Tenjho Tenge 17

Has it been a year since the last time I read Tenjho Tenge?  I think it has.  I’m pretty sure we’re basically caught up to Japan, and a new volume only comes out once or twice a year there.  It’s kind of a bummer, because it feels like things are escalating towards the finale, and I’d hate for it to be stretched out over six volumes that come out infrequently.  But I guess that’s something I’m going to have to deal with.

Things have finally moved away from feudual Japan and towards something I can understand: people beating the shit out of each other for social rank.  That’s right, not only is this the first volume of the year, the spring tournament to decide the executive committee is under way officially now.  You remember that?  They were talking about it in the first volume, before the story was interrupted by around a dozen flashback volumes.  With Maya out of it, the Juken Club is left with Bob, Souichiro, Aya, Kurei, Masataka, and Sugano.  The executive committee is basically laying off for the time being, so there’s some pretty entertaining stuff for the first part of the tournament.  As you can imagine, most people either aren’t a match for the Juken Club, or put the Juken Club at a hilarious disadvantage that they overcome in bizarre ways.  Tenjho Tenge’s sense of humor isn’t the absolute best, but there’s still some pretty funny stuff mixed in, which comes as a relief after all that Feudal Japan stuff.

A plot thread is revealed by the end of the volume, and apparently a “witch,” a girl with red wing powers, is controlling some of the fighters in order to siphon energy.  Sugano is, amazingly, the first to pick up on this, and he recognizes it as something that happened the year Shin died.  Since the witch getting her hands on any of the real members of the Juken Club would be the last thing anybody would want, Sugano decides to fight one of her altered beasts himself.

It is seriously one of the best fights in the series.  He doesn’t have special powers or anything.  He just boxes, and he’s extremely good at it, sort of like Bunshichi.  He pays the penalty, but in the end, he gets what he wants.  It really is an amazing good match, and I’m glad Kagesada was on the cover for a reason.  Actually, Bunshichi puts in an appearance just before Sugano’s fight.  He’s using one of those floor-toilets that I’m not going to bother looking up the name for right now.  I’ve seen them plenty of times, but it took Tenjho Tenge to go to the extreme length of showing someone actually using one.

All I can say, really, is tournament tournament tournament.  It’s seriously about time, and so far the wait is paying off.  I hope Sugano’s fight is just the first in a long line of awesome matches.  I also hope Maya won’t be out of things for much longer.  It seems like she will be, but I’d like to think she’ll put in another spectacular appearance before the end.