Volume 9 of “Tenjo Tenge: Full Contact Edition 2-in-1” features the latest battle for the title of Executive Council but this time, with the Juken Club’s membership being depleted by injuries and tragedy, do they even have a chance of winning this year competition? If you enjoy fighting manga series with plenty of fighting action with a more adult style, “Tenjo Tenge” is for you!
Image courtesy of © 1997 by Oh!great. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: Tenjo Tenge: Full Contact Edition 2-in-1 Vol. 9
STORY AND ART BY: Oh!great
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shueisha, Inc.
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Viz Signature/VIZ Media, LLC
RATED: M for Mature
Available on October 16, 2o12
Knuckle-busting brawls, badass babes, and the toughest student body ever to mix it up under one roof. Welcome to Todo High, where the only rule is: get strong or get schooled.
The final matches of the Imperial Tournament are on and it’s time to throw down! Everyone with a stake in the outcome is ready to pursue their destiny. The Executive Council, the Takayanagi family, Sohaku and the Juken Club enter a swirl of traps and conspiracies. Aya finds herself facing the supernatural powers and experience of the 15th head of the Kabane family. Then the stage is set for a massive matchup two years in the making—an all-out battle between Mitsuomi and Bunshichi! It’s a supercharged smackdown between old friends that only one of them is going to walk away from!
Every new school year, each club at Todo High School competes in a fight competition of last one standing. Who ever wins earns the title of Executive Council and one member serves as the Executive Council Chairman.
The previous champs, the Junken Club now has a fight on their hands as they have lost several members to tragedy or severe injuries.
But as the powerful clubs are able to advance, Nokimi Mayutsubo intends to wreak havoc with her witchcraft and target Juken Club’s Kagesada Sugano, who is working with Kabane.
Using her Dragon Eyes, Natsume goes to see who is causing the disruption around the school and must take on Kabane. But will she powerful enough to stop him?
Meanwhile, Bunshichi Tawara has a score to settle with Mitsuomi for breaking his promise!
Find out who wins these two epic battles in Oh!great’s “Tenjo Tenge: Full Contact Edition 2-in-1 Vol. 9”!
What is “Tenjo Tenge”?
In 1998, the mangaka known as “Oh!Great” (known for his manga and video game work and creating series such as “Air Gear”, “Burn-Up W” and “Burn Up Excess”) released his manga series “Tenjo Tenge” which would go on for 22 volumes before ending the manga series in 2010.
The manga would later be adapted into a 26-episode TV anime series in 2004, a two-episode OVA in 2005, followed by a film in 2006.
And while the manga series was released in the United States by CMX, the manga was heavily censored for its sexual content. But now the manga has been licensed and released via Viz’s Viz Signature featuring their “Tenjo Tenge: Full Contact Edition 2-in-1” series (featuring two graphic novels per volume) and featured in all of its uncensored glory. Sex, violence, it’s all there!
The series once revolved around a group of friends who attend Todou Academy, an academy that hosts the best fighters in the area. A few of these friends belong to families which are among the six Red Feather families.
Bad boys Souichiro Nagi and his friend Bob Makihara are attending their first day at the Todou Academy and learn that their fighting skills used at other schools, will definitely be put into great use as everyone in the school can fight. But the two will need to join a fight club.
But the most powerful club at the school is the Katana Group headed by Shin Natsume, the president of the Executive Council who has the power of the dragon eyes, but is slowly starting to lose his composure and becoming insane the more he uses them.
Shin has a busty sister named Maya (who has the ability to shrink herself to an 8-year-old) and also a busty younger sister named Aya (who also possessed the dragon eyes, but allows her to see the past, present and future and see and listen to the dead). For some reason, Shin and Maya have this bond, in fact…a bond that suggests that Shin may be in love with his sister.
But with Shin most of the time is his busty girlfriend Mana Kuzunoha, a girl who was assigned to be Shin’s girlfriend in order for her to collect data for the Takayanagi family. She is also responsible for helping Shin start the Katana group. Despite how insane Shin is, she finds herself falling for him.
But as Shin’s jealousy for his sister Maya becoming close with Mitsuomi Takayanagi, it led to his death.
But unfortunately, for Mitsuomi, the awesome power and strength soon got to his head which led to the deaths of many crime families and now many under the power of Mitsuomi. And Mitsuomi is wanting the Reiki sword that belongs to the Natsume family.
Meanwhile, the Jyuken Club is now ran by Maya, along with her sister Aya and her boyfriend Souichiro, Souichiro’s best friend Bob Makihara, Kagesada Sugano and Masataka Takayanagi (Mitsuomi’s younger brother).
In “Tenjo Tenge” Vol.5 and 6, the group fought Sohaku Kago’s group known as F (the new leaders of the 12 Founding Families), but in the process, a few were severely injured, while Souchiro Nagi was kidnapped.
