Tenchi Muyo in Love 2

A peaceful day at the Masaki Shrine is shattered when Tenchi suddenly vanishes without a trace.  As everyone splits up to search for him, time passes and Ryoko and Ayeka are no closer to finding their love.  That is, until a chance encounter reveals Tenchi is alive…but older, different and has no memory of Ryoko or Ayeka.  Sealed within a parallel world with a beautiful woman named Haruna, Tenchi is living a different life, one that threatens to overwrite his old one.  It’s up to Ryoko and Ayeka to put aside their rivalry and rescue Tenchi from Haruna before he ceases to exist.

 
Released as Tenchi Forever: The Movie in the US, Tenchi Muyo in Love 2, at the time seemed like the final chapter in the Tenchi Saga (hence the US rename).  If this had been the case…well, it would be a bit underwhelming but also its kind of strange.  TMiL2 is mostly everything that Tenchi isn’t: a super serious character study without humor, minimal involvement from most of the cast and no action.  And yet a good deal of this movie works without some of that, though it could really use more humor to break the tension.  All in all, its an interesting experiment with successes and failures, which comes with breaking the established Tenchi formula to do so.
 

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.
 

Tenchi Muyo in Love

Notorious A-1 Class Criminal Kain escapes from prison, destroying the Galaxy Police Headquarters and fleeing into time itself.  At the same time, Tenchi begins fading from existence.  Something has happened to his parents in the past, something that could spell disaster for the rest of the universe if they are not protected.  Tenchi, Ryoko, Ayeka and the gang embark on their most important mission yet as they travel to the 1970 where they will meet Tenchi’s Mother, Achika, and confront their most powerful adversary yet.  For Tenchi to live, Achika must survive…no matter the cost.

Ohhhhh it is so good to be back in the land of Good Tenchi.  After the epic disaster that was Tenchi in Tokyo, I couldn’t just let a year long look at the early legacy of one of Anime’s most eligible bachelors end on a sour note.  Nope, hopefully we can end it on a better one as we start our final dive into Tenchi Muyo (for now) with the Tenchi Trilogy.  And it must be said, the bar has been set pretty high for the next two movies because what an awesome beginning we have here.  Tenchi Muyo in Love (released as Tenchi: The Movie-Tenchi in Love in the US) is a sequel to Tenchi Universe and offers everything that made that series great while delivering better animation, a movie worthy plot and soundtrack, perfecting the character interactions and giving us one of the most adorable romances in all of Anime.
 

T5W#385-Top 5 Favorite Moments from Sailor Moon (Season 1)

Well, Dear Readers, the end of 2022 is a few days away, which means we’re coming up on the beginning of the Anime Corners biggest undertaking ever.  Beginning in January, I’ll be taking a look at ALL of the original Sailor Moon TV Series (plus the Movies) althroughout 2023.  I have been thinking about this for a few years now, especially since I’ve made many friends in the Sailor Moon community, and since the Anime Corner is heading into it’s 10^th year, this seemed like a pretty fitting undertaking to celebrate.  Actually, this was already started a few months back.  After realizing that Fullmetal Alchemists 20^th Anniversary is in 2023 (and I’m still deciding which show to review tbh), I decided to look at the First Season of Sailor Moon as my Extended Summer Series Review of 2022 and it was interesting to start fresh and look at it through different eyes than when I first saw the show on Toonami in the early 2000s.  Since we’ll be kicking 2023 off with Sailor Moon R, how about we do a quick refresher of the Greatest Hits of Sailor Moons debut season to close out 2022?  So here you go Dear Readers, our last Top 5 Wednesday of 2022, my Top 5 Favorite Moments from Sailor Moon (Season 1).

 

Tenchi in Tokyo Part 5 Episodes 21-26

Tenchi has it all: fun school life, excellent Apprentiship, and a beautiful girlfriend: Sakuya.  However, this newfound happiness has come at a cost Tenchi doesn’t realize.  His family is scattered across the galaxy, some devastated by his romance with Sakuya and others achieving their own dreams and goals.  All of this has been enacted behind the scenes by the Mastermind Yugi and she’s finally ready to enact her endgame.  Even if it means leaving Sakuya behind, Tenchi must reunite the others and bring them back to Earth for one last showdown with Yugi.  It’s the end of new beginning and the start of the next one.

This show has been a freaking see saw of an Anime.  There are nuggets of genuine good ideas and a surprisingly effective central romance all throughout Tenchi in Tokyo.  The problem is everything else is so ugly looking, poorly plotted and filled with over the top humor that’s made everyone look either incompetent, selfish and greedy or just a shadow of better versions of themselves from other Tenchi series.  All that said, some of the best stuff (I know right) was saved for the final episodes and Tenchi in Tokyo worked for once when it went in on Yugi’s own past and insecurities and Tenchi’s doomed romance with Sakuya.  It’s not enough to save this series from the low score it’s had coming…but I suppose some good is better than none.