Ichibod gets a pleasant surprise
Publisher: Madman Entertainment
Tue, 17 January 2006
by: ichibod
Well, a little slow, but better late than never! The first of four reviews of basically hot chicks with big guns, swords and cleavage. When I first saw the four DVDS that Madman had graciously passed onto this lowly Buttonholer, I thought I would write one review for all four DVDS, as they all appeared to be of a similar ilk. But, after watching what I thought would be the worst of the four, and the easiest to basically dismiss and write next to nothing about, due to how lame it was... Well, I have had to rethink my plans and so, here is this single review of a DVD that utterly surprised me; Tenjho Tenge.
As you can probably guess from my intro there, I watched Tenjho Tenge with the express desire for it to fail miserably to impress me. The cover was the first hint as to how bad I thought this was going to be. Its pink, it's girly and it has a hot busty gal there waving around her great big sword. Well, apart from the fan service on the cover, it just wasn't doing it for me!
The intro to the first episode has another of those great songs (titled Bomb A Head) that makes no sense in any language and has the cast of characters dancing with the female characters, lending a bit more of the old fan service, with a few hints of breast and panties (my other half hates that word- says it sounds dirty) beneath those all too short school uniforms.
Basically, I was still sitting there ready to come up with my first great Hunter S Thompson esque scathing remark on how this piece of modern schlop was destroying the morals of this planet and possibly others and giving me that feeling that I wanted to blow something up (was that me or Hunter?)...When - it happened. The story began and, well, god damn it, it was good. There is actually a very viable story emerging, based on the purity of martial arts chi and its misuses. Of course it's taken to extremes, but what good anime wouldn't want to go just that little bit beyond reality?
The basis of the story starts when Souichiro and Bob (they clearly thought long and hard about that name) move into a new school that they wish to rule. Sounds simple, right?!! Beat up all the best students, then move on to the next school. Too Simple, right?! Their first day is shot to hell when they meet the Natsume sisters Maya and Aya and their Juuken club. From then on in it gets stranger, but please check it out for yourselves to see what I mean.
 | | Bring It On 3: Dancing With Death |
Now, of course, Maya and Aya are not normal. Apart from being 17 and built and stacked, like Pamela Anderson could only dream of, they have special powers that they are only just realizing. Maya likes to contort herself into the form of a little girl to keep her chi energy at bay (or something like that) before unleashing her true potential in the form of aforementioned hot busty scantily clad panty showing hot chick with a big sword.
Think Yoda without so much of that "do or do not, Yoda gets paid regardless" transforming himself into the hottest man in the galaxy - like Conan or, in my case, Orlando Bloom - and you will get the idea. (Nice of you to share your man-crush with us Ichibod - Sammy)
DVD extras are pretty much null and void here. All you get is credit-less opening but, like I keep saying, this is only the first part of a multiple disk series and you can't give away all the goodies too early now, can you?
Get past the obvious fan service going on here and scrape off the sugar coating, then its easy to see Tenjho Tenge Round 1: New Kids in Town has the beginnings of a strong story that is backed up by excellent visuals and a well implemented score. Whether I went at this DVD with such low expectations that anything would have been good, or not; I truly enjoyed this viewing experience. And I look forward to seeing the rest of series (listen to my bank account groan). Bring on the action bring & the fan service and bring on disk 2!
by: ichibod
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The 9 is for the show. The 6 is for the fan service. | |
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