Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple/WMG

Kenichi will become far superior to his masters (except maybe the Elder) one day.

 * Even if he has no natural martial arts talent, he is uniquely suited to practicing Katsujinken. Many people, including Shigure in the latest chapter, have remarked that he naturally has no killing intent, even while fighting, whereas most of his masters have had to train hard to suppress theirs (like Ma) or never bothered to do so in the first place, instead fighting only enemies they know can survive their attacks (like Apachai). This unique trait not only means that he nearly always exists in a psychological blind spot for his enemies, but also that he can learn any technique he is taught without having to bother teaching him to hold back with it (which is the bulk of martial arts training), because he does it naturally. This means that while he's slower to learn than a talented martial artist, on the whole he'll learn things faster anyway because he has less to learn.

The whole Yami vs. Ryouzanpaku battle is really just a contest over who can train a better boyfriend for Miu.

 * What about the female disciples? Not to mention Chikage. Unless... is there something about Miu that we're not being told?
 * God, I hope so.
 * Just because they're there doesn't mean that Saiga gives a crap about them.

Kisara will take her rivalry with Miu to the next level by competing with her for Kenichi's heart

 * Ain't she hot for Ukita?

Kenichi's earth is the past version of Naruto

 * Look at Kenichi's eyes in certain scenes those rings do they not look like the rinnegan from Naruto
 * Can't be. There's no way the ninjas of Naruto would develop less weird eyebrows over time.

Kenichi's earth is the past version of Fist of the North Star

 * Can you honestly tell me you've never expected Sakaki to say "You're already dead" during one of his fights?

Chikage Kushinada is actually much older than she looks, and will rapidly age to her appropriate appearance

 * She will very likely end up with large breasts. Kisara will not be happy.

Saiga's mother (and Hayato's wife) was just a normal woman with no martial arts ability.

 * Saiga blames this for why he wasn't a super-prodigy like Hayato, and slowly becomes obsessed with martial arts lineage and the creation of the "perfect warrior". He married a woman from the secret super-ninja village in order to try to improve his bloodline, and he started YOMI as a way to recruit and train the most talented martial artists in the world. Hayato decided to train Kenichi, who has no talent, but plenty of willpower, in order to prove Saiga wrong.

The last YOMI member is Berserker

 * Hell, every other named character is still around and he was described quite pointedly as a sheer genius. It's why he, unlike the other nine hundred thousand named characters so far, hasn't shown up again since.
 * Jossed.
 * In light of the new chapters,

Miu's mother was from the Kuremisago, i.e., the same ninja village as Kanou.

 * She was shown to wear some rather unique battle attire in a flashback, and Miu has heard of the name before. Not much else to go on, but there you have it.
 * Confirmed in chapter 430.
 * Alternavively, she is in some way related to Shigure, though admittedly only suggested because she has the same eyes, and she's making the same pose Shigure does when she's attacked in the hot springs...
 * There is no reason that both WMG cannot be true. Shigure herself is a prodigy and her father was a superbly talented swordsmith and Master class swordsman. They could easily be descended from the Kuremisago in some form.

The Elder used to have no talent, and by the end Kenichi will be 'the elder' to a new generation of martial artists.

 * Partly Jossed unless The Elder was blatantly lying about his past of never have been defeated, and taking down numerous dojos when he was younger than Kenichi. Although the part about Kenichi becoming the new "Elder" of Ryozanpaku would not be a very large surprise to me.

Eventually Kenichi will study weapons under Shigure and he will be given the other sword made by her father.

 * All the other masters have taught Kenichi their signature styles, except for her. He'll probably need a weapon eventually, and this would be the best sword available.
 * He does have TWO weapons already, albeit they're defensive weapons: the chain-mail shirt given to him by Shigure, to protect him against weapon-strikes, and the arm-guards given to him by the Elder

Sakaki is the .

