Tenjho Tenge

Tenjho Tenge (Japanese: 天上天下, Hepburn: Tenjō Tenge; lit. 'Heaven and Earth'), also written as Tenjo Tenge, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Oh! great. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from July 1997 to August 2010, with its chapters collected in 22 tankōbon volumes. The story primarily focuses on the members of the Juken Club and their opposition, the Executive Council, which is the ruling student body of a high school that educates its students in the art of combat. As the story unfolds, both groups become increasingly involved with an ongoing battle that has been left unresolved for four hundred years.

It was adapted into a 24-episode anime television series broadcast on TV Asahi from April to September 2004. A two-episode original video animation (OVA) was released in March 2005.

Both versions of the series have been licensed for release in English language by two different companies. The manga was licensed and released by CMX beginning in 2005, which came under criticism by fans for editing its sexual content. When CMX closed down in 2010, after releasing 18 volumes, Viz Media picked up the rights and completed their own uncut release of the series in 2013. The anime was licensed and released by Geneon Entertainment, also beginning in 2005, however, it is now licensed by Discotek Media.

The plot begins with Souichiro Nagi and his childhood best friend Bob Makihara going to their first day of high school at Toudou Academy. They had intended to rule the school by beating up anybody that got in their way, as they had done at their previous schools. They soon learn that Toudou is no ordinary high school, but rather a school that was founded to teach and integrate different fighting styles. Its students are skilled in the various arts of combat with some students possessing supernatural abilities, such as pyrokinesis, precognition, and superhuman strength based on the abilities to use their "spirit" or "ki" in Japanese. After an altercation with the Executive Council, Souichiro and Bob join the only surviving club that opposes them, the Juken club. As the storyline develops, both groups find they are becoming increasingly involved in a long enduring conflict that was left unresolved from the Japanese feudal era by some of the characters' ancestors.

Written and illustrated by Oh! Great, Tenjho Tenge was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from July 25, 1997, to August 19, 2010. It was Oh! Great's first crossover mainstream manga from writing and illustrating hentai manga. Shueisha collected its chapters in 22 tankōbon' volumes, released from May 19, 1998, to November 19, 2010.

Tenjho Tenge was licensed for an English language publication by CMX, an imprint of DC Comics, as one of their launch titles and the first volume was released on February 16, 2005. Their version of the manga is heavily edited/censored in order for them to give it a Teen "rating" "to give it the widest possible distribution in the United States". According to CMX, these changes were made in conjunction with Shueisha and Tenjho Tenge creator Oh! Great, who examines each of their changes. This censorship however garnered quite a bit of controversy. CMX released eighteen volumes in North America before the company was shut down in July 2010.

In November 2010, Viz Media acquired the rights to the Tenjho Tenge manga, stating that their version would be 100% uncut and faithful to the original Japanese. From June 21, 2011, to February 5, 2013, they released the series bi-monthly in eleven 2-in-1 volumes, which collects two individual volumes into a single large one. Viz's releases also includes omake, color pages from the series's original run in Ultra Jump, and since each release will cover two volumes, the second cover will be printed in as a color page. The manga is also published in many other countries, such as in Taiwan by Sharp Point Press, in Italy, France and Germany by Panini Comics, in Mexico by Grupo Editorial Vid, in Brazil by Editora JBC, and in Spain by Norma Editorial.

The Tenjho Tenge anime was directed by Toshifumi Kawase, animated by Madhouse but the whole series is animated by DR MOVIE 1 Korean animation service studio, produced by TV Asahi and Avex Mode, the animation division of the Avex group of companies. The twenty-four episodes were originally aired weekly on TV Asahi in Japan on Thursdays from April 1, 2004, to September 16, 2004. These episodes were made into eight-volume DVD box sets. Two additional episodes were broadcast by TV Asahi in Japan on March 16, 2005, and released in the form of an original video animation named Tenjho Tenge: Ultimate Fight. The anime follows closely to its source material up to the manga's eighth volume with the exception of the sexual content which was toned down. The anime series has been licensed in English by Geneon Entertainment.