History Manga / KenganAshura

* MemeticMutation: Nagashima Ginji's "[[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v03/c018/11.html They Must Be Judged]]" pose achieved near-memetic status among Japanese readers, and has been used consistently for Ura Sunday's volume release promotions since volume 3. These promotions replace "They Must Be Judged" with "The Books Must Be Bought", and often photoshop a different character's head onto Ginji.

** When using his 'Advance' technique, Ohma [[spoiler:is somehow able to overclock his heart, achieving a form of blood doping that gives him an immense boost in physical capabilities]].

When Kazuo Yamashita, a 56 year old underachieving salesman, stumbles across the mysterious young Ohma Tokita easily taking down a formidable looking muscle fortress, his world gets set to be turned on its head.

The following day Kazuo is summoned by the Nogi Group’s CEO, Hideki Nogi, who introduces him to the world of the Kengan matches, a place where wealthy business owners, corporation leaders and merchants hire gladiators to fight in unarmed combat where the winner takes all. With Kazuo being reacquainted with Ohma, the latter of whom has become the Nogi Group's latest fighter, the two's journey into the Kengan world begins.

* AxCrazy: The vast majority of fighters have varying shades of this, but Raian Kure. Raian Kure was happy enough when he was given the chance to slaughter people after being chosen to fight in the tournament, but he looked absolutely elated when he was '[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown toying]]' with Mokichi Robinson.
** And if you thought Raian was bad, PsychoForHire Masaki Meguro takes it UpToEleven due to his already twisted nature combined with his unique body constitution that means that to him [[CombatSadomasochist pain equals immense pleasure]]. Oh, and he also cries TearsOfBlood when he realises he gets the chance to kill again. [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c072/6.html Just look at him after having]] [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c072/7.html his eye gouged and his balls crushed]]. I mean seriously, [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c072/22.html look]] [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c073/1.html at him]].
** Tomari Togo, the CEO of a large weapons manufacturing company, is renowned for being batshit crazy.

--> ''' Jun Sekibayashi:''' "Pro wrestlers are good actors!"
* BadassGrandpa: The chairman of the Kengan Association, Chairman Katahara, is noted to be giving waves of energy like a volcano to the point where even fighters were affected despite him being in his late nineties.

* BlackEyesOfCrazy: All members of the Kure Clan have black sclera.
* BloodKnight : Ohma counts as he asked Kazuo if he wants to fight him after he has finished his fight in the first chapter. After Kazuo declined Ohma was disappointed. Later, after beating about a hundred delinquents he turn his attention to Kazuo's second son and asks him if he wants to fight too. However, the latter was probably to set the boy straight. The vast majority of fighters can be seen as this.
* BodyHorror: Most of the injuries in this series are absolutely ''horrific'', in no part thanks to the artist's skill in depicting such injuries. Shout out goes to Muteba Gizenga's lethal brutalisation of Masaki Meguro.
* BrilliantButLazy: Sen Hatsumi. Despite being one of the strongest active registered fighters in the Kengan matches, as well as being one of two people to defeat [[TheAce Takeshi Wakatsuki]], he is a notably lazy person. He has officially lost 15 times: 9 times by oversleeping, 4 from bailing and 2 from forgetting there was even a match on.
* CastFromLifespan: [[spoiler: Ohma's special technique that he uses to defeat Inaba and other fighters takes a serious toll on his lifespan every time he uses it. This is symbolized by him mentally blowing out a series of candles, potentially taking ''years'' off his lifespan.]]

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Even though the series borders on what is feasibly possibly in real life, the majority of characters have trained like crazy to attain superhuman abilities.
* CombatPragmatist: The vast majority of fighters in the series could give a flying about honour and will do whatever it takes to win, dirty, underhanded or otherwise. Early on in the series, Ohma Tokita proves just this when he delivers a GroinAttack to Ivan Karaev, noting that the man's high kicks left his defenses wide open.
* CovertPervert: Tomoko Matsuda. With more emphasis on the "pervert" than the "covert".
* {{Crossover}}: With ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' in one of the extra chapters.
* DeadlyDoctor: Hajime Hanafusa, a fighter who happens to be an excellent doctor. His mannerisms and DullEyesOfUnhappiness also seem to imply that he is a MadDoctor as well, only to reveal [[HiddenDepths that he's actually not that bad a guy]] [[spoiler: when he saves Mokichi's life despite gaining nothing from it]].

