Tenjho Tenge - Reception - Anime

Anime

The Tenjho Tenge anime is described as a significantly toned down version of the Japanese manga, but still retains most of the spirit of its predecessor. Much of the nudity was removed by the animators, but was made up in the way of sexual innuendos, gratuitous cleavage, and panty shots. Since the anime is a close adaptation to the manga, critique of the plot is comparable to the manga's. Some reviewers felt that the anime was handled in a frantic and ill planned manner that made the conclusion not satisfactory even with the original video animation. The animation done by Madhouse is considered to be well done. They used bright vibrant colors, solid backgrounds and plenty of visible detail with very little pixelation or jagged movement, but at times used repeated character shots and animations. The animation done during the fight scenes is done in real time and is done as close to reality as possible while still bending, and often violating, the laws of physics. The early fight scenes are thought to be the "...most intense seen in recent anime". The quality of animation in these scenes does drop somewhat over time, but the action still looks better than the average fighting anime. Both the Japanese and English voice acting are considered to be good, but the English dub at times can be a little uneven. The English dub on occasion has poor dialogue which causes it to lose much of the anime's sincerity. Overall, the anime is considered to be above average, but suffers from a lack of a good ending, mainly because the anime only covered the first arc of the story.

The series' original soundtrack is considered to be average. Most of the music does well with setting the tone within the anime, although some reviewers found it to be somewhat repetitive. Some found the drama tracks to be unsatisfactory, even though they were "well executed". For many, the highlight of the soundtrack is m.c.A.T's "Bomb A Head!", which was used as the anime's opening song.