Zenki

Gender

Male
Species

Demon God
Alignment

Good
Height

Chibi:
1 m (meters)
3' 3" (feet)
Demon God:
2,10 m (meters)
6' 11" (feet)
 Introduced in

Manga:
Kishin Douji Zenki Volume 1
Anime:

Zenki is one of the main characters from the Kishin Douji Zenki series. He is a Demon
God with black and red hair, red eyes, very detailed armor and a tiara with a third eye on it.
He has pointy ears and his trademark fang is on the left side.
Zenki is one of Chiaki Enno's guardian deities. He has a wild and untamed nature, loving his
freedom and exhibiting his free will. Zenki is generally free from moral wrong and will not
bother himself with humans unless they provoke him.
He is also known as the God of Crimson Thunder Light in the Dark, of Fighting and War. He
is a guardian deity of Shikigami-chou and the Enno legacy.

Zenki is also known for his funny, snarky comments, which often have him stating the
obvious when the other characters fail to see the wood for the trees and generally has a big
ego that expands and shrinks just as his own size.

He is true to himself, but his way of saying his opinion right out in the open often gets him
into fights with Chiaki and Miki Souma, the latter of which he sometimes calls a "bozo"
(clown) instead of a "bonze" (monk).
The manga sometimes refers to Zenki as the Red Lord or just "Red". Though this mainly
happens when he meets elders or talks to Vasara and Goki in the later volumes of the
manga.
Zenki is one of the two divines (the other one being Goki), who faithfully served Ozunu
Enno in the past.

Zenki's descent and his first meeting with Ozunu

A thousand years ago, humanity was in great danger at the hand of the forces of evil, the
red demon Zenki descended to earth as a thunderbolt to save us.

At this point Zenki was just an ordinary demon like any other. Despite this, he set out to
face the Ryuuma-ou-Mikado (the Evil Dragon King of Hell) all on his own in an attempt
show the humans his greatness by freeing a district of Japan from the terror of the dragon
and his armies.

Yet, when the wild and untamed Zenki faced the dragon, Zenki was outmatched by his foe
and faced a devastating defeat.
Zenki was injured too badly to keep on fighting, but he was determined and didn't want to
give up. He just sat there, next to the ruins of a building, berating himself on his own failure
and cursing.

Akira tells the others about the past events in Volume 12 of the manga.
Luckily, this was when Ozunu Enno, Vasara and Goki came along and decided to aid Zenki
in his battle against Ryuuma-ou-Mikado and his armies.

This moment in time marked their first meeting.

While Zenki was forced to rest, Ozunu, Vasara and Goki faced the dragon and his armies.
After a long and tiring battle, Ozunu managed to seal Ryuuma-ou-Mikado and free Japan
from the dragon's terror.

His armies retreated shortly after.

The four heroes were praised for their great deed, but Zenki never really got over the loss
he had faced against the dragon and wanted to keep fighting.

Ozunu saw Zenki's fighting spirit and decided to offer Zenki to join him. Zenki willingly
agreed, seeing how he would be allowed to unleash his wrath upon the ones, who deserved
it.

At some point in time they met Karuma, which led to Zenki declaring his newfound love for
eating Hyouinomi. Whenever a Hyouijuu met its end at Zenki's hands, it left behind those
eye-like fruits.

Ozunu saw that Zenki was without moral wrong and would only use his wrath against the
evils, so he decided to give him the powers of the Diamond Horn and the holy light of
Vajura. This increased Zenki's strengh and made him a Demon God with the elemental
powers of fire and thunder.

Zenki took great pride in Ozunu's gift and soon enough Zenki declared himself as the "great
Zenki-Sama".
Ozunu saw great potential in Zenki's love for fighting evils and eating Hyouinomi and thus
decided just to go with it.

Ozunu seals Zenki and the aftermath

The Past

Zenki is sealed in a sepulcher

But once all evils were defeated, Zenki just couldn't sit still.

Zenki not only wanted to keep on going and he also had become addicted to Hyouinomi, as
he now starving from the lack of them.

Being the wise man he was, Ozunu saw this and decided that he would have to seal Zenki
away to protect him from getting himself into trouble. Ozunu was too old and too tired and
as no one else could protect Zenki from harm - Goki had returned to his Shugenja to lead
them - the great Bodhisattva had no other choice.

Unfortunately Ozunu made a grave mistake while doing this as he seemingly didn't tell
Zenki why he was going to be sealed.

The Present

Jukai tells some other elders about Zenki's resurrection in Volume 1 of the manga.
One thousand years later, Chiaki Enno, a decendant of the great Ozunu, was helping a few
customers. At some point, they heard a strange noise and went to investigate. When Chiaki
followed them, she found them, but they had been turned into golden statues. It was the
Hyouijuu Sairousaiko, which now turned its attention towards Chiaki.
Chiaki thought that everything was over, but then she remembered what her grandmother
Saki had taught her and used the Bracelet of Protection, to unseal the Enno's guardian god,
Zenki.

