天下制覇

Kenichi gets by with a little help from his friends.

Impressions:

This was a very awkward episode. The art was pretty awful throughout… distorted Kenichi faces, and it really seemed like the animators couldn’t settle on how to draw Odin without his glasses. There wasn’t nearly as much flashback as there had been for the past couple episodes, though there was still enough for me to think snide thoughts about it. Most of the fight up until Kenichi tried his old doom punch on Odin was the same old same old boring “Odin knocks Kenichi down, gives a speech, Kenichi gets up and says Odin’s wrong, then gets knocked down again.” Once Sieg gave his little peptalk, things got drastically better, and while Kenichi imitating all his masters still didn’t boast anywhere near the animation or choreography of the Hermit fight way WAY back when, the humor of it… especially the Shigure impression… was enough to entertain me. I bet Kenichi’s VA had a blast with that scene and imitating most of the other VAs during it.  It’s uploading right now and should be up in 20 minutes or so.

Oh crap! The first episode in almost a month that doesn’t start with 3 minutes of recap. I should probably pay attention.

Kenichi is having issues dodging Odin’s Gungnir. No matter how he tries to dodge it, it hits anymore. Wait a minute… I remember this scene… this is the exact same scene as before… with different art and animation. Oi.

After Odin says that he’ll be the devil this time, he has a flash back to opening tons of the capsule machine things until he got his own Yin-Yang button. Yada yada, he thought young Miu was graceful and beautiful… and then attacks again, slamming Kenichi down once more.

He asks if that’s all Kenichi has? All the power that he’s gained. The flag boy yells at Kenichi and tries to attack Odin from behind, but Odin just backflips over him. The guy loses sight of Odin… but catches something that falls from above… the Yin-Yang badge. Odin loses it and smashes into the guy and then gives him a palm to the face, knocking him down the mountain of junk.

Kenichi thinks back to when Odin took the badge. Ah, here’s the straight up flashback and recap. I knew we weren’t out of the woods.

Odin gives another boring speech about it being Kenichi’s fault things turned out like this, including insulting his trainers.

Miu was the only one who couldn’t hear it and is distressed. Kensai laughs and thinks that only <em>his</em> apprentice would insult the Ryouzanpaku.

Kenichi gets up and says that insulting his masters is unforgiveable. Babyface Odin says that Kensai taught him true power. He used to just be an uncontrollable fighter in the ring, but then saw Kensai being picked on by a pair of martial artists. Kensai dispatched both easily, despite their weapons and so impressed Odin that he followed him and asked him what kind of match it was… and then learned from him true martial artists.

Kenichi says that kind of martial arts is wrong and tries to jumpkick Odin. Odin easilly just uses his Gungnir to repulse Kenichi. The two end up on a pipe. He tells Kenichi to come on, but Kenichi can’t think of how to get around Odin’s attacks or defenses.

Sieg has some thoughts and while fighting off generic goons tells Kenichi to hear the rhythm of Odin’s Gungnir and turn it into his own melody. It’s kind of hard to decypher what Sieg is saying between all the musical nonsense honestly. Kenichi thinks back to the punch he improvised against Sieg and thinks to himself that he can do it again using all his training to make something Odin won’t be expecting.

Odin rushes forward and starts attacking again. Kenichi keeps blocking, but starts edging forward. He’s still taking blows though and is knocked backwards… but manages to pull himself up and lays his head on Odin’s chest. Odin is impressed, but then realizes that Kenichi’s doing something. He thinks it useless, but Kenichi suddenly punches forward in a huge blast, catching Odin totally off guard.

Sieg recognizes the punch as the exact same that Kenichi used against him.

Odin has been blasted backwards… but he then starts laughing. He says that “this was supposed to be dangerous?” He caught Kenichi’s punch in his hands. Sieg can’t believe that anybody could have read that. The distraction almost lets a punk hit him, but Thor comes to his rescue.

Kenichi tries again for the punch, but Odin steps forward, pushing Kenichi’s hands up and away and then combos Kenichi’s face. He says it’s over and punches him backwards. Kenichi flies away and then rolls off the pipe. Niijima uses his alien power to save him… and his belt buckle snags on the pipe, delaying him long enough for him to grab the edge.

Kenichi holds on for dear life. Odin wanders over to taunt him. Kenichi manages to pull himself up, but he’s pretty beat up at this point and thinking that he isn’t strong enough to beat Odin. In his annoyance, he slams his head on the pipe… stunning everybody. Odin thinks it’s funny, but Kenichi smiles to himself and reintroduces himself as the kickboxing champion.

Odin is a bit confused… but Kenichi takes a perfect muay thai stance… starts saying “apa” and imitating Apachai so flawlessly that Odin sees Apachai’s fighting spirit in Kenichi. Odin doesn’t really understand what this means, but he’s not really scared either. Kenichi rushes forward and attacks Odin… all the while yelling “apa.” He actually manages to land a couple hits to Odin’s surprise. Apachai celebrates as Kenichi calls himself Apachai Hoppachai.

Kenichi continues the muay thai fighting, putting Odin on the defensive. Odin falls back and relies on his seikuken… but Kenichi shifts form again to pure karate and powers through the seikuken. Kensai thinks that he’s gone nuts… which is probably true. Akisame thinks that they’ve hammered so much of themselves into Kenichi that he’s able to totally ‘shift change’ from one to another and mimic them as much as possible and it’ll be a great technique.

Kenichi keeps fighting Odin, now able to shift between them all at will and use both speed and power to keep Odin totally off balance. He even imitates Shigure with an effeminate voice and using his fist as a sword. Odin goes for a gungnir, but Akisame-Kenichi turns it into an arm bar and then throws Odin through the nearby roof.

Odin lands on a spike and is bleeding from his arm. Kenichi runs over to help him, but Odin kicks him in the gut. He starts laughing crazily asking Kenichi how he suddenly got so good. He gets up and says that he doesn’t understand at all. Odin finally gets serious and… powers up. His shirt explodes and all his muscles bulge as he gives way to his anger and primal fighting spirit. Even the masters are shocked by the change in Odin, being able to use both the ‘calm’ techniques and the dark/primal ones.

Kenichi’s Hidden Power