Tenchi Muyo - OVA 3

Summary: >

Tenchi would have never imagined his life would get so crazy not so long ago. His house may look quiet, but under the roof is a collection of some the most noteworthy powers in the galaxy. Not to mention Tenchi himself has a power quite unique. This hasn't passed without notice, and the multi dimensional being named Tokimi decides to put her plans for Tenchi into action.

Thoughts: >

I consider the original two Tenchi Muyo OVA series to be among the anime greats. The plot became a complex mesh of mysteries fans were dying to know about, but left unresolved as the OVA story dropped with a Tenchi TV series release (which is similar but different and simplistic in comparison). Since then, the Tenchi franchise has been a downward spiral. After years, most of us accepted studio AIC was going to milk this series for all it was worth, no matter how bad it got. With the announcement that the OVA story would be completed, most fans had accepted Tenchi as bad, and were hesitant to see the image of the first beloved OVA tarnished. Which includes me obviously. My expectations weren't high, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. There was one question repating in my mind while watching this: What in the HELL were they thinking?, but it takes a while to explain how this one went wrong.

If there's one mystery to be solved in the third OVAs, it's how they could take such a vibrant franchise and make it strait up boring. The first episode goes into an extended recap. Within the next two episodes, a slew of new characters are introduced. Why sideline the many great characters the series already had with bland ones? This anime fawns over itself discussing wonders around Tenchi. Mind you, that's about all they ever do: talk. More and more talking about things, but never doing much of anything. A LOT of time is also burned up doing pointless trivial crap, devolving into a slice of life anime. Worse still, it takes assumptions presumed in the first two OVAs and connects them in ways they should have left alone. If you skip the first three episodes, you'll miss nothing. Considering some story points (previously inferred) go in bad directions, you might want to do so.

Episodes 4 and 5 are a lame story dragging in the Galaxy Police, and it isn't until episode 6, that it addresses things left unresolved in the series. Yes, 5 episodes of pointless non entertaining garbage for one final episode. I forgot to mention, there is this antagonist invented for the third OVA, briefly introduced in the beginning. Half of episode 6 deals with his back story before it basically forgets him. Even the big menacing force in the background was pointless.

So now we're down to the last half of episode 6 in a 6 part OVA. Will ANY of this have a point? Yes. It kind of goes off its rocker in a way not faithful to the first to OVAs, but at the same time gives an explanation I felt mostly satisfied with. Well at least it's over. No wait, there's a 7th episode tacked on that's incredibly boring and pointless.

Animation and design are nothing special. Although it uses CG for space battles it's aged well and looks good compared to typical CG of the day. Many in the dub reprise their roles for the American release, and do a good job. Ryoko's first voice actress is notably absent and changes the flow of the show considering how much her voice contrasted with... everything (which is why I miss her). Sherry Lynn as Sasami continues to be my favorite little girl voice. And I even found myself getting nostalgic over Aeka's (Jennifer Darling) squeaky voice. The background music is pretty bad, and really saps the show of vitality.

With all the bad things I've said about this anime, I obviously don't recommend it. As much as I wanted more of the amazing first two OVA series, this one is a big waste of time, made worse by explaining things which didn't require it, and in ways I'd prefer remain untouched. If curiosity is killing you, watch the sixth episode since nothing is explained in the previous 5 anyway. I might seem like a jilted fanboy bent on trashing a show because I didn't like the direction it went. That's true, but I fully believe this is just a terrible anime in general. It picks up a great series so it should easily default to "okay". Instead it does a terrible job at.. everything. Juvinile comedy, poor story, it goes on and on. It's honestly among the most mind numbing boring things I've ever watched.

Screen Caps: >