Battle Arena Toshinden (like its video game brother) isn’t a very well know title, which is really a shame since the anime itself is pretty descent! The plot at times can be a bite confusing, basically ever few years or so a tournament is held to decide the best fighter in the world......or at least until the next one anyway. The main villain (Uranus) is creating man machine clones to take over the world, and its up the Toshinden fighters to stop her........yeah basically that’s it. Now while the story isn’t going to win any viewers to actually play the video game, it does do anokay job of keeping you into the story just long enough before this 2 episode OVA ends. (any longer and it would definitely grow stale) This series does succeed in the action sequences though, while fighting isn’t anything on par with what you would see in the Street Fighter series, the characters themselves move with good fluidity and style. The combat and story walk hand in hand, so you don’t have to worry about one overpowering the other.

The character’s personalities are captured quite nice, its just a shame that we never really get to know about anyone other than Eji, Chaos and Kayin. Most of the other Toshinden warriors are shown well enough, (though some only for a few seconds) but its pretty minimal compared to those three. If you have never played the game, (which is the case with most people) there will be times where you will be wondering just who means what to who, this can be bad since this anime doesn’t do that great of a job describing the relationships between the characters.....other than what the main plot needs you to know. Overall this is something that is unavoidable for a 2 episode series that has many fighters in it.

If your like me and watched a lot of anime in the 80’s and 90’s you will instantly be brought back to that era with its music. While there is sadly no opening theme, the ending one is pretty catchy, though some may argue that its out of place with an action title such as this, as it can be a bit on the happy-go-lucky side. The background music is where I feel this title succeed at, it contains those cool kinda techno beats that were so popular in that era, and it hits good notes at the proper time. The atmosphere the show brings can be pretty in grossing at times, as well as creepy. The music definitely isn’t for everyone, but it does the job and was appropriate for its time.

The artwork I must say is just great, while it does show its age today, back then this was quite a well detailed and stylized title. You’ll most likely find the art different from today’s anime. For example, the eyes drawn on the characters are more slim and don’t contain highlights that we’re all use to seeing. The clothing on the fighters can range from unique to default, but fit the characters well. Though I guess that credit is more deserving to the video game.....and not the anime.

Back in 1996 when I first saw this, I loved it! But I was 14 and never played the game before. Even though everytime I see it now, it goes a tad down for me in what I feel a good action title should be, it still has an over all charm to it...back when anime like this was the cream of the action crop!

Overall Battle Arena Toshinden is an entertaining series! If you are a die-hard fan of the game or action anime in general, then you will probably be disappointed by this title and should bump my overall score down two numbers, as there just won’t be enough back story, combat or appearance from several of the characters to satisfy you. But if you are a casual action fan like myself, I think you will find it descent enough to add to your list, so long as you keep in mind that it was appropriate for its time.