* DoYouWantToCopulate: After assaulting him out of nowhere, Karla bluntly asks Ohma to have sex with her (in the middle of the room while other people were present) before adding that she wanted his babies.

* EyeScream: The fight between Muteba Gizenga and Masaki Meguro is full of it. The most brutal is culminated by the method with which Muteba [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill finishes]] the fight.

* FemmeFatale: Rino Kurayoshi.
* TheFettered: Jun Sekibayashi. As a renowned pro wrestler, Sekibayashi has ''unshakeable'' pride in his code of wrestling. Put simply, he will take everything that is thrown at him, without ever dodging or blocking, before turning the tables and attaining victory, so he can put on a good show for the audience. Because of this, against strong opponents, Sekibayashi [[HowMuchMoreCanHeTake willingly tanks insane amounts of damage]] before going on to crush his opponents.

* FullNameBasis: Ohma only addresses his manager Kazuo Yamashita as such, even when Kazuo told Ohma to be more casual. The people that he does this to usually are the people he doesn’t want to beat into a pulp, so in his case it is his own way of being polite.

* HockeyFight: [[{{Eagleland}} Adam Dudley]] is a former hockey player who was strong enough to knock people out while standing on unstable surfaces.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: After seeing Ohma go wild when they were younger sets off Setsuna Kiryu's [[StalkerWithoutACrush lustfully murderous obsession with him]].

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Thoroughly averted with Ohma, who seems to have a difficult time with suitors being upfront about sex.
* MeaningfulName: Ohma Tokita can be translated as “Witching Hour”, Kazuo remarks that even Ohma’s name is strong and links to the fact that before the Kengan Matches, Ohma wandered late at nights looking for a challenge.
** More accurately, "Witching Hour" in Japanese is "ouma ga toki", but it sounded similar enough to Kazuo. [[spoiler:It is later revealed that Ohma Tokita was named after Tokita Ward and Shichiohba, two fictional lawless zones of Tokyo. Ohma grew up on the border of these zones.]]

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Done by multiple characters when asserting their dominance. Notable ones are Kure Raian's annihilation of Mokichi Robinson and Muteba Gizenga's destruction of Masaki Meguro.
* NotSoSimilar: When Ryo Inaba's employer likens [[PsychoForHire Masaki Meguro]] and Muteba Gizenga to him by calling them assassins, Inaba says that he was nothing like them as [[EvenEvilHasStandards assassins don't kill without a reason]].

* [[ProfessionalKiller Professional Killers]]: There are lots of mercenaries and assassins competing in the tournament including Ryo Inaba, Raian Kure and Gensai Kuroki.
* PsychoForHire: Masaki Meguro 100%.

* SerialKiller: Yohei Bando is considered the worst serial killer in Japan's history.
** Masaki Meguro and Muteba Gizenga are also perceived as serial killers (and not merely mercenaries) due to their excessively bloody histories and high body counts.

* SexySecretary: Kaede Akiyama, Mr. Nogi’s secretary. She is very attractive but of the composed variety. Most of the Kengan Association fighters have displayed interest in her, and even Ohma has teased her before.

* ShoutOut:
** Meguro Masaki's tongue lolling was inspired by ComicBook/{{Venom}}. [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c071/1.html You can see how...]]
** The president of Boss Burger looks exactly like [=McDonald's=] mascot Ronald [=McDonald=]. Similarly, the head of Music/{{Motorhead}} Industries looks like Lemmy Kilmister.

* StealthPrequel: ''Dumbbell nan Kilo Moteru?'', the mangaka's episodic weight lifting manga, serves as one. It features many character cameos from ''Kengan'', even those from characters who have already died in the story, and one of the leading girls is related to the Soryuin household.

* WorldsStrongestMan: The Fang of Metsudo, Agito Kanoh.

