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, though there is 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 in school. 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 with glimpses at flesh. While the series is a martial arts kung-fu-fest, the real focus here is on the magical powers of chi, so everyone seems to have special powers. Aya is arguably one of the more powerful with her budding technique called the Dragon Eye, but Souichiro can summon a dragon spirit to aide him.

In the last volume the bowling alley brawl came to a close and the Juken Club went home to lick their wounds. The meeting with President of the Executive Council, Mitsuomi didn't go quite as planned, but it leaves Maya to reminisce about her past. She starts telling the troop about exploits from her younger days and unveils some of the mystery surrounding what's going on with the series.

Things pick up in this volume right after that point and we begin to learn more about Maya's past. The entire story for Tenjho Tenge all started back when the Katana team was being hunted down at the academy. Shin (Maya's older brother) went ballistic trying to find out who was behind the slaughter. With a mystical katana in hand Shin lost his soul and was overtaken by the Dragon Eye that Aya possesses. His murderous rampage made him feared by everybody. Well, everybody but Bunshichi that is.

The two fighters square off against each other in the final minutes of the third episode on this volume. Bunshichi starts out all cocky about being able to take Shin, but he hasn't really experienced the monster that Shin had become. The volume ends about half way through the fight and to say that what happened to Bunshichi doesn't look painful would be an understatement. This single moment just proves how raw Tenjho Tenge can be when it wants to be.

Learning about the past was something that this show sorely needed and now that we have it the whole dynamic changes. It fits all of the puzzle pieces together and really sheds some light on the background of the academy and some of the characters. My only gripe is that with all of the focus on Maya's past it's almost convenient to forget what's going on with Souichiro and the gang. Of course being able to put a history to Mitsuomi is kind of cool considering we saw what he was capable of in the last volume.

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. 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. Even so this is a show where the characters and art design absolutely pops from the screen and there really isn't a lot to complain about.

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.

You want some bonus material? Well, how about some Geneon Previews and, um…some DVD credits. Yeah, that's unfortunately all that you're going to see on this disc. Considering that there are only three episodes on each of these volumes as well it just adds insult to injury.

Tenjho Tenge is a real mixed bag when it comes to quality. Some parts of it are great with a lot of action and humor while other parts suffer because of a lack of depth. Being able to step back in time to see what events happened before the series started adds a lot of background to things, but does little to move the interest meter forward. If you've been enjoying the show up to this point then you'll most likely want to keep the investment going, but for $20 you get three episodes and no extras. In today's market that kind of release structure really hurts things.

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