INTRODUCTION

Tenjou Tenge is a series I very much wanted to enjoy but found myself increasingly losing interest as I read on. It has a simple but enticing enough premise to draw in your attention, fantastic art to pleasure your eyes, lots of action (and nudity, if you're in to that) to keep you interested, and likeable characters with strong personalities. However, the series progresses in such a way that it loses what exactly drew people into the story in the first place, and the entire experience suffers as a result.

This review will go into the details of Tenjou Tenge and highlight its strengths and unfortunate shortcomings.


STORY - 4/10

The setting of Tenjou Tenge starts out simple. It takes place in a high school that focuses on martial arts, and is declared a paradise for fighting amongst the students. We have our delinquent main characters enter this school in an attempt to rule it, promptly get their butts handed to them, and then join the Juken club in an attempt to grow stronger.

The Juken club is a group that focuses on resisting the enforcement group, the declared strongest fighters in the school and the effective student council. Due to the delinquent nature of the main characters and some history involving Maya, the Juken club is thrust into a war with the Enforcement group, whose outcome will decide the ruling force of the school.

While the setting doesn't scream sophistication, it doesn't need to. The story sets out to be a mindless but enjoyable ride full of action and eroticism (more on that later). And quite frankly, that's all it needed to be.

However, around the half way mark, the story takes a complete different approach and moves away from the foundation the story was built upon. What started as an easy to read martial arts manga that focused on hand-to-hand fights suddenly turned into a supernatural fantasy novel. Pulled right out of Dragon Ball, fights that were focused around martial arts turned into battles of magic via the miracle that is "Ki", with characters controlling the forces of nature and conjuring projectiles to throw at their opponents. More than once I was wondering if I was still reading the same manga. Metaphoric and philosophic messages are also littered throughout the second half, with walls of texts being thrown around left and right, completely contrasting with the first half of the manga.

Additionally, there is not one, but two very long flashbacks in this series, taking up multiple volumes each. While the first one is interesting, providing insight into the motives of the characters, and is easy to read (as it takes place in the first half of the manga), the second flashback is a convoluted mess that throws brand new characters into the mix and seemingly disrupts the pace and excitement set up directly before. After reading through it, I questioned how much I actually gained from enduring the experience. The most frustrating part of these flashbacks, however, is the almost stupidly long duration we are left without any appearance of the main characters or plot.

While the second half of Tenjou Tenge attempts to draw sophistication into the story, combining symbolism, metaphors, and motifs (the unavoidable nature of fate and desire to break free of a repeating cycle of history, for instance), the truth of the matter is the setting just doesn't compliment that form of storytelling. With such a huge contrast, the only comparable attribute of the two halves that can be used to affirm you are reading the same story is seeing the same characters throughout both halves. In any other sense, they are two entirely different stories and settings.


ART - 8/10

The art is by far the strongest part of Tenjou Tenge. Detail is put into both the characters and the backgrounds, fights and action sequences are paced well enough that they are easy to follow, and the erotic scenes seem almost disturbingly professionally drawn (To the point where I feel the manga would have been better as actual porn than a story-driven manga). There are some hiccups in quality here and there, but overall the art is consistent throughout. Though, there is a development of the art style throughout the manga, showing a noticeable difference at the beginning of the manga and the end.

Now, let's just get this out of the way: let's talk about the nudity, as this can be a game-breaker from some people (in different ways). There's a lot of it, and it's fairly frequent. Tenjou Tenge does not shy away when it comes to full nude body shots. However, I feel it's important to note that the nudity is done in both erotic and non-erotic ways.

There are a lot of scenes that are clearly there for the fan service. Sex scenes (to which there's a lot of in varying detail), panty shots, and revealing outfits are littered throughout the manga, but there is a large amount of scenes where the nudity is not done solely for eroticism, perhaps to the point where it even outnumbers the solely erotic scenes.

Nudity in Tenjou Tenge can be considered an art more so than mindless fan service. Nudity is embraced and characters are shown to not be embarrassed when their bodies are naked and unclothed. This mindset leads to empowering female characters in some situations and creates some badass, even epic, scenes. These scenes benefit from the nudity and would not have the same impact if the characters were, instead, clothed. As stated earlier, nudity in Tenjou Tenge can be considered an art more so than simple fan service.


CHARACTERS - 6/10

The characters of Tenjou Tenge are what you would expect from a typical shonen series. You have the stupid but likeable main character with latent powers (where have I heard that one before?), a female lead that falls hands over heels for the leading male protagonist the moment she sees him (original, I know), a sidekick that has some defining moments but otherwise falls into the background as more powerful enemies appear, and a mentor that helps the main protagonist get stronger.

In terms of antagonists, the first flashbacks adds some depth to the enforcement group, but otherwise they are one-dimensional and unlikeable.

Let's look at the main cast.

NAGI SOUICHIRO - A self-identified hoodlum, he has both a silly and strong personality who looks at situations simply and acts mainly on instinct. Defined with the philosophy to vanquish demons by becoming a demon, he has the blood of a demon exorcist in his veins. Due to his bloodline, he was frequently bullied by neighbors which led him to his delinquent nature. His main goal in the series is to become the strongest fighter in the school.

