What Is Love?: Day #005 - Tenchi Forever (1999)
Viewed January 5, 2006
Tenchi Forever (also known as Tenchi Muyo In Love 2 ) is the third of three theatrical films based on the Tenchi Muyo series.
What makes Tenchi Forever a bit odd (and made it a little difficult for me to get into) is that its tone is radically different than the “Tenchi Muyo” I have seen to date. While there are moments of comic relief, the feel to Tenchi Forever is mostly somber. It’s pace is very slow as well, compared to the frenetic nature of most Tenchi Muyo Original Video Animations and TV episodes (at least the ones I’ve seen).
But eventually I settled in to the pacing of the film and found the story engaging. The characters are well defined and it succeeds in establishing concern for Tenchi without the benefit of a true villain. It is at times funny, serious, sexy and touching. On a personal note, I also appreciated the excellent portrayal of Ryoko. She’s a complicated character and Tenchi Forever shows her at her most vulnerable. (I should note that Ryoko is probably my favorite anime character. She’s the greatest 5000 year old demon / space pirate you’d ever want to meet.)
I do wish the animation was stronger. It didn’t seem particularly more detailed or fluid than the TV episodes and some of the characters seemed odd, at least to my eyes. (I particularly found Ryoko’s ears to be much larger than necessary.) The “special effects” sequences are good, though, and overall the animation is still effective.
If you’ve never seen any “Tenchi Muyo”, Tenchi Forever is not a bad place to start, since it doesn’t connect too deeply with the Tenchi canon it is most closely associated with, “Tenchi Universe”. (There are three major Tenchi canon: the OVAs, the Tenchi Universe TV series and associates properties, and the Tenchi In Tokyo TV series.) If you have watched some Tenchi, you’re probably better off making sure you’re up to speed on the specifics of the “Tenchi Universe” canon so you aren’t confused by the characterizations. (Those of you who don’t watch a lot of anime are probably already confused by the preceding paragraph, so don’t worry about it.)
For beginners and ‘Tenchi’ afficianados, Tenchi Forever is a quality entry and worth seeking out. Those in between might be confused. Only the convoluted nature of Tenchi canon keeps it from being for absolutely everyone.