Quote Originally Posted by Kraco
I guess it's integrated into the plot so strongly that they can't simply change it. Of course it is a little unlikely how ordinary punks still frighten him after he has easily beaten karate club captains.
Part of the basic factors in Kenichi's character which appear to have carried over from the manga is his basic lack of self-confidence. His development is much slower as far as internalizing the truth of what his current strength is, and much of that is due to him becoming more and more focused on protecting his friends during this, the "Ragnarök" Arc. In many ways I really approve of this though; because quite honestly it is much more realistic and also in character for him to have difficulty accepting that he is no longer powerless.
Episode 04 I think it was, the fight with the three punks in the alley happened a bit later in the manga, a fair bit after his second fight with Daimonji which is when he really began to transition, as I'm sure you noted in episode 07. Plus his fear of daggers in 08 is pretty accurate. Having studied martial arts myself, without having been exposed to training on how to handle weapons and the like, it's actually fairly unbalancing to come up against them. In Kenichi's case unbalancing means reverting to being a coward and being nervous.

Being as how I'm an Otaku when it comes to Koryū, this next bit is a bit long and obsessive, just a warning to those who are bored by such discussions.

Also consider that in all honesty Kenichi has yet to begin his "Technique" training, and is only receiving training in the fundamentals, aside from one of the Bald Monk's Yamazaki--random factoid:which is actually more than just that one technique, it's a bunch of attacks centered on the idea of hard penetration of an opponent's defenses. Honestly even that isn't really technique it's more in the nature of an attack, or "move" (see monologue below for analysis). So really Kenichi has not yet overcome his basically fearful nature. Even later on he still has a pronounced distaste for hurting people, although he isn't really afraid of violence, just unnecessary harm. In a lot of ways it's kinda a bad combination with the nature of what he's being taught since traditional martial arts focus on brutal attacks that maim, cripple, or kill the opponent. "Self-defense" is a modern notion, and most traditional martial arts are ill suited to protecting yourself without seriously harming your opponent.

Techniques:
"Techniques" are more fluid and tend to be comprised of a series of "moves" which can be strung together either in a malleable form that can be rearranged easily to suit the situation, or in shorter but more fixed sequences which aren't easily changed but are designed to be very effective given some condition, be it the opponent is off balance, or the opponent has an opening on the right side near the ribcage. That form of technique tends to be quick, effective, and brutal so that the opponent can't really take advantage of the rigidity of it.