Trivia / Kengan Ashura

• All-Star Cast: The Japanese, English and Latin American Spanish dubs are notorious for having many well-known voice actors in their respective casts. This is especially notorious in the Japanese and Latin American cases, as many of their voice actors are long-time veterans from basically all the time periods of their countries, some of them even dating back from the 1960s.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Due to the unfortunate passing of Keiji Fujiwara in 2020, Toshiyuki Morikawa (who has inherited other characters previously voiced by Fujiwara) takes the role of Niko Tokita in the second season.
  • As of Season 2 Jerry is now voiced by Imari Williams instead of Richard Epcar.
• Real-Life Relative: To a very ridiculous level in the Latin American Spanish dub:
  • Mario Castañeda (Mokichi Robinson) and his children Arturo (Robinson's young self) and Carla (Sayaka Katahara).
  • José Luis Orozco (Katsumasa Hayami) and his son Alejandro (Kaolan Wongsawat).
  • Víctor Ugarte (Suekichi Kaneda) and his uncle Eduardo Fonseca (Gen Shikano).
  • Arturo Mercado (Kunihiro Yumeno) and his son Arturo Mercado Jr. (Masami Nezu).
  • Blas García (Yoshinari Karo) and his nephew Leonardo (Hollis Kure).
• What Could Have Been: Sandrovich often describes his characters' creation history in their profiles, and reveals how much they've changed from the original design.
  • Agito Kanoh was originally going to be a Pankration fighter, with his bodysuit designed to be a subversion of the strongest characters usually defaulting to ceremonial garbs or overelaborate costumes, instead aiming for a look that emphasized a hyper-modernised sleekness, which stuck around even after his Pankration skillset was scrapped. With his Pankration style in mind, his fight with Okubo was initially supposed to be a “New MMA vs Old MMA” type of fight instead of the MMA masterclass it became instead.
  • The character that would eventually become Muteba was originally meant to be a stoic Russian systema practitioner and mercenary based on legendary Sambo master and Pro-Wrestler Volk Han called Volk Aven, until the duo making the series passed it to their editor, who promptly responded "I'm tired of seeing Russian mercenaries in manga! Let's make him a different kind of mercenary instead." With this in mind they redesigned him to be Congonese since Central, West and East Africa have all seen a lot of mercenary warfare in the last several decades and African characters are more of a rarity in manga. To their pleasant surprise it worked out great as Muteba went on to become an Ensemble Dark Horse the fans adored so much he got a bigger role in Omega.
  • Hollis was meant to fight instead of Raian. Metsudo also comments on the choice of Raian over Hollis. It is hinted that Hollis, in comparison to Raian, is both more experienced at fighting and at using Kure Clan techniques, as opposed to having The Gift for Unskilled, but Strong violence like Raian.
  • Sakura Akiyama was originally created to be affiliated with Furumi Pharmaceuticals rather than Magatanien. This is likely why, in-story, she still frequently hangs out with Wakatsuki despite them working for different companies.
  • Perhaps one of the most radical changes to the tournament from its initial conception was that, in his first match with Lihito, Kuroki was going to give him the win after overwhelming him and then afterwards train Lihito as his mentor. Ultimately, they decided that it would betray the point of the story if the better fighter didn't win. For obvious reasons, this would have completely changed the trajectory of the Annihilation Tournament, doubtlessly leading to Setsuna making it significantly further and either him, Agito, or in the off-chance of a left-field swerve still occurring, Rei facing Ohma in finals.
  • Word of God says that Carlos Medel was initially planned to be leagues above Kaolan to the point where his strength was incomprehensible before deciding to Nerf him and play around with the idea of a lightweight vs heavyweight fighter who were relatively even (that is, nearly unmatched in a stand-up fight) skill-wise.
  • Fei Wangfang from Kengan Omega was originally supposed to be Wakatsuki's opponent in the 2nd round of the tournament, rather than Julius, having originally been slated to be in the tournament as part of the deal Hayami made with the Worm.

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