Arjun: The Warrior Prince

Arjun is the middle of five brothers and son of an abdicated king.  Their return to the empire sends ripples through the aristocracy as their claim to the throne matches that of their cousins.  Political intrigue ensues as if Arjun and his brothers cannot be assassinated before long, a war will surely come to pass.

Disclaimer: I have no prior knowledge of Arjun (a.k.a. Arjuna) or the original Mahabharata epic from which this film is inspired.  As such I can only offer a superficial opinion compared to more culturally fluent audiences, and I get the impression the story is widely known throughout India to which this film is targeted.  A little prerequisite knowledge might be useful to the viewer, but I didn’t really feel that I was missing a whole lot out by coming in blind and still feel confident in recommending this film to anyone wanting a grand-scale film.

Arjun’s story covers many years as he grows into adulthood and the film rolls at a steady pace.  The film’s grand scale is weighted by following only a few key characters and resists in indulging itself in its potentially huge cast.  It keeps things simple, and is still easily able to fill its 95-minute running time (less 5 minutes if you skip the intermission).

Arjun’s characters are animated as cel-shaded CG characters on a mixture of 2D, 3D and composite backgrounds.  The slightly low frame rate of the animation is occasionally distracting but the overall quality of the film is quite high.  It’s below the usual Disney/Pixar standard, but is easily several notches above the majority of its home competitors.  Some of the 2D background work is particularly stunning and conveys the scale of the story well.

One of the more intriguing elements about Arjun is that Disney logo seen at the beginning of the film and draped on the promotional art.  Disney had no hand in the film’s production and acts only as the film’s distributor, so it would have been easy for them to release this title as a Touchstone or Buena Vista release and think nothing more of it.  The logo appears almost as a seal of approval that this is a film they are happy to be associated with in the Indian market, possibly with half an eye to encourage more films of this standard to be produced.  Don’t hold your breath for a western release as the subject matter is probably seen as too culturally unique for general audiences while the violence beyond anything you’ve seen in any other animated Disney product.  The local DVD happily contains good quality English subtitles however and is definitely worth seeking out.

Gantz

Kei Kurono is a bit of a brat who is accidentally killed by an underground train.  As his decapitated head rolls around the station platform, he suddenly finds himself transported into a game where he and other recently deceased people have to fight for their continued survival.  Gantz offers no further explanations, and so the next round begins.

It’s violent, sex-obsessed and batshit crazy - this is Gantz in a nutshell.  It really goes all out with a live-fast-die-young attitude with entire volumes flying as the plot is sacrificed in favour of pure action.  Some people may be familiar with the anime series which covered only the first few volumes before ending on an entirely different note to the manga, which instead continues into new areas.  The gore was certainly there in animated form, particularly in the second half, but for my money the pacing too was slow for a series so entrenched in action.  To be honest I also found the manga a little difficult to get on with, partly because I already knew what would happen, but also because Kei is such a scumbag I struggled to care about whether or not he got destroyed.  His sexist pervy ways are pretty repulsive along with his shitty attitude, but from the second stage (starting at volume 11 where the book covers turn blue) even worse characters are introduced which propels Kei into becoming more of a hero role and more appealing as a main character.

At this point in the story more layers are gradually added as Hunters are introduced as well as other Gantz teams.  Only now are the answers starting to show themselves (Dark Horse’s release has currently reach the late 20s).  I’ve got no idea where things will head further down the line, and Gantz offers no guarantees.  Frankly, I am hooked.

As a side note the artwork of Gantz is very detailed with CG used extensively for the backgrounds and other little fixes.  It makes you wonder just how much or little of this manga is actually drawn by hand, and while early volumes produce slightly wonky art, later volumes are pretty spectacular.  I do find Dark Horse’s sound effects a little distracting at times however.  The original Japanese ones are big and bold, yet translucent.  The English ones on the other hand are filled in with pure white so you lose a little of the impact, sometimes to the point where it’s more difficult to keep track of proceedings.  It’s still a great manga though.  It’s a nasty, sadistic thrill ride, but with enough of a sense of fun about itself to throw a random panda into the middle of the carnage.  Volumes are quite expensive and are read quickly due to the low word count, but is worth the expense.

English/Japanese sample comparison

Tenjo Tenge - Complete

After 11 2-in-1 volumes released at a fairly merciless rate, Tenjo Tenge reaches its conclusion, and to be honest, I’m kind of glad it’s over.

I’ve spoken about this series before, enjoying its mindless indulgence of boobs and violence as it smacks its way through thousands of pages, and it really should have stayed its course.  Sadly the series starts to believe its own hype by upping the drama and becoming damn-near incomprehensible.  Suddenly the simple premise of a martial arts tournament becomes a po-faced battle fought both on the physical and spiritual planes where the world is at stake in between multi-generational conspiracies.  Flashbacks bounce around between multiple timelines and the core cast get lost in a steady stream of a dead-end side characters and plots that add little to the overall mix.

The artwork has improved immensely since the first volume and now provides some of the most clean and technically accomplished work in a mainstream manga.  Every page has impact, but telling the difference between someone getting mauled only metaphorically while other characters receive permanent damage only causes confusion.  Seeing a character ripped apart for example, only for them to get back up on the next page lessens the dramatic impact for when things actually do happen.  It continually undermines itself by psyching you out at every turn.

