Shirahama Kenichi
Strength: Kenichi might have started off weak, but soon, through his rigorous training he grows to be an incredible strong fighter. One of the exercises he’s forced to do by Akisame is finding the center of gravity of a stone statue (approximately Kenichi’s height) and toss it over his body- Akisame unknowingly switches out the statues Kenichi practices with, making them increasingly larger, but he can eventually through the smallest statues at the least. (Chp. 11) He later learns to lift the stone statues and toss them overhand with no trouble (Chp. 19).Furthermore, he finds that Tsukuba- a man who would weigh about 200 lbs. seems “weightless” during a throw (Chp. 13). After learning a Chinese technique designed to stretch the arm muscles to their limit, Kenichi performs the move and, despite barely scrapping his opponent (Koga the Kicker) he makes him dizzy and unable to move (Chp. 1 cool . When he had a rematch with Daimonji in the Gardening Club, Daimonji was defeated with a single punch, despite having the durability to be thrown twice previously. (Chp. 19) With only one arm he managed to pull Takeda Ichi (who would’ve weighed an estimated 150 lbs.) up from the edge of the school building, and the half of himself that was hovering over the edge as well. (Chp. 29) Eventually he becomes strong enough to one-hit KO weaker enemies (beginning in Chp 41). He endured being the “engine” to the dojo’s ship by pedaling on a bicycle and twisting a bar to get the ship moving for an unknown period of time, but probably several hours. (Chp. 45). With one punch, he sends Tsuji, who was previously barely affected by Kenichi’s hits, flying. (Chp. 49) He ran on a treadmill repeatedly, practicing a move 1000 times with two 40 lbs. weights attached to each of his hands as a training exercise (Chp. 81). He walks straight up to an iron gate and, with one hit, knocks its doors off their hinges and sends them flying into the old Church Area he went to fight Hermit against. (Chp. 82)
Speed: Kenichi’s training has vastly increased his reaction speed and movement speed as well. Before he was notably good at running away (Chp. 1) Now Kenichi is capable of seeing punches he previously couldn’t perceive as though they were “in slow motion”. (Chp. 19) When Kenichi is trying to stop Miu’s play from being interrupted by Kisara’s gang, he runs straight through their before they can react, and is standing in front of them to block their progress before they can react. (Chp. 59) Kenichi is soon capable of sprinting from his school to an old church at such a speed that Takeda, who had been practicing increasing his leg strength by jogging for weeks, couldn’t keep up with him. (Chp 82)
Durability/Endurance: Kenichi’s greatest asset seems to be his endurance and durability. His masters often joke he’s “A genius at taking hits”. Even before his formal training he took a blow from Daimonji (who previously punched the bottom out of a tin pail) which sent him flying through the air and into the roof of the fighting area, which he then fell back onto the floor from with little damage noticeable. (Chp. 4) He then takes several kicks and punches from Tsukuba, who is actually stronger than Daimonji was, before he was unable to move. (Chp. 10) He’s regularly attacked by Apachai, who hasn’t learned to hold back, and can destroy stone statues with single jabs, and despite being knocked out for a while, is capable of fighting soon after. (Chp. 11) He blocked and absorbed blows from Tsuji (who had previously destroyed several wooden benches with little effort) (Chp. 34). He took a kick from Sakaki who, although he was holding back, is capable of punching heavy men thorugh concrete and destroying practice posts (Chp. 39). He’s continually thrown by Akisame (who is also going easy) and repeatedly gets back up with little injury (Chp. 40). Kenichi endures blows from Kisara, who sends men flying with her kicks for several minutes in an attempt to keep her from disturbing Miu’s play (Chp. 59). He endures getting knocked over a bridge and onto a traveling bus by Hermit, and is capable of fighting on moments later (Chp. 61). He gets hit on the back of the head by Hermit, whose punches dented metal, and continues to fight (Chp. 62). He received numerous blows from Hermit, several times falling to his knees and coughing up blood, and, through it all, managed to endure and defeat Hermit (Chps. 84-89)
Intelligence: Despite reading a plethora of instructional books, Kenichi’s considered to be very dull-witted by Nijima (Chp. 1). He’s proven to have fair battle strategies, like the strategy of combining techniques and changing his attack pattern against Sieg (Chp. 76).
