How is Kengan Ashura related to Kengan Omega manga? Explained

With the recent announcement of the Kengan Ashura season 2 release date, many fans are exhibiting interest in the seemingly affiliated Kengan Omega manga series. Both anime are battle shonen manga series that center on martial arts-style hand-to-hand combat.

Part of fans’ interest in the possible relationship between the two manga series stems from the fact that Kengan Ashura season 2 will likely inspire many to read the manga. If this does indeed end up coming to pass, fans will be curious to know if they should start with Kengan Omega or not, depending on its potential prequel series status.

In any case, fans of one of Netflix’s biggest original anime series have expressed great interest in this potential affiliation between Kengan Ashura and Kengan Omega. Thankfully, there’s a very simple answer and explanation as to the exact relationship between the two, as well as which fans should read first if they choose to do so.

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Kengan Ashura and Kengan Omega manga series have much more in common than half their titles

The connection between the Kengan Ashura and Kengan Omega manga series may be explained in a fairly straightforward manner. The former is the original series written by Yabako Sandrovich and illustrated by Daromeon, and the latter is a sequel series that is also written and illustrated by the pair. Kengan Omega, however, takes place two years after the events of the original series.

In terms of plot and themes, the two are quite similar. For example, Ashura follows protagonist Ohma Tokita, who unintentionally enters a Kengen tournament after defeating the fighter for the Nogi Group in a street fight. Omega follows protagonist Koga Narushima, who is aiming to enter a Kengan match while also seeking out Ohma.

Kengan Ashura first began serialization on Shogakukan’s Ura Sunday website in April 2012, ending in August 2018 with 27 compilation volumes of material. Kengan Omega began shortly thereafter in January 2019, also being published on the aforementioned Ura Sunday website. As of this article’s writing, the series has released 10 compilation volumes and is still ongoing.

While the two series focus on different protagonists, their settings are actually fairly similar thanks to both protagonists finding themselves involved in Kengan matches. Likewise, many of the same tropes are used, with fights predominantly being done in a tournament style as first introduced in the original Ashura series.

One distinction between Kengan Ashura and Kengan Omega is that the former currently has an anime adaptation, but the latter has yet to be announced for one. That being said, this is somewhat unsurprising considering the latter is a sequel to the former.

Likewise, an anime adaptation for the latter likely won’t be announced until the former’s is finished. Nevertheless, it remains a key difference between the two as of this article’s writing.

Beyond this, however, there aren’t many differences between the two manga series. The fact that both mangas are situated in the same universe already limits how distinct they may be, and the introduction of characters, settings, and fighting styles from the original series further bridges gaps if there ever existed any. This is to be expected, after all, considering that Omega is intended as a sequel to Ashura.

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