Tenchi Muyo! is a comedy/action series that began as an OAV series released in Japan and after the second OAV series, the first TV series was created. In both versions, the story is basically the same: several extrememly attractive women stir up chaos when they literally fall into Tenchi's quiet front yard. Most of them also want his affection, particularly Ayeka, a royal alien princess, and Ryoko, an ex-space pirate, who are constantly fighting while some of the other girls make their moves on Tenchi. Eventually, they reach an understanding and get along. This movie occurs where the OAV series left off, expanding the story some more. For the first time, the viewers get to see Tenchi's mother, who died long before the events of the series, and are able to understand why she died so young. The movie is extremely comedic, which will keep viewers smiling. However, this movie may be a little confusing for people who are new to Tenchi because character introductions are brief and some knowledge of the series is needed to fully understand the story.

Tenchi Muyo! is not one a series with super-stunning animation, but the quality of this movie is similar to that of the OAVs which is still very good. The video is generally clean and clear although there are a few spots throughout but they are minor flaws that are caused by source video deterioration.

Overall the sound is wonderful. It's best experienced with surround sound capabilities, especially when listening to the Japanese track towards the end. The English track is wonderfully done with the vioces reflecting the original Japanese emotions. However, the English track's background sound didn't seem as dynamic as the Japanese track. Everything was understandable both ways and the only real difference between the more literal subtitles and the dub are the choice of words.

A small problem exists with the Japanese subtitles. Whenever someone said "Washu" and her Kanji appeared onscreen, the subtitles would flicker. It may have been a problem with my player but it was a little odd. Also, there was a part in the Japanese subtitles where one of the Hiragana looked a little incorrect. While on the topic of subtitles, none of us will be able to have karaoke fun during the end credits because the ED song is not subtitled. This was a little disappointing, but they did place the lyrics in an odd little section, which will be discussed later.

The menu system was well designed although very grainy and very slow at times. The really nice thing about them is that the viewer can choose either a Japanese or English menu. The main menu will be in Japanese and most of the main submenus when this is selected. However because of the grainy look, you can't really read the Japanese or the English. When selecting one of the main submenus, an animation will play from the stilled image along with audio in either English or Japanese depending on what menu language was chosen. Also, when choosing to exit a main submenu or the movie start button, Ryo-ohki makes little cute sounds. Be careful when playing this near people who hate Ryo-ohki.

The special features on this disc are plentiful. There are four trailers on the disc: an original theatrical trailer, the TV spot that aired after the last episode of the first Tenchi Muyo! TV series, a 30-second TV spot, and a 15-second TV spot. There is also a video interview with Christopher Franke explaining how he composed the music for the various scenes in the movie; , which is nice and worth watching for those who want to see some behind-the-scenes action. There are summaries of the Tenchi Muyo! TV series that seem to be rushed because there was some repetition of text and the summaries started in the centre of the series. The oddest special feature was the little section that had the lyrics for "Alchemy of Love" (a beautiful song). The song plays in the background of this screen but it drops off at the chorus.

This movie is somewhat kid-friendly. Although there is a brief scene of rear nudity and the cover features Achika topless, nothing is tasteless. Ryoko does a lot of mild swearing however in both the English dub and the English subtitles so it wouldn't be suitable for children under 13. Violence is to a minimum and it's mainly fantasy; however, there is some alien ooze.

It's the perfect movie to get into anime with because this movie has the entire "anime" feel to it. Even though it's aged, just about anyone will still find it entertaining.