Being completely honest, I didn’t expect much for the ten-dollar Tenchi The Movie DVD I picked up. I had seen a lot of the anime series before, and passed it off as a cutesy Sailor Moon-esque series aimed at children (which, it kind of is). But ten bucks for an anime movie is something I just couldn’t pass up, so I laid down the cash and prepared myself for mediocrity.

In some ways I got mediocrity, but I actually enjoyed Tenchi The Movie. OK, so I got mediocrity in many ways. Allow me to elaborate. First off, there’s the basic plot present in every Tenchi. The premise of the Tenchi series is focused around a young man named Tenchi, who is a prince and happens to live in a house with several attractive young women who ALL CLAMOR OVER THE THOUGHT OF HIM. Yes, all these women are obsessed with young Tenchi, and the moron just doesn’t seem to get that he can have his cake and eat it too! This is the primary comedic focus for the series and movies. Tenchi really doesn’t have any interest in any of them and/or doesn’t want to hurt any girl’s feelings, so he tends to back away from any sexual encounters.

This movie shows us Achika, Tenchi's mother, for the first time.	On top of the regular OVA cast, the movie revives Mihoshi's erstwhile partner in catching crime, Kiyone.

In the movie, Tenchi is faced with another problem needing a solution. An intergalactic villain that holds a grudge against Tenchi’s family is on the loose. To exact his revenge, this villainous Kain decides to travel into the past and kill Tenchi’s mother, Achika.

The movie is filled with simple humor and the plot progresses as one would expect, pulling nary a twist or turn, but somehow it manages to stay fresh and interesting. It’s no deep drama, but it certainly isn’t as shallow as the average run-of-the-mill Sailor Moon episode or movie.

The animation and design is very good. I’ve always been a fan of the character design of Hiroyuki Horiuchi. His characters in Tenchi move fluidly and with some pretty funny, exaggerated animations. Each character is memorable in design; it’s not a generic anime look. Though it may not be a masterpiece of art, credit is due. I’ve seen quite a few cels from Tenchi that were breathtaking; while watching Tenchi, you can see why. Sometimes the art all comes together for a gorgeous screenshot, that you just have to pause the DVD. Beautiful moments like this are few and far in-between, but hardcore anime fans know what I’m talking about. ;)

The dubbing for the movie is standard fare for this sort of anime- exaggerated voices personifying a character to the maximum degree. There’s nothing extraordinary about it, it’s just decent. The voices are childish and the translation is definitely aimed at a younger crowd. The Japanese is just as mediocre; nothing major, and no excellent voice actors that stand out. Perhaps that would be bad, though. Then we’d notice how bad the rest of the actors were.

The actual soundtrack is decent, but again, it’s nothing that will stand out. Composed by Christopher Franke (you can see his interview on the DVD), it’s basically background music to add mood to the scenes. There are no amazing pieces that redefine the music genre, nor any grating pieces that induce pain. It’s much like the rest of the movie; just run of the mill stuff. The sound came out loud and clear in Dolby Digital 2.0, but when I tried going for Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, I was disappointed by the lack of use of the rear channels and sweeping sound effects. It sounded muffled and was certainly not optimized for that kind of use.

The DVD itself has a few extras, though none are interesting enough to wade through. Simple interviews and trailers grace Tenchi’s “Extras” section. But, for ten bucks, I think it’s worth it for any anime otaku to give Tenchi a whirl. It’s certainly not great, but it’s not bad, and you might even chuckle a few times.

Distributor: Pioneer
Creator: AIC
Released: 1996

Plot: C+
Character Design: B
Animation Quality: B
Music: C
Overall: C