Forum - View topicREVIEW: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OAV 3 DVD 2
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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So my impression of it based on the preview seems to be pretty accurate. I'll watch this eventually simply because I'm a Tenchi fan, but I'll be waiting for a box set or really cheap individual discs. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4547 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Eh, I bought this volume two weeks ago but still haven't broken the cellophane. Partially, that's because I've been catching up on Ouran High School Host Club and started watching Windy Tales, but it's also because I really need to rewatch the first three episodes of the series, which I watched last October and haven't watched since.
I'm not entirely sure why, but I found watching the first three episodes to be more like a chore than it was entertainment, something I never encountered with the first two OVA series, as though it was being made for the fans who take the space opera "mythology" aspect a bit too seriously, at the expense of sucking most of the fun energy out of the show. And it was all intertwined with the story of GXP, a show I've only seen the first volume of and haven't felt all that compelled to catch up on. Plus, as a huge fan of Galaxy Police Detective first class Kiyone Makibi, I have a very hard time getting into any new Tenchi series that doesn't involve her. I'm fully aware that she was never intended to be a canon character in the OVA universe (as though I'm supposed to believe that Kajishima had every single character that ever appears in the OVA continuity, including the GXP characters, mapped out in full detail way back in 1992), but I think she's grown to be so much of an integral part of the overall franchise that it feels like a major omission not to write her in to the original OVA continuity in some small way, even in just a tiny token appearance. (Yeah, there's the name problem, but if two characters named "Ryoko" can exist in the same continuity, why not two "Kiyones"?) Long story short, I'll watch the new episodes sooner or later, probably some time this upcoming week, but it'll be more because I still feel some obligation to the franchise than it is because of any degree of enthusiasm over the direction the series has taken. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Which brings me to the issue of "All Three Goddesses appearing" spoiler[as in the novels Washu had her goddess powers stripped from her and her memories of ever being a goddess was suppose to have been erased. All her goddess powers are encapsulated inside those "three gems" that Ryouko had used before losing her battle with Yousho 700 years earlier of Tenchi releasing her from the cave shrine tomb. It was suggested that if Washu had ever regained her memory of ever being a goddess, deadly consequences would have happened to her. It's what kept her from trying to go after her abducted son, using the gems. ] Obviously Mr. K has chosen to ignor this, or has forgotten about it. It has been ten years since he wrote these novels. |
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Tenchi
Posts: 4547 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Yeah, I know all that, I just happen to prefer Hasegawa's take on the franchise to Kajishima's original vision, even if that's tantamount to preferring fan-fiction to canon.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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People always jump down my throat when I say I preferred that Tenchi Universe TV series to the OVAs, which I always felt took themselves too seriously and weren't very much fun to watch. These new OVAs felt the same way to me. I haven't been a Tenchi fan for like 5 years now and couldn't care less about the franchise, but I did watch these OVAs and man, I had no idea why they would take it in that direction. |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Tenchi Muyo OVA is the main reason I'm an anime fan today, so it will always be of interest to me until it is finished at some point. If only these True Tenchi Novels were translated, much of this OVA story would make much more sense. 
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2312 Location: Online Terminal |
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IIRC, the OVA's never really had much of a really cohesive backstory. The large gap between OVA 2 and 3 probably didn't help either.
Never really got that vibe from the 1st. The only real times they had to get serious were during Episodes 5 and 6. Can't say I don't blame your preference though. While I might not agree with you, the TV series was good for its own reasons and was definitely more well-thought out. However, I do have to say that I prefer the OVA Kagato to the TV series one.
