Kenichi works because it commits to the full journey from pathetic to competent, and actually lets you feel every embarrassing step of it. The six masters are weirdly distinct enough that you genuinely want to watch him get destroyed by each one separately, and the comedy lands hardest when Kenichi's trying to survive something that would kill a normal person. This is a show that knows a weak protagonist getting stronger is only funny if you believe he was actually weak to begin with.

Kenichi Shirahama is a scrawny high school pushover who gets beaten up in his karate club and buries himself in self-help books. Everything changes when he meets Miu Furinji, a new classmate who easily fends off a group of thugs and lives at her grandfather's martial arts dojo. Facing a karate club fight that could force him out of the club, he asks her for help. The catch: the dojo is home to several eccentric masters of different fighting styles, and Miu warns that he will get much stronger only if he survives. What follows is comedy built on grueling training sessions, balanced with martial arts action, as a criminal fighting gang called Ragnarok starts to threaten the people around him. Kenichi sets out to become a real fighter and someone who can protect those who cannot protect themselves.