* BrilliantButLazy: Sen Hatsumi. Despite being one of the strongest active registered fighters in the Kengan matches, as well as being one of two people to defeat [[TheAce Wakatsuki Takeshi]], he is a notably lazy person. He has officially lost 15 times: 9 times by oversleeping, 4 from bailing and 2 from forgetting there was even a match on.

When Yamashita Kazuo, a 56 year old underachieving salesman, stumbles across the mysterious young Tokita Ohma easily taking down a formidable looking muscle fortress, his world gets set to be turned on its head.

The following day Kazuo is summoned by the Nogi Group’s CEO, Nogi Hideki, who introduces him to the world of the Kengan matches, a place where wealthy business owners, corporation leaders and merchants hire gladiators to fight in unarmed combat where the winner takes all. With Kazuo being reacquainted with Ohma, the latter of whom has become the Nogi Group's latest fighter, the two's journey into the Kengan world begins.

* AxCrazy: The vast majority of fighters have varying shades of this, but Kure Raian. Kure Raian was happy enough when he was given the chance to slaughter people after being chosen to fight in the tournament, but he looked absolutely elated when he was '[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown toying]]' with Mokichi Robinson.
** And if you thought Raian was bad, PsychoForHire Meguro Masaki takes it UpToEleven due to his already twisted nature combined with his unique body constitution that means that to him [[CombatSadomasochist pain equals immense pleasure]]. Oh, and he also cries TearsOfBlood when he realises he gets the chance to kill again. [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c072/6.html Just look at him after having]] [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c072/7.html his eye gouged and his balls crushed]]. I mean seriously, [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c072/22.html look]] [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c073/1.html at him]].
** Togo Tomari, the CEO of a large weapons manufacturing company, is renowned for being batshit crazy.

--> '''Sekibayashi Jun:''' "Pro wrestlers are good actors!"

* BodyHorror: Most of the injuries in this series are absolutely ''horrific'', in no part thanks to the artist's skill in depicting such injuries. Shout out goes to Muteba Gizenga's lethal brutalisation of Meguro Masaki.
* BrilliantButLazy: Hatsumi Sen. Despite being one of the strongest active registered fighters in the Kengan matches, as well as being one of two people to defeat [[TheAce Wakatsuki Takeshi]], he is a notably lazy person. He has officially lost 15 times: 9 times by oversleeping, 4 from bailing and 2 from forgetting there was even a match on.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Even though the series borders on what is pheasibly possibly in real life, the majority of characters have trained like crazy to attain superhuman abilities.
* CombatPragmatist: The vast majority of fighters in the series could give a flying about honour and will do whatever it takes to win, dirty, underhanded or otherwise. Early on in the series, Tokita Ohma proves just this when he delivers a GroinAttack to Ivan Karaev, noting that the man's high kicks left his defences wide open.
* CovertPervert: Matsuda Tomoko. With more emphasis on the "pervert" than the "covert".

* DeadlyDoctor: Hanafusa Hajime, a fighter who happens to be an excellent doctor. His mannerisms and DullEyesOfUnhappiness also seem to imply that he is a MadDoctor as well, only to reveal [[HiddenDepths that he's actually not that bad a guy]] [[spoiler: when he saves Mokichi's life despite gaining nothing from it]].

* EyeScream: The fight between Muteba Gizenga and Meguro Masaki is full of it. The most brutal is culminated by the method with which Muteba [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill finishes]] the fight.

* FemmeFatale: Kurayoshi Rino.
* TheFettered: Sekibayashi Jun. As a renowned pro wrestler, Sekibayashi has ''unshakeable'' pride in his code of wrestling. Put simply, he will take everything that is thrown at him, without ever dodging or blocking, before turning the tables and attaining victory, so he can put on a good show for the audience. Because of this, against strong opponents, Sekibayashi [[HowMuchMoreCanHeTake willingly tanks insane amounts of damage]] before going on to crush his opponents.

* FullNameBasis: Ohma only addresses his manager Yamashita Kazuo as such, even when Kazuo told Ohma to be more casual. The people that he does this to usually are the people he doesn’t to beat into a pulp, so in his case it is his own way of being polite.

