Friday, March 6, 2009

Tantric Stripfighter Trina, Volume 1 - Review



I am a fan of many things. And amongst this vast and varied collection of things are martial arts, and tits. Now unlike giant robots and tits, this combination seems to gel a little more smoothly. Ikki Tousen, Battle Club and Tenjou Tenge being amongst many shining examples of this blessed union.

(Though in an ironic twist of fate, I've never liked any of the aforementioned titles)

So a few days ago, I was browsing through the manga section of Kinokuniya, looking for the latest issue of Yozakura Quartet and Sgt. Frog when from the corner of my eye, I spotted an amusingly named title;

Tantric Stripfighter Trina

Or to more accurately represent the font printed on the book;

TANTRIC STRIPFIGHTER TRINA

Now being a lover of cheesy exploitation movies (in addition to tits, giant robots and martial arts), I couldn't pass up on an opportunity to check this shit out, and picked up a copy.

No words I can fathom can describe this manga as accurately as its own blurb, so here it is;

Tantric Stripfighter Trina fights an evil space federation...by taking off one piece at a time!

...

Trina is skilled in Rama's native art of Stripfighting: a tantalizing fusion of Shoulin martial arts and tantric sensuality.

Oh holy fuck.

Unable to resist the obfuscating stupidity radiating from this blurb, I decided to shell out a further $18 in order to have a Tantric Stripfighter to call my own.

STORY

...oh shit. I have to write something here don't I?

Well uh...so there's this girl called Trina, and she dresses like a stripper. And she lives in this planet of stripping martial artists. And they're so engrossed in stripping and fucking each other that they never argue or fight, and so they live in piece.

But then the evil intergalactic government (called the CROWN), teams up with the evil intergalactic Church (called the COG), and they go in and butcher the peaceful, sex loving people. Presumably because they're jealous prudes.

So anyways, because she's the possessor of the invincible shield of main characterness, Trina magically escapes the doomed planet.

From here she travels the galaxy, bent on revenge and beating people up with her bra in the process.


In the future, implants are mandotory.

CHARACTERS

Trina
The epymonious Stripfighter. Seeks to avenge her people. Beats people up with her undergarments. Wears star shaped pasties (I'm betting she'll use them as shurikens in future issues).

The outfit of a vengeful martial artist.

Chrome Abbey
Trina's enthusiastic sidekick. A former bounty hunter, she was literally beaten into an orgasm by Trina, and now seeks to become her apprentice. Presumably so that she can then beat herself into further orgasm. Generally plays the comic relief role, in contrast to Trina's straight man.


Manga's first ever combat-orgasm.

Bonds
Trina's little robot companion. Exists for the sole purposes of providing handy info dumps, and kissing Trina's ass.


Honestly, I'm suprised the robot doesn't have giant tits too.

Titus Braille
Space Spanish Inquisitor. The strong arm of the intergalactic church, The Cog. He blessedly pounds God's love into the skulls of nonbelievers. Ironically has no pupils.


And so the Lord said, "Burn little bitch!" and the little bitch did burn, thus fulfilling the words of scripture.

Aric Terse
Crazy badass martial artist dude. Participated in the killing of Trina's people. Possible rival to Trina in future volumes. Sadly, he does not strip while fighting.

ARTWORK

The art is one of the high points of Stripfighter. Characters are superbly detailed, with even minor badguys having well detailed and unique looks.

Similarly, backgrounds are beautiful and well crafted. Sadly however, most scenes focus on characters with little, if any background visible. But when they are there, they look lovely.


Enjoy the view of these houses, cause there's like three of them in the whole fucking universe.

The art truly comes alive however during the fight scenes. Trina's intricate fighting style is both graceful and brutal, and the artist lovingly articulates this on each and every page.


Ouch.

Some problems with logical progression do pop up every now and then however. At times, characters will mysteriously pop up in a panel, despite all prior panels suggesting that they're no where near the area. Nonetheless, this is both an infrequent and forgivable fault.


Honestly, I'd buy this comic even without the tits. That's how fucking awesome the fights are.

