Based on a popular manga from the Ultra Jump publication, Tenjho Tenge has finally seen release here in the states after some slight delay. The anime version of the violent manga has been toned down a tad, but that doesn't mean this release is a push over. Fans will still revel in the crunching bones, spraying blood and sexual innuendos provided here, there is just arguably less of each compared to the manga.

The show focuses on a faction of the Todo Academy named the Juken Club whose martial arts are arguably the best. Souichiro and Bob who were newcomers to the school have joined forces with Takayanagi, Aya and Maya to train and grow stronger. Unfortunately this alliance has caught the attention of the school's executive council and all sorts of fights ensue.

There is a lot of fanservice with the show, so be prepared to see an ample amount of cleavage, panty shots and magical girl transformations. While it's a martial arts, kung-fu-fest, the real focus here is on the magical powers of chi, so everyone has special abilities. Aya is arguably one of the more powerful with her budding technique called the Dragon Eye, but Souichiro isn't going to be too far behind when his training is complete.

In the last volume the Juken Club took a little bit of a respite and decided to go knock down some pins at the local bowling alley. Unfortunately for them, the Executive Council decided to pull out all of the big guns and knock some pins down of their own. The three episodes encompassed the grand battle (well, as much as possible anyway), and the volume ended on a cliffhanging note that left us anxious to see what happened next.

Souichiro had taken on the pro wrester guy, Maya beat up the lard manipulating hottie Isuzu in the ladies' room, Takayanagi and Bob fought against roughly eighty bad guys, and Aya squared off against a pervert with a long staff. At the end of the disc the group was scattered and the President of the Executive Council, Mitsuomi, joins the fray. That's where the third volume picks up, and even though there are only three episodes again, you can expect more of a bloody good time.

Before everyone can regroup and tackle Mitsuomi, Souichiro and Maya have to get to the roof top before Aya's Dragon Eye powers take over and she goes too far. To say she "manhandled" her staff wielding opponent would be an understatement; she beat him to a bloody pulp. We get a glimpse at more of her personality, as well as some of Souichiro's feelings towards her. It was nice to see him finally interact with her instead of just running away. Once everything is happy, the Juken Club heads downstairs to see how Takayanagi and Bob are doing with Mitsuomi. Let's just leave it at "not so good".

What transpires during and after the fight is some much needed character and plot development that until now has been missing. We are treated to a flashback regarding Maya's past and what drives her to defeat Mitsuomi. Essentially the entire last episode on the disc is about her character and what type of relationship she had with the head of the Executive Council. Just when the story starts to get interesting though, the episode ends and I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth because more than three episodes could have easily been squeezed into this volume.

Because of the development I enjoyed this volume much more than the last, and there is still plenty of action to keep things rolling. In between all of the fighting, the fanservice feels out of place, but it does allow for a decent amount of humor in the midst of things. With ten episodes under its belt, Tenjho Tenge is shaping up to be a decent fighting series, but the thinly stretch out episode count on the discs is pretty irritating.

Tenjho Tenge is presented with the 1.33:1 full screen aspect ratio that it was originally broadcast with. The images are very crisp and clean with only a couple minor snippets of pixilation that popped up on dark backgrounds. The colors are very vivid and each character seems to have their own palette. Overall this is a very nice and clean transfer with little to complain about. I really enjoyed the art direction of this show and the animation is top notch, though some still character shots and repeat animations are used here and there.

Tenjho Tenge features two audio tracks: 2.0 English and 2.0 Japanese. While I am a fan of original language tracks with subtitles, the English Dubbing here was pretty good. The Japanese track feature comparable audio quality with accurately translated subtitles as far as I could tell after having watched the show with both tracks. I was a little disappointed that there was no 5.1 audio included, but even still the sound from this disc was good quality.

All that appears on the disc for extra content this time around are some Geneon Previews. It's almost like adding insult to injury when you take into consideration the three episode count on the disc.

The show started out with a lot of promise then kind of slid into a mindless action bonanza during the second volume. The third is kind of a combination of the two. There's plenty of action and there's some decent character development to boot. If you've already been checking the show out then picking it up is a no brainer, but if you are wondering if it's worth getting into you have to take into consideration that you're really not getting your money's worth of anime here. The show is enjoyable enough that it's a good watch, but shelling out $20 for three episodes and no bonus features is pretty unreasonable, especially since this isn't the greatest series in the world. Rent It

Check out more of my reviews here. Head on over to my anime blog as well for random musings and reviews of anime, manga, and stuff from Japan!