Saturday Anime Update: “Fighting for Characterization and Story: Battle Arena Toshinden”

A great tradition of anime is creating films and series from story- and character-rich sources, especially fighting games. This trend arguably started with “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie” in the early 1990s and numerous glimpses of Chun-Li’s panties as she fought Vega.

Director Masami Obari was artistically inspired by the “Street Fighter II” anime and made the distinguishable “Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture.” And although some film aficionados rank “Fatal Fury” above “The Wizard of Oz” but not “Casablanca,” Obari was not finished. In 1996 his magnum opus Battle Arena Toshinden was released.

If anyone remembers the Playstation 1 fighting game “Battle Arena Toshinden,” you would know Obari had chosen wisely. He had a strict policy against rehashed ideas, as the main character of “Toshinden,” Eiji, comes from Japan and wears a headband and lives to train to become the world’s greatest fighter and is able to shoot fireballs and propel himself into the air for a powerful uppercut, occasionally fighting his friend and rival, Kayin, a cocksure blonde also able to shoot fireballs and propel himself into the air for a powerful uppercut. They may sound like Ryu and Ken from “Street Fighter II,” but Eiji and Kayin wield swords, so there is quite more depth at play.

“Battle Arena Toshinden” is a two-episode series clocking in at one hour. It opens with text, much like “Star Wars,” the message scrolling over a sunset image with Eiji and Kayin standing on either side of the screen. This opening is four paragraphs, and I would like to share each paragraph with you and the thoughts that bloomed in my brain as a narrator—whose forced passion forces you to be passionate—recited the prose.

“Once every four years, a secret tournament of the greatest martial artists is held to decide who is the world’s most powerful fighter. It is the Battle Arena Toshinden.”

When I heard “secret” intrigue shook me violently. I think the writer would have been the victim of strained wordplay to say “a known tournament.” Even though this is an action movie, the secrecy involved in the plot makes it feel like a classic suspense flick.

“Their destinies intertwined, the chosen warriors fight for many reasons … Love. Glory. Revenge.”

I like how this paragraph reinforces we are all connected. Even martial artists whom we worship. That guy has a sword and can fling fireballs, but I will be goddamned if he does not brush his teeth to keep cavities at bay.

“Both the participants and the site of the tournament are selected by the ‘Organization,’ a clandestine group whose motives are anything but clear.

No wonder the tournament is secret! It is run by a clandestine group with unclear motives. At this point the mystery threw me for a loop. But worry not I told myself. I had a feeling the Organization’s motives would eventually be revealed to me.

“Today, the eleven Toshinden warriors are challenged not only by each other’s ultimate martial arts skills, but by the mysterious and violent events surrounding them all.”

How are they going to set up the bracket with only 11 warriors? I hate to spoil things, but the series never explains the bracket. I think it is one of those things the director wants to leave open to interpretation, something we can dwell upon to eventually better ourselves.

The first episode begins with representatives from two countries signing a peace treaty to end a cold war. The placidity is interrupted by explosions, and I really felt the futility of the defense team. A superior asks what the radar says, and the guy says, “But sir there’s nothing on the radar screen.” Then the superior says, “Nothing?”

We see a man is the wreaker of destruction. “I don’t believe it. It’s a man!” someone cries. Hell, that’s how I felt. Scary how one human can take away so much.

The episode cuts to a scene with an old man, the clawman Fo, hanging out with children. He spots the same destructive force of a man from the first scene. Fo winds up in an alley with him, and it is revealed the man is Sho.

So we get Sho vs. Fo. Sho easily evades every attack from Fo and ends the fight much to Fo’s surprise: “It can’t be! He’s using my technique!” This fight raised two intriguing questions in my mind. How could this enigmatic man learn Fo’s technique instantly? And why didn’t the supposed copied technique look anything like the one Fo had just used? At this point I also began to compare the director of this series to Hitchcock.

