The CGI lets you see every joint break and muscle fiber snap in ways hand-drawn anime physically cannot. Each fight is a problem to solve, not a spectacle to watch, and the show respects that by letting combatants think their way through opponents twice their size. The pacing crawls compared to the manga, but that slowness means you actually feel the weight of each match before the next one starts. This is built for people who want to understand fighting, not just see it.

Since the Edo period, certain parts of Japan have hosted gladiator arenas where wealthy business owners and merchants hire fighters to settle their disputes through unarmed combat, with the winner taking everything. Tokita Ouma, known as the Ashura, enters this world and crushes his opponents, drawing the attention of powerful business figures such as Nogi Hideki, chairman of the Nogi Group. Nogi hires Ouma to fight for him and assigns Kazuo Yamashita, an ordinary middle-aged man, as his manager. The pair are pulled into bouts run by the Kengan Association, facing ruthless rivals who also want to be the strongest. The result is a violent action and sports series built around martial arts battles.