betting everything on the “dark horse” Ohma and in Chapter 62 she gave her thanks to Ohma by giving him her room number.
All in all, Episodes 8 through 12 of the Kengan Ashura anime showed several matches of Round 1 of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament. While most of the fights themselves were true to the manga, the anime pulled this off by showing only the major highlights of the fighters’ backstories before finding a stopping point right near the beginning of the main tournament.
This stopping point was predictable since the anime’s official website announced the full cast in advance. In addition to the eight main cast members, there are 74 supporting cast members already and some of these characters did not appear in the manga until Round 1 on Ganryu Island.
The ending of the anime is a perfect example of how manga story events were reordered. The fight with the creepy assassin “The Black Phantom” Ryo Inaba ended in Chapter 61 and the aftermath of the match in Episode 11 corresponds to the middle of Chapter 62. The anime once again skipped a humorous moment from Chapter 62 involving Karura and Ohma, but the after-credits scene jumped to Chapter 66.5 to show Inaba’s friendship with the Penasonic CEO Urita Sukizo.
The beginning of Episode 12, when Mokichi Robinson is medically revived, actually jumps back to the beginning of Chapter 62. Kurara is shown for once with Elena, but Kurara’s lines were cut. Hanafusa Hajime aka The Dissector’s comment that Ashura doesn’t have long to live immediately follows that scene in the manga but in the anime version, the comment was moved to the final scene of Episode 12’s ending in order to give a sense of foreboding.
The match between “The Immeasurable” Gozo Murobuchi and “Wild Tiger” Takeshi Wakatsuki was actually featured in manga Chapter 63 and it serves as yet another example of skipped plot elements. While the above screenshot showcases how a famous manga panel was recreated using 3D animation, most of the match and backstory was skipped entirely.
The ring introduction of Murder Music’s “The Bird Of Darkness” Keizaburo Sawada didn’t take place until the middle of Chapter 65 but the anime skipped right ahead. The backstory of Toyo Electric Power Company’s “The Monster” Julius Reinhold, and how he trained for the Kengan Tournament using an F-1 race car, actually was the first half of Chapter 65, but Julius was introduced second in the anime.
That gives you an idea of how much content was skipped for this particular fight since the anime jumped straight to Murder Music’s forfeiture in Chapter 66. However, the rest of the hallway fight and the timely soda can throw by Kazuo Yamashita in Chapter 68 played out pretty much the same except some of the dialogue was skipped.
Surprisingly, the panel in Chapter 69 where Iwami Heavy Industries’ “The Genocider” Muteba Gizenga raped multiple women in the hallway on his way to the match was not censored out. Besides being sexually graphic, it seemingly comes out of nowhere since the anime skipped multiple previous scenes showing how poorly Muteba treated women. But the anime also skipped his earlier fight with mercenaries invading the island (the anime’s explanation of Muteba’s blindness briefly touched on the mercenary invasion).
Similarly, the anime did not censor out Chapter 71’s multiple eye-gouging or the cringe-inducing moment in Chapter 72 when Muteba counter-attacked Umiichi Securities’ “The Crying Man” Masaki Meguro by squashing his balls flat, but when the final brain blow was landed Masaki’s backstory with his father in Chapter 70 was skimmed over.
https://twitter.com/Yuji_Itadori/status/1154979881198899200
When it comes to the future of the Kengan Ashura anime, the good news is that there should be more than enough source material for creating multiple seasons. The bad news is that the manga’s story is being rushed by cutting down on certain story arcs.
Considering that there are 236 manga chapters, the anime needed at least four parts or cours to tell the tale with a comfortable adaptation pacing of about four to five chapters per episode. In actuality, the anime averaged six chapters per episode by skipping or skimming many manga panels, so it’s possible that the anime will end with Kengan Ashura Season 3 (Kengan Ashura Part 3) episodes 25 through 36.
