Kengan Ashura – Season 2 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Suicide Attack

Episode 5 of Kengan Ashura Season 2 begins with the introduction of the head of the Lightning Spirit style, Rei Mikazuchi, and his cold-blooded assassin career. They narrate his story of falling deeply in love with Rino and leaving the path of an assassin. He requests that she arrange a Kengan match for him to continue the Lightning Spirit style.

Sayaka introduces Saw Paing as well as recalls his father and brother’s contributions to the Kengan Association. They also introduce his relations with his village, as he represents them as a whole. The anchors build anticipation using the fact that their fighting styles are completely different.

Just then the scene cuts to a flashback as Sanemitsu compares Saw’s path by recalling his older brother Ne Win. He goes over the learning that their village was under a huge debt to avoid eviction and sought to help them out. It concludes by establishing that Saw is fighting to protect his village.

Right as the match begins, Rei quickly strikes Saw, but Saw almost catches him with a kick on the next attack. Rei uses the Illusion Step technique of the Lightning Spirit, making it incredibly hard for Saw to trace his movements. He capitalizes on this by delivering a shot to Saw’s back, calling it the flash of Lightning.

Saw then changes his strategy and closes up the distance from Rei and the distance between them. He curls up his body, leaving his chest completely protected, thus limiting the ways for Rei to attack but also leaving his back vulnerable.

Saw takes multiple jabs from Rei, but continues to fight. Rei is surprised by Saw’s resilience and goes for multiple swift attacks. Saw dodges them with superhuman speed. Just then Saw unleashes the Burmese Iron Hammer Head butt, but Rei manages to dodge it by a few split seconds.

Rei witnesses the full extent of Saw’s strength and realizes the match could be over if that headbutt lands. The narrator explains how dependent assassins are on their weapons and killing and aren’t used to defeating. Rei decides to change his stance. He further goes on to explain how assassins adapted to the ban on carrying swords back in the olden times and emphasizes how adaptive the Lighting Spirit is.

Rei unleashes a barrage of punches, each after shifting his finger positions to inflict maximum damage. During this, Saw manages to land a few blows and also fractures Rei’s bone.

Kaolan recognizes that Rei’s attacks are precise; however, Saw is just too strong for them to do adequate damage. Saw unleashes a barrage of punches, but Rei manages to dodge most of them and defensively takes a few kicks. Saw then fakes a knee and then grabs Rei to deliver another headbutt.

The headbutt connects, but Rei stops it early by slamming his head under Saw’s jaw. This severely rattles Saw’s brain with a shock wave. Rei then unleashes another barrage of rapid-fire punches in an attempt to rattle Saw’s brain even more.

Rei throws Saw onto the ground and mounts him for a ground and pound, but Saw grabs him by the head, not letting him create space to unleash punches. Rei breaks free, but Saw gets up and begins rapid fire of leg kicks, causing Rei’s legs to swell up.

Both Rei and Saw go to deliver the final blow, but Rei beats him to it with a punch under the jaw, causing Saw to faint and collapse. Rei claims victory but realizes he has to work on his skills, as he had never imagined someone being able to take that many hits.

Kaolan speaks to Saw once he regains consciousness while pointing out the critical moments of the fight. He advises Saw to learn from his mistakes, but Saw apologizes and gives up. He displays a broken spirit, ends up getting yelled at by Kaolan, and walks away while expressing his disappointment.

The Episode Review

Episode 5 of Kengan Ashura season 2 revolves around the match between the Myanmar Monster and Lightning Spirit. The match interestingly puts up strength versus speed in this matchup and creates a fair representation of such a fight.

Oddly enough, the fighters seem deeply underwhelming through most of the episode. The anticipation for a matchup is usually based on the image of the fighters; however, the episode doesn’t do justice to the characters as it has in past episodes. The fight is also quite monotonous and just focuses on going from point A to B without a sufficient amount of twists.

Despite this, the episode manages to create a very likeable image of Saw, considering his mission to save his village is quite noble. By the end of the match, Rei does manage to pull off the dominance of a formidable fighter, but a lot more could be done given that he has a unique skill in his arsenal: speed.