DVD
Tenjho Tenge
Volume 7 - The Ultimate Fight

Starring (voice): Aya Hisakawa, Minori Chihara, Shinichiro Miki, Souichiro Hoshi and Tomokazu Seki
MVM
RRP: £19.99
MVD2137
Certificate: 15
Available 18 June 2007


It's another academic year at the Toudou academy and Souchirou Nagi and Bob Makihara, two juvenile delinquents who have spent their time taking over 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. Mush has happened since we first met these characters and the focus has now shifted to Shin's fate and whether the evil within will devour him...

Tenjho Tenge: Volume Seven, directed by Toshifumi Kawase, and the series is finally coming to an end. As per usual the shows are separated as fights rather than episodes. Volume Seven contains fights Twenty Three to Twenty Six.

Fight Twenty Three, Curse, and plans are coming to fruition. Shin's fight with the Executive is nearly upon him, it was after all the reason he created the Juuken Club in the first place, but first Shin has to control the power of the Dragon's Eye and the destiny that it portents. I won't spoil the end, for all those who are following this series; let's just say it ends badly. Overall, a nice emotional story.

Fight Twenty Four, Vicissitudes, and it's the last television episode, so of course in order to go out on a high, all hell breaks loose. Mitsuomi, having survived his fight with Shin, aims for a higher, greater prize: the complete overthrow of his father as head of the family. But what of the fate of the other characters? It's a nice episode to end the show with, with some good characterisation, but for the show it's a little too late. There are some nice amusing touches with the characters acknowledging that they are in a fiction. Souichiro and Bob return bringing the show back to its beginnings as well as its final fruition.

Although the original show ended, it was successful enough to spawn a movie and a two part original video animation (OVA), Ultimate Fight, which has been included on this disc. To be honest as the OVA follows straight on from the shows last episode so it makes sense to treat it as just an extension of the show.

Fight Twenty Five, Ultimate Fight: Dragon's Fist: Souichiro meets his mother, who gives him one month to train in a new fight technique. But things are not what they seem, as his mother wants him to learn from Mitsuomi's deposed father.

Fight Twenty Six, Ultimate Fight: Germination: Tensions between Aya and her sister, over the affections of Souichiro, finally boil over into a protracted fight, which takes up mush of the episode. With Souichiro's new found fighting powers he finally faces off against Mitsuomi.

The disc has its usual visual clarity with little in the way of extras, just a screenshot gallery, trailers, DVD credits and a creditless ending - nothing your going to watch more than once, even if you get that far.

Ultimately, the shows combination of ecchi and fights was never going to be enough to make this a 'must see' series. It has its good points, great opening sequence, some fairly impressive animation, but the narrative is too uneven to really be fulfilling.

Charles Packer

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