For those who want to read ahead of the anime, Kazuo reprimanding Ohma for being dismissive of Masaki’s death and Ohma’s flashback to the death of his master, Tokita Niko, corresponded to the middle of Chapter 73. Therefore, since the after-credits preview for Kengashura Ashura Episode 13: Faith showed the Sumo vs Pro Wrestler fight you can start reading with Chapter 73.
Still, manga readers who want the full experience should probably start with Chapter 8 or even the beginning. The anime skips enough content to justify reading the entire manga.
Kengan Ashura Part 2 release date
Even before the production of the sequel was officially announced, Kengan Ashura Part 2 was pretty much assured since the ending of Episode 12 showed previews for Kengan Ashura Episode 13. In August 2019, Netflix and animation studio Larx Entertainment officially confirmed that the Kengan Ashura Season 2 release date is scheduled for October 31, 2019.
Similar to the way Netflix has labeled anime seasons in the past, they’ll be dividing the episodes up into “parts” rather than seasons. Therefore, the anime sequels will be divided up into Kengan Ashura Part 2 and 3 (Part 4 would be a Kengan Omega anime). But how quickly could Larx Entertainment churn out the sequel seasons?
The availability of animation studio Larx Entertainment’s staff is an issue, but they have not announced any other future projects at this time (their last anime release was the 2016 Soul Worker: Your Destiny Awaits). Larx will likely work to clear up their schedule to meet Netflix’s needs because there’s a financial incentive.
Since Netflix orders its projects directly from the animation studios, the need for an anime production committee is eliminated. Even better, Netflix anime originals are supposedly operating with a 15 percent profit margin. This profit is quite an improvement for the business model since some anime studios operate in the negative for producing TV projects. They make their profits on the backend with sales of merch, soundtracks, and Blu-Ray/DVD box sets.
Larx is apparently focusing on this one project since Kengan Ashura Season 2 is coming out during the Fall 2019 anime season. Therefore, since the time between seasons was shorter than usual for Netflix animes, it’s possible Kengan Ashura Part 3 could come out in early 2020.
Kengan Ashura Season 2 Spoilers (Plot summary/synopsis)
If we’re to understand the present and the future then first we have to understand the past. In this case, the anime might go back to a specific manga chapter that it passed in its rush to show Ohma fighting in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament.
In Chapter 48.5, a young Ohma is shown surviving in the Tokita Ward, a walled city that’s been abandoned by the Japanese government. With no friends, young Ohma is forced to survive by any means possible and he attracts the attention of local Yakuza gangsters, including a fighter named Ando The Wrecker. It’s the epic conclusion to this fight that causes Niko Tikota to become Ohma’s master.
Of course, the anime may just skip those details since it’s already adapted the scene in Chapter 48.5 where Niko gives Ohma his name. Still, another way for Part 2 to open up would be to present the story out of order again and adapt Chapters 81, 82, and 83, which has Ohma fighting against previous Kengan competitors using an out-of-body training experience where he spars against opponents in his mind.
Using this technique taught to him by Niko, Ohma has fought thousands of imaginary matches so he can be prepared to act without thinking in a real match. But his dream fights are suddenly interrupted by the appearance of his long-dead master.
Niko reprimands Ohma for over-relying on the “Advance” technique because it will eventually kill him. Therefore, it’d serve as the perfect opening scene for Kengan Ashura Season 2 since the first season ended by having the doctor foreshadow Ohma Tokita ‘s death.
That scene would also set the stage for the rest of the anime’s story since Niko did not teach Ohma the “Advance” technique. Instead, it’s another person whose identity is a secret.
When Ohma awakens in Chapter 83 he not only frightens his friends with screaming, he also begins bleeding profusely from his nose. Ohma tries to pass it off as nothing, just wounds from his last fight opening up, but then he pukes blood and bleeds from his eyes while in the bathroom. Ohma begins to wonder if his symptoms are tied to the “Advance” technique but it’s never happened before.
It’s then that Yamashita’s “secretary” Rin Kushida spies on Ohma and suspects that it’s “too late” for Ohma. But since the anime wiped Rin from the story it’ll be interesting to see how this subplot will be handled.
