Forum - View topicREVIEW: Tenchi Muyo! OVA Series BD+DVD
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Is that really a spoiler? None of it really seems to matter. Which is what bothers me about the Tenchi Muyo OVAs. There's actually tons of stuff going on, but none of it seems to matter in the face of slice-of-life time-wasting. There's almost a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-type of underlying joke going on; as dull Arthur Dent was sent on a fabulous journey he mostly complained and stumbled though, dull Tenchi Masaki through astronomically unlikely circumstances becomes in proximity to things like a sentient mega-weapon who's killed billions who lays around his house swilling booze and he just tries to keep his head down and go about his life. But no, it's all girls bathing and doing chores and cooking and eating. Tenchi's a non-entity. This tendency becomes really bad in the third OVA. This is why I liked Tenchi Universe more even though it's so sloppy and uneven and does so many cheap fake-outs towards the end. At least it consistent about being a silly comedy in most episodes (and pulp action in a few). |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
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That's FUNimation for you. They've been forgetting stuff like that a lot lately. They didn't dub Hellsing: The Dawn, and they completely neglected Episode 13.5 on Shakugan no Shana Season 1 (despite being on Geneon's release). When Lance was asked about both on the recent ANN Cast, he couldn't give straight answers. Somebody should seriously contact FUNimation about this (though they NEVER answer emails about this sort of thing, if several people email, they might listen). I'm getting tired of them screwing up releases like this. Seriously, other than the Blu-ray, how does this release look any different from the Pioneer DVDs? I'm thinking about buying them now. I love that little short, and FUNimation messing with it is a very bad thing. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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This was ages ago now, but I remember they failed to include the teaser from episode 1 of Spiral. It was the only episode with footage before the opening sequence but it's not on Funi's DVDs. |
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NJ_
 Posts: 3009 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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There's also the Blu-ray OVA shorts for Black Lagoon that they didn't get for seasons 1 & 2. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4371 Location: New York |
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The original OVA's, before the 3rd OVA, worked because everyone, even Tenchi, had such wonderful chemistry to create a character focused story that was always good for whatever flavor the story was deciding to do that week, comedy, action, drama, etc. Getting away from those interactions, one of the creators decided to go in favor of one of the dumbest, most pretentious plots in the history of everything. And without those character interactions, the series crumbled like a house of cards.
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PurpleWarrior13
Posts: 2025 |
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@NJ_ Maybe they'll turn up on Roberta's Blood Trail.
Since FUNi still has yet to release the Mihoshi special, that could definitely be a way to "fix" this problem by releasing the picture drama in English. If they didn't get the materials (which I'm sure they did), they could dig it up, ASK the powers that be, or at least make SOME attempt to get it (I don't even care if the audio is crappy. I just want to see that picture drama how I remember it). I wish they would TELL us what's up with that. That picture drama is important to the plot, and it sucks the people that purchase this box set don't have all the features of the Pioneer set. Yes, it's on there, but if it's sub-only as rumored, it would be frustrating for those of us watching the English version because we're not getting the whole dub. There's a piece of it missing. We can't watch that picture drama with the voices we're used to. I could understand if it wasn't dubbed... but it is!!!!! All FUNi needs to do is put the thing on the disc! That's all! I think as many people as possible should email FUNi about this ([email protected]), it might bring it to their attention. Last edited by PurpleWarrior13 on Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:34 am; edited 5 times in total |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Even though the main character is as dull as paste and past the first episode has zero personality (though you can easily argue Tenchi isn't the main character), what I love about Tenchi Muyo is the universe it takes place in, the different aliens, the royal family, the weird cosmic entities and super science, and how people tend not to be what they seem. There's just so much to work with, so much potential for great storytelling.
Of course, most of that potential is later squandered, but it was good while it lasted. |
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shamisen the great
 Posts: 658 Location: Oregon, USA |
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It wasn't as good as the first ova, but I didn't think the third ova was that bad. It was certainly more convoluted than it needed to be. Still, it was pleasantly weird and fun for what it was. It was much more enjoyable than Tenchi in Tokyo.
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CrownKlown
 Posts: 1762 |
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I think you guys either dont read all the comments or just dont get it. Tenchi was done the way he was intentional. Hence the title of the show translates to no need for Tenchi. The focus was really on the girls and how they tried to interact with Tenchi.
