Toshinden

Oh wow. You know me and my love for fighting games. But somehow my luck (or should I say apathy) just doesn’t allow to watch its anime version whether it was that retro Virtua Fighter or the recent Tekken. Oh right, Street Fighter had one adapted version but I only saw bits of it during my younger days and couldn’t remember much except it was boring as f*ck drama. Even Mortal Kombat cartoons (especially those in the early days) were pretty weird. But that’s not anime anyway. And then I stumbled upon Toshinden. Ah yes, bet many wouldn’t have even heard of this old 3D Japanese fighting series as since it wasn’t as flashy or popular as its other counterparts like those aforementioned. In fact, this anime adapts the sequel of the first game which is the only entry I played of that series. Oh wow. Brings back a lot of nostalgic memories. Time to relive those button mashing days once more… Don Papa! Makenai suru! Iku zo! Call me queen!!!

Episode 1
War is over! Peace treaty is about to be signed! But wait! Who the f*ck is attacking them?! There goes peace. War is back. Handsome guy with a sword cutting down all the latest military equipment? Yeah. Believe it. Sho’s your b*tch! After that, we see Sho fighting Fo Fai in the back alley and easily defeats him since he knows all his moves. The same fate with Mondo. How the f*ck he knows my moves, dude?! Meanwhile Eiji Shinjo is looking for Gaia. It has been a year since the tournament. Looking for his brother, he was facing off with him in the finals when Chaos and Organization goons surround them. It seems the Organization wants to capture the best fighters for its next plan. Gaia of course won’t allow that and kills Chaos. He then tells Eiji to further train himself stronger before disappearing. Now Eiji laments he still cannot find Sho. But he spars with Kayin Amoh and their duel ends in a draw. They talk about Fo Fai and Mondo’s defeat and believe the Organization is making its move on the fighters of the previous tournament. It is believed Sho is the one perpetrating this. Kayin chastises Eiji for wanting to do this alone. They’re friends remember? The fact Kayin’s dad was killed by Sho doesn’t change anything between them. Rungo Irons is kidnapped by the Organization and forced to fight a very improved Chaos. He loses badly. Uranus is pleased with the progress. By the time Eiji and Kayin reach Rungo’s home, he is badly injured and his very sad wife and son by his side. Kayin suggests Eiji find Sofia because it is for sure the Organization will move against her. Kayin will try to find the Organization’s base.

Eiji arrives at this countryside and orphanage where Sofia now resides. He cuts to the chase about the Organization making its move. Meanwhile Uranus shows the progress of this Man Machine Project to her prospects who are looking forward to its completion. Learning that Eiji has made contact with Sofia, she puts her next plan in motion. Eiji wakes up from a dream whereby demanding answers from Sho joining the organization. He gets killed. Thank goodness just a dream. Talking with Sofia about his dream to fight with Sho, at least he has real memories because Sofia’s memories were manipulated and erased by the Organization. That night, Uranus controls Sofia to assassinate Eiji. He can tell she is moving against her will because of those tears. So how? He lets her whip him and then hugs her. Enough to break the spell! Sofia feels guilty for hurting him since she thought she was free from the Organization’s spell. However Uranus has sent Sho to deal with them. As the brothers fight, Eiji can now tell this is not his real brother but a clone. The fight continues and Sho is in shock that he lost to Eiji. As he is about to call for Uranus’ help, she kills him off! She reveals everything has gone as planned. This includes creating a Man Machine out from Sho and has gotten all the data she needed. This is why she used Sofia and the image of Sho against him to make him reveal all his moves. She returns to her base and further upgrades Chaos. His mission is now to hunt down the traitor Gaia. Elsewhere, Kayin has found Ellis at the circus.

Episode 2
After Ellis is done with her circus act, she meets Eiji and Kayin at the backstage. They tell her about the Organization’s plan to mass produce artificial soldiers in this Man Machine Project. So far, those soldiers are nothing. Except one of them whom Eiji fought had almost the exact same moves as his brother, Sho. Later, Chaos comes by to kidnap Ellis so as to use her as bait to lure out Gaia who has betrayed the Organization. Of course Eiji and Kayin to the rescue but Chaos gloats about himself being the completed Man Machine and that Sho imposter he fought was only at 30%. Gaia then pops up as Chaos gladly fights him. When Chaos spews his poison on him, Ellis protects him and bears the brunt. This is all part of Chaos’ plan because the Organization only has the antidote. So Gaia knows what to do if he is going to save his daughter, right? Ellis is rushed to hospital and in coma, Tracy needs them to spill the beans seeing she has been receiving strange reports and activities of lately. After doing so, they need to infiltrate the Organization’s base. But how do they know where it is? Don’t worry, Sofia knows. When Uranus took control of her, she was able to see her thoughts and caught glimpse of the base. How convenient. Meanwhile Uranus is pleased with Chaos as she uploads all the fighting data of Gaia to complete her Man Machine Project. Our heroes head towards the Organization’s base. It couldn’t be more obvious of this hi-tech towering twin towers right smack in the middle of the desert!!! They are faced with foot soldiers. Eiji and Kayin ride ahead while Tracy and Sofia stay back to fight the grunts. Too many? Don’t worry. Fans of Mondo, Rungo, Duke and Fo Fai can be a little happy with their cameo to help out.

