Review - Tokyo Underground: Awakening
Reviewed by Richard Brownell on 10.13.2008.
Score: 5/10
The world of anime has no shortage of shounen action. Some of the most popular anime today fall into the genre and there are many less popular choices. Add in manga and there's enough to keep you occupied for decades. With so many shows to choose from, Tokyo Underground is likely to be ignored due to its bland take on the shounen action genre.
Tokyo Underground's fate is set from the beginning. While it starts off with an interesting premise, it leaves the viewer with too much to wonder about. Ruri Sarasa is the Maiden of Life and Chelsea Rorec is her bodyguard. Each of them is from a secret underground world run by The Company. They are also fleeing said world and end up in Rumina Asagi's front yard. He is your typical first year high school student except that he's the toughest fighter in school. He also has no experience with girls. When Ruri and Chelsea are accosted by a flame-wielding representative from The Company, Rumina steps in to protect them...and dies.
Ruri then steps in to use her Maiden of Life powers for the first time and resurrects Rumina. An interesting side effect is that he gains the power of wind. Dwellers from underground can harness various elemental powers (Chelsea's is gravity), but surface dwellers do not, so Rumina becomes a special case. The reason this is a slow start is that this synopsis covered the first three episodes. I won't spoil what happens in the final two episodes of the disc, but suffice it to say that we don't find out the reason for Ruri and Chelsea being chased until the final minutes of the disc.
The tone of Tokyo Underground is a bit odd. Because of the target audience, many shounen action series never take themselves completely seriously. They have comic reliefs, corny jokes, and slapstick humor. Tokyo Underground is no exception. From Rumina's bubbly view of all things female to nose bleeds to the announcement of every move that any character does, Tokyo Underground does not feel fresh and has little to differentiate itself from the pack.
Rumina, Chelsea, and Ruri are somewhat interesting characters, but the rest are absolutely flat. Rumina's best friend is a nerd named Ginnosuke. That's not a condensed description of Ginnosuke's role in the show, but rather all that can be said about him. He's like a comic relief but without the humor. He only ever serves as an extra character to draw in the scene and make occasional nerdy comments. Most of the enemies are even worse and are more memorable for their powers than who they are.
I am, of course, being overly picky. The more anime I watch, the more I want something fresh. But true shounen action fans may disagree with me. If you are one and made it this far, you are now mad at me for not even mentioning the fight scenes yet. My apologies. Tokyo Underground's animation quality is about average for a TV series of the early millennium and most of the budget definitely went into the fights. They won't blow you away, but they do provide some excitement in the show. Chelsea's power (gravity) and Rumina's power (wind) are both invisible in most real life situations and the animators did a good job at representing them on screen.
The first volume of Tokyo Underground is not the most exciting anime I've ever seen, but it wasn't awful either. Every component of the show, from music to character designs, just feels average. The main redeeming quality it has is that the explanation of The Company and its desires in the last few minutes of the first volume does make me want to find out what's going on. Perhaps the show will pick up its pace from here on out? I don't expect to see any major improvements in visual quality, but the story has a chance. We'll find out in volume 2 if Tokyo Underground will rise above its low beginnings.
Dub Quality
It's hard to be too critical of a dub for a script that you aren't a big fan of. For this style of show, the dub is a good representation of the source material. There are lots of shouting of moves. There are sections of bubbly dialog for serious lines. But there aren't any cringe moments beyond parts of the show itself.
Special Features
DVD Features
· Japanese & English Stereo Dolby Digital
· English Subtitles
· Scene Access
DVD Extras
· Character Profiles
· Original Japanese Opening
· Textless Opening
· Geneon Previews
Extras are mostly sparse in this opening volume. We do get some character profiles, but they are very short. They may help me with character names while writing a review, but won't provide a typical viewer with much value. This volume does have the standard clean opening though as well as the original Japanese opening clip with text.
