Review of Tenjho Tenge: Vol. 1

Introduction

A few months ago, I caught sight of a trailer for Tenjho Tenge on an MVM disc. As is often the case, it was a clean version of the show`s opening sequence, and seeing the combination of Japanese hip-hop and briskly animated dance moves, I was intrigued to say the least. Unfortunately, judging a show by the trailer is the equivalent of judging a book by the cover. It came as a disappointment when I learned that Tenjho Tenge is a fighting anime, set in a high school. The fighting genre for me is the lowest common denominator in anime. Its most basic form is the Pokemon shows and their ilk, where kids send their proxies into battle by means of trading cards. Advance a few years, and the proxies vanish, and it`s the shows` main characters that take up arms in various tournaments and missions. They can be entertaining, with shows like Yu Yu Hakusho seeing heroes facing ever more diverse enemies, with the action pausing long enough to show off fighting stats and announce special moves. But it seems to me that story and character come off a poor second to the repetitive action. Most recently, I got the chance to review Ikki Tousen: Battle Vixens, a show which saw high school students battling for supremacy, with a dose of female flesh and sex thrown in for good measure. It turned out to be supremely dull. Now Tenjho Tenge debuts, with high school students battling for supremacy, also with a dose of female flesh and sex thrown in for good measure. My enthusiasm was unconfined.

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 as easily wind up at the top of the pile as they so casually assume, quite the reverse in fact. Tenjho Tenge is a 26-episode anime that is being released in the US over 8 volumes. The opening and closing volumes have 4 episodes apiece while the other 6 discs have 3 each. Hopefully that release format won`t be followed in the UK, 3 episode discs are never appealing, but nevertheless the first disc does similarly contain 4 episodes.

Ep 1. Sanctuary
At Todo Academy, the membership of the Juken martial arts club is preparing to induct its newest member. Club Captain Maya Natsume and member Masataka Tasanayagi go to meet Maya`s younger sister Aya, who is working out in the gym. Seeing her skill with the sword Masataka is smitten, but before they can get acquainted, he and Maya have to deal with the rowdy entrance of Souichiro and Bob, who are busy terrorising the juniors in the main building. Maya misjudges her strike and sends Souichiro flying out of a window. It is a Natsume tradition that a female member of the family must devote her life to the one man who sees her skin. So when Souichiro crashes through the roof of the gym showers, he isn`t expecting to wind up engaged to Aya Natsume.

Ep 2. Defeat
Masataka isn`t in the best of moods after falling for Aya, only to see her fall in turn for Souichiro, so a confrontation between the two boys in the school canteen goes a little too far. Souichiro has to deal with a sensation he has never felt before, defeat. He and Bob realise that when it comes to Todo Academy, they are seriously outclassed. But their disruptive introduction to the school hasn`t gone unnoticed, and the student Executive Council has plans for the pair.

Ep 3. Executioner
The Executive Council have sent Boxing Club leader Ryuzaki to deliver punishment to the two new upstarts, and he begins by destroying Bob`s motorcycle, before turning his lascivious attentions to Bob`s girlfriend Chiaki, taunting him and Souichiro into attempting a foolhardy rescue. This imminent danger has awakened new abilities in Aya, who can sense her beloved in danger, and she rushes off to help him. But even if she`s in time, she may be no match for Ryuzaki.

Ep 4. Suspicion
Realising that they are totally outclassed at Todo Academy, Bob and Souichiro turn to the Juken Club for some intensive training to prepare them to face the Executive Council. Maya has little respect for the council, and sees promise in Souichiro. Golden Week presents an opportunity for some serious training, and Souichiro is soon put in touch with his chi. Meanwhile the Executive Council have assigned Wrestler Sagara to deal with Souichiro, Bob and the rebellious Juken Club. But first Sagara has to punish the failure of Ryuzaki to adequately deliver the sentence.

Video

Tenjho Tenge gets a clear, sharp and exceedingly colourful 4:3 transfer. There is some aliasing and minor compression artefacts, but by and large the transfer is excellent. 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. It`s a stylised approach to the animation with which I`m still not completely au fait. I guess familiarity with the show will diminish the visual oddity.

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 I`m afraid, with just a jacket picture, Textless opening, and trailers for Ikki Tousen and Burst Angel.

Conclusion

Tenjho Tenge is a completely different show compared to Ikki Tousen. While the basic ingredients are the same, a chef who has at least some idea of what he is doing has prepared this particular dish, and it turns out to be quite palatable. The story is never going to set the world alight, with its simple tale of hard nuts trying to take over a school and getting a quick lesson in humility for their troubles, and then having to embark on an intensive course of training to gain the necessary martial arts skills. No doubt they`ll end up better people in the process as well. But the plot is well thought out and interesting, while the characters are rounded and given interesting back-stories. On top of that, the show refuses to take itself seriously, maintaining an irreverent tongue-in-cheek attitude throughout. Despite the simplistic and hackneyed premise, it`s fundamentally watchable.

The Todo Academy specialises in Martial Arts, so there is plenty of talk about chi and channelling one`s inner strength. That`s basically an excuse for lots of Streetfighter II style eye candy. It also allows for one of the interesting character quirks of Club Captain Maya Natsume. She has so much chi to channel that she maintains control by remaining in the form of a small child, only allowing her womanly form to appear when she is called on to fight. Cue transformation sequence where puberty occurs in a blink of an eye, minus the tantrums and acne, but with emphasis on anatomically exaggerated breasts. There is plenty of fan service in Tenjho Tenge, fighting with chi apparently means the ability to explosively undress a female at twenty paces, but it remains sexy rather than exploitative as it was in Ikki Tousen.

The characters and the relationships have some thought put into them. Bob is cool but tough, but in later episodes we learn that he has a stable home life. This contrasts with his hotheaded friend Souichiro, who had a tough isolated upbringing, which has led him to deal with his problems with his fists first. He isn`t ready for the amorous attentions of Aya Natsume, who falls in love with him from the moment he sees her naked in the shower. While he`s more than ready to take on all comers, he`s out of his depth when faced by someone who professes her devotion to him, and this sets up a lot of the comedy in the early episodes. The Natsume sisters have an interesting past hinted at here, an older brother who is either absent or deceased, and a martial arts legacy that they have to live up to. Poor Masataka who makes the mistake of falling for Aya serves as the show`s narrator, but his own background is chequered. While he seems to be a gentle, if gifted fighter, it is his brother (from who he is estranged) who is President of the Executive Council, and who is directing the actions against the two new students and the Juken Club.

There is a fair bit of politicking going on behind the scenes. The Executive Council has over the years grown into a monolithic organisation that practically owns the school, making decisions and handing down pronouncements from up on high, while the Juken Club serve as rebellious upstarts looking for a simple life, but will no doubt be forced into changing the status quo. It`s the simplistic balance of power of the sort that lies at the heart of these stories, and doesn`t really bear thinking about. One wonders though where the teaching faculty is during all this.

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, but considering what I normally think of the genre that isn`t saying much. Better to say that for once, I enjoyed watching this type of show, and wasn`t once tempted to switch off or watch something else instead. From me, that`s a ringing endorsement.