Review of Tenjho Tenge: Vol. 2

Introduction

Much as I like anime, there are genres that even I don`t find appealing. The fighting anime is one of them. Characters facing each other, building up their stats and unleashing special effect laden finishing moves, it all seems barely one step above the console games that inspire them. While the younger audiences are catered for with card swapping mayhem like Pokemon, older viewers need something a little more adult with their combat. As well as adding some bone-crunching violence and free flowing blood, there is a fair bit of sex as well, with mini-skirted vixens with ample breasts that would be excessive in a Russ Meyer movie, getting into the fist fighting fun. Tenjho Tenge has all of this, yet the first volume succeeded in winning me over, as it also has an interesting story, characters that go beyond the usual anime clichés, and a sense of irreverence that occasionally borders on the parody. To put it succinctly, it was fun, and I find myself hoping that the second volume continues in the same vein.

Souichiro Nagi and Bob Makihara have built a reputation of ruling the roost of whichever school they are transferred to. They do this through using their fists relentlessly against whoever stands up to them. This has been going on for some time now, but the 100th school they attend is a wholly different prospect. Todo Academy`s mission statement since its founding has been to resurrect and promote the Martial Arts. The students there are a completely different prospect, and Souichiro and Bob will not wind up at the top of the pile as they so casually assume, quite the reverse in fact. In the first volume, they tried to make their mark at Todo, but wound up being thoroughly humiliated for their troubles by the members of the Juken Club. They also wound up smack in the middle of high school politics, as the independent minded Juken martial arts club is at odds with the school`s student executive council. Souichiro and Bob eventually turned to the Juken club for aid, when the executive council decided that the new upstarts needed punishing Juken leader Maya Natsume saw potential in Souichiro worth developing and accepted the pair for training. The trouble was that her younger sister Aya fell for Souichiro, which wasn`t good for fellow Juken, Masataka Tasanayagi, who himself had a crush on Aya… Don`t sweat the details, it`s kung fu soap opera, watch a couple of episodes and you soon get caught up.

Tenjho Tenge is a 26-episode anime that is being released in the US over 8 volumes. Seeing as this second volume has four episodes as opposed to the three episodes of the US release, I`m guessing the UK release schedule will see a wallet friendlier seven volumes in total.

Ep 5. Punishment
`All work and no play` and all that. It`s still Golden week, and Maya announces that it`s worth taking a break from training to go bowling. But Aya is conflicted about her feelings for Souichiro, especially given what she saw between him and Maya following the last training session. There`s trouble in store though, as the executive council is intent on administering punishment to the Juken club, and a trio of executioners is on their way to confront them.

Ep 6. Illusion
Trouble erupts at the bowling alley, and while Maya faces executive council vice president Isuzu Emi, Aya faces would be samurai Tagami, Souichiro faces wrestler Sagara, and it`s left to Masataka to clear up the underlings, all 50 odd of them. In the heat of battle, Aya learns a fundamental truth about Souichiro.

Ep 7. Breakthrough
Maya races to aid her protégé Souichiro, despite sporting injuries sustained in her battle with Isuzu. Souichiro is busy putting his training to use against Sagara, even though he hasn`t quite mastered the intricacies yet. Their problems are only about to worsen though, as executive council president Mitsuomi has arrived at the bowling alley, and if his underlings can`t complete their mission, he`ll take matters into his own hands.

Ep 8. Dragon`s Eye
Masataka winds up facing his brother Mitsuomi in the bowling alley, but big brother doesn`t have much time for his sibling, instead he sees potential in Bob, and offers him a tempting opportunity. Souichiro has to save Aya, from herself. When Aya unleashes her true powers during her battle with Tagami, she comes close to being overwhelmed.

