4 star

Veins, Pains and Sibling Rivalry.

From animation studio ‘Madhouse’ (Death Note, Wolf Children) comes a hard hitting Martial-Arts series. This Collectors Edition comes via MVM, and contains the original twenty-four episodes, plus the two OVA’s on Blu-ray. Directed by Toshifumi Kawase (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (TV Series), The Matchless Raijin-Oh (TV Series)), who gives us rippling muscles, panty-shots and Chi altering metabolism, and the fight to be the strongest.

The Toudou Academy, has stood for a long time and is dedicated to the training of Martial-Artists, and today it is about to be shaken up. Nagi Souichiro (Sôichirô Hoshi, Perfect Blue, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (TV Series)) and Bob Makihara (Shin’ichirô Miki, Escaflowne, Pokémon: The First Movie) have decided that they are going to be the top-dogs of their new school and set about beating up the toughest of the upper years. But the diminutive Maya Natsume (Aya Hisakawa, Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly) and her student Masataka Takayanagi (Toshiyuki Morikawa, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Berserk (TV Series)) are about to show this pair of street fighters that the Toudou Academy is no pushover.

What she does is she easily throws Souichiro out of the third floor window, sending him hurtling through the air and through the roof of the shower block, where Maya’s sister Aya (Minori Chihara, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Ga-rei: Zero) is making use of the facilities.

Maya realises what she has done and the pair rush down to the shower block to be greeted by a naked Aya embracing the stunned Souichiro, as she proposes to him (he is the first man to see her naked, apparently it’s a family tradition). But Souichiro doesn’t know that, and he freaks out, and runs off, (he isn’t good with girls).

He and Bob hide, but Aya is resourceful, and finds the pair and tries to feed Lord Souichiro. But Souichiro and Bob have only one thing on their minds, becoming stronger, and that means bashing heads, and Souichiro has seen how handy Takayanagi is and wants to take him on, even though Maya warns him that he is not in the same league as Takayanagi.

Takayanagi shows him the error of his ways, and Souichiro learns that he has a lot to learn. The best way is to join Maya’s Juken Club. But the boy’s activities have enraged the school’s executive council, and they want to deal out harsh punishment and then expulsion.

But the Juken club has a beef with the council, and therefore they take in the pair and get them to train, and Souichiro swears that in three months he will be stronger than everybody.

It is fight after fight as they try to survive the council’s wrath, and when Maya says that if Aya hadn’t found Souichiro first, that she might have been interested in him. Let the sibling rivalry begin, everybody is fighting everybody.

Tenjho Tenge is a whirlwind ride of battle after battle, fists, feet and the power of Chi channelling.

Tenjho Tenge Collector’s Edition is available on Blu-ray