With all the distraction, Gaia manages to sneak into the base and confront Uranus. He will kill her and take her place as the new head of the Organization. Uranus doesn’t think so as she shows him Chaos in the final stages of Man Machine Project. Basically he will just become a mindless fighting machine. She orders Chaos to kill him. Eiji and Kayin split up. Eiji enters the tower filled with prototype specimens and destroys everything. Meanwhile Kayin joins Gaia to fight Chaos but since he has data on their moves, it is tough. Now Eiji joins them and they mixing things up by using each other’s moves (uhm, don’t Eiji and Kayin basically have the same moves in the game?!) and improvising on their existing moves, eventually defeating him. Now the trio confront Uranus who blabs that they only destroyed fake specimens as the real lab is somewhere around. You mean it is close by?! She thinks she can start over with this data but it is soon destroyed by… SHO! He won’t allow her to make fake copies of him and has blown up the real lab underground. Oh heck, that was freaking easy! The whole place falls apart as Uranus flees. They’ll meet again at the next tournament. Eiji is desperate to get his brother but Kayin restrains him. Need to get out or we’re dead meat! Our heroes thank each other for the assist but next time they meet at the tournament, they’ll be enemies. Ellis has recovered thanks to the antidote although Gaia has gone missing. As always. Eiji and Kayin renew their rivalry and the next tournament will settle it. And yes, Sho is glad his brother has gotten stronger and the next tournament will be their fight! Wow. Everybody looking so forward to it. We see Eiji preparing to face off Vermilion.

All Your Moves Are Belong To Us!
Well, that was fun while it lasted. Yes, the overwhelming nostalgia of my heydays playing the game was what made this OVA a lot enjoyable. Even though it was nothing much and I believe was just something extra for fans of the game. Too bad, I can’t go back playing it anymore. My computer system is way too hi-tech to execute such a simple CD-ROM game! I guess they don’t have rollback features. Sighs…

Come to think of it, I don’t even remember the story of the game that I played. Something about the Organization having some sort of weapon tournament. I guess it wasn’t important for me back then. I just wanted to play the game. Oh heck, it was actually all in Japanese and I clearly remember how freaking bad the English translation was! Imagine, Sofia’s ending had a line saying she was sad to remember each time she cannot remember! OMFG!!! DO I STILL REMEMBER THAT???!!! Anyway, the story of having fighters being hunted down for their moves to create super soldiers and thus the tournament was just a cover up for that shady goal, now where have I heard this before… Oh right. Did Dead Or Alive plagiarise this in some ways?! After all, the first Toshinden game came out a year earlier (1995) than Dead Or Alive. Anyway, the anime’s story feels just like a setting and introductory for the next tournament so feel free to brush off the dust of your Battle Arena Toshinden 2 CD and hit those gamepad buttons again. Oh wait. I still can’t play it because my system is so advanced.

Of course when you have a series adapted from the video game, it is only right to adapt some of the signature moves of the series. Get over here! Oops, sorry wrong game. But yes, even if I do not remember much of these characters’ moves, it is good to see them being displayed here and of course Eiji being the main character, he gets most of his moves showcased. So yeah, fighting scenes are pretty okay but just to showcase their special moves. On a trivial note, my favourite character is the secret character Vermilion because he is the easiest to use! Just stand at a distance and fire the guns away! Definitely the ultimate bring a gun to a swordfight trope! Oh man. Yeah, I am guilty as hell as I could never seem to master the moves of the other characters. Yup, it was all just button mashing for me! Making it even easier as I remember, the game allowed you to assign 2 buttons to quickly execute the special moves. Press and execute. Yup, that sure made me even lazier and turning Vermilion into my main. Wow. Such crazy days. Damn, I really want to go back and use this character and spam all his easy gunshot moves!!! And spam his f*cking Overdrive move once the f*cking gauge meter is filled up! Hell yeah! Let me play all that again! Damn! No f*cking rollback feature, dammit!

