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æłé棫
3
OVA
Finished Airing
Mar 5, 1990 to Jul 5, 1990
Anime adaptation of the same name sports manga by Kurashina Ryou.
7.0/10
Average Review Score
100%
Recommend It
1
Reviews Worldwide
I went into âKentoushiâ expecting a mediocre to dull boxing anime, but came out having found an OVA of such hilariously poor quality that it rivals âTwinkle Nora Rock Me.â About half (not an exaggeration) of the choppy animation is recycled, there are long shots of actual pictures of cityscapes used as scene transitions, the âRockyâ-esque plot and characters are cheesy as all get-out, and the fight scenes will have you rolling over with laughter. The theme song, which is in English and featured prominently throughout all three episodes, is a sentimental ballad about a reluctant hero who is training to take down a murdererâ which is not even what the plot is about! âKentoushiâ (literally meaning âThe Boxerâ) is about a Japanese guy named Kenji Ryu, who dreams of someday becoming the world heavyweight boxing champion. The problem, though, is that he canât find any gym in Japan willing to train someone in the heavyweight class, so through a series of convoluted events, he gets on a boat to America with a man named Eddie, a boxing coach who has mentored other Japanese champions in the past, and has agreed to be his coach. They arrive in New York City and face a lot of hardships at first, and Kenji struggles to be accepted by the American boxers. He meets a girl named Megumi (Meg), also from Japan, whose dream is to be a Broadway star, and they quickly form a relationship. He also meets Sam, another Japanese guy who has been struggling to make it in the US, who becomes Kenjiâs manager. Kenji faces rivals both in and out of the ring, and when Eddie suddenly falls ill, Kenji even goes into âunderground boxingâ to earn money for Eddieâs operation. Will Eddie survive, and will Kenji get back into regular boxing and become the first Japanese heavyweight boxing champion? This OVA could be considered a 3-part movie, as it tells one story. The story is easy to understand, and has a clear beginning, middle and end, even with epilogue scenes (one of the corniest epilogues youâll ever see). As for the quality of the story? Well, letâs just say itâs entertaining. The dialogue is hilariously cliched, especially in the parts that are supposed to be romantic. The second episode even ends with text on the screen that says something like âCheer Kenji on in the boxing ring of life,â referring to his relationship with Meg. Kenjiâs rivals often hurl anti-Asian and anti-Japanese slurs at him, and say stuff like âIâm going to kill youâ even though theyâre just supposed to be boxing, and not in a deathmatch or anything. There are copious references to the âAmerican Dreamâ as well. The characters are all basically archetypes who are playing out their roles. The way Megâs character is written, in particular, is disappointing. They make a big deal about her having a similar dream to Kenjiâs about making it big in the US, but her dream only gets lip service here and there, and then eventually falls to the wayside. Not only do we never see her working towards her dream, we donât even know if she actually achieved her dream by the end of the story. She also has âfriendsâ who show up briefly, but only one has any lines, and he disappears from the story almost as soon as he appears. The people that helped Kenji out in Japan are barely even referred to after the events in the first episode. Most of the antagonists seem really angry at Kenji for no reason, and the ones he meets outside of the ring are dressed almost like characters out of âMad Maxâ or âEscape from New York.â Sam is okay, I guess, although underdeveloped, and Eddie is your typical old, hard-boiled and strict coach. Kenji himself seems pretty flat in the first episode, but he develops a slight personality and emotions later on. One of the first things youâll notice about âKentoushiâ is the animation â or lack thereof, I should say. As mentioned earlier, it would not be an exaggeration to say that half of the scenes shown in this OVA are recycled. There are also lots of still shots (like slideshows during fights), and looped animations (like during the disco scene). And there are actual aerial pictures of cities used frequently throughout the show as scene transitions. Text gets shown on screen quite a bit as well, with computer graphic animation effects such as revolving text that were probably state of the art when this came out in 1990. The art isnât that great, either. The characters look kind of ugly, and Kenji in particular looks like he has a rectangular face. The African-American characters all look so similar to each other that itâs hard to tell them apart. Megâs friend, who came to the US to be a âhair designer,â has the worst hairstyle in the show (and thatâs saying a lot). The music is one of the highlights of this anime. The theme song, âHeâ The Fighterâ (not a typo), is incredibly memorable, and itâs bizarre. The song is first introduced with text on the screen in each episode showing its title, composer and lyricist (but not the singer), almost like the beginning of a music video. This is then followed by text saying that âthe song used was provided by the Asahi Film Office.â I couldnât find any âAsahi Film Officeâ online, so it may not exist anymore. Also, the way this is written makes it sound like they just used an already existing song for this anime, which makes sense, considering the lyrics donât match the plot at all. The lyrics themselves are okay, but thereâs something strangely off about them. The lyricist is currently the honorary president of an English conversation school, by the way. The melody was composed by someone whoâs done other anime songs in the past, and itâs quite catchy. The singer remains a mystery. As far as I can tell, no soundtrack was released for this anime, and this song itself was never released, either, which is a shame. As for the background music, itâs generic (also probably picked up from an existing music library), but it fits the scenes that itâs used in well. The voice acting is not that great, but it does succeed in being funny. Kikuko Inoue gives a good performance as Meg, but she seems miscast. Most of the other characters are voiced by other professional voice actors, but they sound like theyâre phoning it in at some points (probably due to the silly dialogue). There are a few minor characters who donât sound like theyâre voiced by professionals. Regarding objectionable content, there isnât much, certainly not enough to get it the R-17+ rating it currently has here. Thereâs some blood (mostly in still shots, and very exaggerated), and some racial slurs. And most of the fighting is just boxing, so itâs not particularly violent (and certainly not graphic, due to the lack of animation). Also, itâs important to note that thereâs a scene at a disco in the second episode that uses strobe effects, so if youâre photosensitive itâs a good idea to skip that scene. This is one of those shows that will leave people divided with regard to its rating. If you like âso-bad-itâs-goodâ-type shows, youâll find this highly entertaining and a must-see. If you donât, then you wonât enjoy this anime. I recommend watching the first five minutes of the first episode â if you like what you see, then this anime is for you. Unfortunately, it doesnât look like the whole thing is subbed as of this writing, so if you donât understand Japanese you may miss out on some of the more hilarious parts, but itâs still worth watching.