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Kenji
by KrisKelvin on December 13, 2010, 8:25pm - 15 years ago

Rating - 8.4 / 10.0
Series Image
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User rating of this review - N/A out of 5
Story/Plot - 4 out of 5
Characters - 4 out of 5
Drawing Style - 4 out of 5
Enjoyment - 5 out of 5
Overall - 4 out of 5

Plot/Story
The story chronicles the life of modern-day martial artist. Kenji Goh is a teenager fond of the martial arts particularly Bājíquán, which he studied from his grandfather at an early age. While Kenji's training in Bājíquán is not complete, he learns other martial arts to compliment his skills. Kenji's rival is Tony Tan, a Chinese gangster skilled in Hung Ga Shaolin Kung Fu and Muslim Chinese martial arts like Xinyiliuhequan.

Characters
The characters are well introduced, and in some arcs, the readers can see the background of a martial art presented with its each "heroes" like Li Shuwen of Bajiquan. While on his journey, Kenji meets many people, introduced as if it was by fate. These people, who might drawn from real characters, mostly take part as instructor or teacher to Kenji. I don't see it in bad view, but I think even though the manga revolves around Kenji himself, sometimes it doesn't too make sense seeing that he can fight and defeat martial artists who should have had more experience and knowledge than the boy. But then again, I think it would be boring if we'd have to wait a couple years of training -we want some action, right?.
Kenji himself is introduced as a naive yet honest (or innocent?) boy who is skillful in martial art (not only Kung Fu) and wishful to learn more. The author seems don't want to take risk, but that's not a big problem.

Drawing Style
It's more different than the mainstream, but I do kind of complaining with Kenji's child-like (almost feminine) drawing while almost all of his "big friends" or opponents are adult-like, manly and look older than what we think of. For the battle or action drawing, I quite like it: they seem clear and easily followed, contradicting to many present action mangas that deliver confusing drawing. One can even learn and master a technique from just reading the manga (joking), since the training stuff are drawn so plain and clear, just like those tutorial books.

Enjoyment
I do not believe any normal boy or man can dislike this. With so many interesting arcs and sub-plots, Kenji should be enough to entertain our sense of adventure.

Overall
I think, the most interesting part of shonen manga is its ability to entertain young male's expectation of adventurous thrill and struggle of characters. This manga, while staying focus on its genre, has been developing quite a fine structure with involvement of history and present time in exploring its subject. I do think, however, that the manga can probably be enjoyed only by those who love martial arts. But I recommend this to all since I don't think readers should read just on one genre. Especially when there is something good like Kenji.


 

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