Oh Great! does great work and easily impresses on a visual level, and Tenjo Tenge produces one crazy ride overall, but in terms of concise storytelling there’s still room for improvement (I’ve read a chunk of Air Gear, and to be honest I have a similar opinion of it).  Go to be dazzled, but not fulfilled.

Random Whale Metaphor

Tenjo Tenge

Soichiro Nagi and Bob Makihara are a couple of street punks looking to conquer their high school – a plan which promptly fails as they get the crap beaten out of them. It turns out Todo High is a mess of inhumanly strong fighters and martial aritsts who don’t take kindly to having some newbies start causing a ruckus. Seeking refuge at the Juken Club, a dissident martial arts group populated with two female hotties and one male loser, they begin their training to fight back.

In short: Tenjo Tenge is so awesome it doesn’t really need a plot.

Tenjo Tenge is not to be confused with Tenjho Tenge though, oh no. The difference in removing that ‘h’ is indicative of this book being an entirely different beast to CMX’s previous ill-advised release of the same manga. Tenjo Tenge is all about the boobs and the blood and makes no apologies for it. So CMX choosing to edit out the worst parts (i.e. the selling points) seems like a pretty bizarre decision. Needless to say the hardcore fans went apeshit at the idea of a manga being censored, boycotting the entire company and demanding an uncut version.

With the event of CMX being unceremoniously (and somewhat unfairly) shut down, Viz jumped at the chance to give the series a proper go leaving in all the action in larg format double volumes editions and even inserting colour pages. Basically it’s everything that was asked for –I just hope the fans who moaned at CMX choose to back up their words with their wallets. As for the manga itself, it’s refreshingly OTT and thoroughly disgracefully stupid. If seeing muscle-bound freaks and scantily clad girls beating seven shades of shit out of each other I’d struggle to think of anything more earnest and relevant than this one.

Lupin III

A master of disguise and professional thief, Lupin the Third will do whatever it takes to steal cold hard cash while checking any hot girls going. If you’re only familiar with the character from his anime incarnations, forget everything you know. Author Monkey Punch apparently wasn’t too keen on Miyazaki’s gentler interpretation of the thief in Castle of Cagliostro, and ever since that film came out Lupin has been presented with a bit of a lovable rogue that betrays his true origins. Reading this will count as a bit of a shock.

Chapters are generally one-shot affairs with no overbearing plot and expected allies Jigen and Goemon randomly drop in and out with no loyalty between them while cop Zenigata is more hardboiled than buffoon. Rather than saving and seducing the dames, Lupin just drags women into bed at every opportunity. Making no apologies Lupin is more likely to stab, shoot or blow his enemies up rather than give them a second chance. This is noticeably edgy stuff with a merciless streak that is completely at odds with more modern interpretations. The outlandish slapstick humour still remains but the starkly harsher outlook could will put many readers off.

Also not helping the series is scratchy artwork that is frequently poorly reproduced throughout the volumes. This is probably an issue with inadequate source material, but as a manga that is sometimes difficult to follow due to unusual panelling this can act against it. It’s just a bit of a shame as when you stop and look at the dense crosshatching and warped backgrounds it becomes apparent that Monkey Punch is a hell of a draftsman. Style over substance where this series is coming from as it combines murder, double crossings and slapstick humour and coats it all with an unapologetically sleazy shtick.

With Tokyopop recently announcing that is will cease publishing manga, looking back on its old catalogue digs up quite a few worthy titles. Lupin III is a risky choice for any publisher due to its ago and unusual style. To be perfectly honest Tokyopop’s later output contains very little approaching this sort of individuality (the recent anomaly that is Neko Ramen is both surprising and welcome), and the overall lack of diversity in its range is disappointing. These days only a few of the 14 original volumes are readily available, but as the chapters are self-contained I’d its worth grabbing any of the volumes if you fancy taking the risk.

Toriko

With curiously non-descript (and to be brutally honest a bit naff) covers it’s hard to tell exactly what this series is all about. It’s one of Viz’s more recent titles to come through their Shonen Jump line, and proves to be a sturdy addition to their range.

Toriko is a Gourmet Hunter on the path to discover his perfect full-course meal. He may be a huntsman, but rather than grab a rifle and snipe away he’d much rather run straight at his target and punch it in the face. This is a manly shonen manga where the men eat MEAT and the animals are BIG. It’s less a world of cute deer and fluffy foxes, but rather one is filled with four-armed gorillas, giant crocodiles and I quote a ‘Troglodyte Pterodactyl’. These outrageous beasties come in all shapes and sizes, all ready for Toriko to fight (and eat) his way through.

It probably sounds quite brutal on the surface of it, but Toriko fully respects the world’s natural order, only killing what he fully intends to eat. There are those who kill for sport or personal gain, currently depicted as remotely-controlled robots, and such people are treated as the bad guys of the manga. So basically we get to see Toriko beat the crap out of the local wildlife while still maintaining some form of eco-friendly message.

To be honest there’s no point picking at the arguably inconsistent sensibilities of the series as there's not an ounce of realism in here. You can slice an 18-metre long alligator’s head of with your bare hands, and being shot through the neck with a lazer barely counts as a flesh wound. This isn’t a place to sweat the details or take itself too seriously, just switch your brain off and indulge on some mean shonen-style action.