 * Seriously, look at Sakaki's sister during the Flashbacks and comprae the body and the hair color with . Hell, even the story of her studying in the University, her personality and mannerism and what we know of   almost mesh seamlessly. Reason why when   both of them had such rapport.
 * Furthermore, on the topic of . She's content to be a housewife, but possessing large breasts in a World of Steel Buxom, and yet the story has put more emphasis on and his Crouching Moron Hidden Badass qualities. My theory: She retired from the world of martial arts or whatever wild past she had and settled down. She didn't keep in touch with Shio, so that's why Sakaki doesn't recognize . Meanwhile Kenichi, even if he does know, has simply had no reason to think about it and put two and two together. , is perfectly aware of this and it's why she has supported.
 * And

Nijima is the secret love-child of Hiruma Yoichi and Sena Kobayakawa.

 * It explains both his magnificent bastardry and his ability to run so fast.

Chikage Kushinada is Miu's aunt.

 * We know Miu's father was Hayato's son, but we have no knowledge of who Hayato's wife was. We also saw him speak civilly with Chikage's master and likely mother, Mikumo Kushinada, who is much older than she looks. The conversation heavily implied a past relationship as a Battle Couple. Put this next to the various parallels seen with Miu and Chikage, and the idea of a blood relation isn't so far-fetched. Chikage being Miu's half-aunt is the most likely scenario.

Alternatively... Chikage Kushinada is Miu's half-sister.

 * The relationship wasn't between Mikumo and Hayato, but a May December Romance with Miu's father.

Kenichi will end up with Renka, after all she does fall for him at the end of chapter 69

 * To help avert First Girl Wins Miu turns him down after he finally confesses.
 * Doubtful, as Miu gets insanely jealous when any other girl professes an interest in Kenichi.
 * Kenichi seems utterly ignorant, willfully or otherwise towards Renka's affections towards him, instead focusing his devotion entirely on Miu.

Kenichi will defeat Miu some day.

 * Since it's been brought up so often how much more skilled Miu is than Kenichi, it would be a definitive milestone in his progress if he were to finally win in a match against her.
 * On that day he will finally tell Miu how he feels.
 * That'll only happen if he can get over his psychological block that prevents him from fighting with women.

The weirdness of a characters eyebrows is directly proportional to their fighting ability.
And once the eyebrow-weirdness scale is maxed out, the eye glowing starts, it just fits too well to not be true.

The entire story is a propaganda piece related by Nijima.

 * This would explain why random masters who should have no interest whatsoever comment on his "tactical genius" every time he opens his mouth. He's trying to inflate his image with the general public.

Kenichi's moral values will be put to a serious test when one of his masters gets killed.

 * He will find himself in a similar situation as Tsutomu Tanaka (who can be seen as an older version of Kenichi), desperately wanting a revenge, in a danger of falling down the path of asura.
 * It'll still happen, but later on. Specifically, it'll be, in a fight against
 * It'll still happen, but later on. Specifically, it'll be, in a fight against
 * It'll still happen, but later on. Specifically, it'll be, in a fight against

Koga The Kicker is gonna show back up

 * He will have taken many many steps in badassery, but compared to everyone else, it won't be enough. Cue curb stomp battle.

The Black Knight will become a Recurring Character

 * He will also pull a Heel Face Turn, if he hasn't already by the latest chapter, after having been defeated by Shigure.

The members of Shinpaku Alliance will start to live in Ryozanpaku's dojo

 * It's a place too big for only two highschool students...

The Special Black Force Whatever are Japanese
The leader wanted Freya to join. Why would he want some random foreigner to join a black ops team from another country? Also, the first guy pretended not to speak japanese... But later, they note that he speaks it perfectly. It's likely that they wanted to pretend that they weren't Japanese to uphold their secret.

Kenichi's refusal to fight girls is because of a traumatic event in his past.

 * Kenichi told Kisara that he just doesn't believe it's right for him to fight a girl, but...could it be that his psychological block that prevents him from fighting female opponents could be linked to an as-yet-unrevealed traumatic event somewhere in his past?

Tirawit Kokin and his master will pull a Heel Face Turn.

 * Considering that Kokin appears to hold no grudge against Kenichi following the end of their latest fight, and his master Agaard respects Kenichi's tenacity and holds Apachai's strength and ability in high regard...

Honoka, Kenichi's little sister, is already learning martial arts from Tanimato.

