DVD
Tenjho Tenge
Volume 3 - Eye of the Dragon

Starring (voice): Aya Hisakawa, Minori Chihara, Shinichiro Miki, Souichiro Hoshi and Tomokazu Seki
MVM
RRP: £19.99
MVD2133
Certificate: 15
Available 13 November 2006


It's another academic year at the Toudou academy and Souchirou Nagi and Bob Makihara, two juvenile delinquents who have spend their time taking over the school, start their new campaign of violence in order to be the top dogs. But things do not go to plan when they come up against the members of the Juuken martial arts club...

So we're into round three of Tenjho Tenge, a teen fight show never too shy to show its violent exuberance. The excellent opening title song, Bomb a Head, should get even the most jaded tapping their feet. Unpretentious, exuding great fun with every well drawn frame, Tenhjo is an unapologetic fight show. Don't get me wrong, although Tenjho has a lot of fights - indeed it is the backbone of the show - it also has a fairly complex plot, so not a bad combination. Although the fan service panty elements may turn some older viewers off. The animation remains as sharp as ever, with above average fight choreography.

Volume Three contains episodes, or as they prefer to be called fights, nine through twelve, so although you loose a bit on the extras this is made up with a decent number of shows per disc.

Fight nine, Enforcement and the extended battle which started in the bowling alley finally comes to its conclusion. Souchirou takes on Mitsuomi and to be perfectly honest it looks like he's gonna gets his arse kicked. Maya obviously takes the opportunity to muse on her past, well who wouldn't. There's a lot of talk about Chi and its uses as well as the apparent death of Maya's brother, Shin, at the hands of Mitsuomi. It finally looks like the show is starting to give a little more of its back story up, which can only be a good thing.

Fight ten, Illusion and it's time for the Juuken Club to take stock after the bowling alley fight. This is a story heavy episode where we discover the history behind Maya and Mitsuomi's relationship. It turns out that Mitsuomi wasn't always a hard arse with funny hair. We finally get to see what Shin looks like as Maya's story examines the events which led to her brothers' apparent demise.

Fight eleven, One With an Unusual Talent. The Juuken club are still coming to terms with the bowling fight, which just gives an excuse for Maya to continue the story of what happened between her, Mitsuomi and her more than slightly deranged brother. Let's just say that love and fighting are never that far removed; a case of sex, lies and videotape.

Fight twelve, Darkness and, as they say, it does what it says on the box, as the shows narrative becomes more emotional and detailed. Not to put off fans of the other parts of the show there is still the required levels of physical violence and over endowed females. This episode continues the story of two years ago, where the last of Shin's Katana club are slowly eliminated.

The extras continue to be very limited with only a selection of line art and trailers for other shows. Ok, it also includes the DVD credits which, whilst I'm sure that we are all very grateful for the work of these guys, it doesn't really count as an extra. Audio is Japanese or English stereo, and although the track does justice to the bass heavy title song, you can't help but wish for a 5.1 mix.

The inclusion of a lot more story means that the series is becoming a lot more entertaining, for once the show is finding its feet with the balance between narrative and violence, for this reason this disc gets a better mark than the previous DVD.

Charles Packer

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