Meanwhile, the Kengan tournament fights are still playing out back in Chapter 74. Magatanien corporation’s “Sumo” wrestler Kiozan Takeru has invented a new type of sumo wrestling called “Primal Sumo” that his older brothers consider blasphemous. And they should know since they’re both Yokozuna’s, the highest ranking in the sumo sport. Kiozan is the bad boy of sumo since he’s also known to commit assault and extortion.
Kaede’s older sister, Sakura Akiyama, is introduced since she’s the secretary for the Magatanien company. Kiozan is like a brother to her. The short-haired woman is well-known for losing her direction and becoming lost. She also always does things her own way and has a tendency to unconsciously manipulate those around her, including Kaede.
The sumo wrestler’s competitor is “Hell’s Angel” Jun Sekibayashi, whom Ohma defeated earlier in the anime. Having joined Super Japan Pro Wrestling at the age of 15, Jun picked a fight with the chairman and was beaten up horribly. It’s then that he began a hellish training regimen where he earned his nickname.
Jun only solidified this nickname with his participation in brutal wrestling deathmatches under his character name Hell’s Angel. But he also learned from an older wrestler how to have faith in pro wrestling to the point that he doesn’t need to guard when fighting.
Jun a professional wrestler that can lift up the bulky Haruo Kono using a single hand. Haruo had just been fired by Nentendo but Jun encouraged Haruo to stick around and watch the match.
Jun’s first act in the ring is to provocate his sumo opponent by wearing a hairstyle that can only be worn by certain sumo wrestlers. Greatly insulted, Kiozan attacks Jun from behind before the match even begins. It seems like the match is over, but the wrestler also grabs the sumo from behind and drops him in a german suplex.
Without spoiling who wins the match, Jun’s conviction and resilience despite taking so much damage greatly impress Haruo. Realizing that greed had ruined his life, Haruo is seeking to change his ways and asks Jun to help him train and become a pro wrestler.
The next match is between “The Howling Fighting Spirit” Saw Paing Yoroizuka and “The Giant Of The Sea Of Japan” Yoshinari Karo. Screaming so loud he literally drowns out the announcer and the crowds, the energetic Saw Paing is an all-offensive fighter who flings himself into combat. Saw Paing is obsessed with having a rematch with Heavyweight boxing champion Gaolang Wongsawat, whom he lost to in the past.
Yoshinari, on the other hand, is not a martial artist since his fighting experience has been focused on taking down any giant sea creature which threatens his fishing grounds. But that doesn’t stop the giant man from being a threat to land-based foes since his ocean-attuned sense of balance allows him to pull off crazy maneuvers.
What Saw Paing does not realize is that this match has been fixed by Hayami Katsumasa, CEO of Toyo Electric Power Company. The shrewd CEO “owns” six of the fighters, including Saw Paing and Yoshinari, and he fixed the match so that one of the two competitors will emerge from the fight with his stamina retained. But things don’t go exactly as planned…
The next set of fighters are a little bit crazier than usual since Masami Nezu comes shambling out into the ring while wearing a full-sized “Mockey Mouse” mascot costume. The fighter proceeded to split his own mask in half with a quick kick to the face and then declared, “It’s time to end this nightmare.”
Despite his ridiculous entrance, Masami is the reigning champion of an underground battle organization called Bishamon and the delinquent leader of a biker gang called Noise Zone. He also was a Tochigi Destiny Land fanatic until his land of dreams started making underhanded deals with Toyo Electric Power and soiled his vision of the children’s paradise.
Facing off against “Mockey” is “The Lightning God” Rei Mikazuchi, an assassin who inherited the Raishin Style from his master. Rei was once ordered to kill the beautiful Rino Kurayshoi of the Gold Pleasures Group. But this would-be assassin fell in love with his target.
Match 10 gets even weirder when color commentator Jerry Tyson becomes too busy talking to his mother on an international call. Jerry is replaced by the noisy Saw Paing, who doesn’t need a mic. The only female Kenga Tournament referee, Anna Paula, is also introduced. What’s more, even the ending of the match was weird since it set a new record.