OVERALL

For those of you searching for an intricate storyline in the veins of Ghost in the Shell, or witty humour and dialogue such as in Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, stay the hell away from Tantric Stripfighter Trina.


And now for my favourite line in the whole volume: "Get your mind in the game! She's not a pleasure slave! She's a Tantric Stripfighter!"

The story is light, the characters predictable, and the world, uninspired. This is a comic for those who enjoy watching big titted characters beat the shit out of people.

To be fair however, the comics writer, Ken Faggio, has hinted in both interviews and his blog, at a desire to develop a more intricate story for Stripfighter. Perhaps we will see a deeper and more developed story and characters in future installments.


Remember girls, the fastest way to get respect in the office is to strip in front of your boss.

Volume 1 however, is simply a 200 page foray into the adventures of a pasty wearing martial artist and her equally busty sidekick. And that's good enough for me.


She was beaten into an orgasm. I can't stress that enough.

15 comments:

  1. hey snark, GO STUDY FOR PROPERTY, EQUITY AND THE BUSINESS SUBJECTS! lol

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  2. ............

    ROFL I'm sure this title/series is full just for the LULZ

    gawd, I can't believe have so much free time on things like these T__T I feel like I have no life...

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  3. interesting fussion: tantric sensuality with shaolin fight.

    * thx for your comments*

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  4. @ Ella
    Bah, you go study!

    @ Anna
    lol, the funny thing is that the series takes itself sorta seriously XD

    And bah! Who needs life when you have awesome shit like this!? ;)

    @ Phossil
    Aye. If I ever fought someone in martial arts, I'd want to fight a shaolin stripper too.

    Actually, forget the shaolin part.

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  5. I can't stop giggling at the title. It sounds so cheesy XD

    I liked Tenjo Tenge though. A lot of fan service but the fights are good. Kinda got lost when I started reading the manga at around vol. 15.

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  6. @ Coeli
    Well, thanks to that title I'm 18 dollars poorer =P

    But yeah, the sheer stupidity of the word Stripfighter is why I love it so much XD

    Really? I could never get into Tenjo Tenge...just found the characters so unlikeable >_>

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  7. Hey dude! Yeah, sorry I haven't been around, I'll blame laziness and no new loot to get excited over till recently! Good to see you haven't been as slack with your blog as I've been. Btw, I found an actual store in Sydney that sells anime stuffs, though maybe you've been there already, I dunno, check my latest post...

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  8. Well $18 for a laughing fit isn't so bad now, is it?

    I'm a big fan of Maya Natsume!

    I'm still trying to find enough motivation to finish reading the manga though.

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  9. @ Acesan
    Ah! You have returned! And alive no less! Excellent! And yeah, I've checked out that store you found.

    To be honest, it was kinda underwhelming, but then again, ANY anime store in Sydney is bitchin.

    @ Coeli
    Hehe, yeah, I guess it was quite a hilarious 18 dollars XD

    And I too agree that Maya's not too bad...but then again, that's probably because I just spend all my time staring at titties >_>

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  10. Haha how awesome is that?
    I would have picked up a copy aswell after readin that short blurb.This just promises to be bad and with bad i mean the good bad.

    Id like to see a Live Action Flick of this one XD

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  11. @ Blowfish
    How awesome? Indescribably so >=D

    And yes, a live action movie adaptation, directed by Uwe Boll or someone of his high caliber, would surely have the potential to be so bad, it transcends humanity and enters the divine.

    Also, it needs to feature pornstars as all the lead characters.

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  12. Id immediately license that Movie! :D
    Why just Pornstars as Lead Characters? Lets cast pornstars as the Support Characters aswell^^

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  13. @ Blowfish
    An excellent idea! Pornstars for all! I can see an Academy Award and a couple Golden Globes already!

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  14. would it help if i knew what Tenjo Tenge was...?
    i think it would...
    but you would seriously buy it without the tits o_O really must be good!
    once other thing.... MUSICALLY POWERED GIANT ROBOTS!!!!!!
    send me more stuffs bitchit!

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  15. @ Sneth
    Bah! I will send you more shit soon! Sorry, I'm seriously really busy right now >_<

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