These two are tearing up the floor, literally.
Summary:
Mastaka and evil Souichirou engage in a fierce battle inside the Juuken Club house as many watch from the sidelines. Masataka lands a combo on Souichirou but ends being the one hurt as Souichirou calls upon his otherworldly powers for protection. Meanwhile at the Natsume residence, Maya and Aya (both naked) are about to perform a sacred ritual to help Souichirou and Masataka while Mitsuomi and his employees provide security outside. A bright column of light emerges from the residence and the ritual has begun. Through the special ritual, Maya and Aya arrives in Souichirou's inner world. The two sisters join Souichirou's soul to face Sohaku who is standing on top of a large pillar and in control of Souichirou's body. Even with Aya and Maya's arrival, Sohaku remains confident and states that he will usher in the 1000 year war.
Back at school, Souichirou has gained the upper hand and pounds on Masataka. Masataka tries to fight back, but Souichirou cuts off his right hand. Some of Masataka's allies want to interfere but they realize that they aren't powerful enough to do anything. The only hope now is for the Masataka to hold out. Hurting and wheezing, Masataka thinks back to his confession to Aya. Aya responded that she liked Masataka too, but she likes Souichirou even more. Aya then tried to comfort Masataka by saying that there are a lot of people who like him, and Souichirou is one of those people. These thoughts give Masataka renewed energy, and he forces Souichirou back with his left. Souichirou appears to be distracted by the conflict going inside his spiritual world, and this allows Masataka to charge up for one decisive strike. Masataka unleashes the punch, but it is caught by Souichirou. However, this is exactly what Masataka wants, and Masataka uses the Dragon-Ki Qigong Forged Needle technique to inject his ki into Souichirou.
I'VE GOT DA POWA!!!
Inside Souichirou's inner world, Sohaku is surprised by sudden shaking and warping. Souichirou admits that he can never beat Sohaku on his own, but with Masataka's added energy he now has the power to take down Sohaku. Senhime and Makiko appear to tell Sohaku that his time has come, and Souichirou unleashes the combined energy of himself and Masataka. This action causes a big explosion in the real world, blowing a big hole in the Juuken clubhouse and sending spectators flying. Souchirou's body starts to disintegrate as Masataka calls out for Souichirou. Back in the spiritual world, Sohaku slowly disintegrates. Sohaku states that he has learned that humans are strong and do not need a god, and Makiko states that she'll accompany Sohaku to hell and the two fade into dust.
Just like Luke Skywalker huh?
Some time later, the Juuken clubhouse has been reconstructed thanks to funds from Mitsuomi. Bob, Madoka, Masataka, and Jushi hang out in the clubhouse and Masataka tries to get used to the mechanical right hand he received from Jushi. Suddenly, Souichirou (back to normal) appears and leaps over Masataka with Aya hot on his trail. Aya wants to feed Souichirou her bento, but Souichirou refuses, and the chase finally stops when Bob restrains Souichirou. Mitsuomi and Emi arrive to check on the club and they note that the club appears to be livelier than ever. While the others are preparing for practice, Souichirou looks up at Maya's portrait hanging above the front door. It turns out that during the final battle with Sohaku, Maya who threw herself into the path of Souichirou's attack. Using her Dragon Gate, Maya absorbed Souichirou's Dragon fist and the bad powers that he had acquired and cleansed them. Maya's self sacrifice allowed Souichirou to live on, and Maya tells Souichirou and Aya to continue living before disappearing.
Back to the present, Souichirou, Mastaka, Aya, Bob and other members bow before Maya and Shin's portraits before starting their club practice. THE END.
Souichirou will always be a little different than everyone else.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Considering the jumbled storyline leading up to this point, this was a decent ending for the series. There are some details in this chapter that I probably didn't get, and it is a bit rushed, but the overall narrative wasn't hard to understand unlike some of the other chapters in this series. I also liked that a couple of old characters made appearances, although I don't really remember their names. In the end, the bad guy Sohaku is defeated once and for all, and both male leads survive the series. It's a bit sad that smoking-hot Maya bit the dust (why can't Mitsuomi die instead), but I'm glad that the ending was generally happy and unambiguous. It could have been much worse. One thing the ending didn't elaborate on is the future of the relationship-chain/web between the characters, but with Maya gone, Souichirou back to normal and Aya rejecting Masataka, I'm guessing Aya will be sticking with Souichirou. As for Masataka, he always has Madoka right lol.
Overall, Tenjou Tenge has been an... interesting read. The series has some really good points going for it, but it also has some pretty bad points. Starting with the positives, the art is excellent and it gets better as the series goes on. There is no question that Oh! great can draw, and many of the female characters are pretty darn hot. The action can be pretty good as well when the author was up to it. The action is often glorious, graphic and detailed which is just the way I like it for a seinen action series.
The main strike against Tenjou Tenge is its storytelling, particularly in the latter parts of the series. Everything before the Feudal Japan arc was perfectly fine. Up to that point, Tenjou Tenge's storytelling wasn't exceptional, but it was pretty straight-forward schoolyard brawler that was easy to read. Once the series hit the Feudal Japan flashback arc, everything changed and the storytelling became a mess. There were a lot more random flashbacks/forwards, attempts at various metaphors or metaphoric images, skips in the narrative and other things that made the story really hard to put together. The narrative felt really disjointed at times, and sometimes it was if I was reading through someone's psychedelic dream.
Would I recommend this series? I don't really know. The first half up to the feudal Japan arc is decent enough, but after that... you read at your risk. Other than the storytelling problem, there is also some pretty nasty stuff (ex scenes depicting rape) in this series, so definitely not recommended for young kids.
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