Techniques/Powers: Kenichi learns many techniques from his masters, broken down below into the type of martial art all the techniques he learns fall under, then the techniques themselves and a brief description of the technique.
Karate
Yamazuki- An attack that’s banned in competitive karate; it consists of a feint to the opponents head, which they’ll try to block, and then a real blow to the opponent’s stomach while they’re busy protecting their face (Chp. 12).
Crane’s Neck Blow- Attack that consists of Kenichi sweeping an incoming punch away from him, then quickly delivering a “crane’s neck blow” (a blow with the palm of the hand facing towards you and delivered by the edge of the wrist) to the opponent beneath their jaw. Useful for fighting several opponents at once. (Chp. 50)
Sanchin- A rigid body technique- Kenichi tightens his body and closes his thighs in over his groin to absorb damage and prepare for counter attacks. (Chp. 87)
Jujitsu
KuchikiDaoshi- A throw move that consists of grabbing the opponent’s leg just above their knee and then lifting them up to toss them onto their back.
Muay Thai
Ti Soku- A starting attack in Muay Thai that consists of jabbing the right elbow at someone. (Chp. 24)
Ti Kau Kon- A finishing technique where the user spins his body and delivers a knee kick (Chp. 24)
Kao Loi- A jumping knee attack- Kenichi will jump up and grab the back of the opponents head, then drive his knee into their face and jump back from the opponent and land on his feet for recovery (Chp. 27).
Low Kick- A technique that hits the legs of a fighter- very useful against boxers and fighters with low leg strength. (Chp. 27)
Shock Club- An attack where the users shifts his body around an opponent, spins around and hammers their elbow into the back of their head. (Chp. 50).
Chinese Martial Arts
Ugyuu Haitou- A range closing technique by which the user lunges in at the time an opponent strikes and shoves his head between the opponent’s arm or leg, and into their chest to get too close to be struck (Chp. 11)
Hold-Breaker- An unnamed technique that consist of jabbing an opponent that has grabbed you at close range with one hand’s palm. The opponent will receive little damage unless their neck is weak, but, you’re really setting up another attack- you complete the attack by hitting the hand connected to your opponents jaw with your other hand, and force the opponent away using the strength of both hands. (Chp. 56)
Soutenshou- The user uses this attack that consists of forcing the palms into the opponent at high speeds to damage them considerably. (Chp. 85)
Combination Techniques/Original Techniques
Four Master Combination Technique- Kenichi strings together three attacks from four of his masters into one cohesive attack- the moves it consists of are (in order) Yamazuki, Kao Loi, Ugyuu Haitou, and Kuchikidaoshi. (Chp. 71)
No Beats Thrust- An unnamed attack that was said to have ‘no beats’ by Siegfried. The attack consists of Kenichi combining points from all his master’s teachings into one legendary punch. He does the following when preparing: puts his hands against an opponent with the palms facing towards each other, he then steps back, brings his fist back, and thrusts them forwards. He punches like a karate master “as though his hands are connected by a rope”, he throws his entire body into the punch as per Akisame’s Jujitsu teachings, he reaches his hand forward as far as it can stretch by the teachings of Ma-sensei, and, to add to the strength he tries to punch through his opponent like Apachai tells him to do for Muay Thai techniques. (Chp. 76)
Other Techniques
Special Skills:
Gear: Yin Yang Badge- Kenichi’s keepsake from childhood. He treasures it, though he doesn’t remember why he treasures it so much until a certain point in the series where he’s reminded of its meaning.
Overview: The main character of History’s Strongest Disciple, Kenichi, Shirahama Kenichi starts the series as a pathetic first year student trying to learn karate to prevent people from bullying him. He meets a well built and, above else, skilled in the martial arts, young girl who suggest he take lessons from the dojo where she lives (if he can survive). So Kenichi takes up residence at the Ryouzanpaku Dojo- at first to stay around Miu, but eventually he learns to care for and admire his 6 masters- who are each skilled in a specific Martial Art (with the exception of the “Eldest- Invincible Superman”). Furthermore, his training makes him a notorious fighter known throughout the city, and gangs like the Ragnarok soon want to recruit or destroy him because of his new skills. So the talent less Kenichi begins his path to become History’s Strongest Martial artist.