After defeating the monster, Chiaki cheered on Zenki, but when Chiaki caught his attention,
he immediately drew the line.

Zenki's feelings are quite obvious in this panel from Volume 1.

This girl was his new master and Zenki held a deep grudge against his old master for
sealing him away, so his new master had to act as a substitue and outlet for Zenki's still
boiling wrath and thirst for revenge.

Zenki had been sealed away without any explanation, so it's quite understandable, he'd be
furious. Just seeing Chiaki just made Zenki so mad that he wanted to kill her and he
exclaimed exactly that and charged at Chiaki.

Chiaki was innocent and didn't know that Zenki would react like this. She was afraid and
thought that Zenki was a monster, that was going to kill her out of sheer malice instead of
seeing him for who he really is. She wanted to seal him again in self defense and who could
blame her? After all, she didn't have a chance to talk to him and ask him why he acts like
this.

The first meeting between Zenki and Chiaki ends with Zenki being turned into a Chibi. He
feels hurt and helpless as Chiaki and Ozunu seemingly make fun of him.
 Zenki's relationship towards Chiaki

Chiaki and Chibi Zenki fighting as usual.

Later on, Chiaki still doesn't bother to ask Zenki why he acted the way he did and instead
always berates him on this event where he tried to kill her. She also makes things worse as
she constantly tries to make Zenki obey her and behave against his will instead of just
letting him be.

This leads to them constantly fighting over trivial matters and Zenki never opening up to
Chiaki as in his opinion she's just a stupid woman that wants to use him to show off. Being
too young and inexperienced to notice this, Chiaki just thinks that Zenki is constantly
grumpy and thus reacts accordingly.

Chiaki at the end of the anime

It hurts her that she has to seal Zenki and Goki, but she has no other choice as they couldn't
live in peace if they were to stay...
Chiaki does indeed get more mature as the series progresses and doesn't make the same
mistake as Ozunu. She just outright tells her guardians whats going on and...
 ...they indeed do understand the gravity of the situation.
Too bad this only goes for the anime, as the manga is the original timeline, where she never
opens up like this...
While their relationship gets better over the course of the series, Zenki never overcomes
his grudge against the Ennos and while Chiaki does care about him, she only cares about
him like one would care about a little brother. Occasionally she even goes as far as
throwing Zenki right out of the window or kicking him out of the Enno Shrine.

Again, this is neither Zenki's nor Chiaki's fault, but just a big misunderstanding. Zenki and
Chiaki never get beyond the point of being like two siblings, constantly nagging and teasing
each other.

While Zenki soon notices that he's dependant on Chiaki, he still wants to regain his
freedom. Even later in the series, when Chiaki, Akira and Zenki face a trial by Ozunu to test
their loyalty towards each other in Volume 9, it results in Zenki wanting his freedom, while
Akira wants to save Chiaki. In the end both Zenki and Akira decide to send their energies to
save Chiaki, eventhough for different reasons.

Afterwards, Zenki just brags about his strength again.

While Zenki usually thinks before acting in his Chibi form, things go quite different for his
Demon God form or true form, where he becomes reckless and just loves to show off.

This often gets him into trouble, which would have gotten him killed more than just once if
it wasn't for Chiaki and Goki helping him out by distracting foes or lending their powers to
Zenki.

Despite his tendency to show off, the world needs Zenki's badass, his supreme power and
above all, his unconquerable spirit.

After all, he's a mighty and proud guardian warrior.

Zenki and the Hyouinomi

A Hyouinomi (aka Fruit of Possession). Sometimes it's also referred to as a fruit or seed.
While Zenki's addiction towards Hyouinomi has been mentioned earlier, he obviously still
loves them after being brought back by Chiaki.
Interestingly we also learn that by eating them, Zenki doesn't only purify the Hyouinomi's
evil miasma, he also recovers his health. When talking to Master Daisoujou in Volume 4 of
the manga, Zenki is very proud of his purifying abilities to the point of mocking Miki Souma
with it.
Zenki's way of purifying the Hyouinomi is rather contrary to Kokutei and Majura who use
their powers for their own gain.
Anime/Manga

Zenki's sepulcher as it appears in the anime

While in the manga, Zenki starts out residing in a holy sepulcher inside the Main Hall of the
Enno Shrine, in the Anime, the sepulcher is located outside.
Nekomaru and Inumaru break the seal on a Hyouinomi and in turn get transformed into a
two headed monster. As the monster attacks Chiaki and her grandmother Saki, Chiaki calls
out for help and her Bracelet of Protection unseals Zenki, who then proceeds to fight the
monster.
Notes
A sepulcher is some kind of tomb or grave. In Zenki's case it looks like some kind of statue
depicting him.
Ingame
He appears in all of the Kishin Douji Zenki games, as he is the titular character. In most of
these games, the player takes control of either Zenki, Chiaki or even both of them.

Oddly enough, the games only feature Zenki's Chibi form and his Demon God form. His
other forms are completely absent. The same goes for Goki, who strangely only appears in
his level 1 stage, but never shows up in his later forms or as Akira.