Review: Tenjo Tenge, Vol. 5

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


These volumes comprise of a training arc and the Red-Dragon-Blood/Guy-With-Eight-Arms arc (I made up that name).

Not gonna lie, I don’t really remember much from these volumes because it took me nearly three months to finish reading them, just because I was busy with school and because a few of my holds got automatically signed out to me from the library, so I had to prioritize those so I could finish them before their return-dates. Honestly though, I don’t even mind not remembering much about these arcs because it’s not like they were that great or really worth remembering anyway. This series is just good for its in-the-moment entertainment. That said, I still do at least have some points I’d like to talk about.

So… The sexualization, eh? 10 volumes in and I’m still not completely sure what I think about it. On the one hand it looks pretty nice, but on the other hand actually looking at it makes me feel kind of scummy.

It feels like the art is taking advantage of the characters. By this I mean that how the characters dress doesn’t really reflect their personalities. In real life, the only people who would dress so revealing would be hookers or people currently in the act of clubbing. The female characters in this series don’t really have personalities that match up with their fashion senses, which gives off the impression that the author is just using them as mannequins to wear his sexy clothing, which is something that ends up degrading and dehumanizing them. Seeing them like that makes me feel sorry for them. The characters don’t actively contest with the nature of their clothing or anything, but it still feels like they’re being taken advantage of, especially because they don’t notice it. This is something that can also probably be said for every ecchi series out there.

Both of the arcs in this double-volume were very much action- and fight-based, and worked to further develop Suichiro’s abilities and powers as a fighter. He gets some sort of inner-awakening-power-up-thing that comes out a couple times in these volumes, and has something to do with Red Dragon blood? Maybe? And “Red Dragon” is not a real dragon, it’s like a clan or a family line or something like that I think. Recall I don’t really remember what happened in these volumes. So that’s cool and whatever.

I think at this point he’s really close to surpassing Aya in terms of fighting ability, even though she has also been shown to be in the process of awakening her own new powers in past volumes, though here that was pretty brushed aside in favour of Suichiro’s. One of the things that helps me tolerate the overt oversexuality of the female characters is their badass-ness, so they better not start to become treated as damsels in distress or weak as Suichiro develops further.

I hope two changes happen in this series going forward:

First is a change in the “bad guy of the arc” formula. These two arcs were very much:

1. Introduce bad guy
2. Bad guy does bad thing
3. Main characters fight bad guy
4. Struggle
5. Main characters beat bad guy
6. Move onto the next arc
7. Repeat.

I’d like to see the antagonists have actual lasting impact on the story, and not just disappear after the arc ends. This could be in the form of a reformed villain (a trope I’m quite a fan of). Or if they do disappear—say, because they died, for example—that there are actual lasting consequences to the things they did while they were alive, either on the world, the characters, or their relationships. Basically, I want the arcs to have actual meaning, and not just exist in their own vacuum without having any actual meaningful impact on the progression of the story. Like I said, these arcs essentially (and in the case of the first arc, literally) worked to further train Suichiro’s powers, but that’s not enough, especially when it’s going to backpedal on other character’s developments such as Aya’s.

In the same vein as my first point, the second change I would like to see in this series is in regards to the lack of emotional development in the male characters. The female characters are all seen expressing emotions, but the male characters remain extremely stoic and emotionless. The only emotion they have is anger in the heat of battle, but otherwise there’s nada.

At this point it has been hinted pretty strongly that Suichiro has feelings for Maya, but he doesn’t actually do or say anything that would really suggest that. We as readers are very much left on the outside and don’t get to see any of his thoughts or feelings, which makes him seem inhuman and detaches us from his character. One of the reasons the Flashback Arc was so good was because we saw much more of the characters relationships, though even then the male characters still felt rather emotionless even when they were in the midst of romantic acts.

Basically, I want further development of the male characters’ feelings, and more development in the characters’ relationships in general. Don’t just hint that Suichiro likes Maya, and that she might also like him back, and then just ignore this for arcs on end! Actually do something with this! I hope in the arcs to come we get a break from all the fighting in order to focus more on relationship development. It doesn’t need to turn into a full-on shoujo or anything, there can still be some fighting, but more character bonding is definitely needed.

Wow I thought that this was going to be another pathetically short review, but I guess I ended up having a lot to say! This series remains entertaining to read, but it definitely has a lot of flaws.


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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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