It happens. Bandai's Yu-gi-oh series had a 2nd regular female character (Miho) but it never showed up in the more prolific series. I want to say you're wrong, however, but I've never seen the Mihoshi special to confirm my belief. She said it best herself, "The OVA's are my last refuge. Just forget about me!" (source: Okuda's Tenchi Heaven Forbid! G #23) X3 |
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Wait, I thought the two movies were in the OAV continuity. Or am I just remembering wrong? I was a huge fan of the original Tenchi OAVs, but I never got into any of the TV series for some reason.... |
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Nobuyuki
Posts: 536 |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Speaking as another Kiyone fan, it does strike me as a bit of a rip that she's not included, despite understanding the reasoning behind it. Maybe she wasn't part of Kajishima's original master plan, but given how the Tenchi franchise has evolved, she's kinda been put in that position anyway. She has a pretty noteworthy fanbase, and ever since her introduction, the Tenchi cast just seems incomplete without her in it. Something seems missing, no matter how many new characters Kajishima dumps on us with these new OVAs and with GXP (which, in itself, would've been a perfect opportunity to include her and please fans without messing up his pre-established story).
Really, it feels like how George Lucas handled the Star Wars universe with his new prequel trilogy. Coming in and just paving over what the fans had come to accept over the 20-whatever years since the last movie, mostly with a lot of seemingly frivolous junk that couldn't possibly have been part of his original vision. All this rather than taking a decidedly higher road, like Tomino did with the recent Zeta Gundam movies and including a lot of what other creators had contributed to his works over the years as opposed to crudely cutting it out and alienating fans (adding in a lot of Gundam Sentinel, Advance of Zeta, and Gundam 0083 mobile suits, essentially recognizing those Gundam installments as canon despite them not being part of his original plan and himself having no input on them). Basically, yeah, yeah, so she's not a part of his original plan. But would it really have detoured his grand master scheme just to please fans and include a character that had since become an integral part of the Tenchi mythos, whether he had meant her to or not? |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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While she's not my favorite Tenchi Muyo character, I loved Kiyone a lot too and also missed her presence in the new OVA episodes a lot. Her presence just feels so natural now and I just can't imagine Mihoshi without her. Actually, I think Mihoshi is a rather generic dumb blonde without Kiyone to spice things up a bit. The new OVA episodes were very disappointing. I thought it was a bad mistake to start the new episodes off with a recap episode. It's been years since we've had any new Tenchi Muyo episodes and so it would make more sense to me to start the new episodes off with a bang, but instead they take the boring route and start off with a recap episode and I personally thought the animation in the flashbacks really clashed with all the newer animation in the non-flashback scenes. I was also saddened that the new episodes weren't as funny as the original series. I didn't mind the In Love 2 movie being more serious because it was set in an AU and it sort of made sense for it to be more serious since it was more character-driven and the comedy actually would've clashed with the romantic atmosphere of the rest of the film, but what I loved about the OVAs was the comedy and the new episodes being set in the same time line just doesn't feel the same without the comedy. I didn't like the lack of focus on Ayeka and Ryoko either and I agree that the last episode doesn't make a lick of sense. It feels like the new episodes were made solely to please the fan demand but it lacks the creativity and fun zanyness that the old episodes had. And I still can't get used to seeing a CGI Ryo-ohkyi. That just seems wrong to me somehow.
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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God, I am out of the loop. 
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Roguespider
Posts: 45 |
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With everyone talking about Kiyone I almost feel everyone is overlooking Noike. When I first saw the 3rd OVA and seeing how Noike acts, I almost felt she was Kajishima's way of working Kiyone into the story without her actually being there (that way he can still do things the way he wants). Which is a question for anyone that read the novels, was Noike ever mentioned there?
