Kenji (1988)

No movie today folks. This time I will set you up with a Manga named Kenji.  Kenji is a story about a teenager who practises the martial art Ba Ji Quan and his encounters with other martial arts practitioners. Kenji is a very interesting Manga, because it features actual legends in the martial arts world and some very accurate historical facts. It also provides you with many wise life lessons without getting dull. I'd say: make a few liters of tea, find a blanket, seat yourself in a comfortable way on your couch and prepare for hours of reading :)





For those who don't know what a manga is, it's a typically Japanese style of comics. It characterises in the cinematic way of delivering the stories and cliffhangers on every end of a page which make you want to keep on reading forever. Very addictive as I can tell from my own experiences. What is especially well done in Kenji is how the fights are drawn. Fights are difficult to draw, because a fight is dynamic and the most important part is how a person moves. As you can understand, there is no movement in a picture. Also every person has his own fighting style. Kenji focusses on traditional Chinese martial arts that are complex. A small change in the position of the back for example makes a punch a good or a very bad punch. The artist drawing the manga must have a very good understanding of the martial art to accomplish putting this on paper. Yoshihide Fujiwara did an excellent job on this part.

Ryuchi Matsuda wrote Kenji and based it on his own life (he says). Although I think he may have exaggerated here and there. Matsuda did practice bajiquan and several other styles and he drew from his own knowledge when writing the story. Kenji meets several (real life) masters including Su Yu-Chang (founder of the Pachi Tanglang Martial Arts Association) and Grand Master Liu Yun Qiao (student of the famous Li Shu Wen, you know, the guy how literally made ba ji quan very famous in China). Have no idea who these people are? Luckily you'll learn all about them in Kenji :)

Not only ba ji quan is featured in Kenji. He also learns several other styles including xing yi quan, bagua zhang, xin yi liu he quan, tang lang quan (praying manting), chen tai ji, pi gua quan, shaolin quan, hung gar, and shotokan karate. There are more but these are the ones that I remember ^_^ Also here counts: if you don't know these styles (which you should), you'll learn all about them in Kenji.

The last thing I want to say about Kenji is that the story and the philosophy brought in the story are top notch. You see Kenji growing in height but he also grows as a person. Character development is one of the most important things in a story I think. The ending is also very satisfying. Well, just the fact that it has an ending makes me feel good. There are too many mangas that keep on going endlessly (say Naruto, Bleach, One Piece etc.). This one is far better in my opinion. 

You can read Kenji in the link below. Let me know if you want more Manga recommendations. I have a lot more!

http://mangafox.me/manga/kenji/