Tenchi Movies

Tenchi Muyo: In Love

Synopsis:

Think of this movie as Tenchi meets the first Back to the Future movie. The plot here is that a mysterious Criminal by the name of Kain, breaks free from the Galaxy Police temporal space lock. Kain travels back in time and apparently kills off the Masaki family in an attempt to prevent anyone wielding the Jurai power from stopping him. Luckily thanks to Washu, a shield she created protects Tenchi from disappearing from time but it will only last for a very short time. Therefore Tenchi and the girls must travel back in time, 26 years in the past to prevent the death of Tenchi's mother and grandfather who apparently are the cause of the shift in time.

So the group travels back in time trying to disguise themselves as students, teachers, and janitors, so they can be close to Tenchi's mother Achika at all times. Well half way into the film everything starts to go well and Tenchi goes through some fits in which he almost disappears from existence but thankfully due to Washu's shield he is able to stay in existence. Along the same time Tenchi suffers from these attacks, Achika is suffering from similar attacks as well in her case though she gets a massive headache. About 30 minutes into the end of the film it is learn that all the students from Achika's class are going on a trip to Tokyo Tower. Thanks to Washu's wits she is able to pin point that this will be the time Kain attacks Achika. So the gang rushes off to place some generators in the five Fudo temples, in an attempt to activate their Jurai powers in the past. Will tenchi be able to save his mother and his own existence? You'll have to see this decent tenchi movie to find out that answer!

Review:

Overall this is a fairly entertaining film to begin the trilogy of Tenchi films. The animation is top notch and follows the style of the Tenchi Universe animation. The plot is good although at sometimes it does feel a bit of a rip off from the back to the future movies. However this is one fact that takes away nothing really from the film. The action is pretty decent towards the end of the movie with a couple of surprises that will entertain any of the Tenchi Muyo fans out there. The score from the film is good it has an instrumental appeal to it and the main theme entitled Alchemy of Love is good and fits the "in love" theme very well. So I highly recommend Tenchi Muyo: In Love for any Tenchi or Anime fan it will really appeal to many!

RATING: 9

Tenchi the movie 2: Daughter of Darkness

Synopsis:

Tenchi and the gang are back for their second installment to the tenchi movies. The movie starts off with a flashback of young Yosho, giving a present to a young and feisty girl all of the sudden the Jurian police come along with the emperor and start to attack this girl and uncover that she is really a demon that was trying to take Yosho into the dimension of darkness. Well the demon girl known as Yuzhara, is banished into her dimension again. We then fast-forward to the present where Tenchi and the girls are celebrating Christmas. Elsewhere Yuzhara is watching on her monitor the Christmas celebration and decides to finally get her revenge on Yosho grandson Tenchi. A couple of months pass and summer is here.

While Tenchi is coming back from a long days work at his grandfather's shrine he bumps into this mysterious girl who refers to Tenchi as daddy! What this is Tenchi a father? Well for about half of the movie everyone is trying to figure out if this really is Tenchi's daughter and if this girl has come from the future or has a couple of screws loose. Thanks to Washu we find out that Tenchi is indeed this girls genetic father but she cannot figure out the mother side of Mayuka's genes. Around this time Mayuka starts to act in a different way and we learn that Yuzhara really is in control of her and sent Mayuka to kill Tenchi. Eventually Ryoko gets very suspicious of this girl and apparently because of this she tries to hurt this girl, which makes Tenchi very displeased with her.

About two days later Mayuka tries to take Tenchi into the dimension of darkness but is stop by the gang and runs off. Sasami upset with the whole situation runs off to find Mayuka and unfortunately gets kidnapped by Mayuka and taken into the dark dimension. Tenchi and Ryoko race after Mayuka to the dark dimension but learn that they can't use the Jurai power down there. What will become of Sasami and Mayuka? Will Tenchi and Ryoko be able to survive the dark dimension and stop Yuzhara wicked plans?

Review:

Overall this film is pretty good but there are two problems with this film. The first major flaw of this film is that it is really short. In total it's about an hour when you include the credits and after the movie is done your really left with this feeling that you were cheated somehow. The second flaw is that this movie does not fit into the tenchi story and is considered as another universe alternate to the others that has no bearing on any of the other series or movies. The plot is pretty good but at some points it is too obvious who Mayuka's mother is and they practically throw it at you from the beginning of the film. The score is pretty good and once again is composed of classical music and the ending theme is pretty decent. The animation quality is top notch and once again follows the style of Tenchi Universe. Overall this movie is good but could have been much longer and had some better plot and character development with Mayuka it would have been nice if they would fit her into the new tenchi series that are coming out they are not. I would recommend that if you are going to buy this movie get it on dvd since it is about 16 dollars in your local retailers because the vhs copy is definitely overcharged if you don't have a dvd player then just rent it on video!

RATING: 7.5

Tenchi Forever!: Tenchi Muyo In Love 2

Synopsis:

This is the third and final installment out of the Tenchi movies and right off the bat I will tell you many are not going to enjoy this one since its not like your normal Tenchi movie. Its another day just like any other day at the Masaki shrine, Ayeka and Ryoko are once again battling it out in a war of words to get their hands on Tenchi. Tenchi after having absolutely enough out of the both of them runs up into the mountains and disappears. About six months go by and during this time the gang has tried everything to locate his whereabouts. Unfortunately they have yet to find him and Ayeka and Ryoko are on their way to Tokyo as a last ditch effort to find Tenchi!

While In Japan Ryoko and Ayeka get jobs and continue to search for Tenchi and have their spirits virtually smashed when they can't locate him. One day however Tenchi shows up in the restaurant they are working in and is several years older, to top matters off they realize that Tenchi appears to be in a parallel world that his mysterious finance Haruna created. Apparently sometimes tenchi slips into the real world sort of like a mirror Image or shadow. Just like with a shadow Ayeka and Ryoko can not touch or be heard by Tenchi. Eventually we learn that Haruna has a mysterious connection to Tenchi's grandfather Yosho. Luckily Washu comes up with a way to barge into the parallel world but will it be enough to get Tenchi back. It's up to Ryoko and Ayeka to discover what Haruna wants with Tenchi and try to save him before he disappears forever from existence.

Review:

I am going to be straight with all the Tenchi fans, this is not your simple run of the mill Tenchi movie. Unlike the first two that were aimed at being a romantic comedy/action film this one is a very serious love story and will turn off fans of the show and only appeal to the truly hardcore fans. However even though this film is a different pace then we are use to with Tenchi movies it excels at being arguably the best of the Tenchi movies! First off the plot is somewhat ingenious and had me many times guessing what was going on with Tenchi and Haruna, and the story behind them. The soundtrack once again is an original classical score and suite this film extremely well. The ending theme once again is great and fits the In Love theme all too well. The animation style is the same as the Tenchi in Tokyo series and is the only drawback of the movie.

I for one never like the animation style to Tokyo cause at times it looks so cheap however the animation in this movie tried to make the style look less cheap. Overall they should have stuck with the design of Tenchi Universe but this is really the only flaw with the film. Now this goes out to all the Tenchi fans, there is no action, repeat no action in this film if you are looking for a kick butt Tenchi film don't look here your not going to find it. So Overall I highly recommend this film to those Tenchi fans who wondered what would happen if they actually did a serious plot. I will even go as far to say that the female anime fans out their will indeed enjoy this film. So if you're in the mood for something different out of tenchi rent or buy Tenchi Forever!

RATING: 9.5