 * Struck me when I saw a certain chapter title-page, rereading some chapters. Usually, she has a throwaway skill like invincibility in Othello and flying kicks (as noted by Kenichi in an omake/mini-comic), but they might all be Checkov's Skills.

The Final Boss will be Berserker.

 * Formally a notable Dragon while in Ragnarok, he was All-Talent-No-Training, the complete opposite of Kenichi. If someone trained Berserker to make full use of his enormous talents, he'd be absolutely unstoppable. The ultimate opponent. He's also the one character from Ragnarok that hasn't re-appeared (even Loki is still around), didn't show any remorse for his defeat, and Never Fought Kenichi.
 * Would also provide some symmetry with the precursor Manga, where Berserker was the final boss in an abridged version of the Ragnarok arc.
 * What appears to be Berserker is among the silhouettes of the new disciples that Ogata has gathered, so it is quite possible he'll be at least Kenichi's Final Boss, the masters can have the Big Bad.

Chikage will train Ukita

 * She's already used him as a puppet to fight off members of Yami. Ukita's position as the weakest person on the team would make him a perfect candidate for her style, which emphasizes using no power at all while fighting.

Sakaki knows Hokuto Shinken
Forget the details and face the facts

The series will end with a time-skip showing Shinpaku as the next generation of Ryozanpaku
And Ryozanpaku left the dojo to fight evil in the world...destroying everything around it

The Elder was once a follower of the Path of Asura and a member (founder?) of Yami

 * Saiga killing Miu's mother caused him to have a Heel Face Turn, and his period spent Walking the Earth with Miu as a young child was as much him playing The Atoner as the Warrior Therapist for the traumatized Miu.
 * it's not impossible seeing this.
 * Try further back. He and Mikumo fought against YAMI in World War II. On the other hand, considering how many years back it was, he was probably very young, and quit when the war started, or was never a member at all.

The Elder would actually love Kenichi and Miu to get together.

 * His threat towards Kenichi is just a Batman Gambit. Elder knows Kenichi could never beat him. When Kenichi is willing to disregard the Elder for the sake of love, he will have shown the true courage the Elder is waiting for, and he will relent.
 * This doesn't seem unlikely: he seems to almost treat Kenichi like his son at times, both encouraging him gently while sternly pressing him to surpass his original limits. His aggressiveness at Kenichi's affections towards Miu is really no different from the hellish training everyone else puts him through every day.
 * Or, the Elder actually believes that Kenichi will eventually surpass him and is using Kenichi's rather obvious feelings for Miu to motivate him to get stronger.

The first skill Kenichi learned from Miu will be a Chekhov's Gun in the series' final fight.
Likely, through some unforeseen circumstance, Kenichi will have to face the series' Big Bad. And then the skill he learned from Miu at the start of the series, to shift his feet a particular way, will be used to help defeat the Big Bad.
 * The last opponent Kenichi will face will probably be Kajima Satomi. Otherwise, this guess still stands.
 * This has actually already happened. Kenichi used those first skills he learned early in the fight with Odin, who was the Big Bad of the Ragnarok arc.
 * Except that wasn't the series' final fight--not for the manga, at least.

Miu's father (the leader of Yami) will defeat and possibly kill his father (the Elder).

 * Really, this is such a common cliche.

YAMI, YOMI and Ragnarok are all attempts to replicate Ryouzanpaku.

 * Gatherings of talented individuals through all levels of mastery stemming from Saiga? Sounds like someone has daddy issues and is trying to prove to Hayato that a place like Ryouzanpaku can exist between followers of the Satsujinken.

Akira Hongo, YAMI's God Fist, will experience a Heel Face Turn.
Whether or not he becomes an ally or supporter of Ryozanpaku, Akira's already shown himself to be, at least, a Jerk With a Heart of Gold where his former student Shou Kanou was concerned (in flashback at the end of the D of D Tournament saga, it's revealed that Shou didn't actually kill the little bird that the YAMI elders told him to, but rather crushed some grapes incognito to fool them into believing he had done so. When Akira found out, he simply shrugged and told Shou to do as he liked.) And now, in the present arc, Akira's revealed himself to have been profoundly affected by his protege's death, indicating that perhaps he's not as big a Jerkass and certainly not a Complete Monster like some of the other YAMI masters (though not Affably Evil like Agaard).