The 3rd OVA on the other started fleshing out details, but then people were upset because the slice of life was pushed to the back burner. I mean honestly speaking the Tenchi as God concept that finally was fleshed out in OVA 3, but was developed from the beginning was pretty substantial for a genre like harem that rarely has much substance. Unfortunately like the John Carter movie, people forgot that is preceed other works, and so its now seen as less of a wow factor. But its thought of really well in Lain and Haruhi Suziyuma which were developed later. Tenchi's other main problem is that there are just too long gaps between releases, and expectations build. Diablo III was a great game but fans had 10 years or so to wonder what would follow D2. The last guardian will probably have a similar problem whenever it comes out. I think if the ovas were closer together, and maybe ova 3 had a few more episodes to flesh out the story there would not be as many complaints with ova 3. |
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Mikeski
Posts: 608 Location: Minneapolis, MN |
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Ah, the Worf Effect, as TVTropes calls it. How do you show that a whole pile of characters are really tough? Define another character as really tough (he's a Klingon security officer!), then have all the characters who need to be shown as tough punch him right out of his shorts. Being "Worf" in a comedy show with bada** grandmas doesn't help... For the folks comparing Tenchi to the modern blank-slate harem lead... half-right. He's a milquetoast personality with only "nice guy" as a defining trait, yes, but at least he has something beyond the "nice" that the girls see as desirable traits: spoiler[supernatural powers beyond what most of them have; rightful heir to a multi-planet empire]. A bit better credentials than just, say, smelling good to youkai. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Then why does everything ultimately hinge on Tenchi as center of the universe?
I'd have a hard time calling the gobbledygook in the third OVA "substance". And while Tenchi had a "hidden power" schtick from pretty early on, it was hardly him being God.
More episodes? There's 20 episodes between the three OVAs (a few of them double-length). There's ultimately quite a lot of running-time for the series to work with but it doesn't come up with much. The third OVA blows more time than ever on people doing chores and eating and introducing even more new characters into an already-large cast. |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Tenchi is the center of the universe and yet still manages to be completely uninteresting. They had a chance to flesh him out, but decided against it in favor of twenty new characters in the third OVA that add NOTHING to the mix.
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jibrilmudo
 Posts: 36 |
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Tenchi was designed to be your average Japanese 15 year old male, back 20+ years ago - many guys in Japan then statistically didn't have a girlfriend yet by that age and were a bit timid. I actually like him overall. Besides Kiyone, he's the most grounded and believable character there. Harems are usually a guy fantasy, so the male needs to be accessible stand-in. The decision to call it "No need for" was actually not the creators of the show, but the President of AIC. This was to comply with Pioneer's demands to have something more grabbing than what was up to then the working title, which was simply "Ryo-ohki". Last edited by jibrilmudo on Wed Jan 30, 2013 6:43 am; edited 1 time in total |
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jibrilmudo
Posts: 36 |
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Up to and including fighting Yousho, Ryoko could literally not feel fear. Not because she was brave, but because Kagato blunted her emotions almost completely. He did not want an automaton where he had to waste time and focus and control her every movement (like he did in episode 5) but someone just cognitive enough to generally carry out his orders but wouldn't get uppity on him. The few times that made Ryoko feel any emotions was in her attack on Jurai, when 14 year old Ayeka stood against her in an uncompleted ship, and wasn't really a challenge technically but the girl's reactions made her laugh. So that still plays out to this day, with Ryoko getting a rise out of Ayeka because she knows she can with little danger. But thanks to this newfound fear, she runs from enemies she deems superior or is subdued by unknown authority otherwise: -Onsen monster she summons in ep4 -Onsen monster again in ep7 (Washu fixes it) -bossed around by Washu -subdued by Zero in ep11 -blasted by the Masu ep10 -slammed around by Misaki ep13 -slammed around by Airi OAV3 She braves up in some moments when Tenchi is in danger or when GXP are involved (OAV3 trap), probably because she has experience with fighting them. Let's say that her powers were once badass, but her persona was never really the universe's badass since it didn't really exist back then. The entire point of her watching Tenchi is that it caused her personality to out and form. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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There was another reason Ryouko didn't complete her mission on Jurai and that had to do with spoiler[the Goddess Tsunami. who entered into Ryouko's mind to stop her breaking into the "Jurai Holy Tree". This caused Ryouko to freeze in her tracks outside the doors of the tree. The exchange between her and Tsunami awakened realisations inside her mind that had been suppressed by Kagato's raising and training, which confused her to the point of near insanity. That is when she escaped in Ryo-Ohki, chased by Yousho in his ship Funaho, ending up on Earth to fight her final battle with him here.] The reason Ryouko acts like she does in the OVA is because she only has one third her original power having only one gem in her wrist.
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