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Tenchi Forever - Tenchi the Movie

Tenchi Forever - Tenchi the Movie

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful Movie
Review: This Tenchi Movie lacks the humor and action that we come to expect from watching the series and other movies, but I still think this movie is great. Animation of course is among the best ever--shaded and toned just right, nothing seems rushed--not yellowish like some other Pioneer animes. The musical score is superb, especially the piano piece near the end. The bittersweet melodies stay longer with me than any score I hear in a live drama. I also love the ending theme song. The pace is slow. After watching quick silly animes all week like I do, it's good to relax to such a movie. I'm an Ayeka fan and I don't find a problem with Ryoko ending up being the closer one to Tenchi. Ayeka is shown to have made the greater sacrifice. Plotwise I kinda like the seductress in a parallel dimension theme. It's definitely more appealing to me than having another powerful masked bad guy like in Movie I or having the hellish imagery of Movie II. I'd take this movie over the other two anyday.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Good Conclusion to the series
Review: I have been looking all over for this movie after I saw the first two. However, it didn't turn out as good as it's precedessors. Tenchi Forever is a love story with a nice setting. The characters are full of emotions, but the scenes are repetitive and the story is moving very slow. Overall, the atmospere is pretty low key. There were no "actions" (don't expect any exciting fighting scenes) in the entire movie. I think the producers want to do something different since this is possibly the conclusion; they are much more concentrate on character development. The love battle between the two female characters finally draw to a nice conclusion, which is good. The draw back of the movie is the lacking of humor (May be it is necessary for the character to grow up a bit), but it's a little too boring. The bottom line is "even though Tenchi Forever is not like the other Tenchi movie/TV, it is still a good story. I would say it's above average. :)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not the Tenchi we all know and love
Review: I am a big fan of the Tenchi-Muyo OAV and TV series and well when I first saw this movie I was somewhat disappointed. I rather like the battles and slap-stick humor - to me that was what made it so enjoyable. I haven't seen any of the Tenchi in Toyko series so I'm not sure if the animation is the same in that series as the movie ... so to me the animation was a distraction. I was also disappointed with the fact that the other characters (i.e. Sasami, Ryo-Ohki, Mihoshi, etc.) played very small parts and if you had taken them out of the movie it wouldn't have made a difference at all to the story. To me the fun loving, action/comedy/romance heart of Tenchi had been ripped out and replaced with this lovey-dovey, sappy soap opera. I was bored most of the time because the story never seemed to go anywhere and it there were too many gaps (like it took his father SIX MONTHS to file a missing persons report after his disapperance). Though I will say that the story was beautiful and interesting - it could have used more of the old Tenchi style to get a 5 star rating from me. I am sad that this is the way the series ended. So I warn you out there who are like me - the "old-style" Tenchi-Muyo fans - don't get this movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't accept mediocrity
Review: It's almost sad the way I watch some Tenchi fans cling onto this movie and try to artificially inflate it to be better then it is. It's gotten to the point that I've simply shaken my head in sadness at the way we accept such a poorly done movie like this because we're Tenchi fans.

Why is it accepted? Plain and simple: Ryoko won. And the vast majority of Tenchi fans in the U.S. are Ryoko fans. 95% of the people who push this movie are Ryoko fans. You'll rarely find an Aeka fan that likes this movie. Why? The movie's director is an outright Aeka hater, who has said so directly before. Unfortunately though, Aeka isn't too popular among the American fan base, and therefore, we don't get to see a larger outcry against the movie. I know all my friends who are Aeka fans were downright disgusted with how this movie treated Aeka.

And the Ryoko fans cling onto this movie for dear life to squeeze every last drop of anything out of this movie of "romance" between her and Tenchi. This is not the entirety of the Ryoko fan base, as like with the majority of viewers I know who see this movie, the majority of them that I know hate this movie too. However, the majority of fans of the movie stem from the same fan base. The romance, as correctly pointed out by other reviewers, is a complete and utter farce, taking up no more then four minutes of the movie, never dealing with anything involving why the romance happens or aspects of it, and is a meager subplot put in there to fool the viewing public into believing something is there that isn't. These fans tend to pump up the movie, adding in things that never happen, changing around scenes to fit their viewpoint, and so on. It's rather sad the way that they want to win so badly that they'll hang onto any scrap that is handed their way, however it is not surprising.

