Kengan Ashura – Season 2 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Blast Core

Episode 2 of Kengan Ashura Season 2 opens with a flashback from 33 years ago, where Sanpei takes Heihachi around the underground facility. He guides him to a laboratory specially built to keep a child safe. Heihachi witnesses the boy’s superhuman strength as he crushes a controller with his bare hands.

He requests some time to talk to the kid, Takeshi. He asks him to punch him in the gut as hard as possible with an encouraging speech. Takeshi hesitates but goes for it, sending Heihachi flying and severely injuring him. Heihachi goes on to graduate and become the CEO of Furumi Pharma, backing Takeshi in the fight.

Takeshi senses the energy emitted by Julius as they square up. The match begins, and the two go for a power punch, their knuckles clashing. The two are evenly matched. The fighters in the tournament have split predictions on who will win the match.

Just then, Julius unleashes a fatal blow and slams Takeshi into the wall. Takeshi fights back with a flurry of devastating punches to Julius’ face. Oddly, they stand in front of each other and batter each other’s faces with punches without even trying to dodge or defend.

Elena realizes they fight just like kaiju monsters, mindlessly bashing each other without any regard for defence. Julius holds up his guard, defending every punch with his forearms as Takeshi tires himself out.

He then breaks his guard on Takeshi and slams him to the ground. Kanoh analyzes the fight and realizes that since they have equal strength, it now comes down to their frame. Just then, Takeshi leaps from the ground and drives his fist into Julius’ abdomen, sending him flying.

Takeshi realizes that Kanoh has seen that and regrets using it as he meant to save it for Kanoh. However, Julius’ body is shuddering from the shock. Julius realizes the match could be over if that punch hit near any vital organs.

Following that, Takeshi grapples with Julius and begins to push back, but Julius grabs him and throws him away. Julius backs off, sending the audience into a commotion. Driven by motivation to fight the Fang, Takeshi crouches and takes form before springing into his blast core attack, dealing a devastating blow to Julius.

Julius dodges the strike and grabs Takeshi before squeezing his bones together in a bear hug. He points out the flaw as the punch doesn’t target any vital organs. Mr. Hayami reflects on the studies Julius has gone through.

Just then, Takeshi begins to retract his body and rips out another Blast Core attack to free himself. By now both fighters have taken severe damage, but Julius walks up to him and grabs Takeshi’s head in his palm. He begins to slam his head into the ground and run his head through the circumference wall of the arena.

Just as Takeshi loses consciousness and falls to the ground he recollects a vision of his last fight against the Fang as he got called a tiger cub. He instantly gets up and unleashes a combination of Blast Core and a leg kick followed by a tornado kick to Julius’ jaw, knocking him out cold.

Just then Gunji and Long, the guardians in Hayami’s private army approach him and snidely pay their apologies for his loss. Hayami stresses his plan telling them he will be completely fine if he comes out of this victorious, or else the fighters will face the consequences.

Back in the room, Takeshi lies on the ground bandaged up but refuses to go see the doctor, as it would risk leaking out sensitive information that his opponents could use against him.

Later that day, Tomari approaches the director of Gandai, Mr. Shikano, and expresses her disappointment about Furumi Pharma choosing Nogi as their director.

The Episode Review

Episode 2 of Kengan Ashura season 2 unfurls with a bloody and brutal brawl between Takeshi, representing Furumi Pharma, and Julius, representing Toyo Electric Power Company. The competitors are equally matched, both having brute strength as their major attribute. The setup makes for a strength-intensive fight with very little strategy and speed taken into consideration.

A major emphasis of the fight is given to Takeshi’s Blast Core attack, however, Julius points out a major flaw in it. Given that Takeshi intends to fight the Fang, we might see Takeshi adapt and aim for vital spots with the Blast Core attack.

The chapter doesn’t just portray Takeshi as just another fighter in the tournament. It builds a story around him and also emphasizes his mission of defeating the Fang.