Tenchi Muyo: The Daughter of Darkness

On a blazing hot day at the Masaki Shrine, a beautiful girl named Mayuka appears before Tenchi, addressing him as “Daddy.”  The entire Masaki Family is thrown into a tizzy as everyone tries to figure out where Mayuka came from and, more importantly to Ryoko and Ayeka, who the Mother is?  As Tenchi tries to keep the clingy Mayuka at arms length and out of trouble with the others, a spectre from his Grandfathers past watches on, lying in wait for the time when they can take revenge on the Masaki bloodline…with Mayuka as the harbinger of their doom.

Tenchi Muyo in Love was always going to be a hard act to follow.  That still remains to be seen when we take a look at the sequel tomorrow.  But right now, we have Tenchi Muyo: The Daughter of Darkness and it’s…kind of an odd one.  At times, the movie feels like a slightly extended version of one of the longer episodes from the OVA.  Other times it runs so fast due to its short runtime and yet feels so slow.  But my biggest criticism with The Daughter of Darkness is where the heck does this fit in the Tenchi Multiverse?  That aside, the movie is OK at best, forgettable at worst.
 
Where as Tenchi Muyo in Love and its subsequent sequel both slot into the Tenchi Universe timeline, The Daughter of Darkness feels like its trying to pull elements from all three Tenchi series up until this point.  You have the Lighthawk Sword and Hovering Bathhouse from Tenchi Muyo; the character designs from Tenchi Muyo and Universe, plus Kiyone is here; and last you have a recycled plotline from Tenchi in Tokyo, to be more precise the central Myuka and Yuzuha story.  As such, The Daughter of Darkness could be its own little stand alone universe where all of these elements coexist.  However, this runs the risk of alienating potential new fans to the franchise who have no idea what the heck is going on and veteran fans cant explain properly cause there’s too much to do so, even if this is supposed to be a one and done story without any consequence.
 
Alright, onto the main plot: The Daughter of Darkness is a rehash of the Sakuya/Yugi storyline from Tenchi in Tokyo only instead of guessing right away that Myuka is an obvious plant sent in by Yuzuha to destroy Tenchi, we see Yuzuha create her in the first place.  This quickly robs the film of any mystery as to the true parentage of Myuka, though Tenchi’s DNA is used so technically she is his daughter.  On top of that, Myuka lacks the depth and likeability of Sakuya from Tenchi in Tokyo.  She runs around totally aloof and unaware of just about everything but somehow endears herself to the Tenchi crew, save for a bregrudging Ryoko, who is onto her from the start and not just because there’s a new girl in Tenchi’s eye.  Unlike Achika from Tenchi Muyo in Love, who you loved the second she first appeared, Myuka is grating and she never stops calling Tenchi “Daddy”…which makes those horrifically inappropriate actions Yuzuha throws on her even more disgusting.  I don’t need a rehash of Sailor Moon where Dark Lady Chibiusa is making out with her Dads unconscious body…just not.  Yuzuha herself is supposed to have the same sad backstory as Tenchi in Tokyo’s Yugi.  Like Myuka though, she lacks likeability and is prone to just shouting everything all the time when things don’t go her way.  In spite of Tenchi in Tokyo’s many, many flaws, I did feel for Sakuya and Yugi in the end…not so much Myuka and Yuzuha.
 
I will say that for a short movie, The Daughter of Darkness doesn’t look half bad.  This could have been a short Tenchi OVA if it wanted to and while it doesn’t look as good as Tenchi Muyo in Love, you can tell this had a movie level budget behind it.  There isn’t as much action in the movie and its all saved for the last fifteen minutes for Tenchi and Ryoko.  It’s mostly all just standard fare, as is the normal, everyday stuff with Team Tenchi.  Unlike the previous movie, everyones here just to be here but only Tenchi and  Ryoko have any really substantial roles.  As Tenchi tries to navigate between being totally caught off guard by someone calling him “DADDY” and the clear truth that Myuka is far from it, Ryoko gets the better deal in a story that does a surprisingly good job of deep diving her feelings for Tenchi.  Like some bits of Tenchi in Tokyo, I could see this as a continued evolution of Ryoko’s Tenchi Universe ending, which saw her and Tenchi looking happily at each other during their reunion.  Ryoko is the only one not buying Myuka’s story and cant stand that Tenchi wont see it and fears for his safety more than she ever has.  Probably the best scene in the movie is a quiet one between Ryoko and Ayeka, where the latter reflects on what Myuka being in the picture might mean for her own romantic wishes for Tenchi.  It should be scary seeing Tenchi’s two biggest romantic rivals speaking kindly of each other…but for me, it’s character growth and I hope we see some of this in the next and final movie as well.
 
Tenchi Muyo: The Daughter of Darkness is a run of the mill, stand alone adventure that is equally parts the sum of every Tenchi continuity and yet lives in its own separate universe.  The recycled plotlines for one off characters never reaches the same emotional climax and Tenchi and the others buying into Myuka’s “Tenchi’s my Dad” bit runs too long, even as the movie runs at a rapid pace.  Ryoko gets some good moments, cementing why she’s one of the best girls in the franchise.  As I said above, The Daughter of Darkness is forgettable at worst, OK at best.  There’s a better Tenchi movie to see between the two reviewed so far…it isn’t this one.
 
5/10
 
Tomorrow, the Tenchi Saga we’re covering here reaches its conclusion and…it’s gonna be strange to say the least.  Is Tenchi Muyo in Love 2 closer to Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection (terrible) or The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (excellent) for the Tenchi franchise?  I’m anxious either way and only hope it can at least almost match Tenchi Muyo in Love’s brilliance.  Join us tomorrow for Tenchi Muyo in Love 2 right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.