Kick, punch, and grab your way through this brutal anime
How to by Trent Cannon Contributor
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If you’re looking for a sports manga with great characters and more abs than you’ll know what to do with, the Kengan Ashura series is the perfect choice. It has all the action and brutality of a back alley street brawl along with the drama of a soap opera as it follows Tokita 'Ashura' Ohma’s matches during the dangerous Kengan Annihilation Tournament in Japan. Whatever you’re looking for, you can find it within the pages of Kengan Ashura.
While the anime is relatively straightforward in how it approaches its timeline, it is part of the wider Kengan Ashura series of manga that includes both prequel and sequel entries. If you’re looking to either watch or read Kengan Ashura in order, we have your best options outlined below.
Where can I watch Kengan Ashura?
If you want to catch up on the Kengan Ashura anime, you just need a Netflix subscription. All 36 episodes are currently available on the streaming site, with Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura coming in June and future episodes due out next year.
How to watch Kengan Ashura in chronological order
If you’re just interested in the main story, the Kengan Ashura anime is a great place to start. While there are still some volumes of the manga that haven’t been adapted, the anime is set to finish the story of Tokita Ohma and his quest to win the Kengan Annihilation Tournament in the next season.
While there are a handful of flashbacks throughout the anime, most of Kengan Ashura takes place in chronological order. Watching the show in this way requires jumping between episodes frequently and will undermine much of the anime’s dramatic tension, so we only recommend it if you’re a returning fan looking to experience the show in a new way.
Here is how to watch Kengan Ashura in chronological order:
- Kengan Ashura Episode 10 Part 2 – This is a flashback to Mokichi’s past with his sister Elena.
- Kengan Ashura Episode 12 Part 1 – This is a flashback to Meguro Masaki’s past with his father.
- Kengan Ashura Episode 8 Part 1 – This is a flashback to Imai Cosmos’ past as a troublemaking kid.
- Kengan Ashura Episode 4 Part 2 – This is a flashback to the death of Tokita Ohma’s teacher and adoptive father, Tokita Niko.
- Kengan Ashura Episodes 1-3
- Kengan Ashura Episode 4 Part 1
- Kengan Ashura Episodes 5-7
- Kengan Ashura Episode 8 Part 2
- Kengan Ashura Episode 9
- Kengan Ashura Episode 10 Part 1
- Kengan Ashura Episode 11
- Kengan Ashura Episode 12 Part 2
- Kengan Ashura Episodes 13-36
- Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura (2024)
How to watch Kengan Ashura in release order
The best way to watch Kengan Ashura for the first time is in the order it was released. Because there is only one anime series at the moment, this is an easy task.
The release order for Kengan Ashura is:
- Kengan Ashura Season 1 Part 1 – July 2019
- Kengan Ashura Season 1 Part 2 – October 2019
- Kengan Ashura Season 2 Part 1 – September 2023
- Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura (2024)
How to read the complete Kengan Ashura series
Kengan Ashura isn’t the first series that Yabako Sandrovich wrote that takes place in the same setting. What is often referred to as the Kengan-verse actually started as a webcomic called Fist of the Seeker before Kengan Ashura was first published back in 2012. Since then, Sandrovich has begun a sequel manga titled Kengan Omega, which takes place two years after the original series, and a prequel chapter that establishes much of the backstory for Kengan Ashura.
Here is how to read the entire Kengan Ashura series in chronological order:
- Fist of the Seeker
- Kengan Ashura Zero
- Kengan Ashura
- Kengan Omega
If you’d prefer to read the Kengan Ashura series in release order, to preserve the dramatic tension and some of the big reveals in Kengan Ashura Zero, here is the series in release order:
- Fist of the Seeker
- Kengan Ashura Chapters 1-116 or Volumes 1-15
- Kengan Ashura Zero
- Kengan Ashura Chapters 117-236 or Volumes 16-27
- Kengan Omega
Is Kengan Ashura connected to Baki?
It is easy to see how fans compare these two popular series. Both involve over-the-top fights and incredibly muscular men pummelling each other in and out of the ring. However, despite having similar aesthetics and themes, Baki and Kengan Ashura are completely unrelated.
That won't be the case for much longer, though. Netflix have announced an upcoming crossover anime titled Baki vs Kengan Ashura that is due out on June 6, 2024. Details of the plot and even where it will take place in the two respective timelines aren't known yet, but we do expect it to feature plenty of action and almost no visible body fat.
What other manga are in the Kengan-verse?
In 2016, another manga written by Yabako Sandrovich was released. Titled How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, this manga followed a group of young women as they began working toward their fitness goals. It is largely a comedy manga with heavy doses of fan service throughout along with some really solid fitness advice for those new to weightlifting.
Aside from sharing a writer, How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? and Kengan Ashura don’t have much in common. However, there are a handful of crossovers that firmly place the two in the same universe. Several characters, such as Kure Karura, make appearances in both manga. Akemi Soryuin, one of the main characters in How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, is the younger sister of Shion Soryuin in Kengan Ashura. You certainly don’t need to read both to understand the other but it is fun seeing the fleeting intersections between them.
Do you need to read Fist of the Seeker before watching Kengan Ashura?
Sandrovich’s original webcomic can be hard to track down these days, as it was never traditionally published and has since been taken offline. Completionist fans likely want to read everything they can in the series, but the crossover between Seeker of the Fist and Kengan Ashura are incredibly small. You don’t need to read Seeker of the Fist to understand the events of Kengan Ashura, though it does give some fun background information for the world.
When is more Kengan Ashura coming out?
The first season of Kengan Ashura came out in 2019, but it was another four years before more episodes came out. The first half of season two landed on Netflix in September 2023, but a firm release date for the second half of the season hasn’t been confirmed yet. All we know so far is that it is due out at some point in 2024.
The good news is that these episodes will reportedly take the story to the end of the original manga’s plot. The bad news is that there are currently no plans to adapt the story of Kengan Omega, the sequel manga that takes place around two years after the end of Kenga Ashura, into an anime. Because the Kengen Omega anime is still being published, we might have to wait a long time to see an anime adaptation of it.
This is, of course, in addition to the crossover anime with Baki coming out on June 6, 2024. This anime, titled Baki vs Kengan Ashura, hasn't shared many plot details but promises to have plenty of over-the-top fighting action.
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