I definitely agree that the Okinawa arc was one of the best ones. Some people were complaining about the way Apachai was saved but come on man it's Apachai. I mean yeah it was a bit silly but you can't kill him off right?
I can't really agree with people pointing out the flaws because their reading one chapter at a time versus reading a multitude of chapters. I think if people really love reading something they're going to go back and reread the volumes and those flaws will become apparent to them anyway. This is especially true if they're buying the volumes because then they'd want their money's worth. But then again it's only released in Japan right now and I don't know anyone from Japan complaining. At least I think it's only released in Japan. I have a couple of more questions if you don't mind.
What about the issue of the ecchi-ness intruding on the climactic battles? Do you feel they take away from the fight or add to it in some cases or could you take it or leave it?
And where do you think that the author should take Kenichi in terms of story for the rest of the Miu rescue arc and there on afterward?
I personally feel that an introduction to the darkness of the story could really do wonders for it.
Also what do you think about the new OVA so far, looks great right?
Again thank you for your time and attention and I apologize if this is a bit troublesome.
Well the fact that apachai was revived is not a big deal in my opinion. All the authors arrived in a certain point of their works have to decide if kill off characters or not, and the fact that apachai survived did not seem out of the place in the manga.
About the thing of poiting out flaws, you don't consider that half of the people that read a manga just look at the pictures and among the other half that have interest in the actual story only few of them re-read the manga. Hell, I heard of people that began to read kenichi when mangastream picked it up and then stopped reading it just because the Mangastream dropped it. Plus even if you reread it, you are less inclined to find out the flaws because you like the manga to a certain extent. I am curious if the people that affirmed that kenichi sucks at least reread it 2 or 3 times(I should be around 7-8 especially from chap 150 to chap 300)
Plus about the fact of reading a bunch of chapters instead of one every week, when you have a lot of chapters in your hands, you are able to see the big picture better.
For example take hongo Vs sakaki's fight. If you read that battle on a weekly basis you are over annoyed by the heavy presence of flashbacks that breaks the rithm of the fight. I read of people complaining about it and even if I found their complains a little exagerated, I have to say that I agreed with them for the most part. But I'm sure that if one reads those 10 chapters altogether now, the balance between flash backs and actual fight plus the final scenes when the fight gets to his peak and the final apparition of junazard would make it something on the level of apachai and agaard fight.
About the ecchi, I have admit that it is a little exagerated. It is not like I'm particularly annoyed by it as I'm accustomed to this things, but I find them negative for the manga for 2 main reasons:
1) the excessive ecchi precludes the manga for a wider audience. Let's not forget that kenichi is a shonen, a manga that should be adressed to male kids from the 8-9 years to 18 years. The excessive level of ecchiness precludes young fans those under 14 years(it is a guess not sure) to read it, and the new and young fans those that will enlange the fanbase. As a matter of facts, even if kenichi is one of the most viewed manga on the web, it doesn't have great numbers in the volume sales in japan.
2) the second reason is the quality of the artwork. the majority of men out there like to see big breasts and bouncy asses especially if you are a teenager, that is probably the cause of success of some mangas like bleach or fairy tail. The level of big breastes in kenichi trascended so much that even someone like me accustomed to such unrealistic proportions finds the girls to be deformed. There are some miu drawings out there where her breasts are larger that her back. No matter what kind of martial artist you are, your back should snap with a pair of those things. On the other side men, even if full of muscles, are well enough proportioned.
If matsuena would return to the level of plumpage of the DoD or more or less around there, I think it would be better for his art.
For the future of manga, in the current arc we have only to see miu kick some asses here and there, see if hongo will be able to fight the demon fist god even if injuried. In my opinion junazard will kick hongo's ass(he is injured remember?) and the one shadow will personally interfere.
After this arc we still have, half of the one shadows nine first still alive and kicking, but what I'm looking forward to will be the arc against kensei's titans. In my opinion matsuena will give us something like a 100 chapters long arc where the shinpaku alliance will fight against them, something like kensei's old experiment Vs kensei's new experiment.
Finally I think that kenichi will be probably over when he will not be disciple anymore, but he will enter masterdoom. That would mean after he defeats all yomi disciples and yami is definitelly defeated. If matsuena doesn't want to stop there, there could be some new organizzation of young masters kenichi would fight against, but if the authors intends to drag this manga until he is on the elder level, I think we will need another 100 volumes to see the end of the manga.
Finally for the OAV, I would have prefered a TV show. Maybe the quality would not have been so excellent, but a TV series would have increased the series popularity, and anyone wants to see the fight between Shou and kenichi animated!