As for the review of this DVD, I have to say I agree on some parts but at other parts I largely disagree. While the Ayeka/Ryoko battle tends to be the driving force, at times you have to step back from it and give others the spotlight, otherwise its the same thing over and over. That's not going to totally save this DVD though. The first episode (aka eps 4) on the DVD does very much drag along. Its boring and made me want to skip it. Episode 5 picked up around the time when we see Sasami fighting. This managed to pick back up my interest and got me to watch again. It was fun seeing the later half of the episode play out though its a bit predictable. Now the main thing to people who haven't seen this yet, DO NOT SKIP THE END OF EPISODE 5 (sorry for shouting). There is something after the ending in episode 5 that is crucial for episode 6. And shame on Funimation for not inserting a DVD chapter point there (at best you'll have to fast forward over the ending to see it). Then you won't be as confused for Episode 6. I wonder if the reviewer managed to notice this? I can't blame him I almost missed this. Episode 6 brought back what makes me like the OVAs, Light-Hawk Wings. I think there cool and only the OVAs have them (unless you factor in the 2nd movie). Overall I thought the 6th episode was the best. Nice fighting, and good explanation of things that we've questioned in the past. The only standout was the explanation of Z's past, which felt rushed and not easy to follow (I'm still baffled by some of it). As mentioned in the review, there's also the matter of the little girl. While we don't know what's happening here, its remincesent (sp?) of the old OVAs where things where foreshadowed or shown and then we would see them later (ie: Kagato is foreshadowed in Episode 3 or 4 of OVA1 but shows up in Episode 5). So remember people there is still one more episode that will come out on DVD in less than a month. Going past story, there's the dubbing. Japanese language is good (but then there aren't many people that would argue this). Now for the English (I'm going to state this now, I usually prefer dubs or watching them in both languages), but this dub is bad. The only good thing I can say about having to wait a year for this is that it gave Matt Miller time to work on his voice. In the first volume, he seemed to be trying to reach back too much to the old Tenchi and was making the voice high pitched and awkward at times. By this volume he has greatly improved, makes me wonder if he had a cold before. The best voice in all the dub is Sasami, this is probably due to the fact that she hasn't stopped voice acting and pretty much uses the same voice. Ayeka was next because she does seem to give off the impression of being royal and stuck up though the voices seems to be a bit stiff at times. Kate T. Vogt as Washu is probably where I disagree most with the reviewer. Washu probably comes across as the worst in this DVD (Tenchi was worst in last). The voice always seems to come across as forced, stiff, and way too mature. Though we know Washu is older than just about anybody, she always came across as one of the youngest and most carefree at times. The original dub from the first 2 OVAs had her usually having a bit of quirkyness, yet we barely see this and even rarely done good. Just about everything that made me like Washu has disappeared. The only good thing I can say about Kate for Washu is its better than the Washu voice from Tenchi GXP (and that isn't saying much). Other voices are pretty good. Noike and Seto come across nicely (I really liked Seto's which makes me glad they kept the same one from GXP). Tony Oliver as Misao is different but seems fitting if you compare him to Mihoshi. Mashisu isn't too bad either. I'm not really going to comment on Ryoko, with it being a different voice actress, its every man for himself. I still can't help that it feels a little weird but Mona Marshall does a good job overall. She and Sasami probably give the best amount of caring and emotion to their characters compared to everyone else. Lastly I have one more tidbit that just got on my nerves with the Funimation dub. Well besides the Jupiter/Saturn thing. When everything is being explained at the end of the 6th episode, Tokimi mentions "protecting all the casualties" when the sub is "protecting all the causalities." For those who don't notice it, there's a huge difference between protecting the dead bodies and protecting the sequence of events. So for anyone who watches this in dub, beware that line. Well sorry for taking up so much space and if anyone bothered to read my entire rant, I hope you enjoyed and were enlightened by it. Bye. -Roguespider |
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Craeyst Raygal
 Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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All right, I'm done biting my tongue. Thanks to finances, I haven't been able to buy the 2nd volume, but I think I'm qualified to talk about what has been released here.
Kiyone Makibi DESTROYED the Mihoshi Kuramitsu character. Only in the OAV's do we get her as a fully-realized character, and that's because Hasegawa wrote her as a ridiculous stereotype to play off of her Kiyone character. And exactly what in the hell is wrong with the idea that Kajishima was writing a sci-fi series all along? Sheesh, it's not as if there haven't been serious sci-fi novels written around a premise of romantic comedy. Time Enough for Love and Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein, anyone? |
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