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Tenjho Tenge Vol. 7

Tenjho Tenge Vol. 7

Written by Seb Reid on 16 Jul 2007


Distributor MVM • Certificate 12 • Price £19.99 RRP


FINALLY!



Since the ending of volume 3 I've been praying that this day would come. The dreaded flashbacks are over, we now know how Mitsuomi came into power. We finally know how he was manipulated throughout his life into becoming a less interesting version of the "ultimate martial arts warrior". Yes, those exact words are used, and yes it is just as cheesy and as cliché as it sounds.

The first episode of this volume is still contained within a flashback, but this time we are shown the epic battle between Shin Natsume and Mitsuomi as they fight for control of the then Juuken club and control of the Student Executive...

Unfortunately all ends badly for Maya as her brother is overpowered by the sheer might of Mitsuomi and left to die. Predictably enough she does plan revenge for the death of her brother by , well, you know exactly how. We have finally entered the present day situation. Aya has the cursed katana, and both Maya and Mitsuomi are hunting for it (not together though). When it comes down to her being forced to give up her now treasured possession, her knight in tracksuit bottoms, Souichiro comes to her rescue and challenges Mitsuomi to a fight. Unfortunately Maya sticks her nose in, and the confrontation is postponed until the Imperial Tournament a month later.

In theory, this would have given Souichiro a month to train. It was not meant to be. With Aya and Maya facing off against each other because of Souichiro’s misdirected feelings, and Mitsuomi being on borrowed time thanks to the powerful blow dealt by Shin back in volume 6, all is ready to kick off as the penultimate volume of Tenjho Tenge finishes. I actually cannot wait...

... But I am going to have to. You see, the series ends here. I have been told (Thanks to my knowledgeable friends on our forum, Trismugistus and Red Lightning.) that Volume 7 is it, for now. This is as far as the manga had got when the series was produced. So for now, we will not get to see what will happen to Aya, we will not see the climax of the conflict which has been propagated throughout the series, and we will not see the end.

What I fail to understand is why is the series this long? Over the last 3 volumes I have honestly been bored to tears with poorly scripted clichéd writing and generally bad planning. With a little thought some of this un-necessary fat could have been cut and perhaps it may have been a little shorter. I do consider it to be poor authoring when the majority of a story has to be based in a flashback in order to make sense and flesh out the characters. A flashback should not last as long as TT's under any circumstances the entire series seems to consist of mostly flashback.

Now the series has finally, and I do mean finally, picked up the enjoyment and optimism I felt for the initial episodes is returning.

Will this optimism hold until the next series is finally produced and released? Probably not. Will I remember anything when the second series comes along? Probably not. I feel that Tenjho Tenge could have done so much better. A lot of potential for a funny, yet deep, romantic, yet action packed, series was wasted. And that frankly makes me sad. The score I give below is not the score for this single volume. Compared to the previous volumes this was fantastic. Below is the series score. It was a letdown, but from what I have heard (from the two friends above) the manga is actually a lot better. Stick with that, if I were you.


Extras:

Trailers
6
Good start, Not a bad series ending, but could have been so much better.

Seb Reid
About Seb Reid

Seb has been an anime fan since the late 90s and is particularly fond of anything post-apocalyptic, amusing, catgirly, ecchi or containing exquisite aerial battles. Living in Leeds with his cats and living up the bachelor life, Seb enjoys whiling the nights away deep in a book, game or a damn good series. 


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