What else can I say about the characters? This adaptation follows closely to the gameplay and obviously Eiji is the main star because also obviously he is Ryu’s clone and as Kayin is to Ken (both of Street Fighter fame if you don’t know). Despite not having many characters (it’s a good thing fighting game rosters back then didn’t blow up to like 30 freaking base characters unlike today!), if you are fan of other characters, you would be sorely disappointed. But hey, at least they made their few seconds of cameo rather than none. Yeah, so I have to be pleased that my favourite Vermilion only made a stinking 2 second appearance and even so, right at the end. Hence the only character in the franchise who did not appear is Master, the boss of the sequel and the well, master of the Organization. Still wondering if this character is a boy or girl… On a trivial note, I bet they didn’t adapt the third sequel because it bloated up the number of characters who are all just mainly clones of those in the prequels. Hell yeah, imagine watching a Michael Jackson clone making his cameo! You do know there was a character created in the image of Michael Jackson in this game, RIGHT???!!! And they turned the final and fourth instalment into some weird team game with new characters whom we don’t like. Ugh. No wonder I never played the sequels. Nor did the anime adapted them. Thank goodness?

Sorry Ellis fans, it’s like they don’t want to get this little fairy hurt and that’s why they got her poisoned and put in a coma, leaving her out of action in the second part that at least sees the rest of the character showing off 2 seconds worth of their chops. Yeah, how the f*ck did Rungo even recover so fast to even join them seeing he was beaten up so badly to a pulp. Even Sofia had some screen time because it would be a waste not to showcase some sexy fanservice. Don’t you just love hot blondes in tight body hugging leather suits and a whip! Oh yeah. Body for pleasure, whip for pain! Don’t roll your eyes, that’s stated in her biography! Speaking of Ellis, I still can’t believe her biography listed her as Turkish! How the heck does she have a Japanese for a father then?! Oh right, maybe adoption thingy. Or did she change nationality later on. But yeah, it still boggles my mind until this day that this girl is of Turkish nationality. Sure, they wanted to diversify the races in this international weaponry tournament (you should see how freaking diversified the nationalities were in the game’s third instalment). I mean, you have freaking stereotypes already in the cast of characters. Rungo your big burly American. Fo Fai your crazy little Chinese man. Duke your chivalrous French knight. Sofia your sexy Russian buxom babe. Even Chaos as Sri Lankan descent felt believable. But Ellis is Turkish?! OMG did they get the whole thing wrong?! Sure, she broke the stereotype but I still can’t believe it. Sheesh…

The art and animation reek of retro style anime. It is 1996 after all. Even though it is dated but at least on a personal level, it still looked good for an anime that came out from that time. Though I have to admit, this animated version still looks way better than the ugly blocky 3D graphics of the game! Hell yeah! Oh well, you know, the 90’s was a strange time for fighting games when they were just getting into and experimenting with the 3D stuffs. So it’s nice to see our characters here having the typical Japanese anime looks. And to learn that this was done by the veteran J.C. Staff, might not be one of their greatest works as they have other better animated hits but yes, at least they made this one looking decent.

Surprisingly in the voice acting department, I wasn’t expecting to hear some recognizable ones like Takehito Koyasu as Kayin, Fumihiko Tachiki as Chaos and even Kikuko Inoue as Uranus! And then there are also Tomokazu Seki as Eiji and Michiko Neya as Tracy. Didn’t recognize them at first but seeing their names in the credits, now it rings a lot of bell. Some of them who voiced their characters in the game also reprised their roles in the OVA like Daisuki Gouri as Gaia, Yukimasa Kishino as Mondo and the late Kaneto Shiozawa as Duke. Bin Shimada as Sho (Gengai in Gintama), Kyoko Hikami as Ellis (Rabi-en in Di Gi Charat series), Yumi Touma as Sofia (Urd in Aa! Megami-sama), Ikuo Nishikawa as Fo Fai (Hanner in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor) and Shinpachi Tsuji as Rungo (Makarov in Fairy Tail). Ellis fans can take heart she sings the ending theme, Makenaide Fly Away, a lively retro anime pop that reflects the liveliness of her character. On a trivial note, the game has really awesome soundtrack BGM that I still sometimes listen to today.

Overall, it seems I have talked more about the game itself than the anime? Ah yes, overwhelming nostalgia. But it is good to see the anime even though I haven’t been playing the game for decades. The game has its ups and downs but I guess it was a different time back then. And watching this retro anime from this point in time, I’m going to say it again, opened the floodgates of my nostalgic memories. Yeah, the anime is just pretty okay and average. That’s about it. But still better compared to a recent spate of weird sh*t and bizarre retro OVAs that I have watched. In that context, this one seems pretty decent in all the departments. Thank you for bringing back all the nice and weird nostalgia of the game that I once played back in the 90’s. Now if I can only find an emulator online and play Battle Arena Toshinden 2 on my high end PC, that’ll be great… My Vermilion is waiting for me to use him again! Iku zo! Hontou ni yatsu wo taoshita ka?!