“Tenjo Tenge” Vol. 7 focuses on Maya trying to recuperate from her injuries and broken arm with hopes that she can end the hundred-year war. As Maya goes out to search for Souchiro, Souchiro is being kept under the watchful eye of the Red Feather Faction leader, Sohaku Kago and being pitted against other warriors in hopes that Souchiro will take the first step into metamorphosis into the Black Dragon.
Meawhile, Tessen Ishiyumi, head of the Ishiyumi family has gone crazy since Souichiro sealed Tessen’s “Dragon Gate” and disabling his chakra. Now, he has become a madman and wants revenge against those who have made fun of him for losing his power, including Katsumi Kabato, head of the Kabuto family.
The second half of the storyline features Mitsuomi and Madoka Mawari teaming up with Maya and Souchiro (along with the help of Shizura Kamura) to enter the Forbidden Souls Echoes Gate go against Sohaku Kago (head of the Kago family and true leader of F, and also the father of Souchiro Nagi) and his most trusted subordinate, Tetsuhito Kagiroi.
Volume 7 also reveals the history of Soichiro’s mother Makiko Nagi and his father Sohaku Kago. We learn of why Makiko has lost her arm and what Sohaku had done to her. Meanwhile, Maya and Tetsuhito Kagiroi fight to the death.
With volume 8, Maya succumbs to her injuries against Tetsuhito. With the Dragon Eyes from afar, Maya witnesses her sister’s possible death. Fearing for the worse for her sister and her love for Souchiro, Maya needs to make sense of all this fighting. Until she is taken to the past to learn about Sohaku Kogo and what he was trying to accomplish then and what he is trying to accomplish now. Many secrets are revealed in this latest volume, including how one can be alive for centuries.
And with volume 9, Todo High’s tournament battle for which club will become “Executive Council” begins! With the Juken Club down to a few members due to injuries or tragedy, will they even have a chance this year?
The ninth volume of “Tenjo Tenge: Full Contact Edition” brings back to the reader, the exciting battles for the title of Executive Council.
But it’s this world of fight clubs at Todo High School, back in volume three, it was established that the competition was pretty much, who can knock off the “King of the Mountainâ€. Back then, Shin was the King of the Mountain, but so much has changed with the Juken Club since.
Shin is dead. Maya is dead but her soul still resonates in the sword. Mitsuomi is now evil and the remaining members of the Juken Club are left to fight and defend their title of being the “Executive Council”. And as always, those who claim the title get to call the shots at the school and let people know of their dominance.
But deviating from the club vs. club storyline, we get to see Natsume in the battle to the death with Kabane. And we get to see how much his power has greatly improved.
As for Bunshichi, he made a pact with Mitsuomi that if anything bad happens to a club member, Bunshichi would fight Mitsuomi. And sure enough, with Maya pretty much dead (her body is healed but she is literally dead, her spirt/soul has been transferred into the family sword known as the Reiki), Bunshichi makes sure that Mitsuomi remembers the pact they made. And the two engaged in a major fight.
Suffice to say, this latest 2-in-1 volume is an all action-brawl storyline. With the executive council battle plus two major battles going on at the same time, with so much action, each page can be read quickly. There is a third fight which involves Hitomi Koumikawa (5th Jujitsu Club Captain), who has been possessed by the witch, Nokimi Mayutsubo with her worms and so Koumikawa must take on Juken Club’s Kagesanda Sugano.
Overall, “Tenjo Tenge” is a pretty awesome manga series that will attract fans who love fight club storylines, especially fighting video games such as “King of Fighters”, “Rival Schools”. There is plenty of action and teenage angst in this manga series but obviously targeted to male readers as the women happen to be overly well-endowed, appear to enjoy being bra-less, wearing short skirts to expose their panties and often having sex with a few of the male characters (or in this volume, having fun with themselves). Granted, the sex and fan service is not a big part of the overall storyline but it is featured in the manga series.
Oh! Great’s artwork for “Tenjo Tenge” is beautiful, well-detailed and he puts so much into each page of his manga series. I’m quite impressed. Most fighting manga tend to not focus on the story, if anything, they tend to rely on the characters (especially if they are based on a popular video game series). In the case of “Tenjo Tenge”, it’s a complex series with a lot of characters, but you feel that with each volume, you’re getting your money’s worth. Very good character development but you have to stay with it and not miss any volumes, because something big always happens in each chapter!
Overall, for a mature action-driven, fighting manga series, “Tenjo Tenge” is an exciting manga series!
If you are looking for a mature fighting, all-action manga series with a lot of sex and violence, “Tenjo Tenge: Full Contact Edition 2-in-1” is for you!
Recommended!