The good news is that Oh!Great manages to explain where his story is going.
The bad news is it may take a degree in Japanese history or hours of research to fully follow his explanation.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Oh!Great
Translation/Adaptation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
Sohaku’s lost his head – literally. But everything has gone according to plan. A look back at the past may shed some light on our heroes’ fates. In a time of war, Sohaku schemes to have the Red Feathers take control of Osaka Castle. Was this period of peace merely the calm before the storm? After witnessing the deaths of his friends and having to sacrifice his comrades, what does Ichiyo Nagi see before him now? Turning to face the final battle, the courses of the two eras flow into one, with all the pieces falling into place at the Todo Academy Preliminaries!
Content: (please note that content portions of review may contain spoilers):
The price of victory is going to prove to be unbearably high as Mitsuomi uses the time that Maya has bought the group to defeat the architect looking to use the special powers of those descended from the various feather clans to change the world by beheading him- of course this move buys him no good will with Soichiro given that architect was his father. But there are worse things ahead for the youth as the price for that time to achieve victory looks to have been paid for with everything that Maya had, leaving a terrible sadness in her wake.
But when a seemingly defeated enemy reappears the horrible history that the fighters are stuck repeating will be revealed as Aya’s Dragon Eyes awaken a very special guide who will take her on a journey back to Feudal Japan and a secret struggle that played out in the shadow of the Sengoku era. At the time a figure cloaked in shadows was also moving pieces around to try to reshape the world and it came down to a small band of fighters to try to oppose him (including an ancestor of Aya who looked identical to her)…and they failed. But it wasn’t just the kind of failure that leaves bodies in its wake but the kind of failure where those who survive are forced to make the kind of deal that could be seen as selling one’s soul. Even worse, that cost has been passed down to the current generation and Aya now finds herself struggling to decide if she is willing to make her own Faustian bargain in order to keep what is precious to her as she tries to accept the burden it is extolling on her. With the tournament now before them is the Juken Club going to be able to shatter the chains of destiny or will they merely be fashioning the final links in a centuries old scheme with their own hands?
With the previous volume having left things in a swirl with its departure from what had been established in the earliest pages of the series there seemed to be a chance Tenjo Tenge may be traveling down a path where the story became just a cluttered mess and the only recommendation for the series could be given for its incredibly gorgeous artwork. To some extent this collection of volumes has pulled the tale back more than a little into something resembling order it but it still clashes more than a little with the earliest of chapters while also changing the focus of events into a new direction, one which feels like it is borrowing more than a little from the late 80 and early 90s X-Men stories to try to lend more weight to events.
Reading through the book it is not hard at all to imagine some of the characters and their plots being almost copies of X-Men foes Magneto and Apocalypse as the explain of the whys and hows of what their motivations exude a strong echo when the subject of the nature of the powers that so few people seem to have is broached and in part it teases how easily the leap from the US comics to Tenjo Tenge the plot might have been. Now that isn’t exactly a negative to me as I loved that era of the comics and Tenjo Tenge does put its own spin on things so there doesn’t seem to be a direct intention to mimic but more of a borrowing of the underlying flow (which makes the manga’s failure to succeed under DC Comics imprint seem more than a touch ironic). Oh!Great also doesn’t sell out his heroes as he places a pretty high burden on a number of them to go along with the complicated (or perhaps muddled some might say) situation that he is building and there are hints that he is going to be putting their psyches through at least the level of challenges they face ahead physically.
The volume isn’t all wine and roses to get there though as the story takes a number of almost incredulous leaps that might sink a series that already hadn’t made smaller ones and either overcome or just worn down the readers sense of disbelief with some of the pained and occasionally near unbelievable twists the author throws in and the idea that he is doing so for his own amusement as much (at least) as the audiences isn’t easily escaped (and his own notes at the end of the chapters seem to echo this, even when he seems to be trying to claim that in a wry sort of way). It’s the trip to the past where things become really muddled though as the motivations of the new characters he presents are concealed as Oh!Great plays fast and very loose with established history and which may leave a good portion of the non Japanese audience (and perhaps given some of the notes he wrote some of the Japanese audience as well) feeling like they are watching some sort of alien play where little is laid out and one just has to sit back and wait for the story to connect with a part that they can grasp. This is something where I wish that translator notes existed, even if just on VIZ’s website so that the history he is playing with could be laid out to help set up just what is supposed to be going on with events. Much of the settings might be of at least passing familiarity to those who have enough experience either through actual historical knowledge to follow it or those who have seen enough material set in the era to at least recognize many of the names but the assumption of a more detailed familiarity may turn off some readers as well. Thankfully it looks like this trip to the past is over and the Juken Club will be focusing more on the upcoming tournament and obstacles going forward so hopefully the return to a more grounded and familiar reality will help settle the story more into the path that it originally looked to be establishing before it went off in search of a much grander, dire and bigger theme than just the almost intimate by comparison fight that was foreshadowed so relatively long ago.
In Summary
With a story that has ventured far beyond its initial set up, the eighth omnibus of Tenjo Tenge looks to have provided the edges to the puzzle that the series has been creating of late which give an idea as to what the grand scope of the series is and what grand platform that it seems to be aiming for in crafting a tale that goes beyond having some superhuman high school fighters with more than a little drama and angst among them struggling to be top dog at the school. Whether or not this is going to work for each individual is likely to vary depending on just how far they are willing to go along with the story but the strong artwork again makes it easier to go along for the ride, particularly when things get a bit out of sorts with the rather lengthy history bending trip that consumes a large portion of this release. At the very least the volume looks like it sets up the returning of event to the present (relative) day and brings in most of the cast that the audience has grown to know so the potential exists that the next book won’t be quite as taxing to those without a Japanese history degree.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: August 21st, 2012
MSRP: $17.99
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