For years, the most powerful fighters in the land have assembled in the Battle Arena Toshinden to test their skills under the auspices of the enigmatic Organization. At the center of the story are protagonist Eiji Shinjo and his closet friend, Kayin. Both want desperately to a) unravel the mystery of Eiji's elder brother - the powerful fighter Sho who defeated and killed Kayin's father before disappearing - and b) become the top Toshin Fighter. Unfortunately, the most recent Toshin tournament is interrupted before a winner is chosen. It turns out that the leader of The Organization, a maniacal winged tyrant named Uranus, has been using the Toshin Tournament to gather data about the fighters. The Organization has incorporated the information into a secretive Man-Machine project in order to create artificial fighters powerful enough to beat tournament participants. When Sho mysteriously appears, joining The Organization's attack on the Toshin fighters, Eiji and Kayin dedicate themselves to uncovering the link between their two greatest obsessions and thwarting Uranus' evil plans.

"Battle Area Toshinden" should at least have been a good film. The writers had a creative gem in the form of the Man-Machine project and the video game already provided a framework story and assigned personalities and idiosyncrasies to the characters. These should have provided enough of a foundation to set the characters in motion and carry them through an hour of film. Unfortunately the film, as realized by director Masami Ohbari, chokes on the same elements that should have made it a sure success by forfeiting potent opportunities to proffer any comment about the nature of humanity.

The aforementioned Man-Machine project is a compelling projection of the future of technology. As machines come to replace humans in greater numbers of endeavors, it seems logical that machines might, one day, fight in their stead as well. Considering that martial arts are an advanced art form, the ability to program machines to perform martial arts has huge implications about other such tasks that could be performed by the man-machines. In addition, the story never mentions the role of man in the man-machine: How important is the "man" when the martial arts attacks are simply uploaded into "machines?"

The film's story never follows up on these ideas, reducing the project to a gimmick for empowering the villain at the cost of the Toshin heroes. By the end it becomes clear that devoting such a massive amount of technology and research to the project is driven solely by The Organization's desire to defeat the Toshin fighters who unwittingly inspired the project in the first place. This circular logic vitiates the very inspiration behind the idea.

Also obscuring the glimmer of hope for Jiro Takayama's and Masaharu Amiya's script are the same flaws that have for decades impeded the transition of stories from one medium to another--there are too many characters, most of whom are neglected. The Takara Company demands that this story bring in as many of the video game characters as possible, burying any potential for a compelling, character-driven plot. In addition, the circle of relationships between the characters is so convoluted it defies interest. You see, Sho is Eiji's brother who works for Uranus who is controlling Sofia who is the friend of Ellis who is the daughter of Gaia who is competing with Chaos and whom Uranus modified into the prototype of the Man-Machine project. Are you with me? And of course, the writers could not progress to a climax without dragging in the iconic Mondo, Rondo and the Duke, plot be damned. Even the faithful need copious notes to decode the web of relationships at work. But then again, it isn't worth the effort in the first place.

Though "Battle Arena Toshinden" fails to reconstitute itself as an enjoyable film, some fans of the video game might appreciate the opportunity to see the Toshinden gang in action without the distraction of the control pad. For others, the hopelessly tangled array of shallow characters obscures any incipient originality that may have existed in development. Ultimately, that is "Toshinden's" biggest disappointment.