Why else is this movie getting pumped up more then it deserves? Because it's anime, that's why. And let's face it: many hardcore anime fans like to pump up anime products and put them on a rating scale that inflates their quality above what a similar live action film would be rated. This is not to say that there aren't many good anime films out there, as there definitely are, but you have to wonder when you look around how seriously ratings should be taken when just about everything gets loads of five star reviews. We all know from Hollywood that it's ridiculous to believe that that many films and shows are five star quality.

And what happens when you question these people? They cry that "you're not a real fan" or similar type things. Well the fact is this is a rather sad practice. Unfortunately, it does happen though, but still one should not be afraid to question them.

As pointed out, the things trumpeted about this movie are 9/10 times false and things twisted around to inflate it. For instance, "original plot" is not true at all. It's an original presentation as far as the Tenchi series goes, but the plot is as stale as a twenty-year old T.V. dinner and has already been done at least two times in the Tenchi series in various ways. "Character development" is another thing that is not done well here. People confuse "great character development" as "making the movie serious." However, if you look carefully, you'll notice the character development in the movie is extremely poor and almost non-existent and most of the stuff that appears as character development is simply a change of setting, like making Ryoko and Aeka friends. And as mentioned before, the Ryoko/Tenchi romance is an absolute farce in the movie. Many people who like the movie also tend to ignore Haruna, who was undoubtedly the main character of the movie and by all means possible was a horridly done character. There are reasons this character has become so widely hated. The movie conveniently ignores much of what she does and attempts to sell her as a sympathetic character, ignoring the fact that she outright raped Tenchi. In fact, all the characters seem to not mind that tidbit either. Apparently, the director hoped people wouldn't notice or didn't care, and unfortunately a lot of people didn't notice, or don't care.

And as I finish this review, I note that the movie simply didn't care about wrapping up itself or the TV series. This is not the final Tenchi product, merely the end of the involvement of Director Negishi. Only Pioneer U.S. pushed it as the "final Tenchi production." The movie does not deal with TV series 1 in any way, to the point where it doesn't even fit in that universe and becomes yet another "alternate Tenchi-verse." The movie doesn't even deal with itself, failing to conclude almost anything in the movie. We never learn whom Tenchi cared for more, Haruna or Ryoko, as she dies out prior to the point of Tenchi getting a chance to choose. We never see why most of the movie played out as it did, as there is little reasoning among many parts of the movie. There's just too much to, in any way, classify this as a good movie. This was simply a bad production, poor in nearly every way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Shut Up Viewer from U.S.
Review: It's really good,so don't listen to what viewer from U.S. says. I'm from the U.S. and it's good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tenchi Muyo in Love 2
Review: This is the true sequel to the first Tenchi movie, and like "Tenchi Muyo in Love", this is of a high standard indeed. The story centres around the sudden disappearence of Tenchi after another spat between Ryoko and Ayeka, and all the girl's efforts in finding him afterwards. When they do, they find Tenchi fully grown and in an adult relationship with a girl named Haruna. But this is no ordinary relationship, as all concerned eventually discover. Character designs have been canged slightly, with good animation. Music is excellent, with the piano score and ending theme the highlights. This has been declared as the last ever Tenchi production, so all anime and tenchi fans, plus those looking for a good love story, should give this one a go. Check out the end credits, where snippets of "Tenchi Universe" can be seen.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It's all superficial
Review: I grow weary of hearing some of the praise for this movie. The movie is so superficial that it is amazing how it can continuously fool people into believing it is better then it is.

The "maturity" is not hard to pull off. You simply remove the comedy and make the characters act a bit more seroius. This does not = good. This is simply a choice in how to write the story. Both previous Tenchi movies have been more serious then the TV series/OVAs, yet have blended the seriousness with the action and the comedy to create a good feel to it. If that is all it takes to make a "good movie" then I guess the definition of "good" is defined simply by the seriousness of a picture. Which we know is totally bogus.

