Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho: Tou 2nd Act – Episode 1
5 September 2007
This title has got to be the longest name for anything I’ve seen in the while, save for maybe Harry Potter. Even the acronym would be pretty long, TMGK:T2A. I watched the first season on a whim late one night earlier in the summer, the character designs, namely Hii-chan, caught my attention. It was also only fourteen episodes, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the first season enough to look forward to the second season. The second season aired back at the end of July and Syndicate subbed it just now, a little over a month later. From the looks of it, no one’s even putting out the raws, which is slightly disappointing.
The plot’s confusing as ever and the unbelievably low quality of the episode didn’t help. Notable things that happened: there’s a bunch of guys called the Twelve Generals of the Martial Fist out to kill the Twenty Eight Stars (of something, I just forgot what), which is basically everybody. And I mean everybody, they’re even after Sagaya. Daigo betrayed one of his former friends, who is now a general and trying to kill him. Kyouichi was, presumably, killed by one of the generals and left weltering in a pool of blood. And Hiyuu, while visiting the Sayo’s (I think) grave, runs into a guy that looks just like him, but with a pair of glasses. Also, Ai and Kisaragi changed their hairstyles.
Well, I thought it was an interesting start, short, sweet and to the point. It’s the first episode and the gears are already turning. Who are these Twelve Generals? Why are they trying to kill everybody? Who’s the cute guy with the glasses that just ran into Hii-chan? What’s up with Daigo and his mysterious past? Did Kyouichi really just die?
Tokyo Majin’s attraction, for me anyways, is its obvious simplicity. Its the typical good versus evil story, a bunch of kids obtain mysterious powers and are out to save the world. Hiyuu is the typical, laid back and silent hero with a heart of gold. Even the villians are typical, masked and extremely overpowered. So, scratch the plot, scratch the characters, what do you have left? Action, action and action. Basically, I’m in it for Hiyuu and the action. Everything else is predicable and sometimes I just want pure entertainment instead of someone’s philosophical lament turned anime. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy philosophical lament (see Darker Than Black), but sometimes the lack thereof is what makes it great.
where can i watch the first ep?
You know, I rather like Tokyo Maijin, even though that weird character design you mentioned rather turned me off at first.
I’m more partial to Kyouichi. IMO, he looks a LOT better looking than Hiyuu (I thought it sounds like Fiyuu to me
). And I want to hit Aoi over the head with a statue for being so…. so….. sooooo shounen-heroine-ish. I just want to go screaming: “SO WAITING FOR THEM TO RESCUE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU DON’T NEED RESCUING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
That’s the biggest problem I have with that show. Aoi is this pretty, useless vase, and only become kick ass when she turns evil. Once she turns back good, she turns back harmless and useless.
And they sure don’t put any punches when they are distorting faces… not even on pretty Aoi’s face.
IMO, Tokyo Maijin gets rather gut wrenching to where I watch it; episode 5 or so, I think. If they could just make the heroines less useless, it would have been one of my must watches….
@Katelyn – To the ‘links’ list! Go to Tokyo Toshokan for the torrents. I’m not sure if it’s on Veoh or YouTube. Your best bet is torrenting.
@Briar – Shhh, but I like almost every male character in Tokyo Majin, namely Hii-chan and Kisaragi. XD Kyouichi is alright, but in the end I still prefer the quiet, weird ones. Little Hiyuu is so cute, that shot of him and his strawberry milk is so cute! >.<!
Aoi, argh!…Argh! I don’t even know why she exists! She really did not do anything, nothing at all. It was alright when she tired evil, but it annoyed me a bit anyways. I mean, even when she turned evil, nothing catastrophic happened. Argh! It’s not like she didn’t have powers, she had a lot of powers, eesh! -_-;
I’m still on episode one. T_T! Where are the subs!?