* HockeyFight: [[{{Eagleland}} Adam Dudley]] is a former hockey player who was strong enough to knock people out while standing on ice.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: After seeing Ohma go wild when they were younger sets off Kiryu Setsuna's [[StalkerWithoutACrush lustfully murderous obsession with him]].

* MeaningfulName: Tokita Ohma can be translated as “Witching Hour”, Kazuo remarks that even Ohma’s name is strong and links to the fact that before the Kengan Matches, Ohma wandered late at nights looking for a challenge.
** More accurately, "Witching Hour" in Japanese is "ouma ga toki", but it sounded similar enough to Kazuo. [[spoiler:It is later revealed that Tokita Ohma was named after Tokita Ward and Shichiohba, two fictional lawless zones of Tokyo. Ohma grew up on the border of these zones.]]

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Done by multiple characters when asserting their dominance. Notable ones are Kure Raian's annihilation of Mokichi Robinson and Muteba Gizenga's destruction of Meguro Masaki.
* NotSoSimilar: When Inaba Ryo's employer likens [[PsychoForHire Meguro Masaki]] and Muteba Gizenga to him by calling them assassins, Inaba says that he was nothing like them as [[EvenEvilHasStandards assassins don't kill without a reason]].

* [[ProfessionalKiller Professional Killers]]: There are lots of mercenaries and assassins competing in the tournament including Inaba Ryo, Kure Raian and Kuroki Gensai.
* PsychoForHire: Meguro Masaki 100%.

* SerialKiller: Bando Yohei is considered the worst serial killer in Japan's history.
** Meguro Masaki and Muteba Gizenga are also perceived as serial killers (and not merely mercenaries) due to their excessively bloody histories and high body counts.

* SexySecretary: Akiyama Kaede, Mr. Nogi’s secretary. She is very attractive but of the composed variety. Most of the Kengan Association fighters have displayed interest in her, and even Ohma has teased her before.

* ShoutOut: Meguro Masaki's tongue lolling was inspired by ComicBook/{{Venom}}. [[http://mangafox.me/manga/kengan_asura/v09/c071/1.html You can see how...]]

* StealthPrequel: ''Dumbell nan Kilo Moteru?'', the mangaka's episodic weight lifting manga, serves as one. It features many character cameos from ''Kengan'', even those from characters who have already died in the story, and one of the leading girls is related to the Soryuin household.

* WorldsStrongestMan: The Fang of Metsudo, Kanoh Agito.

* BadassBoast:
-> '''Sekibayashi Jun:''' "Pro wrestlers are good actors!"

Yamashita Kazuo is a 56 year old underachieving salesman from Nogi Incorporated. His wife divorced him and left, his oldest son is a shut-in and his second son dropped out from school and steals from him after joining a gang. Kazuo is an unhappy man who can’t help but to constantly lower his head as everything around him seems to be above in rank and status.

Tokita Ohma is a mysterious young man presumably in his late 20s who lives an ascetic life, living only to satisfy his base desires for picking fights, he seems to be looking for something, someone, by picking these fights, reasoning that sooner or later he will find it.

These complete opposite individuals meet by chance one day when Kazuo was traversing the night streets and Ohma was picking yet another fight in a dark corner; Kazuo witnesses the average built Ohma easily take down the muscle fortress that was his opponent, Kazuo becomes completely enchanted by Ohma’s feral nature, feeling compelled to ask his name, Ohma bluntly introduces himself and asks the same, Kazuo feels power in Ohma’s words and quickly shouts his own name. This first encounter became the bridge for this unnatural duo.

The following day Kazuo is summoned by the Nogi Incorporated’s CEO, Nogi Hideki. Wondering what he had done wrong Kazuo goes to meet the boss. Hideki instead introduces Kazuo to the story of Kengan Matches, fighting matches that have been organized since the Edo Period, a concept built to end conflict between merchants of that era so it wouldn’t end in mass scale bloodbaths, business owners would choose and appoint top fighters to represent them in these Kengan Matches, the winner would automatically win whatever was the source of conflict between the opposing parties (market share, market reach, locations for subsidiaries, etc.).

