Tenchi Muyô! In Love

I personally LOVE Tenchi Muyo! in Love. I just have one problem with it. It is the exact opposite of Tenchi Muyo! Manatsu No Eve. Where that movie should have been longer, this one could have been shorter. However, the animation absolutely upholds the wonderful tradition of the Tenchi Muyo! series and the story is just too great. I really like this movie. This is a movie for anyone who has an appreciation for good story telling.

As an Anime fan to begin with, this movie is a delight. As a Tenchi Fan, it is a joy to behold. The addition of Christopher Franke's (Tangerine Dream, Babylon 5, Raven, M.A.N.T.I.S.)music is icing on the cake.

But, for non-Tenchi fans, or those new to this story , or Manga, a little introduction is needed. Even that is difficult for the stories have been reworked at least three different ways in different productions.

Basically the whole series revolves around Tenchi Masaki, a young man living in a rural province of Japan outside of Tokyo with his widowed father, an architect, and his grandfather, a shrine caretaker. But, his life is not as un-complicated as it seems, for his grandfather is a several hundred year old reigning prince of an extraterrestrial empire known as the House of Jurai, as his late mother was a princess to the same galactic domain. So his lineage has made him the target of both the scum of the universe, as well as an odd collection of women in his household: a 700 year old space pirate called Ryoko, who is also a stunningly lovely woman with a short fuse and super-powers, Ayeka, ruling princess of the House of Jurai and his grandfather's half sister (her mother pure blood Jurain, his mother human), her younger sister Sasami (who is psychically merged with a living all-powerful starship called Tsunami), Washuu, the exiled super-genius and professor of a galactic science academy (her inventions were a little destructive for the faculty, or the universe, to handle), Myhoshi, a ditzy member of the Galaxy Police force, Kiyone, her oft put-upon partner, and Ryo-oki, a cabbit (half cat, half rabbit), a creation of Washuu's which itself can transform into a living space ship.

Now, with that out of the way, this adventure pits Tenchi against a powerful master criminal called Kain, imprisoned by the Jurain Empire who escapes from Galaxy Police's temporal prison and travels back in time to take revenge by murdering Tenchi's mother, thereby destroying him in the present, as well as decimating the Royal House of Jurai. It is up to Tenchi and the ladies (all of whom have a love interest in Tenchi, to varying degrees), using Washuu's super science, to travel back in time to save Tenchi's mother when she was still Tenchi's age.

What follows is an adventurous, funny and often touching story as Tenchi meets the mother he never knew, fights for her life and his, as well as juggle the love and affection of the ladies (especially Ryoko, who is deeply in love with him and Ayeka, who desires him as a mate of royal lineage).

The film is a joy, as are the two sequels, which give a new and great creative take on the popular television and video series.

I enjoyed this movie even though I was not familiar with the Tenchi Muyo show, it had a lot of colorful characters and was funny and had good action too. The story though was a bit hard to follow, it made a bit more sense when I had seen the Tenchi show, but it still has points that make very little sense. My guess is that this movie takes place in the realm of the show "Tenchi Universe" rather than the first show as this movie features both female galaxy officers that are in the "Universe" series while the original only featured the blond officer. Also, Ryoko is the space pirate she was in that series as well. The story is a bit of a time travel movie with a dangerous being escaping a galaxy police stronghold and going back in time to kill a member of a royal family that has the power to bind his almost limitless power. That person just happens to be the mother that Tenchi himself has never met. So off go he and all his little gang to try and stop this being from killing his mother. At times it is a bit tough to follow the plot, it was very hard when I had not seen the show, but it has such colorful characters that its story shortcomings can be forgiven. The action is good too, however, the movie is most certainly more comedy and such than action...most of the action comes at the tail end of this one. However, if you enjoyed the Tenchi Universe show you should enjoy this.

This truly is the best of any of the Tenchi's. I bought this one on a whim, and at the end of the movie my wife couldn't stop crying (which is a good sign for this movie). A few months later we watched it again, and she had the same reaction.

This movie has some top animation and a good solid story. I recommend it to anyone who wants to start to break away from all the generic Mecha stuff being played on cable (the stuff that got old back in the 80's in Japan).

I waited to see this movie for two years, and had almost given up hope... But it was more than worth the wait. The central storyline is quite tightly scripted, though using a few too many (and now inaccurate) time-travel cliches and occasionally tripping over itself with continuity. It's presented with a visual style that ranges from pulp SF to classical Japanese, and with character designs that are among the best ever used in a Japanese film. Christopher Franke's wonderful soundtrack alternates between dramatic, soft, and tearjerking. The excellently-cast voice acting is indicative of what Pioneer does best, with particular kudos to Grace Zandarski, whose voice does so much to emphasise her character's loveliness. The script, however, does have numerous problems, and tends to over-rely on certain characters arguing, which does get ludicrous after a while. Still, despite its flaws, this is a spectacular film.