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Anyone who's watched a few DBZ movies knows that the quality can vary from horrible to pretty awesome. This is more or less on the higher end of the scale.

___The Story:
A mysterious old man asks Gohan and the others to summon Shenron in order to free a warrior named Tapion from an enchanted music box. Upon doing so the group unknowingly puts the Earth in danger as another being is released from the seal.

To be honest, the writing was a little weak. This is mostly because the backstory for the new characters is very generic. So let's move on to characters.

___The Characters:
I know there's the ... expression "there are no new ideas," but honestly the writers could have tried a little harder. The bad guy seems to have no real reason to be evil...he just is. His whole species just likes to wipe out other lifeforms (convenient instant enemy). I won't judge this too harshly though, I mean, this is DBZ we're talking about.

In terms of the good guy (Tapion), he has a generic tragic hero past. However, he's pretty likable, especially in his interactions with Trunks. In fact I enjoyed Tapion and Trunks' character development about as much as the final fight.

Also, this is a side note, but Bulma got a chance to shine a bit, too. She lent a listening ear when Tapion needed it, and showed how intelligent she is as well, which was nice to see. Anyway...

___The Fights:
Don't let the synopsis at the top of the page fool you; Goku doesn't spend time practicing/"perfecting" a new technique; he just does the attack once in the final fight. Granted he looks cool doing it, but it's hard not to make a Super Saiyan look cool. The fights were ok, and I think most people watching will enjoy them. Just don't go into the movie expecting Goku vs Frieze level epicness.

___Overall:
Overall I liked it! There were some decent fights and some good dialogue all the way through. I think you kind of know what to expect when watching a DBZ movie, and this doesn't deviate too much from the format that we're used to.

There is something that happens at the very end which confused me a little in terms of the future timeline, but that could just be me and not an error in continuity. I'm not going to post a spoile,r though.

It's less than an hour long so I encourage you to check it out if you have a free moment!

The word you need to think about when watching Togainu no Chi is potential.

The story revolves around a guy named Akira who is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He is offered a path to freedom if he agrees to participate in a competition called Igura, and takes down the undefeated Il-re. This is all supposed to take place in the chaotic area of Toshima, where everyone lives by an “eat or be eaten” mentality.

Premise 8/10: Like I said, it had potential. I was based off of the storyline of some pretty popular games, whose plot was pretty solid. The plot, by itself, gives ... off an air of excitement and danger. There’s violence, drug use, conspiracy, etc.

Writing 1/10: It saddens me to say this, but this anime didn’t deliver in terms of the quality of writing. The dialogue was awful in places; really awkward and unbelievable. The pace was not well thought out. In the first few episodes, nothing happens, and then, you can almost see the writers trying to cram the rest of the story into the last few episodes. The writing created noticeable plot holes. If you didn’t know already, the original games did have some male/male content, but the manga did not. A-1 managed to make it awkward for both sets of fans. I lack the ability to articulate/explain to you how they managed to do this, but it really was eye-roll worthy.

Character 5/10: They seemed interesting enough when introduced. Each character has gone to Toshima for different reasons, and being kept in the dark about their motivations adds to their mystery. Unfortunately, they are never given much depth, even towards the end of the story. There is also the big problem of characters doing things that don’t seem in line with their personality. There is unjustified character derailment by both the main character and several supporting characters. Plus each character's motive becomes so vague, it's difficult to tell what they're fighting for.

Art 4/10: The art varies from episode to episode. I think the key word here is lazy. Sometimes it’s ok, other times, it’s barely passable. The art for the trailer and opening are lovely. I really wish it was the same for the series.

Animation 4/10: Lazy. Not enough frames, poor transition, bad angles, and many mistakes. Sub-par.

Music 8/10: There is a lot of music in TnC. It’s one of the few things that sells the atmosphere of Toshima. There is a different ending song for each episode, most of which are very good. If you’re into J-rock/visual-kei, you’ll probably like the soundtrack. The opening is nice too.

Overall 4/10: This saddens me because I was really looking forward to this anime, and set out to watch it with an optimistic viewpoint. Fans of the game will be disappointed; anime fans will wonder why they wasted their time; BL fans will lament at the destruction of what had the potential to be a STAPLE within the genre.