It’s about this time that anime-only watchers should be introduced to “Medicine Man” Kaburagi Koji. If you’ve read the manga comparison, you’ll know that the anime removed this character completely, but now he’s become Toyo’s enforcer. Koji is working in the shadows, eliminating any threat to Toyo’s revolution.
The 11th match has the lecherous Lihito fighting against “The Devil Lance” Gensai Kuroki, a Kaiwan style assassin who is dismissive of Lihito’s abilities due to the old man’s martial arts expertise. But Gensai reassesses his judgment when Lihito’s razor’s edge technique begins to draw blood.
The 12th match introduces “The Watchman” Ren Nikaido, the Chinese fighter who was seen earlier in the story manipulating Murder Music into forfeiting. He’s the leader of a mysterious group called the Wolves of Heaven and his followers are implementing a plan behind the scenes.
Ren is matched up against Ohma’s “rival”, The Beautiful Beast Setsuna Kiryu. At first, it appears that Ren has the upper hand due to a special technique, but then he awakens the asura in Setsuna and quickly realizes his arrogance was underestimating his opponent.
Match 13 has Nogi Group’s “The Floating Cloud” Sen Hatsumi (the laidback guy who manhandled Ohma) taking on “The Faceless Man” Takayuki Chiba. His entrance is quite memorably since he transformed from an “old man” into a muscular hunk. Chiba’s chimeric ability to mimic others extends to fighting styles, which pretty much makes him the Taskmaster of Kengan Ashura. But Chiba is hiding limitations of his ability in order to bluff his opponent into uncertainty.
Match 14 finally has the good doctor Hajime Hanafusa stepping into the ring, but it turns out he’s a Japanese government agent. In the past, he’s disposed of domestic terrorist groups and other enemies of the state in secret. Speaking of secrets, the doctor has modified his own body in many surprising ways that’ll show up during the fight… and even after.
Now, the doctor of death is here at the Kengan Tournament because the government wants to eliminate death row inmate Yohei Bando, a serial killer who has somehow survived 45 attempted executions. Hanging is the only legal form of the death penalty in Japan and Bando just won’t die from hanging. Authorities fear that if Bando’s survival somehow becomes known then he’ll become a symbol of anti-government sentiment.
“The Thai God of War” Gaolang Wongsawat is finally introduced in Match 15. The world boxing champion is technically on loan from the ruler of Thailand. His opponent is “The Giant Killer” Suekichi Kaneda, the mysterious Shogi game player who took another fighter’s spot by defeating him aboard the cruise ship the S.S. Kengan.
Kaneda is the youngest of his family and he was born with a frail constitution so he required multiple surgeries and almost died several times. This upbringing embedded in him a thirst for gaining strength. In high school, he learned to excel in diverse sports, including baseball, soccer, and boxing, but at the same time, he was athletically weak, losing arm wrestling matches to girls. Over time, he learned how to predict his opponents’ actions using foresight and he combined this ability with the Kujin style martial arts. In a nutshell, he’s the epitome of the weakest trying to be the strongest by any means possible.
Finally, Match 16 brings in “The Fang Of Metsudo” Agito Kanoh and his opponent will be “The King of Combat” Naoya Okubo, a Japanese heavyweight MMA champion whose record rivals Gaolang. While they exchange a flurry of powerful blows and then begin a long series of grappling maneuvers, the real match starts when the Fang gets serious, forcing the MMA fighter to quickly switch between blows, throws, locks, and holds.
But then Fang reveals his true ability: evolution. Fang can adapt to any situation, so a hard fight just makes him even stronger. The reason he’s called the Fang is not that he kills his opponents, it’s because he removes their fangs by killing their fighting spirit. But can Okubo figure out how to adapt himself?
Round 1 of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament ends with manga Chapter 116. Assuming that Kengan Ashura Part 2 maintains the same pacing, the anime sequel should finish Round 1 and find an ending somewhere near the beginning of Round 2. This summary assumes that Part 2 will adapt up through at least one of Ohma’s fights in the tournament.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Kengan Ashura Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!