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Review: Tenjo Tenge, Vol. 3

Tenjo Tenge, Vol. 3 Tenjo Tenge, Vol. 3 by Oh! Great
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*Edit*: My reread review (which ended up being more comprehensive than my original review //shot) has been added to the bottom

The two volumes in this bundle are completely comprised of backstory for Maya, her older brother Shin, Mitsuomi, and Bunshichi.

A picture of the aforementioned group

The art has been really good in these two volumes which has been a real treat. The art has always been nice, but around volumes 3-4 there were some bouts of shitty/lazy drawing, which is something that always annoys me when reading manga. However the art has been so nice lately that even the fights don't bore me anymore because they're so nice to look at! The nicer and more detailed the art is the more intense the fights feel because I can feel more emotion behind the drawings. This can definitely be a drawback in some manga--because as a mangaka you want fight scenes to be fast paced and intense and don't want the reader dawdling around spending too much time looking at the art and slowing down the pacing. This can also end up un-immersing readers from the story/fight/manga/whatever. In actuality this felt like the fastest I have ever read a manga. It felt like it took me the same time it would normally take me to read a volume, but in this bundle there were TWO volumes! What a blast.

This continues to be a very fun and entertaining series to read through! Honestly my rating for each volume probably has more to do with how depressed I'm feeling at the time rather than the contents of the manga, so the star ratings are essentially inconsequential.


REREAD REVIEW:
Reread on May 21 2018
5 stars

Maya Natsume

Yo. Even though it’s only been a few months since I read this volume for the first time, re-reading this was a gosh darn blast. Even more fun than the first time. This backstory arc is just so much better than anything else in this series, which, you know what, maybe isn’t that much of a compliment because everything else in this series is pretty... Not great. For context, I’m currently in the middle/endish of volume 15, so that’s how far I am in this series as of writing this reread review.

This arc is better than everything else because it shows Mistuomi’s (wow I actually remembered his name for once; Not. I peeked it on the back cover blurb. If you don’t remember who that is, it’s big brother Takanahashi) INSANE character development, it actually incorporates some romance instead of fricken blue balling us like the rest of the series does, it doesn’t have a stupid one-off useless villain and is instead centred around a really interesting time in these character’s lives which ends up having significant impact on all of them moving forward. This arc is an actual properly constructed story that shows that Oh!Great-sensei might actually have some storytelling skills, a concept that quickly dissipates once you continue reading past this arc.

Mitsuomi’s character development is one from our dreams. It’s soooo satisfying? In a way? To see where he started from while keeping in mind the FRICKEN MONSTER he eventually becomes. It’s actually so nice being able to read about him while he was still a wholesome baby bird in grade 10. He really was such a sweet character. During both volumes 5 & 6 he remains pure and even exhibits feelings of crippling fear, which is such an amazing thing to see in the past of someone who eventually becomes extremely scary himself. Reading about his character and transformation is definitely one of the big highlights of this arc.

I know I said that this arc doesn’t blue ball us, but honestly it still kind of does, it’s just that it’s not as bad if we compare it to the rest of the series. We see some romantic acts between Mitsuomi and Kuzunoha, which is something that adds another compelling dynamic to the characters and story, so that was good. However, Maya and Mitsuomi’s relationship remains vague and in the dark. We hear several characters mention how Mitsuomi likes Maya, and we also get the sense that she probably(?) likes him back, but we never see any of them do anything about this. There are some hints that maybe something might be going on off screen, but since they’re so vague and we never actually see anything our balls remain blue and unsure. MayaxMitsuomi is my OTP so this is frustratiiinngg. At least they went on a pseudo date at the end of volume 6, which was FANTASTIC. All-in-all, Oh!Great-sensei really knew how to treat us right during this arc by still giving us a little bit of what we crave while keeping us yearning for more.

The story and art are also great, and work together well. This series is actually proper drop-dead GORGEOUS which is a big reason of why I keep trudging on despite its huge faults past this point. Everything that goes on in this arc, from the character development, the character dynamics and interactions, the intense fights, the consequences to character’s actions, to the changing nature of their school and environment itself is all so greatly done and amazing to read about. Every aspect of this arc really complements every other aspect so well. It’s such a pleasure to read that even though I already read this arc I was still on the edge of my seat while reading and I never wanted to put the book down.

I only have one problem with this arc, really. With Bunshichi. He does a really good job of making me like him: He has a cool character design, he’s calm-cool-and-collected, and he’s a badass monster in a fight. So it’s really unfortunate that he also threatened to rape women on two different occasions during these volumes, which was not okay in the slightest. It sucks that the book made me like him, but then shows me that side of him that I cannot endorse in any capacity, which ends up putting a really sour dampening on his character. So that sucks! Bunshichi I really wish I could like you, but I can’t.


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Click to read my other Tenjo Tenge Reviews:
Volumes:
1 (01-02) | 2 (03-04) | 3* (05-06) | 4 (07-08)
5 (09-10) | 6  (11-12) | 7  (13-14) | 8  (15-16)
9  (15-16) |

*Current review


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