Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura

There isn't much to say about this crossover episode. It delivers it what it promises. Don't expect big things to happen. On the other side this crossover was really entertaining, and I hope there is gonna be another episode, where we can see Hanma Yujiro fighting. Minor spoiler is that probably this anime is set before Hanma Baki beat his father, keep this in mind. A really big plus for me was that there was only a little narration the main focus in this episode were the figths. That's why I gave this episode an 8 instead of a 7. If you like Baki Hanma and KenganAshura this is a must watch for you, I recommend it. If you don't like these kind of fighting animes you probably won't like this either.

Baki Hanma vs Kengan Ashura is a crossover film where the underground organisations of Baki and Kengan Ashura collide. This crossover has been the subject of high anticipation between both communities and it's finally underway - tournament style. Story & Character: 4/10 & 5/10 This film tries to include all characters in the crossover tournament and it truly feels like a mess; They tried to appeal to every viewer by favouring character appearances instead of battle logic and suspense. As a result the matches were short, rushed and involved the bare minimum background commentary in form of spectators or flashbacks. Instead of calculated fights, Baki Hanmavs Kengan Ashura turned into back and forth matches of attrition at best and semi-completed matches at worst. The fight choreography was one thing but cutting the battle short with some cheap plot device like character appearances and rogue fighters really downplays how great this film could've been. Seeing the characters interact with each other (especially their doppelganger counterparts) is a sight to behold but beyond that this film lacked any new character development. That is not to say that this film should have the most stellar character depth we've seen from any short form anime content; The crossover exists to showcase the strength between franchises. It felt that the goal wasn't accomplished and the characters became part of a 60 minute parade showing off their 5 seconds of fame. Art & Sound: 5/10 I'm glad this film took the 2D Baki art style predominantly; The aggressively grotesque art style is an iconic visual that suits even the characters of Kengan Ashura. There were moments where the art style turned into 2.5D but the quality difference was hardly noticeable, instead the drop in quality came with less detailed dialogue scenes. The sound design lacked any intentional thematic songs from either franchise (from what I noticed) and instead used some generic upbeat techno-metal style backing theme. The voice acting was as expected of a modern anime as well as the sound effects. Overall & Enjoyment: 5/10 I was excited to see the crossover be done with religious justice; Needless to say it was disappointing. The matches could at least have some form of satisfactory conclusions instead of the poorly ended interception. They had a really nice battle line up, I was expecting a sole focus on one or two but they decided to try for a full match and 2 half matches. Yuujirou didn't need to appear and take up 3 minutes of screen real estate for no reason... Overall, 5/10 is a generous rating for Baki Hanma vs Kengan Ashura.

Very middle of the road, it's not bad but it's not good either. The runtime makes it so all the fights feel underdeveloped, and fan favorite characters are reduced to cameos. Overall it feels like this ONA is fan service with no substance. As Baki or Onma will make a move and the audience will be like "they are doing the thing". The animation is average, the fights don't stand out. And overall it just feels really rushed to fit the 1 hour run time. It has some fun moments for fans of Kengan Ashura and Baki, but is missing the hype and excitement.