TEEN TITANS: TROUBLE IN TOKYO (2006)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

This TV-film aired on Cartoon Network in the same year that the five-season TEEN TITANS teleseries concluded. That circumstance probably encouraged some reviewers to term TROUBLE IN TOKYO a "finale." But because the TV show was in the nature of a continuing soap opera-- though not as much as the comic book from which it was derived-- this stand-alone TV-movie doesn't really play into the ongoing storylines, with one exception I'll describe later. But TROUBLE does have the virtue of being an homage to the artistic sources for the popular program.

In the Titans' home of Jump City, they're inexplicably attacked by a colorful super-powered foe, Saico-Tech. The heroes defeat their attacker, who makes confused statements in Japanese, and then disappears. So all five-- Robin, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy-- journey to Tokyo to see what they can learn the entity Saico-Tech claimed to be his boss: someone named Brushogun.

Once in the Japanese capital, the Titans find themselves forced to battle a Godzilla-sized reptilian monster, though it, like Saico-Tech, disappears. The American heroes then meet a special task force, the Tokyo Troopers, who under the command of Commander Daizo are responsible for quelling any monsters or villains who menace the city. This in itself may be a subtle acknowledgement that Japanese pop culture generally seems less invested in vigilante heroes and more in crusaders linked to some authority, be it Earthly or extraterrestrial. Daizo welcomes the Titans as guest heroes but tells them that "Brushogun" is just an urban legend about a man who lost his soul.

The Titans then try to relax and enjoy touring Japan, with Beast Boy being the most insistent, wanting to visit a manga publishing company. (The fact that the heroes go to the company but find it closed should trigger one's foreshadowing-senses.) During this period, we see the only continuation of a TV-show plotline, as Robin and Starfire come close to consummating their romance. However, Robin can't let the mystery go unsolved and launches a private investigation. This action seems to conjure forth another attack on the Teen Wonder by Saico-Tech. However, during the fight Saico-Tech appears to perish, and Commander Daizo arrests Robin. Further, the other Titans are attacked by brand-new villains, some of whom look like familiar figures from anime: an Astro Boy type, a cat-girl type, etc. I won't go into a lot of detail about the nature of the entity responsible for all of the strange goings-on, but yes, there is a Brushogun, Virginia, and he too seems very like an American's attempt to create a supernatural menace of the sort the Japanese are often good art producing.

The reason I call TROUBLE an homage is because, for whatever reasons, TEEN TITANS heavily invested in visual tropes used in popular anime, particularly the use of "super-deformed" versions of the stars for comical effect. And of course, having the theme song sung in two versions-- one in English, one in Japanese-- signals an appreciation of Japanese pop culture as well. This isn't to say that the TITANS show didn't have a lot of grounding in American tropes as well. Still, I like to think that the animators wanted to conclude their time with the Titans franchise by re-iterating their admiration for the influence Japanese pop art had on them.