Battle Arena Toshinden

-US Manga Corps (1996)

Summary

Hugs are better than fighting any day.

My Thoughts

I could never get into Battle Arena Toshinden when it was in the arcade or when it made it to the PS1's launch line-up. The graphics were impressive for the time, but I could never get past the shoddy controls and play mechanics. Somehow the game became popular enough for a couple sequels and a remixed version or two. Since it was a popular fighting franchise it was only right that it received its own anime movie.

The anime exists pretty much for two reasons: 1) Seeing Toshinden characters do their famous fighting moves in a non-polygonal form and 2) to show off Sofia’s breasts. The choppy plot concerns Lady Uranus heading a company called “The Organization.” This poorly named company is taking control of a few Toshin fighters to take out the others so Lady Uranus can rule the world or something. A couple of the Toshin guys are put nearly to death by a mysterious fighter. Eiji, basically the game’s Ryu character, is searching for his brother Sho. It turns out that Sho and the psychotic bald man Chaos are under the control of Uranus. Eiji must wander about and fight friends and foes in random battles to recruit allies and save his brother. Eiji likes to talk to himself a lot and many pieces of the story, and his past, are revealed this way.

Eiji comes across S&M fighting queen Sofia looking all girly dressed in a soft, oversized sweater. To contrast her whip-wielding persona even more, we find out that she takes care of little orphan kids. Aww, she’s an S&M queen with a heart of gold, which, in a way, is similar to what Angelina Jolie is. Later, Eiji is lying in bed naked thinking about his brother when Sofia, whom is also naked, walks in and joins him. However, Sofia is under Uranus’ mind control and attacks Eiji. Both of them jump out the window and are suddenly fully-clothed. To top it off there isn’t even a battle between the two: Eiji just hugs Sofia until she realizes she’s one of the good guys.

At the end of the movie Eiji and pals go to The Organization’s headquarters to stop Uranus once and for all. It’s at this point that every Toshin fighter appears from nowhere to lend a hand. Even the ones that were in critical condition at the beginning have miraculously healed to participate in this battle. After some tough fighting words and exchanges, Eiji realizes that to beat Chaos they must use other fighters’ super moves. Maybe I’d be more impressed with the feat if I ever cared about the games. I’ve only played Toshinden one and two a scant amount of times. From what I remember and from some of the dialogue though, I believe the story takes place between the two games.

This DVD is a somewhat newer edition of the film and it features cleaned-up video quality, even though the colors seem washed-out at times. All the shouting and fighting is heard through Dolby stereo. You’d think they could stick in a 5.1 track if they restored the video.

This is something only the hardcore Toshinden fans could really enjoy. Battle Arena Toshinden matches the quality of the games in every way.   

Extras

There is an art gallery that contains stills from the film, posters and the like. The “Battle Arena Toshinden Retrospective” video is nothing more than a commercial for the movie’s re-release on DVD stating that it has cleaned-up video and better sound. For all you useless trivia buffs, it’s interesting that the first release of Battle Arena Toshinden on DVD was also apparently the first dual-language DVD in the US.

The “Fight Montage” video is a pointless few minutes of scenes from the various fights in the film. The DVD also contains the trailer and previews for other anime titles.

Score

Film: 4.0

Extras: 2.5

Edition: 3.5

-Shawn