Anime: Tenchi Muyou! Ryououki (1994)

Another surprise review, in that its patently shocking no-one has bothered reviewing it yet.Tenchi Is. despite what opinions people may hold against the franchise ( some of them unfortunately justified) Tenchi and associated paraphernalia exist at the baseline of a full generation of animoo people.This is because it actually managed to get "Harem" animoo done right, first time, and the clones ( as unto command and conquer and its legion of knockoffs)have met with greater or lesser success than their inspiration, clouding the jaded awesome that is Tenchi from (vocal) popular appreciation.that waiver in favor of justifying the following fanboy biased drivel out the way, lets get to the actual damn review, eh?[br][br]animation wise, its of That Middle School, when animoo was starting to become slightly more than something greasy people in dark university cupboards watched. But, it is a shining example of it. Despite whats come after, the texturing and animation are still smooth,and while the odd costumes can be a bit clashing with the backgrounds, they make what the chars are actually doing take the fore.[br][br]Sound wise, it is a superior grade offering. The voice actors equate to the characters, its as simple as that. Even the english voice actors get things right on occassion, which is no small praise considering the rush job they appear to have made of it.Music is a let down, as none of it is resoundingly awesome, but then, the tone of awesome requires non primary colouréd characters to justify its presence if it goes sombre, more dark drama to go orchestral and so on. The fact that they provided music that doesnt grate against the tone of the series is no small accomplishment, but not really worth paying attention to.[br][br]Story. The story, is designed to make you spend money on the following story, and not much more. but it *still* amuses and entertains. Nothing toweringly philosophical, no real laugh out loud moments, but it has that simple good natured charm that demands your attention, and will not be your friend if you dont give it such.[br][br] The characters make the cake, in a manner of speaking. Naturally, if there were no shadow puppets no show would happen. But in this instance, the puppets are of consequence, in that there is much to appreciate about them, even if it's over-done on occasion. Unfortunately(?), this spread of worthwhileness was not meted out evenly, and individuals such as Mihoshi could have done with more fleshing out in this incarnation. Now, value wise I am biased, as Tenchi was the very first majorly impacting animoo that happened to me. So from a purely objective standpoint, it has little worth beyond a collectors item since;[br][br]1. there is no porn[br]2. there is no excess of Ero [br]3. there is no undeniable floor rolling with associated laughter inherent[br]4. there is no genuinely pretty pictures to look at ( bar one, if you like the infinite)[br]5. there is no deeply introspective moments of drama[br]6. there is no truly memorable music[br]7. Fight scenes are less than epic[br][br]So it follows that the only reason to watch this incarnation is because you want to see what happens between its connectors, from an objective standpoint. But it is worth it. if because of no other reason than this was animoo done right, before the associated studios bowed down before the temple of the dollar, and by extension, the american market.[br][br]so there, the reason to get it is because there is so much not bad with it, that it becomes awesome.