Hideki states that Kengan Matches are still going to this day, regulated by the Kengan Association, and the Nogi Incorporated Group is a registered participant, a match is about to break soon and Hideki appoints Kazuo as the manager for their new fighter, the previous one was beat down senseless by some stranger, Ohma is the man in both cases. So it begins Kazuo and Ohma’s initiation in many Kengan Matches.

''Kengan Ashura'' is a manga series written by Sandrovich Yabako and drawn by Daromeon[[note]]One might recognize his art from ''Ketchup Ninja''[[/note]], beginning publication in 2012 it runs in ''Ura Sunday'', a {{Shounen}} Magazine, published by Shogakukan.

* AudienceSurrogate: Kazuo is an underachieving salesman who is immersed as a fighter manager in a secret society where powerful Businessmen organize fighting matches to settle their market disputes. Kazuo is constantly thinking about the ludicrousness of all but still admiring such a different world from his usual pathetic life, and the ridiculously strong fighters who are the very opposite of his weak self.
* BadassGrandpa: The chairman of the Kengan Association is noted to be giving waves of energy like a volcano to the point where even fighters were affected despite him being in his nineties.
* BloodKnight : Ohma can be seen as this as he asked Kazuo if he wants to fight him after he has finished his fight in the first chapter. After Kazuo declined Ohma was disappointed. Later, after beating about a hundred delinquent he turn his attention to Kazuo's second son and asks him if he wants to fight too. However, the later was probably to set the boy straight. Many others can be seen as this.
* BodyHorror: Most of the injuries in this series are absolutely ''horrific'', in no part thanks to the artists skill in depicting such injuries. Shout out goes to Muteba Gizenga's lethal brutalisation of Meguro Masaki.

* DeadlyDoctor: Hana Fusajime, a fighter who happens to be an excellent doctor. His mannerisms and DullEyesOfUnhappiness also seem to imply that he is a MadDoctor as well, only to reveal [[HiddenDepths that he's actually not that bad a guy]] [[spoiler: when he saves Mokichi's life despite gaining nothing from it]].

* GladiatorGames: Kengan Matches, events in which businessmen decide to settle their differences and market share not through court but through appointing fighters to win it all. These fights are very brutal and can end up with one fighter dead or seriously crippled and although there is a referee present his presence is just for show- if a fighter can be smart enough to cheat in a way that the referee and the audience can’t blatantly notice it then all is fair.

* MistakenForBadass: Kazuo gets this. Due to not understanding business jargon, he acts completely unconcerned when the director of Ohma's first opponent wants to make a very expensive bet on their fight, leading that director (who is specifically mentioned as being fairly smart) to believe he has NervesOfSteel. Later on, he accidentally hits Julius' head with a thrown can (he didn't even see the guy) just when he was about to break Sawada's legs. Nikaido gets convinced he is extremely skilled for [[ImprobableAimingSkills doing that perfectly from a blind spot]] and later dodging his nearly invisible needle (he bowed at the exact right time to apologize for the can), while Julius is surprised that the guy managed to hit him exuding any "bloodlust".
* MusclesAreMeaningful: Played completely straight and exemplified by [[TheBrute Julius Reinhold]]. A literal walking mass of pure dense musculature, Julius [[NoSell completely tanked]] Sawada's strongest attack using ''only'' his trapezius muscle.

* PetTheDog: Ohma's relationship with Kazuo and Rhito are this.

* StalkerWithoutACrush: Kiryu is incredibly obsessed with Ohma, and will go to absurd lengths to "protect" Ohma. This, much like [[Manga/HunterXHunter Hisoka]], is for the purpose of murdering him later. Also like Hisoka, his discussions on "fighting" Ohma carry a ''lot'' of sexual overtones, making this somewhat of a subversion.

* StealthPrequel: ''Dumbell nan Kilo Moteru?'', the mangaka's episodic weight lifting manga, serves as one. It features many character cameos from ''Kengan'', even those from characters who have already died in the story, and one of the leading girls is related to the Souryuuin household.
* TookALevelInBadass: Kazuo start as weakling who bow down to almost anyone, but after spending some time in the Kengan matches world and around Ohma specifically he stars to change, becoming desensitized to the everyday happenings of his businessman life. Along with this, Kazuo begins displaying impressive analytical skills when the Annihilation Tournament kicks off- [[spoiler: all five of the fighters he thought would win in the primaries did, in fact, win, and it was not a guess. Note: this was a room filled with around 100 fighters, and he picked the five people he could tell were the strongest.]]

