Tokyo Underground

Tokyo Underground
Scanslated by Anime Empire Nisei
IRC Channel: #ae-nisei @ irc.chatspike.net

Topic: Fighting, Supernatural Powers

Summary:
Beneath Tokyo there is an underground world known as the Tokyo Underground. Initially created for scientists to perform dangerous experiments on humans, the experiments grew too strong and so the underground was sealed away. However people continue to live in the underground, which has now been taken over by a group known as "The Company."

A young girl named Ruri is the "Priestess of Life." To protect her from "The Company," her guardian (Chelsea Rorec) brings her to the surface world where they encounter Rumina Asagi. However the company's soldiers chase Ruri to the surface where they kill Rumina to get to her. In a burst of emotion Ruri's powers bring Rumina back to life, in the process unlocking his power to control wind. Nonetheless, the combined powers of Rumina and Chelsea (who can control gravity), are insufficient to protect Ruri who is kidnapped back into the underground. Now they must travel back into that world to free Ruri. What friends and foes will they meet? Why is Ruri so important to the company? How was someone on the surface world capable of even developing a power?

Commentary:
I'm not a fan of the art-style, which is very minimalistic when it comes to backgrounds. The characters themselves are well drawn but most panels include a couple characters and a blank background or at most a couple lines to depict the ground. The plot itself is entertaining although the pacing of the story is horrendous. The mangaka tends to spend large portions of time drawing fights, which is usually fine but many of these fights have repetitive flashbacks, a la DBZ. You get the feeling the mangaka got bored of writing the story and instead forced events to move at a much faster pace, just to be able to get to the fight scenes (which, as mentioned before, are nothing special).

Rating: 5.0/10.0