Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo! In Love (1996)

Without having seen the Tenchi OAV or TV series, I picked up Tenchi the Movie and was pleasantly confused.  Here's some background for you:

Tenchi thought he was just a regular high school student until he one day he finds a jeweled sword- and inadvertently wakes a trapped demon.  However, the demon is actually the teenage female thief and space pirate Ryoko, who ends up falling in love with Tenchi (despite destroying his high school, etc...).

It turns out Tenchi is a descendent of the royal family of the Jurai, a distant planet.  The activity by Ryoko attracts the attention of Ayeka, the current Jurai princess who comes to take Tenchi for herself, starting a fierce love triangle.    However, in the meantime, the evil Kagato also descends to earth to destroy the Jurai, and Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ayeka must work together to stop him.  Along the way, Sasami (Ayeka's sister), Washu (Ryoko's "creator"), and Mihoshi (Galactic Policewoman) join in the battle.

OK.  By the time of the movie, everyone in the series is living with Tenchi.  The powerful criminal Kain has escaped from his subspace prison at the Galactic Police Headquarters, destroying the station.  Angered by his capture years ago by the Jurai emperor, he vows to destroy the Jurai royal family bloodline.  However, instead of attacking Tenchi, he goes 26 years into the past to murder Tenchi's mother, Achika (who died shortly after Tenchi's birth).  He would have been successful if Washu hadn't detected the temporal displacement and shielded Tenchi and the rest.  Washu sends everyone into the past, and its up to them to stop Kain and save Achika and Tenchi.

When I saw the movie, I didn't understand the relationship between any of the characters, but I still enjoyed watching it.  Tenchi's parents, Achika and Nobuyuki are interesting characters and watching them fall in love adds some drama to this generally goofy movie.  Probably the best scene in the movie is when Achika realizes her hidden Jurai power and starts kicking some evil criminal butt.

The animation is good, but not as impressive as a movie like Akira or Macross Plus.  The characters have what appear to me like "typical" Japanese profiles- gigantic eyes, trembling mouths, and quirky expressions.  The soundtrack, by Babylon 5 composer Christopher Franke, is good, and the sound effects are impressive (the tape is THX digitally mastered).  Unfortunately, it was dubbed, and some of the voices did not seem to fit the characters.  There's a lot of whining in this movie, but it probably was in the Japanese version as well.

Overall, this wasn't too bad of a movie, despite my initial confusion due to the lack of background info.  However, I personally prefer the more serious anime, and I don't think I'll be spending the time to see the OAV or TV series.

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