The Kengan Ashura manga had a very good run from 2012 to 2018. Ohma Tokita's journey from street fights to dealing with the Kengan Association was a dark albeit epic story. The anime adaptation by Larx Entertainment has certainly helped increase its popularity, but the work done by writer Yabako Sandrovich and artist Daromeon cannot be understated.
Part of the appeal of the Kengan Ashura manga is the great action sequences. Every fight in the Kengan matches feels visceral and raw. This is part of the series' appeal and why so many people want to start reading the manga while waiting for the anime to come back.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Kengan Ashura manga.
All the details about the Kengan Ashura manga
Where to read
Considering that Shogakukan is the company that published the Kengan Ashura manga, the best way to read it is through the MangaOne platform. MangaOne is an application that can be downloaded, and people can use it to read all the manga series that are published by Shogakukan.
For people who prefer reading physical copies, the manga can be found on Amazon. There are several copies of it in several languages, including English, Japanese, and French.
What to expect
The plot of the Kengan Ashura series is very simple: Ohma Tokita is an underground street fighter who gets picked up by a company that wants him to participate in the Kengan matches. This is a high-level underground fighting tournament where each fighter represents a certain company, and the competition has been going on for decades.
In a way, Kengan Ashura can be viewed as a mix between Record of Ragnarok and Baki: it has the tournament-like structure of the former and the underground fighting insanity of the latter. This results in very high-quality battles and also a deep insight into what makes a warrior tick and what they need to feel excited in combat.
Sandrovich is a very good writer when it comes to pacing. No fight feels too long or too short, and the story is very easy to digest. The art is also quite good, with some panels really capturing the energy of the punches and the action as a whole.
The Kengan Ashura manga isn't overly complex, nor does it aspire to be. The series is focused on entertainment and achieves this with a wide array of characters that push Ashura, the nickname of the main character, to his limits.
Final thoughts
Despite the success of the anime, the Kengan Ashura manga is fairly underrated. It is a great work of art with a solid plot and a very good understanding of what makes a shonen series work. This is why it has had such massive success during the six years of its run and continues to generate interest even to this day.