The Genre: Anime: 26 episodes across 8 DVDs from Geneon. Manga: 9+ volumes from CMX

The Format: fighting/comedy

The plot: Souichiro and Bob want to rule their new school, but just as they begin cracking heads, their plan is shot to hell. First there's the Natsume sisters and their Juuken Club. If the older sister, Maya, isn't kicking their ass, then the younger sister, Aya, is trying to force feed Souichiro and make him her husband. Then there's the Student Executive Council that sends executioners to "educate" anyone who questions the council's authority! Their education is just beginning!

I like ten ten.

Well that was a short review, huh? :)

As I think I’ve pretty much stated in some of my other reviews, the ‘fisticuff’ genre is not really one of my favourite. There are several reasons for this, including that I find they tend to be quite generic and follow the same basic patterns.

They’re almost inevitably all about action with very little in the way of plot and character development. This is especially true of anime and manga where the core message of everything I’ve read in this area seems to be about “getting stronger”. The exact spin on this can vary a little, but whether it be physically stronger, or mentally stronger, this is generally the core point of the show.

I think these often referred to as shounen stories (meaning generally “boys stories”, but for some reason being synonymous with this section of boys stories and not everything that boys like) and they all follow this basic pattern – there’s somebody that fights, he gets his ass handed to him, so he has to get stronger and then he fights again.

Okay, there’s all the stuff I’m not so keen on – the seen it before flashy power ups, the people shouting their next move out every time they punch someone and the whole macho posturing “I’m-gonna-kick-your-ass-no-I’m-gonna-kcick-your-ass” rubbish – but there’s also all the stuff I do like, such as deep characters, strong motivation, deep plot, emotion and heart.

Add in to that the fan service, reasonable animation/beautiful artwork and some genuinely funny (if a little predictable at times) gags and you have a series that I find myself surprisingly fond of.

At least that’s how the review should go. Next I should explain stuff in a bit more detail, give some more specifics, maybe some examples; but the trouble is, this is where I get a little conflicted.

I like the ten ten anime, and I’d recommend it to pretty much anyone. But I have to warn you of something. It’s incredibly close to the manga. And I don’t mean that like how many anime are pretty close to the manga they’re based on – I mean that in the sense that if you were to lay the manga panels out in storyboard format, then animated them, you’d have the ten ten manga.

In the western release of the manga we get badly redrawn panels with added bras and panties (that, incidentally, change, disappear and re-appear depending on the angle shown in the panel) covering up Aya’s awesome bod. Now, if I’m honest I don’t mind the de-nudifying, but what I do mind is the way in which it has been done in the manga.

It’s blatantly just badly done, and annoyingly so. In the western version of the manga, the plot points that revolve around nudity and sex are fundamentally undermined and become confusing and non-sensical. The anime approach of simply toning the nudity down is a lot better, and I think the manga would certainly have benefited from a more traditional “black bar” approach, as seen in Hentai manga in order to hide the naked flesh.

Y’know when I first started reading the western manga release, some time before seeing the anime, I was really rather puzzled as to why they were editing it in this cack-handed way. Why not, I thought, just release it as a mature title with the nudity intact, instead of censoring it (badly) in order to make it suitable for older teens?

Then I saw the anime and I realised why. Money. The manga has been censored in order to make it acceptable for older teens because the anime is acceptable for older teens, and releasing the mature original version of the manga would have cut out a big chunk of the potential sales.

Now that could be good if there’s an additional OAV or 2nd series, but if not, you’ve got to buy the manga to finish it off, which seems a little pointless given the closeness of the adaptation, and given the few changes you will probably need to buy them all.

The second problem is the release from Geneon. It’s 8 DVDs. I’ve noticed that Geneon seem to be the only people left releasing series across so many disks, and even they don’t do it that often, so it’s a little bit galling given how mainstream and popular ten ten is and will be, to have to fork out for so many bloody disks. It smells distinctly of excessive money squeeze-age.

The thing that tends to rub salt into the wounds though is that the extras are really rather rubbish. We get a handful of pencil boards, and some admittedly not so bad, but still a little pointless stuff if you get the box set, but that’s pretty much it. The DVDs themselves don’t even have anything resembling art galleries (all that room going to waste) and the dub is really quite bad too.

Ah well, I guess these things don’t detract from the series itself, but the two sets of problems with each does make it debatable whether it’s actually worth buying both, like muggins here.

The Summary: Good, but only because the excellent story carries it – the western releases themselves leave a rather nasty taste in the mouth.

The Score: 4/5

The Pictures:

(click for larger versions)