Netflix’s Kengan Ashura opens in a dark alley, where a fighter in his late 20s named Ohma Tokita beats another combatant badly enough to draw attention. That attention comes from the Nogi Group, which recruits him as its representative in the Kengan Association — a hidden circuit where corporate disputes are settled in gladiator bouts. Forget the money. Ohma just wants to fight, and win.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Ohma Tokita and the Niko Style
The premise is thin on purpose. Kengan Ashura does not pretend the fighting is a metaphor for anything. Ohma is known as “Ashura” on the circuit, and he fights with the Niko Style, a martial art taught by his late master, Tokita Niko. The style has four katas: Adamantine, Flame, Redirection, and Water.
That structure is the show’s real engine. Each kata gives the animation a different shape — a hard block, a redirection, a burst of flame — and the series leans on the variety instead of repeating one punch. Tatsuhisa Suzuki voices Ohma in Japanese; Kaiji Tang voices him in English. Suzuki plays him flat and unbothered, which is correct. Ohma is not a character who explains himself.
Kazuo Yamashita, the Salaryman
The better character is Kazuo Yamashita, a 56-year-old salaryman at the Nogi Group. After a chance encounter with Ohma, CEO Hideki Nogi reassigns him as Ohma’s caretaker. Yamashita is skittish and meek, and he is the audience’s way into a world he does not understand either.
What awakens in him as he goes deeper into the Kengan matches is the show’s only real arc. He is later made president of the Yamashita Trading Co., a shell company of the Nogi Group. Chō voices him in Japanese, Keith Silverstein in English. The joke is that a middle-aged office worker becomes a fight promoter, and the show never lets go of how absurd that is.
Hideki Nogi’s Annihilation Tournament
Hideki Nogi, voiced by Jouji Nakata and Michael C. Pizzuto, challenges the Kengan Association for the chairman’s seat. That challenge creates the Annihilation Tournament, with a stipulation: if the Nogi Group fails to win, the company is dissolved and taken by the Kengan Association.
Nogi forms Yamashita Trading Co. with Yamashita as president and Ohma as its fighter. He forms a second shell company, SF Cold Storage, with Lihito as both president and fighter. Kaede Akiyama, Nogi’s personal secretary, is voiced by Yumi Uchiyama and Erika Harlacher.
A Manga Built for This
Kengan Ashura began as a manga by writer Yabako Sandrovich and illustrator Daromeon. It ran on Shogakukan’s Ura Sunday website from April 2012 to August 2018, collected in 27 tankōbon volumes. A sequel, Kengan Omega, started in January 2019.
The adaptation is an original net animation. Netflix premiered the first 12-episode part in July 2019 and the second 12-episode part that October. A second season arrived in September 2023 with a 12-episode first part; the second 16-episode part landed in August 2024.
What the Two Seasons Get Right
Across 52 episodes, the show understands that a tournament is a schedule, and a schedule is suspense. The bracket does the work. You know Ohma will fight, and the only question is who and how badly. The four katas keep the answers from looking the same.
The corporate frame is the smart part. These are not warriors with honor codes. They are representatives of companies, and the prize is a chairman’s chair. The show treats a merger like a title fight, which is funnier and meaner than a straight sports story.
Where Kengan Ashura Drags
The middle rounds sag. With 52 episodes and a large cast, the show spends time on fighters who matter for one bout and then vanish. Yamashita’s reactions carry a lot of that weight, and Chō is good enough to make it work, but the pattern repeats.
The animation is uneven. Some bouts get real choreography; others get still frames and speed lines. That is a budget problem, not a taste problem, and it shows most in the second season’s longer 16-episode part.
The Verdict on Kengan Ashura
Kengan Ashura is a fighting show that knows exactly what it is and does not apologize. The Niko Style gives it a vocabulary, Yamashita gives it a heart, and the Kengan Association gives it a reason to exist beyond punching. It is not subtle, and it does not want to be.
What matters most is that the show never confuses its tournament with its characters. Ohma is a blank; Yamashita is not. The series is at its best when the salaryman is sweating through a match he cannot control. That is the part worth watching.
KEY FACTS
– Score: 8.4/10
– Network: Netflix
– Seasons: 2
– Episodes: 52
– First aired: 2019-07-31
– Last aired: 2024-08-15
– Genres: Animation, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
– Japanese voice of Ohma Tokita: Tatsuhisa Suzuki
– English voice of Ohma Tokita: Kaiji Tang
– Manga run: April 2012 to August 2018, 27 tankōbon volumes
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