Next up: character development. The novelty of Ryoko and Aeka as friends and a "mature Tenchi" runs dry about 20 minutes into the film. I mean that's all it is! There's not really any development, they just change the characters and have them play out in that way for the next 95 minutes. They don't develop Ryoko and Aeka's friendship. Instead, they're friends at the start and that's that. Tenchi is supposidly a mature adult, but he's the equivilant of a paper bag for most of the movie, getting dragged around and doing just about nothing.

Thirdly: the point of this film "supposidly" was a romance between the so called "winning girl" and Tenchi. That was what was advertised for a long time. It doesn't really exist in the movie. There are a total of about five scenes that total a timespan of maybe three to four minutes involving their relationship. It is nothing more then a cover by the writers to try to make the viewers believe something is there that isn't. And in the end, their relationship is pretty much the same with a "tiny" hint, the same hint offered in the first TV series, that sometime in the future they'll hook up.

What is the movie really about? It's the Haruna movie. Everything in the movie revolves around her. It's about a character that the makers of this movie created and decided was more important then the Tenchi cast. Therefore, everything is tilted towards her. There is more showing that Tenchi cares for this woman then for the girl he supposidly chooses at the end! This is a woman who did the equivilant of kidnapping and rape too. However, the movie attempts to depict her near the end as almost angelic. And the losing girl is equated to absolute garbage, chucked aside like a stale TV dinner as soon as her use in the movie runs out.

Once you peel away the superficial changes of this film, you find exactly what it is: a plotless film with nearly zero in the realm of character development, written only for the purpose of pushing a character that the movie's creater came up with. Tenchi has seen better days. Anime has seen better days. Please don't buy that this is the so called high point of Tenchi. There is a lot of better Tenchi out there to see, like the OVAs and the first two movies.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A touching example of why I love anime
Review: This film was a bit of a shock to me when I first watched it. Tenchi Muyô! In Love 2: Haruka naru omoi contains many elements that would probably surprise an old school Tenchi fan. First off, this film places much more emphasis on drama than previous Tenchi titles, and secondly, Tenchi Forever has a much more grown-up feel to it. If seeing Tenchi in an adult situation turns you off, this probably isn't the movie for you. Personally, I found this film to be quite enjoyable. I was very surprised at how serious this film was. There are times when the emotions played by the characters are so realistic that you actually feel their pain, the producers of this film truly did an excellent job reaching their audience. All in all, this is an excellent film that just begs to be watched. If you are a fan of Tenchi that doesn't mind a little diversion from the usual Tenchi antics, you owe it to yourself to watch this film!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: could have been better
Review: Oh Tenchi, poor poor Tenchi. What to say about Tenchi Forever? First off, I am absoloutely positive that the same people who brought the OVA series to life keeled over and were replaced by high animators who had no idea what the cast of Tenchi was supposed to look like! Second, even though the plot was semi-original many elements from the original Tenchi movie were reused. (Aka Tenchi disappearing with everyone there to help/look for him.) Haruna was okay, but I definetly could have done without the sex scenes. C'mon! Tenchi is supposed to be this wholesome guy whose stuck with all of these alien women and has the manners to accept them all for who they are and not to lay a finger on them! So...in conclusion, I advise anyone considering buying this movie to purchase the first two Tenchi movies before watching this one, so you can cleanse your mind of the memory of this shotty end to a great series!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Love Story
Review: I almost did not buy this DVD because of the many bad reviews from those who claimed to be big fans of Tenchi. Boy, am I glad I did not listen to the "fans" who hated this movie. I am too a fan of Tenchi. Having collected the OVA set and the first two movies, I decided to buy this movie despite the bad reviews. I have watched the movie three times and am still touched by it. It is a beautiful love story. Though it does not have the kind of actions (violence and gore) that some anime fans are used to (or look for), it is still true to the story of Tenchi. If this is the last of the Tenchi series, so be it; I thought this is a good place to stop; I like to remember all of the characters I have grown so very fond of in this series, living together happily ever after. Yes, this Tenchi movie is on the serious side...but it is still Tenchi...and one of the best in the series. If you have grown to care for the Tenchi and his friends, you will enjoy this Movie.


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