Eiji, the dedicated sword fighter with a headband, is then introduced. I became emotionally attached to his character immediately because he flashes back to the last Toshinden tournament, the one he almost won. Unfortunately, his final battle against Gaia, a masked mammoth warrior with a big sword (think of Cloud’s sword from “Final Fantasy VII”—kind of wished the sword looked more like Sephiroth’s, though!), was interrupted by Chaos, a gaunt weirdo with a sickle. Chaos tries to kill Gaia, but Gaia impales his anemic ass. Gaia gets away and Eiji is disgusted: “Gaia, no fair!”

The flashback stops and Eiji talks to himself for a while and we find out he has been looking for his brother Sho and the character development shoots through the roof and then things only get better with Kayin the cocksure blonde entering the picture. The two friends spar. What a battle. The match of skill ends with both characters slightly slashing the other. Kayin soon says, “Not a bad fight. But I’m still better than you’ll ever be, Eiji.” I could tell from this sharp dialogue that Kayin is pretty confident.

In the next scene, Sho fights his next victim, Mondo the spear wielder. Mondo really has his shit together: “Mustn’t see my enemy with my eyes—must feel him in my heart.” Even though Mondo was only thinking that line, Sho must have mindreading abilities and found it offensively homoerotic. That is part of the genius of this series. Sometimes there is no character interaction, so the director allows you to come up with your own (which is the starting ground for effective fan fiction, really). Mondo is also defeated by his own technique. And the technique still did not look anything like the original.

Eiji and Kayin demonstrate their on-the-side detective skills by deducting that someone wants to take down all the Toshinden fighters. The two friends split apart, Eiji to visit the woman with a whip, Sofia, and Kayin to find out more about the “Organization.”

Eiji finds Sofia’s place and plays soccer with a lot of kids and kicks their asses before Sofia reveals herself. Eiji assumes the role of messenger with the haunting warning, “Sorry to have to say this, the organization is on the move.” The director quickly cuts to Sofia’s shocked face with a shattered glass sound effect to convey that Sofia’s once peaceful state of mind was like a window broken by a rock of bad news.

Later that night, Eiji mourns the absence of his brother Sho while Sofia laments the mind tampering the “Organization” put her through. Suddenly, her eyes change. She tells Eiji it is nothing and that she is going to sleep.

But not really. She takes a shower and you get to see her breasts just like in “Street Fighter II” with Chun-Li but this time the director throws a curveball because Sofia has no areolas just nipples. Even if I had paused the series right before this point and pondered for 1,000 years, I could not have seen that plot twist coming. Sofia busts in on Eiji in the bed to seduce him only to pull out a knife that sends Eiji to an escape through the bedroom window.

Sofia follows him and you see she is wearing her costume from the game which means cleavage and camel toe in shorthand. Eiji gets his ass kicked for a while before Sofia realizes she hurt him and breaks down. The director cuts to a disappointed Uranus (pronounced “Urine us” in the dub), the lady mastermind behind this manipulation of fighters.

Sho arrives to take down Eiji. Eiji knows it is not his true brother and gets his ass kicked for a while. Then Eiji kicks the doppelganger Sho’s ass, proclaiming “Check and mate!” Uranus makes an angelic appearance at the scene, guides a fatal arrow through Sho’s back, mumbles evil tidings, and vanishes.

Similar to a scene from “Street Fighter II,” the first episode ends with Eiji standing on the edge of a cliff where he launches into the air for a sword uppercut. I wonder how much training that technique would require. First I would have to learn how to use this sword I ordered online a few seconds ago.

I have spoiled enough of this groundbreaking fighting game anime series. I encourage you to buy the DVD to see all the surprises of the concluding episode, but make sure you get the dubbed version for the great dialogue I have sprinkled throughout this review and the uncut version for Sofia’s breasts without areolas.

“Battle Arena Toshinden” fights for characterization and story!

- Written by jubei_massages_goku

~ by KT Samurai on July 19, 2008.