Hello ladies and gentlemen. Today, I will be discussing the philosophies of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. If you haven't read the manga, I advise you to do so before reading any further, as much of what I say here may fly over your head if you don't, at the very least, have a grasp on what characters and events I'm calling attention to.
This discussion is about the philosophies of the martial arts in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. I understand that it is a manga, and a fairly fantastical one at that, so I can't really say that a lot of the techniques or training used in this manga are effective or even safe. That said, the philosophies presented in this manga leave a little bit to be dissected so I want to take the time to do so.
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is a manga that takes martial arts and presents them in a fun and entertaining way while still trying to provide insights into character motivations or the way certain characters and philosophies work. Rurouni Kenshin also did this to a limited extent but Kenichi takes it much farther which leads me to believe that it was designed with these ideas in mind.
Both manga have the terminology of Satsujinken and Katsujinken and they both show you the hardships of each respective philosophy. However, Kenichi takes it much farther and that's what I want to discuss.
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has three known Martial Arts philosophies that I'm aware of. Katsujinken or the Saving Fist, Satsujinken or the Killing Fist, and Gedo or the Path of the Demon. Here, I would like to discuss these in-depth so that I may illustrate what's going on behind the scenes.
The first is Katsujinken, also known as the Saving Fist. This philosophy is actually more intricate than one would think on an initial viewing. Initially, you might be thinking that it is the idea of saving innocents or being a hero. You might also think that it is protecting the ones you care about. However, there's more to it than that.
You see, Katsujinken is not the only philosophy that allows the user to save innocents or protect their loved ones. If you protect your loved ones by killing aggressors, or you save innocents by killing villains, Satsujinken sets the precedent for this as well. The problem is that the initial line of thinking is too broad and not strict enough to be Katsujinken.
One of the characters even says as much himself. A Katsujinken doesn't just want to protect their loved ones. They also want to defeat any given attacker without killing them. This can manifest in a number of ways but the way it usually goes in this manga is, if a Katsujinken puts a Satsujinken in a position to be killed and they can't prevent it, they have to obey the wishes of the winner because the alternative that could've taken place is death. It's not so much about self-preservation as it is about honor but I'm getting ahead of myself.
A Katsujinken has to have the power to defeat any opponent without killing them and force them to concede that they cannot defeat you. This is what sparks many of the Katsujinken to train as hard as they do. If their victory over an opponent is not so complete that the winner is not clear once both fighters are on the ground, you'll either have to get killed by your opponent or kill your opponent, violating your philosophy in the process.
Some characters will go to extreme lengths to take this seriously. You would think Kenichi would be the craziest one, since he's the protagonist, he's obsessed with heroes, and he's so adamant about not killing that he even refuses to use weapons.
However, Shigure Kosaka uses every single weapon in the book and the way she uses them is to disarm and disrobe an opponent without actually harming them, rendering them naked most of the time, Ma Kensei will restrict an opponent's movements by half-way stripping them, Akisame Koetsuji will defeat an opponent by disorienting them just enough to pass out and have the loser concede without dealing a final blow, and Hayato will even resort to psychological warfare.
All of these characters avoid killing as well as possible but they tend to do so with means that have a tendency to be a lot more humiliating, degrading, or traumatizing depending on the context and the opponent. This can result in a variety of different reactions, usually shock and horror, but it goes to show just how far these characters will go to avoid killing.
In that respect, Satsujinken is quite a bit easier. Satsujinken, also known as the Killing Fist, is also more intricate than it looks on a surface level. Many who know of the Killing Fist think of those who practice it as killers or monsters who have no regard for human life. However, this manga at least portrays those characters differently.
Satsujinken practitioners will only kill an opponent as an act of dominance. What that means is that they will only kill if their opponent is too dangerous to be left alive or if they cannot win without these means. Many Satsujinken Practitioners are actually fairly decent human beings.
The biggest example that comes to mind in this manga is Akira Hongo. I would say Saiga Furinji but he doesn't work quite as well for two reasons: he's not quite as present in the manga, and he only started on the Satsujinken to figure out how their minds work, so in that sense he doesn't go all the way with it.
Akira Hongo, however, has no qualms about killing, usually does kill for a variety of reasons but he does have a soft side. Particularly, he is fond of children. And when I say that, I simply mean that he does not kill or attack kids and will actively protect them if someone of his level tries to do so in his place. Why he does this is not entirely clear. Part of it may be that he sees children as the future of martial arts and doesn't want their lives extinguished before they reach their potential but something else about Hongo is worth noting.
In a flashback sequence, detailing the past of Akira Hongo and Shio Sakaki, they had a friend, someone who was younger than them who looked to them for guidance. During the final act of this arc, he reveals that he's going to be dying within the next few months and wants to be killed in battle so that he can die a martial artist. Sakaki is against it because he doesn't want anyone to die but Hongo accepts, wanting to honor the dying wish of someone he cares about.
That said, though, I wonder if that may have had something to do with it. The boy he killed wasn't too much younger than they were but he was still around the age of the kids he usually protects in the manga and, though he was honoring his kohai's dying wish, I wonder if this event scarred him more than it initially seems (excuse the poor phrasing).
Other Satsujinken are fairly similar, if not quite as extreme. Ma Sougetsu only kills because it's easier than trying to reason with most opponents. Cyril Raman does kill but he still values life to the point that he opposes Senzui and Kushinada at the last minute, seeming to suggest that he only kills if it means more lives can be saved, similar to Kiritsugu Emiya in that respect.
However, the act of dominance is not reflected in simply being killed. As I said earlier, if a Satsujinken is put in a position where they cannot prevent their own death and they somehow survive, their honor dictates that they have to follow the wishes of the one who beat them. This is what keeps Diego Carlo and Alexander Gaidar in prison for as long as they are despite the fact that they could break out any time they pleased. Diego takes this a step further in the DofD Tournament where Kugatachi's opponent survives the match where he was about to die because she demands that he must not kill himself.
The real murderers are actually of the Gedo. Gedo, translated as The Path of the Demon, and The Path of Asura depending on where you're reading, is a path where the user simply wants to achieve more and more power and will sacrifice any number of lives to get that across.
Though the most noted heinous example was Silcardo Jenazaad for killing anyone who doesn't serve a purpose, Kushinada and Senzui's plan for the organization Yami may have been the logical extension on this. These guys wanted to cause a mini-apocalypse where the weak die and the strong get stronger. This was what caused Cyril Raman and Ma Sougetsu to rebel in the first place.
That said, if you watched the anime instead of reading the manga (you scrub!) the first follower of the Path of Asura you're likely to come across is Isshinsai Ogata, who killed both his master and his master's daughter in pursuit of more power. He performs experiments on his students and perfects techniques that almost killed them. In that way, he's better than Jenazaad but not by much.
I think that's everything I wanted to cover. Have a wonderful day and I hope to see you next time.
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