Following on an attack on their home base by a mysterious assailant named Saico-Tek (Keonoe Young), a group of five teenage superheroes known as the Teen Titans consisting of martial artist/acrobat Robin (Scott Menville), shapeshifter Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), half man half machine Cyborg (Khary Payton), alien girl with energy burst powers Starfire (Hynden Walch), and witch Raven (Tara Strong) set off for Tokyo, Japan looking for into the one clue Saico-Tek gave before he vanished, a villain named "Brushogan". Far from home and in unfamiliar territory, the Titans try to seek out the elusive Brushogan while dealing with Tokyo's many distractions and the no nonsense attitude of Commander Daizo (Keone Young), head of the law enforcement group Tokyo Troopers.
The Teen Titans animated series had a very successful run as one of Cartoon Network's most enduring and legacied series. While its creation was inspired by the success of Bruce Timm's Justice League and it took a departure in art and storytelling approaches from the Timmverse, Teen Titans was embraced by fans and helped to re-establish the popularity of the superhero team which had fallen out of favor since the cancellation of The New Teen Titans comic in the early 90s and mixed reaction to continuation such as The Titans comic series from 1999. 2003's Teen Titans animated series not only lead to a new iteration of the team in comic form, but also helped to established lesser known heroes like Beast Boy, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg and without this show establishing these characters it's a near certain bet you wouldn't have developments like Cyborg being a member of the Justice League (though I know some people aren't fans of that). The show was initially only supposed tor run for 4 seasons with the adaptation of the "Terror of Trigon" initially positioned as the series capper, only for popularity to see the series extended for a fifth season which while very good ended on a frustrating finale that left no sense of closure and felt like part 1 of a story where the other parts just don't exist. Despite the series ending on an abrupt note (possibly because of conflicts with Toy Licensees), 8 months after Things Change we got the TV movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, a stand alone adventure for the Titans that serves as an alternate finale for the team. Trouble in Tokyo is better than Things Change, but the movie is dragged down by the weight of being a finale which probably wasn't the original intention.
As with the TV show, the five Titans are likable and given time to shine character wise. The show created a solid dynamic for its five central characters and we do get that dynamic on full display in both the team's interactions and the fight scenes. The Tokyo setting is decent all things considered, as the environments are all varied and unique, but most of the time it feels like a very superficial recreation of Tokyo with a lot of dated elements brought in. One sequence features background characters in Ganguro fashion (an outdated fashion concept of giving oneself dark skin and light hair that was seen as a "punk" thing to do in Japan) that had died out with the 90s. Aside from some rather odd inclusions of outdated social/cultural trends, pretty much everything you expect from a Teen Titans adventure is on display.
Where Trouble in Tokyo struggles is in its burden of being a send-off to these characters. If I had to guess I'd say Trouble in Tokyo probably began production before Season 5 of the series and was intended as a direct-to-video expansion of the franchise similar to how The Batman TV series had the movie The Batman vs. Dracula, because there's not really any attempt at closing the book on any dangling threads be they story or character based. The one exception to this is in Robin and Starfire's relationship where they finally get a sense of closure on their relationship tat has been established and built throughout the series and it's done so in a satisfying way. Aside from that however this feels like a longer version of one of the standalone episodes of the show. The central mystery behind Brushogan will be pretty easy for most viewers to solve (especially since there's only one character it could possibly be) and the movie feels pretty far removed from the series with not many callbacks to continuity (save for some background references) save for the Starfire/Robin relationship. This movie was obviously never intended to be a finally to the show and it's really only because of poor timing it ended up wearing that.
If you're looking for satisfying closure to one of the most influential and beloved cartoons of the 2000s, you won't find that here. But if you're looking for one last go around with said cartoon Trouble in Tokyo delivers on all the points that made Teen Titans so well regarded. The villain isn't one of the Titan's best and the film includes references that were dated even when it was first released, but it is nice to revisit these characters even if there's a lingering stink from Things Change.
The Teen Titans animated series had a very successful run as one of Cartoon Network's most enduring and legacied series. While its creation was inspired by the success of Bruce Timm's Justice League and it took a departure in art and storytelling approaches from the Timmverse, Teen Titans was embraced by fans and helped to re-establish the popularity of the superhero team which had fallen out of favor since the cancellation of The New Teen Titans comic in the early 90s and mixed reaction to continuation such as The Titans comic series from 1999. 2003's Teen Titans animated series not only lead to a new iteration of the team in comic form, but also helped to established lesser known heroes like Beast Boy, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg and without this show establishing these characters it's a near certain bet you wouldn't have developments like Cyborg being a member of the Justice League (though I know some people aren't fans of that). The show was initially only supposed tor run for 4 seasons with the adaptation of the "Terror of Trigon" initially positioned as the series capper, only for popularity to see the series extended for a fifth season which while very good ended on a frustrating finale that left no sense of closure and felt like part 1 of a story where the other parts just don't exist. Despite the series ending on an abrupt note (possibly because of conflicts with Toy Licensees), 8 months after Things Change we got the TV movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, a stand alone adventure for the Titans that serves as an alternate finale for the team. Trouble in Tokyo is better than Things Change, but the movie is dragged down by the weight of being a finale which probably wasn't the original intention.
As with the TV show, the five Titans are likable and given time to shine character wise. The show created a solid dynamic for its five central characters and we do get that dynamic on full display in both the team's interactions and the fight scenes. The Tokyo setting is decent all things considered, as the environments are all varied and unique, but most of the time it feels like a very superficial recreation of Tokyo with a lot of dated elements brought in. One sequence features background characters in Ganguro fashion (an outdated fashion concept of giving oneself dark skin and light hair that was seen as a "punk" thing to do in Japan) that had died out with the 90s. Aside from some rather odd inclusions of outdated social/cultural trends, pretty much everything you expect from a Teen Titans adventure is on display.
Where Trouble in Tokyo struggles is in its burden of being a send-off to these characters. If I had to guess I'd say Trouble in Tokyo probably began production before Season 5 of the series and was intended as a direct-to-video expansion of the franchise similar to how The Batman TV series had the movie The Batman vs. Dracula, because there's not really any attempt at closing the book on any dangling threads be they story or character based. The one exception to this is in Robin and Starfire's relationship where they finally get a sense of closure on their relationship tat has been established and built throughout the series and it's done so in a satisfying way. Aside from that however this feels like a longer version of one of the standalone episodes of the show. The central mystery behind Brushogan will be pretty easy for most viewers to solve (especially since there's only one character it could possibly be) and the movie feels pretty far removed from the series with not many callbacks to continuity (save for some background references) save for the Starfire/Robin relationship. This movie was obviously never intended to be a finally to the show and it's really only because of poor timing it ended up wearing that.
If you're looking for satisfying closure to one of the most influential and beloved cartoons of the 2000s, you won't find that here. But if you're looking for one last go around with said cartoon Trouble in Tokyo delivers on all the points that made Teen Titans so well regarded. The villain isn't one of the Titan's best and the film includes references that were dated even when it was first released, but it is nice to revisit these characters even if there's a lingering stink from Things Change.