Suzuki Hajime, the martial artist who showed up in Hongo/Sakaki's flashback is the father of Kanou Shou
There are a lot of similarities between them. Both of them have the same eyes and same hair color. As seen in chapter 438, Suzuki is also good at imitating techniques, which Kanou was also good at. His death probably drove Hongo to join YAMI.
 * A couple of things wrong with this WMG. For one thing, Hajime is too young in that flashback, nor does he last long enough, to have fathered Kanou..

The Sei Dou Goui (Roar as One) technique is an incomplete technique
Ogata was experimenting with the notion of mixing Sei and Dou energy together to greatly increase one's combat prowess, and taught the technique to Ryuto just to see what would actually happen. The Ryozanpaku masters have already seen this happen before and, as such, are QUITE disgusted that Ogata would teach such a thing, and presumably never explored it after knowing about its harsh aftereffects.

But, the combat effects are way too awesome to dismiss! What if there WAS a way to pull it off without horrendously damaging your body? We've already seen it used twice in the series (once with Ryuto, the second with Shou Kano) - Rule of Three suggests a third appearance likely, and in a "complete" form...by Kajima Satomi, the leader of YOMI!

Sakaki's title is not just a title, he really is a 100 Dan.

 * He just doesn't have them all in the same stye of karate, for example, tenth dan in ten different styles.

Akira Hongo will kill Silcardo Jenazad
Ties in with some Fridge Brilliance: the two are opposites of each other in terms of temperament and title, even though they're both members of YAMI. Hongo's title within YAMI is "God Fist," whereas Jenazad's is "Demon Fist." Hongo cares about the well-being of his students, even if he doesn't openly show it; Jenazad has demonstrated that he'll kill his students (directly or indirectly) for sheer bloodlust's sake. Hongo has a sense of morals; Jenazad is a Complete Monster. And at the moment, Hongo is seeking vengeance against Jenazad because the latter crossed the Moral Event Horizon, taking advantage of Hongo in the process.

The One Shadow has standards
Connected to the above WMG and comes with a good helping of Fridge Brilliance. Remember when "God Fist" Akira Hongo sought an audience with the One Shadow ? Well, it would appear that the One Shadow definitely did not approve of what took place, and so he gave Hongo permission to do what was needed after the latter came to him--and Hongo sought audience with him specifically to ask for permission.
 * Taken one step further in chapter 466 when it's revealed he is actually.
 * And taken even further in Chapter 467..

Akira Hongo is The Dragon to the One Shadow
Loosely connected to the above two WMG posts; this one is based on the fact that Hongo's deceased disciple, Sho Kanou, was considered a prodigy even among the YOMI disciples and was touted as the strongest of them all, next to the One Shadow's own disciple. .

The whole storyline is really a movie or TV series being produced in-universe, with the characters being actors playing the roles
Therefore, in "real life," away from the cameras, Kenichi is in fact a Nice Character Mean Actor while Tanimoto is a genuine Mean Character Nice Actor; all the fight scenes for the Ryozanpaku and Yami masters are done using special effects and stuntmen; Nijima's appearance is in fact a costume; Saiga is in fact a jovial and rather comical kind of guy ; Sakaki is a strict teetotaler; Apachahi only plays the role of a man-child when on-set; Junazard is in truth ; Akisame does in fact like green peppers and even orders them regularly on pizza; etc. "Interviewer: Chikage, is there something you wanted to tell us about your role on the show? You indicated there was some kind of shocking revelation about your character...
 * Adding to this WMG, here's a potential "behind the scenes" interview with the "actors" (this one based on a behind-the-scenes episode of The Simpsons):

Chikage: They wanted me to get artificial puberty early! They even tried to secretly feed me growth-hormone pills! (cue horrified gasps in background)

(interview shifts to Akira Hongo)

Hongo: (looking his usual stoic self) Growth-hormone pills? Fed to Chikage? How absurd. I mean, how were we going to get them mixed into her chocolate packets? (realizes what he just said) Uh, could you edit that last part out?"