▪	RELEASED BY:		FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT
		▪	ASPECT RATIO:		4:3 FULL SCREEN
		▪	AUDIO:		ENGLISH DD 5.1 & 2.0 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0
		▪	RUNNING TIME:		295 MIN
		▪	RATING:		TV PG
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		09/25/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		09/22/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

At last a continuation of the monumental hit anime! The original Tenchi OVA series was groundbreaking, wildly popular and an instant favorite for anime fans around the world. This follow up, done many years after the original first aired in Japan, still captures the humor, the drama, and the suspense of the world of Tenchi Muyo!

This new OVA series is a fascinating blend of the characters everyone loves, and a host of new characters introduced for the first time within the anime.  The same old gang of Tenchi with his various crazy girls living at his home including the royal space princess Ayeka, her cute little sister Sasami, space pirate with a heart Ryoko, mad scientist Washu, and brainless but sweet Galactic Police officer Mihoshi, are all here in the new OVA. The first episode shows Tenchi and his daily life while peppering it heavily with flashbacks to the original OVA series to show how he first me each of the girls and women now prevalent in his life. He’s never settled on a specific woman, but Ayeka and Ryoko still seem to be the main ladies acting very unladylike trying to win his attentions. That’s where so much of the comedy takes place in those crazy interactions which have become the daily routine of Tenchi’s existence. He’s just an ordinary guy with extraordinary females all around him. Or is he?

Picking up where the original OVA left off, Tenchi isn’t completely human. In fact he has an incredible power to manifest what is known as the Light Hawk Wings. It’s something that’s garnered him attention from people inside and outside the galaxy that he could likely do without.  This time around it seems that there has been an arranged marriage (enter in one of the new characters to the new OVA), her name is Noike. She’s calm (usually), beautiful, and kind and the Devil Princess of Jurai has mandated that he marry her. It’s something of an offer he doesn’t dare refuse. Naturally the girls are up in arms about it, but that will prove the least of his problems as the series progresses.

The show stays usually pretty squarely in the romantic comedy department with it’s quirky sci-fi antics and the many girls fighting over almost ordinary guy Tenchi. The story meanders a little from there, next introducing Mihoshi’s brother Misao and his right hand, the formidable woman Mashisu. He has a big time sister complex and is determined to kill Tenchi in order to ‘win’ his sister back. This might sound serious but Misao is pretty silly and so are his attempts. The drama finally shows up only towards the end of this arc when his actions inadvertently open the door for a person with a destructive goal and sights set on Tenchi.

The truly dramatic events only really occur in episode six.  This is when the destructive person known as Z, who can also use the Light Hawk Wings, destroys the Earth and will take apart the galaxy in order to fight Tenchi. His true motives for this horrifically destructive course of action are revealed via a flashback. His reasons involve the Lady Tokimi, a mysterious character only seen in the end of the original OVA. Here we finally discover who and what Lady Tokimi is as well as a couple of the people closest to Tenchi! Shocking revelations and some hard truths will have to be faced in order to hopefully save the world, the galaxy, and even all the dimensions of existence!

The heady stuff is great, it’s sadly over with too quickly. It comes across a bit rushed but the story does conclude fairly fully which is rare for an anime. Naturally the big questions of who Tenchi will end up with romantically still remain unanswered, but a surprising amount of the questions the first OVA series put forward do get addressed along with a few new ones, such as who Noike really is and why she wanted to be close to Tenchi.

The final seventh episode serves more as a prologue and a set up for the Tenchi Muyo! GXP TV series. Everyone joins for not one, but maybe two weddings and Tenchi learns a lot more about his late mother. It’s mostly a fun light episode that showcases the original Tenchi anime characters as well as many of the new ones introduced in this new series. The animation is well done, staying true to the original character designs plus with new added 3D animation to the CG effects for the space battle scenes. It seems as if all of the original Japanese cast is present and most of the English cast from the original series has appeared for this new OVA as well.

It all has the same affectionate feel as the original OVA. However the storytelling style probably isn’t conducive to newcomers who have never watched Tenchi. If you haven’t seen the original OVA, this series probably won’t make much sense to you. For those die hard Tenchi fans, this is an absolute must see.

EXTRAS:
This holds an impressive amount of bonus features for such a short series and include character bios, FUNimation trailers, original Japanese TV spots, “Lovely Cookin’ music video featuring the live footage of the actual Japanese singer recording the cute ending theme song, The Real Tenchi Live Tour which features two of the Tenchi crew going to the actual spots in Japan that the anime Tenchi is set in and inspired by. This is my absolute favorite bonus feature in this set.

The tour includes Akifumi Tada (Composer) and Tomoka Odajima (Vocalist) as they first visit Iwaya in the Okayama Prefecture. We get to see the stone shrine that held the demon Ryoko in the first OVA series. They then go to visit Taro shrine and Mt. Yosho. The Taro Shrine is what the Masaki Shrine in the anime was modeled after.  Next they go to visit Mt. Washu where you can see The Great Seto Bridge, inland sea and islands. The second day sees Odajima-san traveling alone to Sami Beach (the basis for Sasami’s name), Bisei City and the Bisei Observatory (note to fans: Bisei can also be read as “Mihoshi”), and Sakazu Park (related to Noike’s full name). As a bonus we are given brief glimpses of Kamidake, Sojo Station, Funaho City, Kiyone Village, Kagato Station, Seto City, there’s even a Ryo-Ohki!

That’s still not everything! There are even more bonus features. Another one is a forty minute live action piece done by Japanese voice actresses Etsuko Kazakura (Ryo Ohki) and Tomoko Kaneda (Fuku). There’s also a half hour radio drama which is a series of comedic radio shorts done by the Japanese voice cast. Plus the complete series is collected in a smart looking glossy fold out box protected by a slip cover. The fold out case features the cast of Tenchi in lustrous full color.

IN SUMMARY:
The all new Tenchi Muyo! OVA anime series sets some questions to rest while giving fans more comedy and rough housing with the long time beloved characters.