Tenjho Tenje tells the story of highschool college students Souichiro Nagi and Bob Makihara who wish to grow to be the strongest excessive schoolers, and after defeating the ‘prime canine’ at quite a few excessive colleges, they’re able to combat at Toudou Academy. Nonetheless, unbeknown to them, Toudou will not be a standard highschool—right here college students are taught to combat in numerous martial arts disciplines and it’s not simple to take down the pupils. Souichiro and Bob uncover the reality fairly quickly after they encounter upperclassman Masataka Takayanagi, who defeats Souichiro in seconds. It’s right here that the viewers discover out that Souichiro and Bob should not the one most important protagonists: Masataka belongs to the Juuken Membership led by Maya Natsume, whose previous in opposition to the Govt Council dictates the remainder of the sequence. Along with Aya, Maya’s sister, the pool of protagonists will increase, and when you may assume there’s a clear distinction between the heroes and the villains of the story, issues are in no way black or white.

Being defeated effortlessly comes as a shock to Souichiro, so he and Bob determine to grow to be stronger and present their new classmates who’s the strongest. Nonetheless, they hold getting combined up with the Juuken Membership’s enterprise a lot that their private lives are being affected by the actions of the Govt Council which is bent on destroying the members of the Juuken Membership. In reality, the Govt Council is made up of the strongest fighters within the faculty, they usually ‘educate’ (aka destroy) anybody who doesn’t comply with their directives. It’s not that straightforward although—Maya and Mitsuomi Takayanagi, the Govt Council’s president, have a protracted historical past that culminated within the demise of Maya’s brother, Shin.

Souichiro and Bob don’t have a selection however to hitch the Juuken Membership to grow to be stronger and combat again till they’ll climb to the highest.

All of the characters in Tenjho Tenge have some sort of backstory that impacts the development of the sequence. Whereas at the start Souichiro and Bob give a Shonan Junai Gumi vibe as younger thugs combating to climb to the highest, it doesn’t take lengthy for the comparability between the 2 sequence to fade away. Souichiro and Bob be taught shortly that there’s extra at play than they thought, they usually determine to hitch the Juuken Membership, not solely as a result of Maya can practice them, but additionally as a result of they determine the Govt Membership members because the villains fairly shortly. It’s solely later within the sequence that they be taught that Mitsuomi will not be the unhealthy man. He undoubtedly has  points, however every thing that occurred earlier than our two younger thugs joined Toudou Academy was brought on by the Takayanagi Clan, the strongest clan for martial arts, who had the purpose of turning Mitsuomi into the one true martial artist and didn’t hesitate to play the scholars as pawns to realize their purpose. So the roles of hero and villain that the characters characterize are switched, relying on whether or not we’re speaking concerning the characters within the current or prior to now.

The sequence has two storylines: the primary is the one which introduces Souichiro and Bob and their need to grow to be stronger, and the second takes place a few years prior to now, which narrates the historical past of Maya, Mitsuomi and Shin and the way Mitsuomi triggered Shin’s demise. The narration will not be linear and the backstory covers a number of episodes, alternating between previous and current occasions. It’s completed easily so there isn’t a confusion for the viewers, and the backstory is narrated in chunks to assist the story progress when one thing occurs within the ‘current timeline’.

Toudou Academy has a number of martial arts golf equipment, and our protagonists face a lot of them, getting stronger with every combat. Nonetheless, when you count on them to win each time, you’ll be sorely mistaken. The writer doesn’t draw back from having the characters expertise losses a number of instances, as that’s what pushes them to wish to grow to be stronger. That is an motion sequence, and because it’s centred on martial arts and combating, you possibly can count on lots of violence and gore, and demise in some instances. In comparison with sequence like Dragon Ball and Naruto the place fights final a number of episodes, in Tenjho Tenge the fights are shorter however far more frequent.

The paranormal components are launched with the backstory because it tells of the particular skills that some folks have, together with Shin and Aya Natsume. Each of them flip into bloodthirsty murderers in the event that they get their fingers on the Reiki, a katana that enhances the person’s supernatural skills and lots of instances requires bloodshed. Solely Maya can wield it within the Natsume household, due to her lack of supernatural powers. Nonetheless, the Takayanagi Clan took benefit of Shin and the Reiki to show him right into a monster to make Mitsuomi stand out as a ‘hero’. Older brother Shin was obsessive about Maya—he couldn’t and wouldn’t let anybody hurt her. A couple of instances folks round them instructed that what Shin felt for Maya was in some way incestuous, however Shin appeared extra like a psychopath who tried to behave effectively simply to make Maya blissful, as he noticed her as his solely mild. Shin noticed himself as a monster, and he acquired to a degree the place he couldn’t take it anymore and accepted his demise. Mitsuomi began as Shin’s buddy after which grew to become the one who wanted to cease him in any respect prices. I don’t wish to name Mitsuomi Shin’s enemy, as they have been by no means enemies however two individuals who strove to grow to be stronger to guard and possess the particular person they liked: Maya. Whereas Aya can hear the identical name of the katana Reiki, it’s a very completely different expertise. She has folks round her who can and can cease her if she loses management, even when her personal supernatural potential, the Dragon Eye, which permits her to see glimpses of the long run, exhibits issues that she doesn’t like and messes together with her feelings badly.

There’s a lot occurring with the characters, and their relationships are fairly difficult—I can’t even begin to clarify the a number of love triangles and the way they begin a number of the fights. Romance is current within the story, but it surely’s a minor subplot used to justify a number of the actions of the characters. Nonetheless, what’s broadly current is the sexualization of the feminine college students, which provides the story the ‘ecchi’ tag. There’s a plethora of underwear and décolleté displaying, and in some way when the ladies combat, they at all times find yourself shedding most of their clothes. The sexualization of the male college students is much less noticeable, however the writer additionally exhibits them shirtless for coaching and combating, and throughout the fights, the one piece of clothes they lose continues to be the shirt. This fashion of portraying highschool college students is extra widespread in Japanese manga and anime on the time; we  have to keep in mind that the manga for this anime was initially launched within the 90s, when different related manga had the identical type, such because the beforehand talked about Shonan Junai Gumi and its follow-up GTO.

What I most disliked about this sequence was the non-ending (the sequence concludes at Episode 24; the final two episodes are OVAs). So we get to Episode 25, questioning how the producers are going to tie up any unfastened ends and all of the combating, solely to succeed in the top of Episode 26 and discover out that they didn’t. The anime was initially launched in 2004, and as no second season has been developed, we will solely assume that we gained’t understand how the combat between Souichiro and Mitsuomi ends except we learn the manga.

Tenjho Tenge is directed by Toshifumi Kawase (Beyblade) and produced by Masao Maruyama (Captain Tsubasa: Highway to 2002) and it’s primarily based on the manga by Oh! Nice. The Tenjho Tenge Collection from MVM Leisure gathers the 26 episodes of the sequence, and they are often considered both in Japanese or in English, and English subtitles are supplied as effectively. Whereas I watched nearly all of the sequence dubbed in English, I attempted the Japanese language as effectively, and I assumed the voice actors did an excellent job to characterize the characters, particularly after they needed to characterize the characters’ feelings—there are lots of situations of this as this sequence is kind of dramatic. The Blu-ray assortment holds two disks, and the viewers can discover ‘clear’ opening and ending theme songs, plus the promo and trailer supplies with which the sequence was launched. There’s additionally a Collector’s Version (November 2024) which incorporates eight artwork playing cards in a hardback artwork slipcase. 

Our evaluate copy was provided by MVM.