Video

Tenjho Tenge gets a clear, sharp and exceedingly colourful 4:3 transfer. By and large the transfer is excellent, with few if any artefacts or colour banding. The animation is something of a mixed bag. The character designs are excellent, but the dynamic opening sequence isn`t mirrored by the show. This is one of those static animations where everything remains static except the lips in dialogue scenes. It also lacks visual depth, it`s very obviously a CG 2D animation, and it feels very much like an animated comic book. That is except for the action sequences, which are dynamically realised, with the fights accomplished with flair and impact.

Audio

You get a choice between DD 2.0 English and Japanese, with a further choice of translated English subtitles, signs or nothing at all. The dialogue is clear throughout, and while as usual I prefer the Japanese track, I spot checked the English track and found little to complain about.

Features

The bare minimum again, with just a jacket picture, Textless closing, and trailers for Samurai Champloo and Gunslinger Girl.

Conclusion

I`m not exactly predisposed to this genre, so you would think that it wouldn`t take much for Tenjho Tenge to put me off, even though I found the first instalment entertaining. In fact, it seemed as if this second volume went out of its way to use every fight anime cliché in its 90 minutes just to annoy me, chief of which is the multi-episode fight sequence. Normally, action is a means to an end, a signpost on the way to telling a story, but with the fighting genre, the fights are the whole point of the show, and can be stretched to fill a whole episode worth of airtime, or even worse, be split up to take place over several episodes. Gantz with its sci-fi overtones gets away with it, although it can drag at times, and in Yu Yu Hakusho it was the one thing that I really didn`t like about the show. The Juken club`s visit to a bowling alley early on in this volume results in a fight that stretches over the runtime of the disc, and is yet to be resolved, requiring a wait for volume 3 to arrive. That`s 90 minutes of action, mid-fight philosophy, and portentous announcements of special moves. Were this any other show, I would be banging my head against a wall. But despite all this, I still managed to enjoy these four episodes.

Once again, it`s the rich collection of characters that manages to hold the interest, while it is the show`s adherence to a fine line between seriousness and parody that keeps it entertaining. I get the feeling that the writers are having fun with the genre, seeing just how far they can push the conventions before crossing that line. Souichiro is tested again here, having to face one of the executioners one-on-one. As per usual for this sort of thing, he gets to use his newly acquired chi, but for a change, his opponent is a wrestler, which allows for a little variety in the style of combat, as well as more than a few humorous asides about wrestling otaku. What makes Souichiro stand out is that he realises that it won`t be his skills as a martial artist that will help him prevail, but his history as a thug. Aya Natsume also gets some interesting development. Most female characters I have seen in this genre are usually combatants who are there for their looks and their inability to keep their clothing during fights. That is certainly true of Aya, but there is more to her than that, and she shows potential of being the story`s most interesting and rounded character, as well as the strongest of the fighters. We learn of her Dragon Eye ability, and the emotional difficulty she has when she fights to her true potential. It`s the sort of thing that is usually seen in central (male) characters, and not only does it indicate that the show will take an interesting direction, but also a potential role reversal for Souichiro and Aya. The weakest link in this volume is President Mitsuomi Tasanayagi, who gets the big reveal in this volume. He has the look of a Marvel superhero with his ideal Aryan musculature, and skin-tight shiny suit, and a depth of personality to match. Still the potential for interest is there, considering his brother Masataka is with the Juken club, as well as with the offer he makes to Bob.

It`s the irreverence and comedy that makes Tenjho Tenge work, with moments like Masataka being felled by an accidental blow below the belt, moments after wading through a whole room full of minions, as well as the novel use of chi that has even me interested in martial arts, the ability to fold body fat within oneself, presenting a toned and lithe figure to the world. It`s worth being someplace private when your chi runs out though.

When push comes to shove, it is a fighting anime, one that will never tax the brain cells or go down as a classic example of animation. But it is fun, entertaining with characters that engage the interest and a story that on occasion does go beyond two dimensions. It is fair to say that it is the best of its genre that I have seen, and before Tenjho Tenge, I never thought that I would be looking forward to more of the same. It`s fun but unfulfilling, the anime equivalent of bubblegum.