Tenchi the Movie 2: The Daughter of Darkness

Original Title: 天地無用!真夏のイブ
Romanized: Tenchi Muyou! Manatsu no Ibu
Literal: This End Up! Midsummer Eve

Plot Synopsis

700 years ago, Yosho had a rather unpleasant encounter with a would-be friend who turned out to be some kind of demon. Well, this demon, Yuzuha, is still around, and she figures now is a good time to get revenge on Yosho, through his grandson. Her method of revenge, however, is a little convoluted: She sends a rather attractive young girl, Mayuka, who doesn't know much, but seems to think Tenchi is her dad. This causes more than a little friction between Ayeka, Ryoko, and this newcomer, but despite that, she moves in (like we haven't seen that happen before). Everything is going fine until this seemingly innocent girl starts getting urges to kill Tenchi, which causes a whole bunch of misunderstandings. With a little help from grandfather and Washu, everybody starts to piece together what's going on, but to resolve it, Tenchi and company are going to have to take a trip into the alternate dimension that Yuzuha calls home...

Review

Rating: 4 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2000-09-14

Another Tenchi Muyo movie, another confusing addition to the scattershot mess that passes for continuity in the series. Due to being based on one of a series of novels which are in turn an "unofficial" continuation of the OAVs, unlike the first and third movies, this one seems to be related to the OAV series although Kiyone is here.

Regardless, it doesn't require any specific knowledge of one series or another (or the previous movie) as long as you've got some prior Tenchi experience, but if you don't, this sure isn't the place to start. About the only thing you'll accomplish is creating a desire to see more of the previous stories so you know what's going on.

In comparison to other Tenchi stories, Daughter of Darkness (aka Midsummer's Eve) has the usual combination of touching sentiment, silly comedy, wild plot, and plenty of action, with a little more emphasis on the comedy and fun than the first movie, but still more drama than the OAV or TV series. The plot doesn't deviate far from the standard formula, but there's actually a little character development with the main trio here, though nothing Tenchi-verse shaking.

On the technical end of things, this movie is as well made as the rest of the Tenchi series, with animation of somewhat higher quality than the TV series and a tad better than the OAVs. As always, the character designs are attractive and very well drawn, and Mayuka is an irresistible addition to Tenchi's entourage.

The acting is up to par with the rest of the series in both the sub and dub, with the two mentionables being some unusually strong emotional scenes with Ryoko (acted well in both languages, but particularly so in the Japanese), and Mayuka. In both languages, she sounds as sweet and naive as she looks, and you just can't help but like her.

The background music is a little above average for the series; it's slightly synthesized and not memorable, but there are a couple of good creepy tunes including one choral piece. The end theme is rather pretty.

To sum up: For Tenchi fans, this should be an enjoyable trip, with a little more drama than usual. You might see a little more of the newcomer Mayuka and less of your old friends than you'd like, but more likely you'll be left eager to see more of her and nowhere to get any. However, if you don't know Tenchi, don't start here.

Related Recommendations

Of course, if you're a Tenchi fan, you'll like this. The storyline sort of follows the OAV series; I don't remember any mention of the elder Masaki's heritage in the TV series, and it plays a prevalent role here. It doesn't relate in any way to the first movie, so you needn't worry about seeing one or the other first.

US DVD Review

The DVD originally came packaged early Pioneer-style, with a CD-type Jewel case in a DVD case size cardboard slipcase; it's since been re-released in a "Signature Series" edition. The disc includes the English and Japanese soundtracks in Dolby 5.1, English subtitles, Japanese subtitles, and English captions. The video is letterboxed (not anamorphic) widescreen.

It comes loaded with extra features: The theatrical trailer and the first edition of the Tenchi encyclopedia; this has illustrated text notes on just about everything and everyone that ever appeared in a Tenchi TV episode, OAV, or movie. The entries are indexed several different ways, are thoroughly cross-referenced with links, and include a number of short video clips to illustrate various things, such as the "power of Kagato," and Ryo-ohki's transformation. There's also a list of all the videos and CDs available. About the only thing you could possibly complain about is that the video clips are from the dub, and it's not quite as polished as the version 2.0 included with the OAV DVD set (although it's a little better referenced).

On top of all that, there is even a separate angle track included in the movie itself that periodically displays production illustrations from the movie. That feature, though interesting, was kind of a bust (at least on my player)--on the tracks that had sketches, you got a lot of black screen (with sound) and a sketch here and there for a few seconds. I'd have rather just had that included in the menu, but if you're interested in checking them out, I've listed the times below. On a more successful note, the alternate angle track also includes the original credits, which I highly approve of.

In all, this is one heck of a DVD--this disc defines the term extra features, and will remind you why you bought a DVD player in the first place. If you're a Tenchi fan, you're definitely going to want to play around with this one.

In case you're curious, these are the track number and time (from the beginning of the disc) where the production sketches show up in the alternate video track:

Track	Approximate time	Sketch
3	4:15	Yuzuha and her flying thingy
9	16:30	Yuzuha's faces
10	20:00	Mayuka's box
10	21:20	A door handle
10	21:40	The box projecting
13	28:20	Washu's analyzer
15	31:10	A toy from the past
21	44:00	Mayuka in Christmas garb
21	44:50	Mayuka in her alternate form
21	46:15	A teddy bear
22	48:20	Battle scarred Tenchi

Content Guide

Pioneer ranks it with the 16-up crowd, although that's probably a little stiff if you ask me; there are a couple of raunchy jokes and one bath scene, and some reasonably serious violence.

Violence: 2 - A fair amount of fighting, and pretty brutal by Tenchi standards.

Nudity: 2 - A couple of mild scenes.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Nothing noteworthy past a bit of raunchy humor.

Language: 1 - Nothing notable.

Notes and Trivia

This film is based on a Tenchi Muyo! novel of the same name (Manatsu no Eve) by Naoko Hasegawa. Hasegawa was one of the writers on the original OAVs and wrote a series of novels that are, at least theoretically if not officially, part of the OAV continuity. The character of Kiyone was actually first introduced in the novels, and that's why, while this movie appears to be part of the OAV continuity, she appears along with Mihoshi.

This origin also explains why this movie does not fit in with the other two (which are ostensibly part of the TV continuity), and also why it appears to be part of the OAV continuity, but with some notable changes. The novels have never been translated into English, and so this movie is the only adaptation that most non-Japanese fans are familiar with.

The soundtrack was, at one point, available in the US from Pioneer on CD.

Availability

Available in the US from Geneon (formerly Pioneer) on bilingual "Signature Series" DVD, a re-release of an early DVD version. Was previously available on subtitled or dubbed VHS and bilingual LD.

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