NATSUME AYA - Proficient with the sword, Aya is a skillful fighter who becomes increasingly important and deadly as the series progresses. She is the younger sister of Maya and immediately falls in love with Nagi when she meets him. Part of the Nastsume bloodline, she holds a special ability known as Ryuugan, or the Dragon's eyes, which allows her to see into the past, future, and other places in the present, making her a dominating force when she utilizes it.

MAKIHARA BOB - An African-American muscleman, he is friends with Nagi and is his partner in crime. With a well-built body with springy muscles, he fights using the Brazilian fighting style capoeira. While many of his interaction with Nagi are humorous, he is shown to be fairly intelligent and is observant of his opponents' strengths. He has a girlfriend, Chaiki, who plays a supporting role for Bob in his endeavor to grow stronger.

TAKAYANAGI MASATAKA - Sempai to Nagi, Bob, and Aya, he is shown to be a powerful and consistently strong character in the series. However, despite his strength, he takes on a supportive role until near the end of the manga. He is jealous of Nagi because he like Aya, but Aya only has her eyes on Nagi.

NATSUME MAYA - The older sister of Aya, she is head of the Juken club and one of the most powerful fighters at the school. She plays the role of the mentor for the members of the Juken club, especially for Nagi and Aya. There is some tension between herself and her younger sister, Aya, because while Aya loves Nagi, Nagi loves Maya.

TAKAYANAGI MITSUOMI - One of the main antagonists of Tenjou Tenge, he is the leader of the Enforcer group, declared strongest fighter in the school, and the older brother of Masataka. He has a history with Maya and her older brother, and has developed a large number of followers who follow his command.

To once again bring up nudity, among the main characters, Aya and Maya have their fair share of scenes showcasing their nudity. However, of these scenes, many of the ones involving Maya are used to illustrate her as powerful and confident rather than for pure eroticism. The same can't be said for Aya, however, so keep that in mind.


ENJOYMENT - 4/10

Emphasized in the story section of my review, the second half of Tenjou Tenge is hard to follow and takes away from the premises the series started on. While convoluted plots are not bad, it didn't compliment the setting of the story and it negatively contrasted with the first half of the Manga. Large walls of texts are thrown one after the other, and reading it all became more of a chore than entertainment.

To add to the already lengthy walls of text throughout the second half, many of these walls are simply for flavor. They don't really add anything to the plot and are solely there to add needless detail. After reading through too many flavor texts, I found myself starting to skim through the chapters, instead of intently reading every line and word as I did before. In the second flashback, I found myself even skipping full panels and pages due to the impatience that grew from the lack of notable and engaging plot. And, when I did focus and read every line and word to understand what was going on, I found myself getting confused over core developments.

What are the motives, why are these characters doing this? Why does any of this matter? Why am I supposed to care? Why is this character suddenly on a different side? Why are these characters fighting? These are questions I found myself asking multiple times throughout the second half. I even reread entire chapters preceding my current one in an attempt to answer these questions, only to end up with a little more insight than I started with and a vague idea of the context and motives. The second half of this manga is a convoluted mess, plain and simple.

Approaching the end, I found myself simply wanting to be over with it all, losing almost complete interest in the plot or characters. The only thing that kept me going was the fantastic art and the increased amount of nudity.

I feel weird stating that I was reading for the eroticism, as I normally dislike ecchi manga and animes, typically finding the latter near unbearable to watch, but the statement is true in this case. I feel the level of detail and the bold approach to showing nakedness enhanced the experience and was somewhat refreshing to see. In most ecchi and erotic manga/anime, there tends to be a lot of teasing. There is a lot of revealing clothing and censored nudity, but nothing is ultimately shown. Or, if there is, then it tends to be fairly mild. I find the experience somewhat childish and feel it takes away from the plot and overall experience; that the series would be better without all the fan service.

However, in the case of Tenjou Tenge, the bold approach to nudity with the lack of censorship gave it a somewhat mature tone, to which I felt the experience was much more enjoyable. It didn't tease or excessively flaunt the nudity, but instead used it as a means of artistic expression.

To conclude, while I found myself drawn in and interested in the beginning, the more I read the more disinterested I got in the story and found myself reading only for the fights and eroticism; the story no longer added anything for me.

CONCLUSION

Story - 4/10
Art - 8/10
Characters - 6/10
Enjoyment - 4/10
Overall - 22/40 = 5.5/10

Tenjou Tenge isn't a bad manga, but it certainly could have been better. Having a strong yet simple start, it drags out into a needlessly complicated narrative that resembles nothing of its former self.

The art is fantastic, but there is a heavy emphasis on nudity. While I normally consider erotic and ecchi manga/anime to be hard to digest and get into, the bold approach to nudity here worked out well and became a highlight of the experience for me.

If you are here for the action and eroticism, then you'll definitely like Tenjou Tenge.

If you are here for a consistent plot, strong well-developed characters, or exciting fights showcasing martial arts, then you'll probably leave disappointed.