** This trend continues and eventually escalates to the point of being a RunningGag: at one point, Kazuo not only hit Julius Rhinehold in the side of the head with a can (''by accident'', no less), he also dodges a bullet-speed fast assassin thread from one of the Annihilation Tournament infiltrators.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Muteba being [[spoiler: completely blind]] is foreshadowed twice: first, there are his [[spoiler: UnusualEyeDesigns that are completely white, which is usually a sign of blindness in animated media.]] The second is the fact that when Meguro steps into the ring, Muteba identifies his heartbeat as the sign that Meguro is insane, and not the fact that Meguro is crying ''TearsOfBlood''. [[spoiler: In hindsight, it makes sense that Muteba would identify the heartbeat, as he can't even see said TearsOfBlood and he has SuperHearing]].

* BodyHorror: Most of the injuries in this series are absolutely ''horrific'', in no part thanks to the artists skill in depicting such injuries.

* MistakenForBadass: Kazuo gets this. Due to not understanding business jargon, he acts completely unconcerned when the director of Ohma's first opponent wants to make a very expensive bet on their fight, leading that director (who is specifically mentioned as being fairly smart) to believe he has NervesOfSteel. Later on, he accidentaly hits Julius' head with a thrown can (he didn't even see the guy) just when he was about to break Sawada's legs. Nikaido gets convinced he is extremely skilled for [[ImprobableAimingSkills doing that perfectly from a blind spot]] and later dodging his nearly invisible needle (he bowed at the exact right time to apologize for the can), while Julius is surprised that the guy managed to hit him without letting out any "bloodlust".

* Foreshadowing: Muteba being [[spoiler: completely blind]] is foreshadowed twice: first, there are his [[spoiler: UnusualEyeDesigns that are completely white, which is usually a sign of blindness in animated media.]] The second is the fact that when Meguro steps into the ring, Muteba identifies his heartbeat as the sign that Meguro is insane, and not the fact that Meguro is crying ''TearsOfBlood''. [[spoiler: In hindsight, it makes sense that Muteba would identify the heartbeat, as he can't even see said TearsOfBlood and he has SuperHearing]].

* CastOfSnowflakes: After years of publication the series has been consistently about one big fighting tournament, its dozens of fighters have very varied designs and each fight is given panel time, even those where the protagonist isn’t taking part, some are shorter, some are longer than others but all fighters are given some character and a background.

* Deuteragonist: While Ohma is the protagonist, his sponsor/partner Kazuo is also given a lot of focus in the story.

* ParentalSubstitue: Kazuo acts as a calming agent for Ohma before and after fights, while Ohma inspires Kazuo to see his life differently. [[spoiler: Niko was also this for Ohma.]]

* DeadlyDoctor: Hana Fusajime, a fighter who happens to be an excellent fighter. His mannerisms and DullEyesOfEmptiness also seem to imply that he is a MadDoctor as well, only to reveal [[HiddenDepths that he's actually not that bad a guy]] [[spoiler: when he saves Mokichi's life despite gaining nothing from it]].

* KickTheDog: To show how evil Raian is, he [[spoiler: murders Mokichi during their match, despite being able to non-fatally incapacitate him easily]]. Most of the other competitors find this distasteful, even Raian's own Kure Clan.

* BloodKnight : Ohma can be seen as this as he asked Kazuo if he wants to fight him after he has finished his fight in the first chapter. After Kazuo declined Ohma was disappointed. Later, after beating about a hundred delinquent he turn his attention to Kazuo's second son and asks him if he wants to fight too. However, the later was probably set the boy straight. Many others can be seen as this.

* KickTheDog: To show how evil Raian is, he [[spoiler: murder Mokichi during their match, despite Mokichi being more than able to be knocked out]]. Most of the other competitors find this distasteful, even Raian's own Kure Clan.