Friday, November 23, 2012

Book Review: History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi Vol. 9 (Manga)


Book: History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi volume #9 by Syun Matsuena

Description:

Kenichi Shirahama continues his training at Ryōzanpaku. Volume 9 features chapters 72 - 80.



Rating: 5 stars

My Review:

This manga series continues to be amazing. I thought this volume was very well written, fast paced and had a good balance of action, drama and comedy. I like this series because Kenichi does not like the idea of fighting just to fight. He is training so that he will no longer be weak and so that he can help those who are being treated unjustly.

In the first story (chapters 72 - 76), Kenichi along with Miu attempt to save fremeny Nijima from Ragnarok, a teen gang. However, before Kenichi could find his friend, he had to go up against Siegfried, who is known as the immortal composer. According to others who have fought him, he never stays down no matter how many times he is hit. Kenichi had a tough fight ahead of him because Siegfried was tougher than he looked.

The second story (chapters 77 and 78) had teachers from Miu and Kenichi's school visting Ryōzanpaku due to a misunderstanding, they were visiting to check out her home life and to verify or dismiss the rumors that they heard. Due to Miu's grandfather being out of town, she needed two of the teachers to pretend to be her parents and of course everything went wrong. This was really funny.

In chapter 79, Kenichi was feeling down because he thought he would never be able to reach Mui's fighting level and it caused his self-esteem to take a hit. He ended up getting inspiration from his teacher Apachai, who despite never winning a game of Othello against Kenichi younger sister Honoka, continues to practice everyday. Realizing that Apachai never let his defeats stop him, Kenichi was fired up and ready to train.

The last chapter had Honoka meeting one of the Ragnarok members Hermit. The chapter began with Kenichi going shopping with his little sister, however, they get separated from each other. Honoka noticing how unfair it was that three guys were trying to fight one guy tries to break it up, but she ended up getting hurt. Hermit then tended to her wounds at his house. After receiving first aid, Honoka being her usual pesky self attempted to thank him by trying to prepare tea but inadvertently finding out that the teen was living alone in a cluttered dirty house. She tried to make him a home cook meal and then helped clean. Despite, Hermit telling her to leave, she wanted to help out because she felt bad for him and he kind of reminded her of her brother. The story ends with Honoka leaving to go find her big brother.

I like this series and can't wait to read the next volume.

No comments: